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1-800-EXPEDITION expeditions.com/ga OCTOBER 2004 VOLUME 113 NUMBER 8

FEATURES

COVER STORY 40 WHEREVER THE WIND MAY BLOW Albatrosses andfrigatebirds spend most of their long lives soaring over the sea.

Miniature electronic trackers and sensors are now showing ornithologists ivhere the birds go. HENRI WEIMERSKIRCH

CAMPAIGN

46 ISSUES AND ANSWERS: BUSH V. KERRY

From energy, the environment, and the state of natural .

resources, to health, space, and education, the two

major-party candidates respond to our questions.

52 DISPATCHES FROM THE FERN FRONTIER Plants with an ancient pedigree are yielding their family secrets to molecular approaches. ROBBIN C. MORAN

ON THE cover: Great frigatebird (Fregata iiiiiwr) fully inflates its throat pouch during a courtship display. DEPARTMENTS

6 THE NATURAL MOMENT The Inhuman Stain

Photograph b]' Norbert Wu

8 UP FRONT Editor's Notebook

10 CONTRIBUTORS

-12 LETTERS

14 SAMPLINGS Ne\^"s from Nature

28 UNIVERSE Ringside Seat Neil deGrasse Tyson

33 NATURALISTS AT LARGE Climb Ever)- Waterfalll 58 LAND Peter T. Sherman and THIS Faces of Texas Perri K. Eason Two Roben H. Mohlenbrock 38 BIOMECHANICS Slime and the Cytoskeleton REVIEW Adam Simjmers It or Bit? Brian Hayes BOOKSHELF Laurence A. Marschall

71 nature.net Mother Tongue Robert Anderson

72 OUT THERE Shado\^y Partner Charles Liu

74 THE SKY IN OCTOBER

Joe Rao

76 AT THE MUSEUM

80 ENDPAPER Fishmg for a Li\ing Deborah Stone

PICTURE CREDITS: Page 10

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FHE NATURAL MOMENT UP FRONT

See preceding two pages Our Crowded Niche

Niche, from the Latin word for "nest." means much the same thing in biologN' as it does in ordinan,' speech. Your niche is your comfort zone, a farmHar place where you can make a decent li\dng. Some creatures find their niche through heroic Unlike the smear of goo the exertions, Hke the fish in Peter T. Sherman and Perri K. Eason's story land snail leaves in its wake, of Hawaiian gobies that reach safety in freshwater pools by scahng a swath of purple lesions marks sheer, thousand-foot cUtEs ("CHmb Ever)' Waterfall!" page 33). the passage of the flamingo tongue Some, like the albatrosses and frigatebirds in Henri Weimerskirch s snail (Cyphoma gihbosumj, as it article, "Wherever the Wind May Blow" (page 40), spend most of

munches its vA'ay across a Gorgonia their days soaring over remote oceans, wandering freely across vast

veiitaliiia sea fan. The carnivorous ranges that others can only dream of. snail—less than an inch long masks its plain white shell with a fleshy, leopard-spotted mantle When you read a magazine, you also tend to share a niche. As a while grazing. Soft corals such as reader of Xatiiral History, you probably have more than the av-

the sea fan are both its feeding erage person's curiosit)' about the emaronment, natural resources, health, education, and other issues, such as en- ground and its food. biodiversity, science — Acting in self-defense, the G. erg\' and space, with roots in the natural world. Those issues "our" veutalina pictured here responded topics—are also important matters of national debate. Come election to the flamingo tongue's attack by season, our niche seems to attract lots ot outsiders. making a cocktail of protective My colleague Man,' Knight took on the job of asking the two compounds. The chemicals mrned major-part\' presidential candidates about those issues. Her first task the sea fan bright violet, and was to help draft our questions, but her real challenge was to get the helped fend off a number ot fiingi campaigns to respond. A spokesperson for President Bush's campaign and bacteria. But according to suggested she look for the answers online. A spokesperson for Senator Jessica Ward, a marine scientist at Kerr)''s campaign said they were "working on" the answers—then Cornell University' in Ithaca. New told Knight the questions had gone to the \\Tong official. York, the holes and black decay As our deadhne approached, we decided that the only way to move in the center suggest that a fiingus, forward was to take the advice of the Bush forces and cull answers possibly Aspergillus sydowii, might fi-om the recent speeches and campaign statements of each candidate. have broken through the coral's We then sent both sets of our proposed answers, along with our barriers. sources, to both campaigns—making it clear to each that we were A. sydowii W2S once stricdy ter- sending the same materials to the other side. We again urged each

restrial, but since the late 1990s the campaign to respond to our questions direcdy or to revise the answers organism has becoine epidemic at we had assembled. If nothing was changed, we noted, the rephes we many underwater sites in the were suggesting would stand. Caribbean. Flamingo tongues In the end, the Kerr^' campaign did prepare responses to our ques- not thought to be lethal by them- tions. Officials with the Bush campaign twice considered our re- selves—have been tound to carrs' quest, then decided not to respond—hence letting stand what we A. sydowii in their gut and, as had already sent them. The questions and answers begin on page 46. Ward speculates, may be responsi- ble tor spreading the disease. Photographer Norberr Wu am sorrs- to report that, after this issue, Ehzabeth Merv-man \vi\i found this ghouhsh-looking pair I be lea\'mg her position as art director o[ NntiimJ History In her (or trio, it you count the fungus) two years wth us, Liz has made extraordinar\- contributions to this

off the coast of the Caribbean is- magazine. Happily, in her new role as a fine-arts consultant, she wiQ

land of Saba. still be helping us find just the right images for our pages. But every —Erin Espelie mornins at the office, she wiH be missed. —Peter Brown

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CONTRIBUTORS

.r:r.iTc—arher Xorsert \^'u '""The

conici lo iiis i-J £i ol ra2xine i\dittirai uVioi" mmEJiim-m-Cincf Peisi BrOS/n he wildlife ftom i -\:.r.vle academic background: before electrical and beoan his phc: ;rir i: . ireer, Wii majoied in An L^reaor mechanical en^-iiceriiig iz Stanford University and pursued

Institution of Oceanography in iMairy Kimjis^ Avis Lang, Vitajodo Maestro doctoral studies at Scripps X J. KdMo; La Tola- California. He has won three National Science Midad DeMatteis Assodrnf Jilaauging BdiJx^ TiMHiaas Rjosao^ ^-issociuf An Dircoit granC5 for work in the NSF s Antarctic Artists and Writers Program, Foundation Ejin M. E?pdlie SpcdaJ Prqjeas Ediu?r Fellowship. This year and in 1999 he \\^ awarded a Pew Marine Conservadon Gracidla Hoies E^ssmid As&odai£ Lam Piovaiace, he was named Outstanding Phott^tapher of the Year by the North American HamiiQla Black, liz DoiooMae, Aliajm Radie kaHtems Nature Photographers Associadon. His photograph of a flamingo tongue snail Caribbean. In cooler waters, on a besieged sea &n coral was made in the eastern K-dhsTt AiMkisoiiu Ciiaiiles Liai. Laurence A. Marschali Under Antantk Ice, which was pub- Wu gathered the images for his latest book. Ridaand Malnei, Roberr H. MoMeiibrock. Joe Rao. Rcdbs, Adana SiMmimers, Neil deGrasse Ty&on lished last month b^' the Universit\r of California Press. Scepfeaaa

E. Harms RafcEs&fr He^RI Weimerskirch ("Wherever the Wind ilvlay Blow; Ch:wjles Gale Page Cmnsmmer MaTkmnc Lhreaor page has been studying seabirds of the Southern Ocean 40) Maiia Vblpe Pro.ii^-ctic^ii Di-rcctpr past five for twenty-five years and tropical seabirds for the Fifftgair L. HainrisoEi NjiJiL->iml Advciming l^imiager When Weimerskirch, an ecologist and omitholc^t, is no: Somia W. ParaK>re Sainor AfL?uni Manager EXoBBa M- Lemmon Produni^on Munaoer he is a research director at ttr working on remote islands, Midiaeil Siaecunan FzdlHRmaii Miajijger Chize Center for Biological Studies field laborator\!; ia thr Jenmf^ E^aios Bmsmcss AdsmmsiTaioT

iTTi

Resezr: :.. ' ize. ::. .vn ter is part of Frances Narional Center for Scientific Ainenisifsg Sales U^prcsaiiahPES active member of various its French acton],Tn CNRS). Weimerskirch is an by ^im> ^wft—MenracDip Maiiemig. 212-972-3157. measures that can reduce die conservation groups and is wxtrking to develop Daaiie IiBKm2BOB2il KfleiiiL 212-9S6-6096 next seabird BmMt-^is& McHegiL BreatrkTMagh Meiia, 586-36O-3'980l toll taken on seabirds by such practices as long-Hne fishing. His boobies MbTaa2p^-^Rida3n Meclia. Hec 6 12-930^0)01180 wfill comparative study of masked, brown, and red-footed project be a Mhn Owtsi—PPW Saifs Gionp.'^e Todd. 43S-543-50(})3 in the Pacific 416-363-3386 on Chpperton Island, an uninhabited, French-owTied coral atoD Hmrnn—-AcnftniraT^ Fn>iMiiT^ I^prescDiam'es LoL. Adama ^d ^SHarra-^RJddes mi Co.. 77C>-664-4567 Ocean, about 800 miles southwest of Mexico. iSimmal IXrm R£Fpome—Smnnin Ms^ Gioiifi. 646-638-49S5

coundess articles on terns, as The author of several books and TcwMJ HAfffER. l'ic£ Predda-it, Sdaice Eduait3.oii Fiddldiead Forum, the news- 'n^H as a Sequent contributor to Eduaijij?iml Adinssmf' Bmrd letter of die American Fern Society? ROBBESi C. MORAJNT M5fe GtHidoia Amaiaiii lilusadm ofSisturjl Hki^ory ("Dispatches fiom die Fern Frontier," page 52) is well pre- m3&: Nstmal Hki^ory Museum cf^lie.-idiroJidacks developments in fem research. pared to talk about the latest RoiEacm Mm SdTcdh Hands On Museum Louis SdaiC£ Corner Moran is the curator offerns at the New York Botanical Gar- Csml VaSeiam Si- den, where he investigate the evolution, classification, and studyir^ Njctljilal Hktoby Magazine, Inc. eco-c^. .. -ems. He also spends several months a year collecting and CJMJRjtJES E. H^miB B-£sidci33„ aif£/"£axMWnv C^kier Costa Rica on behalf - die American tropics, as well as teaching courses in OiARLES Lalanne Oikf Piiiaiidjl} O^i^ material JUDV BoiULER Ga2£ral Miiiaga- (^ri Icmv) c: z=.i Oiganization for Tropical Studies. His story in this issue draws on CBCiiL£ Washington .-irn'iT^ GauraJ Mziiager Hstoq' Ferns, which is being pubHshed diis fiom his latest book, A Natural rf Russax Chebjl^H Pnhhslmig Advisor Fern month by Timber Press. He is also co-author, wish BarbaraJoe Hoshizaki, of Charles Rodin PubUsSjmg .-liiTtsor more Gmii'er's Mimial (Timber Press, 2001), a book diat illustrates and describes

States Canada. address, please ^iai our than 700 known fem species under cultivation in the United and jaabsormiiaoiiL. -ot id change your Wcfe 2Ee miwwLiii3lMi3!hstDryrnag-corn or -wrjie to lis at Naimaii History KaBSOOoge/GmK Images, toe; p. BRod SSaSaamfBciniai OritemL Iliac; p. l-iHfca): itBnaBSoim/AH Ronomt INTK p. l-Klo^): ejS= P-Q BoEC 9D0)0L Hadan lA 515*93-0257. WaBim/jDjfabonjn; lS;(«iE}m): ©Mia; lajfcoS: €SaSK> tHooSKs/CORBB; p. lat^jMh fiR«i53llK-.Iioc7CORBIS: p ISllda: CM. ^ mcnuiHh,'. jromhmrj^ 38-29: HiHaumil Hisinr)> \(IISSN ifitCfi-'[l703) is. piMirihcd OKcaffH fo OrfhiBl'/iMfeBi™ KoiracK (hl.4: CGouT Hfc/l&Smitai Konraai; fp. WacJMii^ilUora; pl*Jl«iJ jl jf. or eStet Mngjizinc. iiamn. an Hxflv/AmcDH .saB JEitsDtm&>a.''^annssx. fcy Tflatnnii itfetarr 33: eOxsii !Wki=5idh/OORBt& pp. i*iSaam =«! 37: «DjiAa JlPL;>fAS& p"32i»rtc lat aisBmsiior Buranii. ES&iSlSdl?3>i»SA p of Natnia! Hjffioix Centra] line:., an aShariac n^ciki '&*£ .^mcincaii Mnsrimi Jto- - MkeiSti/jteiiiB* jtaianilkTBo* Sdomk *l!t OJ(tifc==?J*isoii/Arnm* T^t(l2Jl- nhmapifliiamra.' IsMtefMsr i- Stsi iSiakmE; p j5; eRjOTm™! A- p Kidfc DSfca .31 T^ti SmaL New- Ytni. MT E-roaJJ 44-43: .ooraraew dbr Jmior, br 43: Cfcat LmmBg/Mfcufas PinmraE pp. w NamiaJ HiisDn- MaEazioE, 1iie_ is soBi- ic^on.'dHt for cini>- kaiJi.Bsai SosMS f. -i^ msf Rmrkiai Was^ fi hiaeimnaEjam- 52: Jhc Gasgpr CcHlf^mMii l>aY: =3: 6.9*0 mal jniiiishiiii: jrcamrg.. Snbwx^reioiK. SiKuCId a tjcsi: lor Camia j/!^=iMm,mi-.rJi-,i. Tffi*=A;'G£H-,> faoai ImLz (iSoiCnmoiai!): Panmcai J. Warns:, p. p ftimeni anS

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LETTERS

Universal Nonsense? verses exist, we would never would make such an all- men, but the frogs dwindle, Speculation about other have any chance of interact- inclusive claim. It would perplexing biologists who universes ("The Best of AH ing with them. I rather share immediately be recognized are looking for more Possible Worlds," by Donald Hans Berliner's disapproval as ridiculous, for some of compHcated explanations.

Goldsmith, 7-8/04) is (though in a low-key way), the reasons Gordon men- Chris Sherman much like counting how and I admire the cosmolo- tions, but primarily because St. Louis, Missouri many angels can dance on gist Michael S. Turner's evolution is a process of

the head of a pin; it is truly judgment, which I reported, experiment that leads to James P. Collins replies: unworthy of your fine mag- that the anthropic approach many failures (maladapta- It is the rare situation in

azine. Sure, there may be is a narcissistic one, not wor- tions) for every success. which only one factor is other universes, but since thy of serious investigation. Jeff P. Turpin responsible for amphibian we cannot sense outside our Nevertheless, because the Canyon Lake, Texas decUnes. In most cases, two or more out of six factors own universe, it is vacuous cosmologist Martin J. Rees to speculate about what and the physicist Steven Another problem with the are involved. The Cali- evolutionary explanation for fornia red-legged frog illus- men's unwillingness to ask trates how three causes

directions is that it seems to commercial exploitation, be a national, not a gender- exotic species, and land-use based trait. When my hus- change—interacted to the

band and I were in Italy, I detriment of the frogs. was astonished when, on Introducing trout in many

separate occasions and in western U.S. lakes is a par- different circumstances, two ticularly clear example of of our male Italian friends how exotic species can ad- unhesitatingly approached versely affect native frogs

strangers on the street to ask through predation. But it is directions. The encounters worth remembering that appeared to be a pleasure to even in this seemingly both parties, and our friends straightforward, single-factor certainly did not seem to case, the reasons for intro-

feel that their masculinity ducing the fish are, in part, was threatened. commercial ones (recreation "See what you've done? Yoti made the Moon swallow Betty Feinberg brings tourism), and there is the Sun. Now will you eat your turnips?" Tucson, Arizona some evidence supporting

they might be like. I am Weinberg take a more posi- the concern that introduced

willing to bet a bucket of tive attitude toward it, I felt Frogs v. Trout trout carry pathogens lethal beer that within our own that their eminent reputa- In his story "Where Have to amphibians.

universe there are as yet un- tions entitled them (and it) AU the Frogs Gone?"

dreamt of and undiscovered to some consideration. (6/04), James R CoUins I Yam What I Yam living systems, maybe even neglected to mention an- "Supercrop," the tide of on our own planet. So why Lost and Found other possible answer to his Marten Sorensen's article pubHsh such nonsense? In her review of Pachard C. question, namely, the losses (4/04), does not at present attributable to predation by fit the neglected yam bean. Hans J. Berliner Francis's book WIty Men is maize, Carnegie Mellon University Won 't Ask for Directions the nonnative species offish The one supercrop Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ("Dad's Not Lost," 7-8/04), intentionally introduced for the giant of the cereals. The Deborah M. Gordon states sport fishing into many yam bean could be the Donald Goldsmith that evolutionary psychol- lakes. Many western U.S. agronomist's and breeder's REPLIES: Some cosmologists ogy adheres to the idea that lakes, for instance, have dream, however: all it would take the "multiverse" con- "every characteristic of been stocked with rainbow take is a small amount of

cept seriously because it every species is adaptive trout. It is becoming in- "risky" investment. The

emerges rather naniraUy that is, each characteristic creasingly well documented potential profits—as well as from their basic assumptions. has enhanced reproductive that such fish prey on the the economic, ecological,

Intriguingly, it is not ennrely success." No responsible native frogs. The fish thrive, and social dividends—could proven that if other uiii- evolutionary psychologist to the deUght of the fisher- be enormous.

12 NATURAL HISTORY October 2004 Many features of the yam frequency of successful for food, fodder, and even fertilization is a naturally bean have not even been crossings within and be- nonfood products. Its sus- occurring possibiHty. (For described in published work. tween species is tested for tainabihty is unmatched by example, if two variants do For example, some kinds of equivalence—tests that any cereal, even maize, and not overlap geographically, yam bean can be processed have not been done to for exactly that reason a or if they flower at different into a high-protein, easy- date—I suspect that all number of traditional farm- times, that would be an to-store product resembUng cultivated yam beans will ing systems cultivate maize argument for considering gari, a flour that is made turn out to be one species. and yam bean together. them different species.) In from cassava roots. And Agronomists and breeders The taxonomic status of the end, however, whether though yam beans are who experiment with the yam bean is closely the yam bean should be

customarily sown, all yam other root crops or beans related to one's definition of regarded as one species or as beans can readily be propa- can only dream of working species. Plant breeders and several that can be hybrid- gated from cuttings; fi-om with such diversity and po- agronomists have, for practi- ized is not so important, as one "good" genotype several tential for hybridization. cal reasons, tended to accept long as the different kinds hundred clones can be de- Wolfgang]. Gruneberg a fairly simple species con- can be manipulated to facil- veloped in one generation. University of Gottingen cept, wherein all plants that itate cross-poUinadon. The various kinds of Gottingen, Germany produce fertile offspring yam bean can have highly belong to the same species. Natural History welcomes different properties. Al- Marten Sorensen In contrast, botanists and correspondence from readers. though the current as- replies: Although the taxonomists generally favor Please send e-mail to nhmag®

sumption is that there are yam bean may not yet be a a more complex definirion, naturalhistorymag.com All

three cultivated species, fer- "supercrop," I do think it not only weighing morpho- letters should include a

tile and vigorous hybrids promises to be one, given logical and genetic differ- daytime telephone rmmber,

can be developed between its adaptabihty, yield poten- ences, but also taking and all letters may be edited

all yam bean species. If the tial, and many possible uses account of whether cross- for length and clarity.

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SAMPLINGS

Birth of a Salesman

Primatologists have long specu- field investigators had noted, for in- lated that, among monkeys and stance, how often individual troop

apes, there is a correlation be- members hid when they engaged in

tween the brain size of a species— activity deemed illicit by the dominant particularly the size of the neocor- animals. Sure enough, when Byrne tex—and the species' social skills. and Corp matched neocortex size with But social skills are not easy to de- the number of attempts to deceive, fine, much less measure directly. they found that the bigger the neocor-

Now Richard W. Byrne and Nadia tex (either in absolute terms, or rela-

Corp, both psychologists at the tive to the rest of the animal's brain),

University of St. Andrews in Fife, the more deceptions were observed.

Scotland, have identified a social It's useful to remember that the

skill they can count: ordinary acts size of the human brain is largely the No, this IS where the neocortex is. performed in a way that deceives, result of its bigger neocortex—

and thus manipulates, other animals of the same species, and structure that apparently evolved, at least in part, both to de- that benefit the deceiver. ceive and to detect others' attempts at deception. Poker, any-

Byrne and Corp synthesized field studies that had reported on one? ("Neocortex size predicts deception rate in primates,"

the frequency of individual attempts at deception in a total of Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 271 :1 693-99, eighteen species of apes, monkeys, and prosimians. Some of the August 22, 2004) —Stephan Reebs

HIGH SEAS Hex Wax

Sailors' tales of braving bad weather tence, but also discovered that The precise, hexag-

and choppy waters have been stan- they're disturbingly common. The onal cells of honey- dard fare for centuries. But even the team recently procured three weeks' bee combs may crustiest old salt has nightmares worth of radar images of the world's conjure up visions

about facing a rogue wave, the oceans, supplied by European Space of bees busily mea-

ultimate in mountainous seas. Just Agency satellites, and found more suring lengths and

ask the crews of the Bremen or the than ten waves whose height from angles. But a group trough to crest was greater of entomologists

»y$ftjitj •;" • '.» -• than eighty feet. led by Christian VV yy •- What causes supersize W.W. Pirkofthe waves? According to the University of Wurz- Honeycomb's hexagons: It's the wax, not the bees. investigators, currents at burg in Germany

the boundary of an ocean recently duplicated the bees' efforts, and found

gyre—such as the danger- that the process is direct and simple. Wax melts ous Agulhas Current at when heated. When wax cylinders are packed

the western edge of the together as tightly as possible and then heated,

South Indian Ocean, or the the interstices fill up spontaneously and the

Gulf Stream in the North cylinders become six-sided. In the case of the Victor Hugo, My Destiny 1857 Atlantic—can concentrate honeycombs, the worker bees secrete small flakes

Caledonian Star. Early in 2001 , both and magnify the energy of ordinary of wax and probably surround themselves with the

ships, with hundreds of tourists on- waves. By contrast, in regions of flakes to make the cylinders. Their own metabolism

board, were nearly sunk by ten-story- open ocean where currents are not then raises the temperature to 104 degrees

high waves in the South Atlantic. a dominant force, prolonged storms, Fahrenheit, enough to melt the cylinders into

Until recentiy, definitive sightings fast-moving fronts, or crossing seas hexagonal tubes. The bees' final touch is to add

of rogue waver, hr.--r- been rare, but might pump up run-of-the-mill silk, which prevents the combs from melting fur-

now a team of nr ;;£'.\'r,;pto;"s headed waves to gargantuan proportions. ther. ("Honeybee combs: Construction through a

by Susanne Lehner, d '"r^ne physicist (www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMOKQL26 liquid equilibrium process?" Naturwissenschaften

at the University of Mian-i in Florida, WDJndex_0.html) 91:350-53, July 2004) —S. R. has not only confirmed their exis- —Jordan Paul Amadio

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Before the Invention of Pumpl

Deep inside Earth, at the outer core, elec- ologist at the New it certainly wasn't raw.

tric currents circulate through molten York State Museum At the suggestion of

metal, giving rise to the magnetic field in Albany, has an several attendees at his that envelops our planet. No doubt be- obsession with gourds. public lectures. Hart cause those magnetohydrodynamic cur- The seeds of the wild tried the method rents are complex and unpredictable, the squash, ancestor of the known to have been

Earth's magnetic poles shift and even flip pumpkin, have been used historically by

as time goes by. The changes can be discovered at archaeo- Native Americans to

recorded in iron-oxide-bearing minerals logical sites from leach tannic acid from

on the Earth's surface. At the moment Illinois to Maine, dat- acorns and thus make those magnetic minerals solidify, the iron ing to some seven mil- them edible: soaking

oxides in them are permanently frozen in lennia ago, several or boiling the partly

the direction the geomagnetic field is thousand years prior to crushed materials in

pointing at that time. the earliest evidence water mixed with wood Where can such minerals be found? for the domestication ash. Sure enough, two Familiar pumpkin descended from Among other places, in the red paint of of squash. days of soaking, or just bitter seeds. certain pre-Columbian murals in Mexico. Gourds, as Hart him- twenty minutes of boil-

Avto Goguitchaichvill, a geophysicist at the self has demonstrated, make good fish- ing, removed the bitterness from the

Autonomous National University of Mexico, net floats, and they obviously also work gourd seeds. This trick, says Hart, may

well as containers. And when dried, have enabled the first Americans to har- their abundant seeds are one-quarter vest the seeds of wild squashes for food,

protein, nutritionally similar to sun- until they stumbled on the nonbitter mu- flower seeds. But one bite into the tants eventually chosen for cultivation. staggeringly bitter seeds of a modern- ("Can Cucurbita pepo gourd seeds be day wild squash such as the Ozark made edible?" Journal of Archaeo-

gourd (Cucurbita pepo) makes clear logical Science, in press) —S.R.

A TASTE OF OUR OWN iVIEDICINE

In football, one team's offense is pitted against the other team's defense, and vice

versa. Much the same happens in humanity's battle against bacteria, except that Mural in Red Temple at Cacaxtia, Mexico some of our adversaries seem to have cloned our defense to fight our offense. (detail), A.D. 600-900 Bacteria that parasitize other organisms must first break down some of their

in Mexico City, and several colleagues have host's tissues before setting up shop. The bacterial tools of choice are protein-

determined that the red pigments in mu- slicers called proteases. Animals retaliate with protease inhibitors. One of the

rals at four Mexican archaeological sites gene families responsible for making protease inhibitors is present in all ani-

hold iron-oxide-bearing hematite and mag- mals, but absent from all plants, and so biologists have regarded it as an inno-

netite, and thus exhibit "remnant magnet- vation that probably appeared at the dawn of animal evolution.

ism." Well-dated sites in Europe and the Imagine the surprise of Aidan Budd of the European Molecular Biology

southwestern United States have already Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, when he and his colleagues discovered

provided a 4,000-year historical record of homologous genes in certain bacterial species. Because those bacteria gen-

shifts in the Earth's magnetic field, and so erally invade the body and, like many bacteria, can collectivize some of their investigators can now/ compare the rem- genetic resources, the investigators think that a forerunner of at least one nant magnetism of the less well-dated New such bacterial species once stole the gene from an animal (an extremely rare

World sites v»ith the historical record and event) and shared it with other parasitic bacteria.

determine precisely when a mural was cre- What good is the ill-gotten gene to the bacteria? All animal immune systems

ated. ("Pre-Columbian mural paintings make their own offensive proteases; perhaps the thieves can now turn the tables and

from Mescamerica as geomagnetic field render animal proteases null and void. ("Bacterial a,-macroglobulins: Colonization recorders," Geophysicaf Research Letters factors acquired by horizontal gene transfer from the metazoan genome?" Genome

31 ±12607, June 22, 2004) —T.J. Kelleher Biology 5: R38, May 26, 2004; genomebiologycom/2004/5/6/R38) —S. R.

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Bluer Means Better SIT UP WHEN YOU SNOOZE Throughout nature, color acts as a sig-

Unlike bats, sloths are herbi- nal. Juan Moreno, an ornithologist at vores. But they aren't ruminants, the National Museum of Natural

and so they don't get a second Sciences in Madrid, and his colleagues

chance (as, say, cows and sheep think the bright blue eggs of the pied

do) to process all the fibrous stuff flycatcher are no exception. But what, they eat. At any given moment, and to whom, are the eggs signaling?

leaf bits of various sizes are making After all, eye-catching color would seem a slow journey through a sloth's an open invitation to scavenging preda-

stomach. Because the larger par- tors, yet many of the world's birds lay ticles are not only harder to digest blue or green eggs. So what's the story? but also take up space, the best Moreno and his team recently found

strategy is to get rid of them as evidence that the signal is aimed at

soon as possible. Dad. In pied flycatchers, both parents

Clauss proposes that in a sit- care for the nestlings, but the male

ting sloth, those larger bits, which needs prodding. Moreno's team noted

are less dense, rise to the top that the brighter the blue of the of the stomach—right near the eggshells, the larger the eggs and the duct that ushers them into the intestines; meanwhile, the smaller,

denser particles sink to the fluid-

filled bottom of the stomach and Sloth in sleep mode are thoroughly digested. Proper

Quick, name a mammal that sleeps digestion, then, is best achieved in a

upside down. If you said bats, take a vertical position. The action of gravity,

bow. If you said sloths, you've fallen says Clauss, may account for the rest- for a persistent myth. Sloths do travel ing postures of other herbivores as upside down along tree branches, well—horses, for instance, stand while

hanging by all four feet. But when they they sleep. ("The potential interplay

snooze, they sit. According to Marcus of posture, digestive anatomy, density

Clauss, a physiologist at Ludwig of ingesta, and gravity in mammalian For many birds, blueness is a mark of quality. Maximilians University in Munich, herbivores: Why sloths do not rest up- Germany, there's a good reason for side down," Mammal Review that; gravity. 34:241-45, July 2004) —S.R. more food the males brought to the nestlings. The blue color comes from a

substance that's taxing to produce but has beneficial, antioxidant properties. Cryptic Creatures Hence, by laying big, azure eggs, the female may—a bit like the cartoon millionaire who lights his cigar with a banknote announcing that she's got resources to burn, and that she's passed plenty of them along to her offspring so they can weather the stresses ahead. That message may help convince Dad to

do his bit. ("Egg colouration and male

parental effort in the pied flycatcher F/cedu/a hypoleuca," Journal of Avian

Only three of these pictures are close-ups of the same animal. Which Biology 35:300-304, July 2004) one doesn't belong? (Answer on page 37) — Nick W. Atkinson

18 NATURAL HISTORY October 2004 SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

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state fish, are found year-round Nearby Calvert County is

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Ringside Seat

Sometimes, in science as in boxing, you want to be

up close; sometimes you want to keep your distance.

By Neil deGrasse Tyson

magine you re perience with the firmed by more detailed data, ten strolling along ringed gentleman others wiU have to be modified or I a boulevard on on the boulevard: discarded altogether because they no a crisp autumn day. the closer you look longer fit the model. And years or A block ahead of at a pointiUist mas- decades may pass before the half-

you is a silver- terpiece, the more dozen new insights based on those data haired gentleman the details disinte- are even formulated. Case in point: the wearing a dark blue grate, leaving you multitudinous rings and ringlets of the

suit. It's unlikely wishing you had planet Saturn. you'll be able to kept your distance. see the jewelry on Earth is a fascinating place to Uve his left hand. If you quicken your pace and work. But before Galileo first and get within thirty feet of him, you looked up with a telescope in 1609, might notice he's wearing a ring, but nobody had any awareness or under-

you won't see its crimson stone or the standing of the surface, composition,

designs on its surface. Sidle up close or climate of any other place in the with a magnifying glass and—if he cosmos. In 1610 Gahleo noticed doesn't alert the authorities—^you'U something odd about Saturn; because learn the name of the school, the degree the resolution of his telescope was he earned, the year he graduated, and poor, however, the planet looked to possibly the school emblem. In this case, him as if it had two companions, one you've correcdy assumed that a closer to its left and one to its right. Galileo

look would tell you more. Now imagine you're gazing at a late- nineteenth-century French pointiUist Which way best captures how na- painring. If you stand ten feet away, you ture reveals itself to us? Both, really. might see men in top hats, women in Almost every time scientists look more long skirts and busdes, children, pets, closely at a phenomenon, or at some shimmering water. Up close, you'll just inhabitant of the cosmos, whether ani- see tens of thousands of dashes, dots, mal, vegetable, or star, they must assess and streaks of color. With your nose on whether the broad picture—the one the canvas you'U be able to appreciate you get when you step back a few

the complexity and obsessiveness of the feet—is more usefrd or less usefiil than technique, but only from afar wiU the the close-up. But there's a third way, a painting resolve into the representation kind of hybrid of the two, in which formulated his observation in an ana-

of a scene. It's the opposite of your ex- looking closer gives you more data, gram, smaisinnnilmepoetaletimibuueinigt- but the extra data leave you extra baf- tatiims, designed to ensure that no one

fled. The urge to pull back is strong, else could snatch prior credit for his f?/ngs of Saturn, as seen in natural color (top as-yet-unpublished discov- left), backlit (fourth: from left), ultraviolet (fifth but so, too, is the urge to push ahead. radical and from left), and false color For every hypothesis that gets con- erv. When sorted out and translated

28 NATURAL HISTORY October 2004 —

from the Latin, the anagram becomes: Some are opaque; others are translu- close for comfort to the giant planet "I have observed the highest planet to cent. Some are pinkish; others are and gotten ripped apart by Saturn's be triple-bodied." As the years went ivory; still others are gray. tidal forces. by, Galileo continued to monitor Sat- So much for the "ear theory" of Saturn, by the way, is not the only urn's companions. At one stage they Saturn's rings. planet with a ring system. Close-up looked like ears or handles; at another views of Jupiter, Uranus, and Nep- stage they vanished completely. Several Saturn flybys preceded the tune—the rest of the Big Four gas gi- In 1656 the Dutch physicist Chris- one by Cassini: Pioneer ?? in 1979, ants in our solar system—show that riaan Huygens viewed Saturn through Voyager i in 1980, and Voyager 2 in each planet has a ring system of its a telescope of much higher resolurion 1981. Those relatively close inspections own. The Jovian, Uranian, and Nep- than Galileo s, built for the express pur- all yielded evidence that the ring sys- tunian rings weren't discovered until pose of scrutinizing the planet. He be- tem is more complex and more puz- the late 1970s and early 1980s, because, came the first to interpret Saturn's zling than anyone had imagined. For unlike Saturn's majestic rings, they're "ears" as a simple, flat ring. As Galileo one thing, the particles in some ot the made largely of dark, unreflective sub- had done half a century earlier, Huy- rings are corralled into narrow bands stances such as rocks or dust grains. gens v^TOte down his groundbreaking by the so-called shepherd moons: The space near a planet can be dan- but still preliminary finding in the form teeny sateUites that orbit near the rings. gerous if you're not a dense, rigid ob- of an anagram. Within three years, in The gravitational forces of the shep- ject. Many comets and some aster- his book Systema Satumium, Huygens herd moons tug the ring particles in oids, for instance, resemble piles of went public with his proposal. different directions, sustaining numer- rubble, and they swing near planets Twenty years later Giovanni Cassini, ous gaps between the rings. at their peril [see "Vagabonds in Space," the director of the Paris Observatory, Density waves, orbital resonances, by Neil deGrasse Tyson, July/August pointed out that there were two rings, and other quirks of gravitation in mul- 2004]. The magic distance, within separated by a gap that came to be tiple-particle systems give rise to pass- which a planet's tidal force exceeds known as the Cassini Division. And ing features within and among the the gravity holding together that kind nearly two centuries later, the Scottish rings. Ghostly, shifting "spokes" in Sat- of vagabond, is called the Roche physicist James Clerk Maxwell won a urn's B ring, for instance—recorded by hmit—discovered by the nineteenth- prestigious prize for showing that Sat- the Voyager space probes and presumed century French astronomer Edouard urn's rings are not solid, but made up to be caused by the planet's magnetic Albert Roche. Wander inside the instead of numerous small particles in field—have mysteriously vanished Roche limit, and you'U get torn their own orbits. from Cassini's close-up views. apart; your disassembled bits and By the end of the twentieth cen- What kind of stuff are Saturn's rings pieces will then scatter into their own tury, seven distinct rings, lettered A made of? Water ice, for the most orbits and eventually spread out into a part—though there's also some dirt broad, flat, circular ring. mixed in, whose chemical makeup is I recently had some upsetting news similar to that of one of the planet's about Saturn's rings from a colleague larger moons. The cosmochemistry of who studies them. He noted with sad- the environment suggests that Saturn ness that the orbits of their constiment might once have had several such particles are unstable, and so the par- moons. The ones that seem to have ticles will all be gone in an astrophysi- gone AWOL may have orbited too cal bUnk of an eye: 100 miUion years or so. My favorite planet, shorn of what makes it my favorite planet! Turns out, fortunately, that the steady and essentially unending accretion of through G, had been identihed. Not interplanetary and intermoon par- only that, the rings themselves turn ticles may replenish the rings. The out to be made up of thousands upon ring system—Hke the skin on your thousands of bands and ringlets. In the face—might be persistent, e\'en if its most recent photographs available at constituent particles are not. the time this article went to press Other news is carried in the close- taken this past July by the Cassini up pictures of Saturn's rings sent to spacecraft from a mere 4 million miles Earth by Cassini. What kind of news? away—some ringlets look braided, "Mind-boggling" and "startling," to and others have mysterious kinks. quote Carolyn C. Porco, the leader of

October 2004 NATUR.M HISTORY 29 I the mission's imaging team and a spe- in distant galaxies, but bright ones tion, the abundance of hydrogen. But cialist in planetary rings at the Space nearby are rare, memorable, and virtu- they kept their eyes peeled for some- Science Institute in Boulder, Col- ally unpredictable. Two dazzlers ap- thing closer, just in case. orado. Here and there in all those peared in close succession several cen- Sure enough, on February 24, curves are features neither expected turies ago—Tycho Brahe's nova of 1987, at Las Campanas Observatory nor, at present, explainable: scalloped 1572 and Johannes Kepler's nova of in the mountains of northern Chile, a ringlets with extremely sharp edges, 1604—but both of them took place Canadian astronomer named Ian Shel- particles coalescing in clumps, the before Galileo had even built his first ton, now at the University of Toronto, pristine iciness of the A and B rings telescope. Each one was observed daily was examining a just-developed pho- compared with the dirtiness of the by at least one great astronomer, tograph of the galaxy nearest the Cassini Division between them. All whose only detectors were his eyeballs. Milky Way, known as the Large Mag-

these new data wiU keep Porco and ellanic Cloud, which is prominent in her colleagues busy for years to come, the Southern Hemisphere. To Shel- perhaps wistfully recalling the clearer, ton's amazement, the photograph, simpler view from afar. taken the previous night, included a stunningly bright object that had Several years ago, astronomers dis- never been seen before. In disbelief, covered another, unexpected ring Shelton dashed outside, looked up,

system, nowhere near the solar system and there it was: the first naked-eye

and not at all hke the rings of a planet. supernova in nearly four centuries. The rings surround supernova 1987A, By the next night, professional and a former superstar that broadcast its amateur sky watchers alike had demise not very long ago in a galaxy turned nearly every southerly tele- not too far away. scope on what had formerly been the Supernovas— at least the ones of star Sanduleak -69° 202. Although the same type as 1987A—are massive, earthlings watched the poor thing ex- Three rings of Supernova 1987A (the two bright brilliant exploding stars that, far from plode in 1987, it had actually blown spots on the larger rings are unrelated stars) being new (the meaning of the Latin up about 170,000 years earlier: light word nova), are actually going through The two supernovas afforded disturb- takes time to travel, and Sanduleak's their death throes. After chugging ing evidence that the celestial realm home galaxy, the closest one to the along for milHons of years, such stars was not so immutable as the ancients Milky Way, Ues about 170,000 hght- blow themselves to smithereens and the faithful had beHeved. years from Earth. within days. Your typical supernova Shelton happened to catch Super- becomes as bright as a trillion suns From the 1920s onward, much ef- nova 1987A on the upstroke, giving for a few weeks, and then, within fort has gone into classifying and observers a rare opportunity, because months, fades into a barely visible explaining the different kinds of su- the explosion took mere days to rise to

corpse, surrounded by a inildly radi- pernovas: Type I's tend to be much peak brightness. Before, during, and ant, gnarly mass of dust known as a su- more luminous but wane faster than after the peak, astrophysicists brought

pernova remnant. Type II's. Type I's—specifically the out all the big guns. The most power- Models of the birth, life, and death fairly common Type la—derive from ful telescopes in the world, spanning of stars predict that one or two super- an already dead white dwarf star that all wavelengths of the electromagnetic novas ought to explode in the Milky explodes because of excess material spectrum, were retooled and repro-

Way each century. Yet our galaxy has dumped on it from a bulbous, ex- grammed to observe the dying star. served up only five in the past thou- panding, red-giant companion star. Coordinated observations around the

sand years, and not one since 1604. Type II's derive from a supermassive world tracked its progress from sunset So we're badly overdue. red giant whose core coUapses when to sunrise, and from time zone to time

Supernova 1987A, named for the it runs out of fuel, and then rebounds zone. And even before anybody saw

year that the news of its demise in a titanic explosion. anything, several underground detec-

reached Earth, was bright enough to Sounds cut and dried, doesn't it? tors had recorded the arrival of a burst be visible at night to the unaided eye. Twentieth-century astrophysicists had of neutrinos—fast-moving, ghostly In recent times, dozens of dim, distant seen plenty of supernovas explode in particles issuing from the star's col- supernovas have been discovered each faraway galaxies, and felt they had lapsed core and darting unimpeded year, but 1987A was by far the bright- more or less accounted for what through space. est in the era of advanced technology. makes the different types do what So we got up close and personal Supernovas may be common enough they do—the mass, the core, the loca- with this one, acquiring the most ex-

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tensive data anyone could ha\"e hoped 20,000 years before the explosion. Its one doubts that more data is prefer- for at the time. And guess what? Su- luminous "pearls" occupy less than 1 able to less. pernova 1987A was certainly no T.'pe percent of the ring's total mass, and I event, but it didn't quite look Like a may simply be the inner edge of a re- Could it be that rings are natural Type II supernova either. Some core- gion of gas extending well beyond the by-products of explosions? In collapse predictions more or less held \'isible ring itself The delay of almost September 1999, Chandra, ha\ingjust up: the neutrino flash, the approxi- three years between the explosion and barely been launched, discovered a mate energ\' budget of the entire af- the ring-lighting ceremony was simply ring of high-energ)- particles around

fair, the signature of some freshly the time it took for the remains of the the heart of another supernova rem-

minted elements. But as Dick Mc- explosion, traveling at a miUion rrdles nant, the Crab Nebula. The Crab is Cray, a superno\'a guru at the Univer- the child of the great supernova of

sity of Colorado at Boulder, put it, 1054 (obser\-ed and recorded by as- there were some curs-eballs as well. trologers in China and Anasazi Indians in North America). Perhaps the X rays The first anomaly was that Sandu- come from ejected particles that have leak. the progenitor star, was a fallen back, only to be flung into space

blue supergiant. whereas T\"pe II super- again b\' the rapidlv spinning neutron novas supposedly came exclusively star lurking at the center of the nebula. from red supergiants. And then there In the meantime. Kate Scholberg, a \^ere the rings—three of them. X rays physicist at MIT, has been working from the explosion Ht up the first one to make sure scientists awaiting the

in 1989. Soon t\vo other, larger rings Central ring of Supernova T987A as it next nearby supernova are prepared. looked on November 28, 2003, shocked came into \-iew [see photograph of all She's been instrumental in setting up into luminescence fay the supernova tliree on page 30]. In the next decade the Supernova Early Warning System blast wave the trio faded, but when the awesome (SNEWS), a network of nine neutrino shock wave of the initial blast fmaUy an hour, to cross the evacuated inner detectors that stretches firom the South hit the central ring, segments of that regions of the space around the origi- Pole to a zinc mine deep in a moun- ring began to reignite, as though lumi- nal star and overtake the slower-mov- tain northwest of Tok)-o. As soon as nous pearls were being added to a ing ejected gas. those distant neutrinos arrive on

necklace [see photograpli on tliis page]. Earth, fresh from the core of a col- What was going on? Explosions Why the pearls? Some parts of lapsed star, the netsvork wiU go into were supposed to produce spherical the ring trail closer to the ex- high gear. Several hours later, the \'isi- messes, not flat rings. Had the star plosion than do others, and so they get ble Hght from the supernova can be

exploded in ways unimagined. or slammed first. By 2002, more than a expected to arrive.

were preexisting gaseous structures dozen hotspots of \"isible Hght had ap- WiU unanticipated, bewildering in the vicinits^ of the supernova the peared, but McCray expects that data emerge from that event? No

real instigators? Suddenly astrophysi- within a few more years the entire ring doubt about it. For evers' puzzle we cists had a whole lot of data in the win be ablaze, illuminating the rest of solve. we'U get two (or more) new-

service of questions no one had ever the gas in its midst and revealing the ones. And not until we delve deep thought to ask. evohing structure of the entire super- into those data—and get an even Supernova 1987A has become one nova remnant. closer look at that pointilhst painting of the most studied objects in the his- As for the two larger rings, they and that gendeman's college ring

ton,- of astronomy. Contran.- to what may well be the inner surfaces of an and then step back and tr\" to see the you might suppose, the number of re- even larger envelope of gas, not yet patterns, will we know what answ-ers

search papers on a subject is strongly glowing firom shock waves but shining we've unwittingly been sitting on. and correlated \\4th the level of our collec- instead because of high-energ\' radia- what questions we have yet to ask.

tive ignorance about it. If the object tion emitted by the inner ring. The

were understood, astrophysicists would whole thing is a work in progress, and [Tliis is part two of a tii'o-part article.] quickly publish what they know and astrophysicists are getting the chance .-ytrophysidst Nee, DEGlLiSSE Tysox is the shift their attention to the next prob- to watch it happen, both with large Frederick P. Rose Direaor of the Haydeii Plan- lem. With that disclaimer, I offer the ground-based telescopes and with etarium ill Xeir York Cif)'. He is also host of current best guess about the origin and top-shelf as orbiting telescopes such the PBS NOVA miuiseries "Origins," which structure of this three-ring circus. the Chandra X-ray Observaton,- and, premiered in two 2-hour segments, 8—10 P.M. The size and gro^^th rate of the cen- of course, the Hubble. Once again, ET, on September 28 and 29 (www.pbs.org/

tral ring suggests it was ejected about data aplent\- have left us baffled, yet no wgbh/nova/origins/).

32 NATURAL HISTORY October 200i oueru Explore the insights of a BOOK CLUB celebrated evolutionary thinker EVOLUTION BY GOULD

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Climb Every Waterfall!

To reach competitor-free Jish nirvana, Hawaiian gobies scale sheer cUffs to reach pools 2,000 feet above the sea.

By Peter T. Sherman and Pern K. Eason

Hawai'i is renowned for its thanks to Kilauea, one of the most ac- lands were all once as barren as the coral reefs teeming with tive volcanoes on Earth. None ot the freshly brewed volcanic rock that is srill rainbow-hued fishes, but island's surface lavas are more than cooling along the southern coast of the one of the state's most remarkable 700,000 years old. Big Island. Plant spores and seeds that aquatic species lives in freshwater Although lush with life today, the is- drifted on currents of air or ocean were mountain streams on the five largest islands. On the northern side of the Big Island (Hawai'i), for instance, the waters of Hi'ilawe Falls cascade down a cHffmore than a thousand feet high. Some day, if you make your way to

the top of the falls, take a look in the pool above the precipice. There you will see only one species of fish, a mottled brown goby that grows, on average, to about two and a half inches

long. The Hawaiians call it the 'o 'opii ninino'o, "the local fish with a lizard-

hke head." If (apart from its Hawaiian name) this fish doesn't seem very im-

pressive at first, think about the fol- lowing questions: How did a freshwa- ter fish get there, 2,500 miles from the nearest continental landmass? And

how did it get to the top of the Big Is- land's highest waterfall? The main Hawaiian Islands began to form about 5.5 million years ago, as the Pacific tectonic plate moved over a "hotspot" in the Earth's mantle that spewed enough lava onto the ocean floor to build islands up from the depths. The five largest islands formed in order—Kauai, Oahu, then Molokai and Maui (originally joined), and the Big Island—as the ocean floor slowly Hi'ilawe Falls, on Hawaii's Big Island, drops more than 1,000 feet, a seem- hotspot toward inched across the and ingly insurmountable obstacle to any fish traveling upstream. But the fry of the northwest. The Big Island still sits the b'opu alamo'o (Lentipes concolor), a species of goby native to the main over part of the hotspot, growing daily Hawaiian islands, make the ascent after spending a few months at sea.

October 2004 N.MUR.\L HISTORY 33 the first to colonize the newly formed and then have found a way across open But it's all worth the trouble: in con-

landscape. Animal life followed more ocean waters. Or, if they were saltwa- trast to the return of spawning Pacific slowly. Birds and arthropods were the ter fish, they had to make a transition salmon to the stream of their birth, a

first to arrive, and with the land to from saltwater to freshwater hfe. goby's arrival brings not death from themselves, they evolved into thou- But there's more. It turns out that exhaustion, but a quiet adolescence sands of species that occur only in these not only the ancestors, but each new and adult Ufe. islands. No amphibian or terrestrial generation of 'o'opu alamo'os has to reptile, and only one terrestrial mam- overcome the same two hurdles. Al- The 'o'opu alamo'o (Lentipes con- mal, the hoary bat, completed the though the young hatch in the upper color) is one ofjust five species of

journey on its own. People were the streains and pools, they are soon swept freshwater fish native to the Hawaiian late-comers: not until sometime be- downstream and over waterfalls to the Islands. Three of the others are also go-

tween 1,000 and 1,500 bies, and the fifth is a close

years ago did they first reach goby relarive called a sleeper, the islands. The original because of its sluggish be-

settlers were Polynesians, havior. That distribution is and with them began the consistent with the pattern rapid introduction, both in- on most of the world's tentional and inadvertent, oceanic islands. Gobies are of exoric fauna and flora. the fishes most often en- With a fertile imagina- countered in island streams, tion, you iTiight think that and in Pacific island streams, the ancestors of the goby they are typically joined by that now lives at the top of sleepers. Yet most gobies and Hi'ilawe Falls had somehow many sleepers in the world been conveyed there, along are marine. The most likely

with the pool itself. Per- explanation is that the ances- haps, for instance, in the tors of the Pacific islands' na-

course of geologic time, the tive freshwater fishes were all 'o'opu alamo'o's ancestors saltwater fishes. frequented a tidal pool that Marine gobies are typi- slowly became isolated from cally bottom-dweUing fish the ocean and then was up- that Uve in shallow water. Ufted by the volcanic forces Most species have an ap- of island building. But the pendage that acts as a suc- Hawaiian islands have tion cup, formed by the fii- grown as lava was added to sion of the two pelvic fins. their upper surface; any This "chest sucker" enables pool containing fish would the gobies to attach them- Adult 'o'opu alamo'o, shown here at about one and be boiled away rather than selves firmly to rocks and three-quarters times actual size, has a sucker on its elevated. The true story of stay put despite heavy wave chest formed h^ the fusion of its pelvic fins. Gobies the 'o'opu alamo 'o is even action. Many goby species that live in intertidal marine environments use this kind more fantastic. of appendage to cling to rocks battered by waves. The have become adapted to Uv- The ancestors of this goby 'o'opu alamo'o fry use the sucker to cling to rocks as ing in the highest reaches of not only had to be athletic they make their way up freshwater streams. the intertidal zone, where enough to make their way they are often battered by to dizzying heights. They also had to sea. There they fend for themselves, waves or stranded in tide pools when-

overcome what, to most aquatic crea- growing from hatchling to fry in a ever the tide is out. Although sleepers

tures, is an even more formidable ob- marine environment. If they make it lack a specialized sucker, they, too, stacle: the invisible but fundamental through that hurdle, they find their often live in tide pools. barrier between freshwater and salt- way to an estuary, make the transition Cut off from the ocean for as long as water. There are two ways they could to freshwater, and finally undertake twelve hours a day, tide pools can fluc- have reached their present habitat, and the arduous cUmb to the tops of the tuate dramatically in salinity, as evapo- each entails that transition. Either they waterfalls. They accomplish this jour- ration concentrates ocean salts or rain- must have originated as freshwater fish ney through some remarkable adapta- water dilutes them. Most fish species on the mainland or some other island. tions as well as single-minded efrbrt. cannot tolerate such fluctuations, but

34 NATURAL HISTORY October 2004 1

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Call toll-free, without the slightest obligation, TPX for a FREE DEMONSTRATION KIT! 800-371 -9478 Call toll-free or fax 866-795-9367 MyC P © Copyrfgtil 2004 by Tempui-Pedic Direct Response, Inc. All Rights fleserved. 1713 Jaggie Fox Way. Lexington, KY 4051 some gobies and sleepers have adapted Biologists beUeve that is part one of Ifyou are bra\'e (and toohsh) enough to physiologically in ways that have en- the evolutionary story about how wade into the raging torrent pouring abled them to thrive. In the outer lay- Hawai'i's native stream fishes began down a waterfall into the lowest ers of their giUs are cells that pump their journey from saltwater to fi^esh- reaches of a stream, you are Kkely to sodium and chloride ions into or out water. But what about part two: how find fish fry, between half an inch and of the blood, stabihzing the blood did some of these species conquer an inch long, wriggHng up the vertical

concentrations of salts. In the process the waterfalls that stand between estu- rock surface behind the falls. The thin of compensating for changes in salin- ar\" and upper stream? Lacking the and clear, or lighdy pigmented, fry are

it\; the fishes also must adjust their in- gobies' chest sucker, Hawai'i's fresh- the young of Hawai'i's three chmbing take and excretion ot \\ater. water sleeper (Eleorris sandwicensis) had goby species. Two ofthem—the "o'opu A tolerance for low levels of salinit\- to setde for life at sea level. And the alamo'o and Aimotis guameiisis—ac- would enable a goby or sleeper to goby that has the most Aveakly muscled comphsh their waterfall-climbing feat jump from the harsh, cramped emi- sucker, Stencgobius liawaiiensis. also set- by attaching their tiny chest suckers to ronment of a ride pool to the \^dde fan ded in the estuaries and lower stream the rock at the base of the falls and of brackish water that forms where a reaches below the first waterfall. But then, in bursts of tail-beating, inching stream enters the ocean. There the three of the goby species found a new upward while remaining attached, hke fish would have found itself in an en- use for the device that had helped their a magnet being slid up a refrigerator \Tronment ^^ith fewer marine preda- ancestors hang onto rocks as waves door. Although each climbing burst tors and competitors, simply because crashed over them. lasts only a fraction of a second, the fr\' few marine species can siinive when In heav)' rain, Hawaiian streams doggedly persevere in fits and starts

the salinit\" is low. swell as \\"ater is channeled into them. until they reach an upper pool. The third goby species (Sicyopterus stimpsoni) Ungers in the estuan.' before

proceeding upstream; it waits there be-

cause before heading inland it first un-

dergoes a physical change that is aston- ishingly swift for a vertebrate. Within

thirty-six hours its mouth, which has spent the past few months facing for-

ward, is permanently remodeled to

face downward, and its small upper Hp expands to form a large sucker. Thus

equipped. S. stimpsoni heads upstream, conquering watertalls by alternately

attaching its mouth and chest sucker. Whereas returning salmon sniff out the specific stream of their birth, the three climbing gobies are not as partic- ular, and appear guided to suitable stream estuaries by the strong outflow of freshwater and, in the case ot at least one species, chemicals that signal the presence of adults of their species above

the first waterfall. But like the salmon,

the long climb is a journey that mem- bers of the three species will make only once in their lives. With the exception of A. ouamensis, which migrates part way dowTistream to spawn, adult gob- ies remain in the part ot the stream where they setde after their climb. Adult Sicyopterus stimpsoni, a goby the Havjaiians call 'o'opu Of the three climbing species, A. nopili, approaches the top of a small cascade. Although guamensis and S. stimpsoni only make Hawai'i's gobies make their most spectacular ascents up water- klls as juveniles, adults also occasionally climb short distances it to lower or middle reaches ot as they search for food or mates. streams. Their iiv do not have much

36 NATURAL HISTORY October 2004 THE AMERICAN HISTORY

territorial defense, and YOU NEVER LEARNED. only a few cases in which males briefly defend ter- ritories, a behavior most often triggered by the presence of a female

ready to lay her eggs. It was at those times that we got to watch the 'o'opu alamo'os most stunning display. The male instan- taneously replaces his usual mantle of mottled brown. He turns his front stimpsoni has a mouth that can function as a S. half and tail fin jet black, second sucker for climbing rocks. It acquires his paired dorsal fins pure the feature in the thirty-six hours before it be- white, and the rest of his gins its upstream journey: the upper lip rapidly

expands and the mouth is remodeled to face trunk a briUiant orange down rather than forward. that seems to give off a red-hot lava glow. luck climbing waterfalls more than a If the temale is suitably impressed, hundred feet high. Only the 'o'opu she will swim into a channel covered alamo'o can scale the greatest heights; by a convenient rock and lay about it can claim the upper reaches of the 12,000 minute eggs, which the male streams aU for its own. fertilizes. The male then guards the nest for about four days, until the eggs having spent part their child- hatch. The larvae swim to the stream's So, of hood amid the dangers ot the ocean surface, where they are quickly washed and scaling mountains to reach the through Whitewater rapids and over heights, what do adult 'o'opu alamo'os waterfalls, out into the wide blue ex- do with their time? Well, for most of panse of the ocean. After several the year, not much. In the spring and months, the ones that survive the haz- Hosted and Executive summer of 2001, we conducted flill- ards at sea seek out a new stream and Produced by Kevin Costner day observations in several Hawaiian begin the cycle anew. streams. We learned that the fish in- A Jack Leustig Film Peter T. 5herm.4N and Perri K. Eason vested only about 1 percent of their are a \iusband-and-wifc team who met in a^ad- 2-HOUR SPECIAL ABOUT 500 NATIONS time in feeding—an activity that, for DiscOOePU iiate seminar on mate choice at the University of AIRS SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 many species Hving in more crowded California, Davis. Tliey have collaborated on re- conditions, a large part the occupies of COMPLETE 8 EPISODE MINISERIES ON 1 DISCS. search on and off ever since, most recently slndy- day. They feed mostly on algae and ing territoriality in dragonflies and aggression ON-CAMERA INTRODUQION BY KEVIN COSTNER small invertebrates, plentiful in both and foraging strategies in ghost crabs. Sherman is

streams and pools. In short, the adults an assistant professor at Transylvania University COLLEQABLE PACKAGING INCLUDES 12-PAGE BOOKLET

seem to have mastered the good life. A in Lexington, Keiniicky. and Eason is an associ- BONUS CD-ROM companion disc of extensive whopping 95 percent of their day is ate professor at the University of Louisville. images, spent sitting, usually in amicable groups archival material: more than 2,000 ot between two and seventeen individ- dozens of computer-generated animated uals that include both males and te- reaeations and an interactive Indian history Answer to " males. Only occasionally did we record "Cryptic Creatures atlas, plus the voices, music and untold real fish, any interactions among the puzzle (page 18): a stories of Indian history. such as courtship, chasing, or biting. Before we made our observations, AVAILABLE another pair of investigators had re- SEPTEMBER 21 ON DVD ported that males of the species estab- SOOnations.tv warnervideo.com lish and defend small, permanent terri- tories. But we observed no permanent

O 2001 500 Nations Productions and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc All rights reserved October 2004 natural history 37 —

BIOMECHANICS

Slime and the Cytoskeleton

How the defensive ooze of a hagfsh sheds light on cellular structure.

By Adam Summers ~ Illustrations by Patricia J. Wynne ^ Hagfish ties itself in an overhand l

its body of the mucus it releases from its ventral pores. The mucus contains protein structures, known as intermediate filaments, that are also components of cellular skeletons.

The first time I handled a hag- natural. After releasing the sKme, the organelles, and choreographing its tish, I placed it none too hagfish cleans oS" by tying itself in a internal actions.

gendy in a pail two-thirds fiill knot that it then pulls itself through. The mechanics of the cytoskeleton

of seawater. Within just a few min- Hagfish shme is made up, in part, depend in part on how its filaments utes, the creature had become a hazy ot proteoglycans—hydrated protein- react when a load is appUed. Two mirage at the bottom of three gallons and-sugar molecules that give all kinds of filaments, known as micro-

of viscous slime. Wonderflil biome- mucus its characteristic slippery tex- tubules and filamentous actin, are

chanics were going on in that bucket, ture. But more important for the stiff and strong. Both resist bending, as the animal released a gel intended question of cellular physics, the hag- stretching, and compression. to discourage whatever might be ha- fish adds long, thin fibers to the mix. Intermediate filaments (IFs), the

rassing it. Watching the ooze, though, Taken together, those ingredients third kind, seem much more flexible

I never imagined that it would some- produce a shme reminiscent of what than the other two. day shed light on one of the most in- you might find under the noses of a One Une of evidence for that con- triguing architectural problems m bi- classroom of preschoolers. clusion comes from studies done with ology—the design and structure of transmission electron microscopes the cytoskeleton, or cellular skeleton. To understand what any of this (TEMs). With a TEM you can make A hagfish is an unprepossessing has to do with the cytoskeleton, a stop-acrion image of a single slice of

creature. A foot or so long, it bears a it's worth sketching what the cellular a cell. But how can a still image tell

closer resemblance to a Coney Island apparatus is and how it works. The you anything about the flexibihty of frank than it does to a fish. It has a model of the cell most of us learned the filaments? Pasta may offer a usefrd small mouth, surrounded by several in school was essentially a ball filled analogy. Imagine two heaps of lin-

short sensory strucmres called barbels, with a fluid (the cytoplasm) within guine, one cooked, the other dr^'. In and it lacks both jaws and teeth. And which small bodies (the organelles) any slice through the dry pUe, the

as I demonstrated when I dropped drift aimlessly. Cell biologists now strands would show up as straight one into the bucket, a hagfish can know that a skeletal network of fila- Unes. A slice through the cooked pUe, exude from its skin a substance so ments permeates the cytoplasm though, would show many strands to

sHmy and so plenteous it seems super- giving shape to the cell, anchoring its be curved and curly. When cooked, a

38 NATURAL HISTORY October 2004 pasta flexible, strand of becomes more lo- that could be slowly pulled away from enabling its ends to move indepen- the glass rod. By measuring the bend dently—hence the curves. in the rod and how much the fiber Filaments of the cytoskeleton are so It stretched. Fudge was able to calculate thin they can be pushed around by 1b the stiffness of the IFs.

the random movements, or so-called It turns out that the filaments are

Brownian motion, of other, neigh- not very stiff at all, particularly when boring molecules. Those molecular I first stretched. That low initial stiff- forces and their effects on the fila- ic ness, which is attributable to regions

ments can be modeled mathemati- of the IFs known as terminal do-

cally, and the model shows that mains [see illustration at left], is the more flexible the filaments are, consistent with their wriggly ap- the more they will look like the pile Schematic diagram shows how an intermediate pearance under the TEM. The low filament (IF), a structural element of cells as of cooked Unguine. Combining such initial stiffness of IFs also suggests they well as a component of the defensive slime of a model with TEM observations, the give flexibUity and elasticity to the hagfish, reacts to mechanical stress. The microtubules seem to be 5,000 times cytoskeleton. Fudge found that an IF functional unit of each IF is thought to consist stiffer than the IFs. By itself, that's not of two proteins coiling around each other, with could be stretched by more than

entirely surprising: the microtubules globular protein structures known as terminal 30 percent and still rebound to its are also thicker than the IFs. Yet even domains at both ends (Ta). When an IF first original length. If stretched much undergoes mechanical stress, the terminal the filaments of filamentous actin, further, though, it would no longer domains stretch easily (Tb). That stretching is which are thinner than the IFs, are spring back. Only if the filament was elastic, or reversible; when the tension is about twenty times stiffer. stretched by 100 percent would it snap. released, the IF reverts to its original length.

So what accounts for the flexibility The central section of the IF, the two coils, That makes the structure of an IF of the IFs? Are their properties siixu- noticeably stretches only under large forces. unlike either rope or cooked linguine, lar to those of cooked linguine? Not Stretching there deforms the proteins into a but rather somewhat like a plastic six- sheetlike conformation (1 c); that change, necessarily. Rope, for instance, only pack holder with a heavy-duty rubber absent repair work undertaken by the cell, is weakly resists bending or compres- band attached to each end. If you puU inelastic and irreversible. sion—yet, unlike linguine, it does a gently on the rubber bands, they can great job of resisting stretch. IFs stretch and recover their original might be constructed of multiple length. But if you pull hard enough, molecular strands that slide past one the plastic holder stretches irreversibly another when bending, like the and finally breaks apart. fibers of a rope. That's where hagfish Those properties could give the sUme comes in: it's an ideal system IFs two roles inside cells. Stretched to for testing whether IFs act more like less than their elastic limit (that is, rope or like cooked linguine. Zh less than 30 percent more than their original length), they could haul a The fibers of hagfish sHme are cell back into shape after a deforma- made up almost exclusively of tion. Stretching past that limit could IFs. Moreover, the long axis of each serve as a mechanical signal that Zo fdament is aligned with the long axis of some region of the cell has been seri-

the fiber, making it plausible to think ously deformed.

that the entire fiber acts Uke one fila- I am not surprised, in a general ment writ large. On the basis of that sense, that hagfish slime holds biome-

assumption, Douglas S. Fudge, a biolo- chanical secrets. Most genuine dis- Closeup views of the diagram at the top of gist at the University of British coveries depend on broad knowledge this page show how the proteins rearrange Columbia in Vancouver, reasoned that that spans many le\'els of organization under tension. Each coil (2a) is a helical design. shouldn't the de- measuring the properties of sHme fibers protein, which is given its shape by internal and So why could help clarify the mechanics of IFs. hydrogen bonds between hydrogen and fensive goo of a fish in a bucket reveal To test the properties of sUme fibers. oxygen atoms (dashed lines). If the ends of a the workings of a basic organizarional protein are pulled apart hard enough, the Fudge and his colleagues constructed a component of all ceUiUar hfe? hydrogen bonds break. One full period of sensitive stretching machine. One end rotation by the helix (2b) gives way to two of a fiber was attached to a thin glass is periodically pleated sheets (2c); hydrogen Adam Summers ([email protected]) ait rod, just fifty microns in diameter. The bonds re-form between the two unwound assisMiit professor if ecology and evolutionary other end was attached to a platform proteins, rather than within them. biology at the University of California. Irvine.

October 2004 NATURAL HISTORY 39 the Wind May Blow

By Henri Weimerskirch ^AIURAL,

OCTOBER 2004

Among oceangoing avian species, albatrosses breeding behavior on small islands in the subantarc- and firigatebirds are the c^uintessential sea- tic Southern Ocean [see map on next page]. At that birds. Both rely entirely on the ocean for time, breeding was the only albatross behavior my food. Their overall shapes, albeit distinct, free them colleagues and I could observe closely; back then, from any dependence on terra firma except when biologists had no way of learning much more than, breeding. Each bird is a magnificent flier in its own say, an observant sailor could discover about the be- environment: an albatross can spend between 90 havior of albatrosses at sea. But in the intervening and 95 percent of its life soaring on cold gales over Uvo and a half decades, technology has come to the subantarctic seas; a frigatebird can ride warm ther- rescue. Thanks to generation after generation of mal updrafts over tropical oceans for more than a ever-smaller electronic tracking devices, biologists week at a time without touching down on land or have pierced the veil of obscurity and tracked alba- water. And beyond their oceanic habitat and their trosses on their amazing foraging journeys. Those superb flying skills, the two birds share some distinc- excursions can cover vast loops more than 9,000

Albatrosses and frigatehirds spend most of their long lives soaring over the sea. Miniature electronic trackers and sensors are now showing ornithologists where the birds go.

tive features of life history: they have the lowest rates miles long—as if birds nesting in New York City of reproduction and the latest onset of maturity flew to the shores of Italy to forage and then re- among aU birds. Frigatehirds Hve tor decades, but turned to their nests. albatrosses hold the record for seabirds, reaching As my colleagues and I began to track alba- ages of sixty to seventy years and continuing to re- trosses, the question of why their lite histories bore produce into their fifties. such striking resemblances to those ot the trigate- How did these birds come to have such similar, birds was never far from my mind. By 2002, when unusual, life histories? It would be natural to think the new tracking technology had revealed many of that the albatrosses (there are between fourteen and the secrets of albatrosses, I knew it was time to twenty species, depending on which ornithologist apply the same methods to frigatehirds. That work you agree with) and the frigatehirds (five species) is now paying off. The new packages of miniatur- are closely related in evolutionary terms. But ized electronic devices are helping biologists un- they're not. The two groups are members of two derstand in detail the many ways frigatehirds are well-differentiated evolutionary orders, three ma- the tropical counterparts of albatrosses. Out ot jor steps up the hierarchy from the species level. sight of land or ship, the albatrosses and frigatehirds But since they're not closely related, what does ac- we have fitted with instruments are demonstrating count for the similarity of hfe histories? That is a that, despite the birds' genetic distance, the hard question I've been muUing over for a long time, facts of soaring and foraging at sea force even the and one that has been directly guiding my research most disparate lives to converge. for several years. My work on albatrosses, particularly the wander- studies of the wandering albatross have most re- ing albatross (Dioniedea exiilans), began twenty-five Myrepeatedly taken me to two of the years ago, when I was a graduate student studying mote islands in the Southern Ocean, Crozet and Kerguelen, where the birds breed and nest. My

usual port of departure is Reunion, a French- Eleven-foot wing span of the wandering albatross enables administered tropical island in the western Indian the bird to ride the winds in the stormiest latitudes over the reach the breeding grounds takes as Southern Ocean. Gliding at sixty miles an hour, albatrosses Ocean. To can cover thousands of miles with barely the flap of a wing. long as ten days in a supply boat on tossing seas, a

October 2004 NATURAL HISTORY 41 MADAGASCAR Back in the 1980s, when an albatross would pass our ship, we had no way of AFRICA 'REUNIOH knowing where it had come from, e INDIAN \t where it was going, or whether it was a EUROPA breeding adult, an immature bird, or a OC£AM bird on sabbatical.

In 1989, however, I happened upon a newspaper article about Japanese scien-

tists who had developed a small sateUite |A/ transmitter for tracking dolphins. The original versions of such transmitters weighed more than two pounds and were used mainly for following the movements of ships. Biologists had adapted them to

ANITA I RCT CA track large mammals such as bears or

Flight paths of three wandering albatrosses (purple), relayed to the author reindeer, but they were still too cumber- and his colleagues by satellite transmitters attached to the birds, show the some for birds. The Japanese version, birds' locations as they range across vast areas of ocean. The irregular loops, though, weighed httle more than six which cover thousands of miles, begin and end at the albatrosses' nesting ounces, which meant it could be carried sites on Crozet Island. The map also shows the location of Europa, a tiny island that serves as a breeding ground for great frigatebirds. by a twenty-six-pound wandering alba- tross. My colleague Pierre Jouventin, then at the Chize Center for Biological

voyage I've now made eighteen times. But the Studies in ViUiers en Bois, France, and I modified

bird, a graceful wanderer whose white body is off- the tag, or attachment, of the dolphin transmitter to set by narrow wings that can span eleven feet, has fit an albatross—and thereby became the first investi- always been worth the trip. gators to track seabirds on their foraging flights. The breeding behavior of wandering albatrosses The data transmitted and relayed though satellite

is much like that of the frigatebirds I have studied, to our base amazed us. During a single foraging trip,

but it is anomalous among birds in general. Usually which typically lasted between ten and fifteen days, neither group mates before reaching age ten or the birds flew more than 1,800 miles from their twelve—what in other birds would be a ripe old nests and covered as much as 9,300 rrules. They age. Females of both groups lay only one egg, and traced huge irregular loops, and made smaller-scale then take their time raising the chick to the fledg- zigzagging movements within the loops that added

ing, or independent, stage. The wandering alba- substantially to the total length of the trip. To save

tross tends its young for nine months, the frigate- energy, they soared on tailwinds or side winds. bird for a fuU twelve—the longest of any bird. When the winds died, they alighted and drifted on Such protracted parental responsibilities leave both the sea until the winds picked up again. And those

groups with little choice but to take at least a year's dramatic findings were just the first of many waves "sabbatical" between reproductive efforts. of firesh data we collected about the specific acrivi-

Sailors have always known that albatrosses ven- ries of each bird along its route. ture far out to sea. Partly because an albatross could By the early 1990s, transmitter weights had been

appear with strong winds, sailors would respect it whittled down to just a bit more than two ounces. as "the bird /That made the breeze to blow," in the That enabled Rory Wilson, a penguin speciaHst at words of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, their best- the Institute for Marine Sciences in Kiel, Ger- known bard. (According to legend, albatrosses also many, and me to attack another question: Do alba- carry the souls of mariners lost at sea.) trosses find prey at the end of their foraging route

But where do the avian wanderers go when they or all along the way? Wilson had the superb insight are out of sight of land or ships, especially when that when a predator catches a fish or squid from pressed by the needs of their offspring to make re- the frigid Southern Ocean, the prey wiU cool the turn trips to the nest from the feeding grounds at predator's stomach. So he made a recording ther- sea? Where, how, and how often do they encounter mometer that an albatross could swallow—not a their prey—squid, fish, and the remains of dead problem for a bird that regularly gulps down six- whales, seals, and penguins—that they partially di- pound fish whole. The thermometer, combined gest and eventually regurgitate for their chick? with the location transmitter, showed that, con-

42 i NATURAL HISTORY October 2004 trary to our expectations, the birds hunt and eat all during flight are only 10 to 20 percent higher than along their routes. Generally they find schools of they are when the birds are at rest. In contrast, the prey species at widely spaced intervals every five to heart rates of other birds in typical flapping flight six hours, and each time they do, they swallow a can rise to as much as 200 percent higher than the couple of fish or squid. baseline level. We were beginning to build up a picture of how the wandering albatross feeds. Soaring sixty niiles As transmitters have continued to shrink (now an hour (even faster in optimal winds) across huge down to nearly half an ounce), and as Global expanses of open ocean, it searches for rich but iso- Positioning System (GPS) monitors have been lated schools of prey. It seemed that such long- miniaturized, we have been able to fill in further distance flights would be physically impossible details about the long sea voyages of the wandering without a highly energy-efficient form of soaring. albatross. Low-pressure systems across the South-

To find out just how efficient, I worked with Scott ern Ocean generate a predictable wind pattern, A. Shaffer and Dan P. Costa, ecophysiologists at the which the birds exploit to the fullest. Flying north-

Male (left) and female (right, sitting) wandenng albatrosses in the foreground are pictured in a mutual display. Both birds are probably between seven and nine years old, still young for their species. The bird in flight is a mature adult that will probably join the other two. The photograph was made on

South Georgia Island, in the South Atlantic, a breeding site favored by wandering albatrosses.

University of CaUfornia, Santa Cruz. This time, we ward, they typically move in a large, counterclock- deployed three devices in combination: a satellite wise loop; flying southward, they loop clockwise. transmitter weighing only an ounce; a modified Our growing array of electronics has helped me heart-rate monitor like the ones runners wear; and and my collaborators see how the key elements of an activity recorder attached to the bird's leg, which the albatross's hfe cycle are interconnected. The let us know when the bird was floating on water. patchy disti-ibution of prey requires long-distance Those instruments confirmed that the soaring foraging. Long-distance foraging means the chicks flight of the albatross is among the most energy- are fed at long intervals, and so they develop inde- efficient forms of avian travel known. The heart- pendence slowly. The nine months between hatch- rate monitors showed that albatrosses' heart rates ing and fledging forces the adults to skip a year be-

October 2004 NATUR.\L HISTORY 43 tween breeding attempts. AH in all, the bitd's slow- and Christophe Barbraud, ornithological colleagues

paced life probably contributes to its lengthy life ot mine at the Chize Center, joined me in April of

span. And perhaps the decade it takes an albatross to that year in French Guiana to carry out a pilot studv reach reproductive maturity is time spent learning on the foraging ecolog\- of a New World species how to find the right winds and ride them while called the magnificent frigatebird (Fregata wagnifi- keeping a weather eye out for prey. cetis). Ha\dng thus gained some experience \\ith

fidgatebirds. I remmed to Reunion in August 2003, As my collaborators and I were penetrating the but this time, instead of taking the ten-day boat trip pre\'iously hidden lives of albatrosses, the po- to the albatross breeding islands. I took a four-hour

tential value of comparing them vidth frigatebirds flight in a military' transport to the islet ofEuropa in kept percolating in my mind. My interest was stirred the Mozambique Channel, between Madagascar

in part bv the theoretical w^ork of two other or- and the African continent. Europa is just a three-

nithologists. The late Da\dd Lack, an evolutionary mile-long speck of land, but it senses as a breeding ornithologist at the University of Oxford, had writ- base for a variety of seabirds, including a relative of ten extensively on haw the specific en\?ironment of the magnificent frigatebird. a species knowTi as the

an a\?ian species contributes to its mode ot lite. N. great frigatebird (Fregata minor). Philip Ashmole, a seabird specialist at the University AH five species of frigatebirds are large black birds of Edinburgh, has further proposed that tropical \\-ith long forked tails and angled \\dngs. As a seabirds are even more constrained than other group they hold the a\dan record for low "\^^ng seabirds by their environment. The thick layer of loading"—^meaning that the ratio of body weight

to wing area is lower than that of any other bird. Their physical profile, plus their superb overall fly-

ing abihties. makes it possible for them to roam the tropical seas for days on end, coming to land, like the albatrosses, only to breed on such far-flung is- lands as Europa.

By the time I reached Europa in 2003. I had as- sembled a formidable tracking arsenal to study frigatebirds. There were location sateUite transmit- ters, GPS data recorders, altimeters, and accelerom- eters. But my colleague Matthieu Lecorre, an or-

nithologist at the Universit}- of Reunion, and I found working with the frigatebirds to be a chal- lenge nonetheless. We knew that the birds were much more high strung, and thus more difficult to temporarily remove from the nest and "tag," than albatrosses, w^hich are relatively tame. But on Eu- ropa, we also had to work at night. By day clouds ofyoung and nonbreeding frigatebfrds soar over the nesting colonies and are quick to steal twigs from

nests in the minute it takes to fit a bird \\-ith instru-

Big red "balhon"—sctually, an inflated throat pouch is flaunted — ments and return it to its e^ or chick. When the by the male frigatebird at right Male frigatebirds in breeding tagging was done, we kept v^atch; \\'ithin a few mode typically gather in groups to perform the display, whidi days, sometimes even uithin a few hours, the other passing females can find irresistible. The three hopeful males in the photograph were strutting their stuff from one of their member of the frigatebird pair would arrive to re- favorite resting places, the matted foliage on the top branches of heve its electronically enhanced partner. The part- a tree, euphorb on the dry, tropical island ofEuropa. ner would then head out to sea to fish for its prog-

eny. We would then be ready to track its course. warm water at the surface of tropical seas restricts the movement of nutrients. And in such nutrient- The magnificent Irigatebirds in our pilot smdy poor upper layers, prey are even more scattered than spent two or three days at sea during incuba- they are in colder waters. tion, but great irigatebirds stayed awnay between five As late as 2002, no tracking studies had ever been and ten days. Once we started to anal\'2e the data done on tropical seabirds, and so the tiine -was ripe from the frigatebirds' flight, we began to see how for testing Ashmole's hypothesis. Oh\ier Chastel they could sustain their lengthy foraging trips.

-- NATURAL HISTORY October 2004 Whereas albatrosses have large, webbed feet, which avoid their submarine pursuers, low-fl\ing frigate-

help them "climb" out of the sea and into the air, birds simply snapped them up. frigatebirds have minuscule, unwebbed feet and water-permeable plumage. If a frigatebird lands on Our studies of albatrosses and frigatebirds have water, its in serious trouble because its feet don't pro- served to sharpen a series of questions I am vide enough propulsion for keen to pursue. How, precisely, do the birds find their prey? How do they navigate? What algo- rithms do they follow in their search for fish and squid? Do they "memorize" maps of the most promising fishing zones? But even as those questions remain, my collabora-

tors and I have been able to draw a picture of the hfe history of each the bird to hft off. Our group that would have been im- altimeters indicated that possible only a decade or two ago. In frigatebirds remain airborne fact, we now throughout the foraging trip. Frigatebirds, then, must sleep on the wing. At present, they are the only birds other than swifts known to

do so. As it happens, some birds can sleep in one brain hemisphere at a time, and that may be the frigate-birds' strategy. Our transmitters showed that frigatebirds range hundreds of Forked tail and angular wings of a miles from Europa, some fly- frigatebird confer great maneuverability ing to the offshore waters of in flight. Although frigatebirds can fish Mozambique, 360 miles for themselves, they are also notorious away. Their average speed for harassing other seabirds and robbing them of prey in midair is only six to eight miles an hour, slow compared to an albatross riding a strong have enough informarion to answer the question I tailwind. But that difference is posed at the beginning of this article: How does it explained largely by the contrasting styles of flight. happen that two unrelated groups of birds seem to

Our altimeters showed that during a cHmb, frigate- show such dramatic siinilariries in life histon.- and in birds ride rising warm air masses known as ther- airborne hunting strategies? The black frigatebirds, mals, reaching heights of 9,900 feet, a seabird wth their sharply angled wings, ride rising thermals, record. Although the birds sometimes level off, just whereas the white albatrosses, with their long nar- as a human gHder pilot might do, most of their for- row wings, catch a Hft on a cold gale. But their for- aging trip is spent cUmbing and descending. aging strategies converge: soar high, gUde long, min- No doubt because of their inability to take off imize the expenditure of energy. from the sea surface, frigatebirds rarely get close Given the pronounced patchiness of their prey, enough to it to risk a landing. But that raises another, and how albatrosses and frigatebirds have adapted to rather obvious question: since they must come down it, I am convinced that Lack and Ashmole have to the sea to teed, how can they do so without get- pointed us in the right direcrion: the constraints of ring trapped? The answer is that they often consume the environment (in particular, the scarcity' of prey flying fish, which leap over the water's surface, and in the open oceans) is the primary factor driving the sometimes rob other birds of a meal. But they also pecuHariries and similarities that these remarkable feed in conjuncrion with predators such as tuna and birds display. Evolution has converged, offering a dolphins. During an oceanographic mission that splendid example of how two quite different took place while we were on Europa, another col- groups, with two quite different genetic starting league saidying seabirds, Sebasrien Jaqueniet of the materials, can arrive at highly similar life cycles. It is

University' ot Reunion, observed tuna and dolphins a beautiful evolutionary story, and one that I look chasing schools of fish and driving them to the sur- forward to documenting in greater detail in the face. As the smaller fish leapt out of the water to years to come. D

October 2004 n.atural history 45 CAMPAIGN 2004

Issues and Answers:

Bush V. Kerry

When you think about it, it is not sinprising that many of the leading issues in this year's—or any year's—presidential campaign are rooted in science and the natural world. Energy, the environment, the state of the nation's natural resources, human health and disease, space science, the place of scientific thinking in government, and science educa- tion are continuing concerns for readers of Natural History. Our editors sharpened and focused those issues into ten questionsfor the two major-party candidates in this year's presidential election. President George W. Bush and SenatorJohn Kerry.

When we first submitted our questions, neither campaign seemed likely to answer them directly. The Kerry campaign "was working on " the answers for two weeks before we discovered that the

bureaucracy had forwarded our questions to the wrong person. The Bush campaign referred us to

their candidate's Web site, and to the public record. Peter Brown's column, "Up Front" (page 8), describes the process in detail.

In the end, the press ar^d policy offices of the Kerry campaign did prepare responses to our ques- tions. They are signaled graphically by Patricia Wynne's charming drawing of a donkey peering out from behind the ornamental letter K. The Bush campaign decided not to provide specially prepared

responses, but instead chose to let stand what we were able to find from President Bush's campaign and presidential Web sites. In those sources, most, though not all, of our questions have been ad- dressed; Wynne's drawing of an elephant and the ornamental letter^ mark the Bush responses. Because of space limitations, we have abbreviated some of the replies; in other respects we have edited them only where necessary for clarity. —The EDITORS

ENERGY. What actions do you favor taking with vital technology. One other aspect of promising

respect to the development and conservation of en- technologies is the hydrogen fliel cell, which cap- ergy resources, both foreign and domestic, including tures energy from a chemical reaction between hy- energy from fossil fuels, nuclear power plants, and drogen and oxygen. I'm confident we can achieve "alternative" sources? this technological breakthrough to the point where I've asked Congress to spend $1.2 bilHon—which We've got to make sure that we they have—in research into developing clean hydro- conserve energy better. But, listen, gen-powered cars. we can do things in environmentaUy The United States and several major interna- friendly ways that we couldn't do tional partners are forming the Methane to Markets twenty years ago. We need an energy policy that Partnership, a new and innovative program to in- makes us less dependent on foreign sources of en- crease energy security, improve environmental ergy. And one way to become less dependent quality, and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions

on foreign sources is to promote alternate throughout the world. The United States will sources of fuel, like biodiesel and ethanol. commit up to $53 million to the partnership over

An important part of an energy strategy is the next five years. Under the partnership, mem- clean-coal technology. Our budget for next bers will work in coordination with the private sec- year provides $447 million to encourage this tor to share and expand the use of technologies to

46 NATURAL HISTORY October 2004 capture methane emissions that are now wasted in FUNDING RESEARCH. How will your the course of industrial processes and use them as a administration establish priorities for the new energy source. The important benefits of this funding of scientific and medical research? international partnership include improved energy Will you appoint a presidential science advisor security and air quality from the use of clean-burn- in the first six months ofyour term? What role ing methane, improved coal-mine safety, enhanced ivill that person have in setting funding priori- economic growth, and reduced greenhouse-gas ties? In what specific areas of research do you favor emissions of methane. increased governmentfunding? In what specific areas

I think we have to have safe nuclear energy. We do you favor reducing government spending? ought to be continuing to research and spend re- search dollars to make sure that we're able to prop- If WE WANT TO BE COMPETITIVE IN erly harness nuclear energy without harming the the future, then we've got to en- environment. ^ courage research and development so that the next wave of technology

I HAVE A BALANCED ENERGY PLAN is America's wave of technology. I proposed raising that will reduce our dependence on federal spending on research and development into

foreign oil, ensure that American in- $132 billion since I came into office. dustries and ingenuity will lead the When we make decisions, we want to make sure new energy economy, and protect our environ- we do so on sound science—not what sounds good, ment. Its major features include: but what is real. And the United States leads the

• Increasing energy efficiency. I wUl cut the gov- world in providing that kind of research. We'U de- ernment's energy bill by 20 percent by 2020—sav- vote $588 million toward the research and develop- ing the federal government billions of dollars—and ment of energy-conservation technologies. We must will challenge municipalities, corporations, univer- and we will conserve more in the United States. And

sities, small businesses, and hospitals to do the same. we wiJl spend $408 million toward research and de-

I will also provide tax credits for energy-efficient velopment on renewables, on renewable energy. buildings and homes. I am committed to achieving We ought to encourage private-sector compa- an increase in the fuel economy of automobiles, nies to do the same, to invest in research. And

and will provide tax incentives for consumers to therefore, I believe the tax credits that are critical buy the efficient vehicles of their choice. To ensure for encouraging research ought to be a permanent that the cars of the future will be built in America, part of the tax code.

I will provide incentives for manufacturers to con-

vert factories to build more efficient vehicles. As PRESIDENT, I WILL APPOINT A PRES- • Producing electricity from renewable sources. idential science advisor in the first six America needs a national market for electricity months of my term.

produced from renewable energy, such as wind, It is essential for our government to

solar, biomass, geothermal, and hydrogen energy. I fund basic research and create an environment that support a national goal of producing 20 percent of will foster private-sector investment and support our electricity from renewable sources by 2020. the building blocks of a dynamic and innovative

• Expanding the supply of natural gas. I believe economy. I have a plan to invest more at the Na- that the United States should cultivate a long-term tional Science Foundation, the National Institutes partnership with our neighbors and friends, of Health, the Department of Energy, and the Na- Canada and Mexico, to develop and expand North tional Aeronautics and Space Administration.

America's robust energy suppUes. In addition, I vwll eliminate capital gains taxes for • Ensuring cleaner coal. A Kerry-Edwards ad- long-term investments in small businesses. Small, en-

ministration will ensure that coal is part of the solu- trepreneurial firms play a critical role in creating new tion to our energy and environmental challenges jobs and cominercializing new technologies. As new and will forge a new way to harness technology to companies, they are less wedded to incremental im-

develop and deploy clean electric power firom it. At provements to existing products and ser\ices, but the same time, we need clear benchmarks and a they often have difficulty attracting capital be- flexible framework by which to measure the emis- cause of the high degree of risk involved. I \\dll sions performance of existing and new uses of coal. exempt invesmients held for five or more years cost I believe we must invest $10 biUion over the next in small businesses—a proposal that would decade—a fivefold increase—to help transition to $6 billion over ten years. I will also extend the cleaner and more advanced coal-fired power plants. research and experimentation tax credit, \\-hich

October 2004 NATURAL HISTORY 47 pro\ides a powerful incentive for companies to stitutes of Health, the Department of Energy, the invest in research and development. National Institute of Standards and Technology, and

Finally, I will reform or eliminate regula- the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. tions that impede America's high-tech com- This flinding will help with the broad areas of sci-

petitiveness. For example, I will support stem- ence and technology that will provide the founda-

cell research, which could help fmd cures for tions for economic growth and prosperity in the Alzheimer's, diabetes, Parkinson's, and cancer; use twenty-first century, including industrial biotech- market-oriented, performance-based, and other nology. Advances in biotechnology such as "syn- mechanisms that encourage the development ot in- thetic biology" can lead to biodegradable plastics, novative solutions to meet pubhc goals such as envi- friels, and chemicals based on agricultural waste as ronmental protection, rather than forcing prescrip- opposed to Middle East oil. These advances can also tive measures; and ensure that distributed energy lead to new tools for bioremediation and to cleaner resources (such as wind turbines, solar power sys- industrial processes that use fewer toxic chemicals.

tems, and fuel cells) can be reUably and affordably Many of these appUcations can create jobs and in- connected to the power grid. crease incomes in rural America.

BIOTECHNOLOGY. Genetic etigineering, in STEM-CELL RESEARCH. Some believe that which fragments of DNA from one species are stem-cell research holds promise for curing such dis- reshuffled and recombined ivith the DNA ofanother eases as Alzheimer's, cancer, and heart disease. In what species, is being used to develop newfood crops (ge- ivays tvould you support, and in ivhat ways limit, re- netically modified, or GM, foods) and to manufac- search in this area? ture neii' pharmaceuticals. In what ways do you pro- pose to support and/or restrict the development of America is on the leading edge and trade in such products? of change in medicine. The issue of research involving stem cells derived

Our biotechnology industry is from human embryos is increasingly the strongest in the world, and we the subject of a national debate. Based on prelimi-

need to keep it that way. My ad- nary work that has been privately funded, scientists

ministration is committed to work- believe flirther research using stem cells offers great ing so that the great powers of biotechnology can promise for those who suffer from many terrible dis- serve the true interests of our nation and mankind. eases—^from juvenile diabetes to Alzheimer's, from The biotechnology' industry finds itself on the front Parkinson's to spinal-cord injuries. And while scien-

Hnes of some of the great challenges of our time. tists admit they are not yet certain, they beUeve stem

The first challenge is the need to fight terror. All of cells derived from embryos have unique potential. us know the great possibilities of modern science Stem cells can be derived from sources other when it is guided by good and humane purposes. than embryos—from adult cells, from umbilical We understand, as well, the terrible harm that sci- cords that are discarded after babies are born, from ence can do in the hands of evU people. human placentas. And many scientists feel research

We should encourage the spread of safe, effective on these types of stem cells is also promising. Many biotechnology to win die fight against global hunger. patients suffering fr"om a range of diseases are al-

Global hunger is a chronic challenge, and we have a ready being helped with treatments developed from

crisis in Afirica. The United States is estabhshing an adult stem cells. emergency fiind so we can loish help to countries However, most scientists today believe that re-

where the first signs offamine appear. The nations of search on embryonic stem cells offers the most

Europe can gready help in this effort. I hope Euro- promise because these cells have the potential to

pean governments will reconsider policies that dis- develop in all of the tissues in the body. Embryonic

courage the farmers in developing countries from stem-ceU research is at the leading edge of a series using safe biotechnology' to feed their own people. of moral hazards. We recoil at the idea of growing human beings for spare body parts, or creating life

I WILL BOOST SUPPORT FOR THE for our convenience. And while we must devote physical sciences and engineer- enormous energy to conquering disease, it is ing by increasing research invest- equally important that we pay attention to the ments in agencies such as the moral concerns raised by the new frontier of National Science Foundation, the National In- human embryo stem-ceU research.

48 NATURAL HISTORY October 2004 }

My position on these issues is shaped by deeply the purpose ot research, but are selected from held beliefs. I'm a strong supporter of science and those that would otherwise be discarded or technology, and believe they have the potential for destroyed. Patients and their fimilies should incredible good. I also believe human life is a sa- no longer be denied the hope that this new cred gift from our Creator. research brings. As a result ot private research, more than sixty genetically diverse stem-cell lines already exist. Leading scientists tell me research on these sixty SPACE. How would your administration balance lines has great promise that could lead to break- current and future spending for manned versus un- through therapies and cures. I also believe that manned space missions? Will you call for increased great scientific progress can be made through ag- spending for NASA manned missions during your gressive federal funding of research on umbihcal administration? For unmanned missiotts? cord, placenta, adult, and animal stem cells, which do not involve the same moral dilemma. This year, America is proud of our space your government will spend $250 million on this program. The exploration of space important research. I will also name a president's has led to advances in weather fore- council to monitor stem-cell research, to recom- casting, communications, comput- mend appropriate guidelines and regulations, and ing, search-and-rescue technology, robotics, and to consider all of the medical and ethical ramifica- electronics. tions of biomedical innovation. Yet for all these successes, much remains for us to explore and to learn. In the past thirty years, no

I BELIEVE THAT STEM-CELL RESEARCH human being has set foot on another world, or holds immense promise for curing or ventured farther upward into space than 386 -•"i treating diseases and medical condi- miles—roughly the distance from Washington,

tions. As president, I will lift the ideo- D.C., to Boston, Massachusetts. Our first goal is to logically driven restrictions on stem-ceU research complete the International Space Station by 2010. that are impeding progress toward cures for millions We will focus our future research aboard the sta- of Americans suffering from debilitating diseases. tion on the long-term effects of space travel on The August 2001 stem-cell policy allegedly niade human biology. To meet this goal, we will return available more than sixty suitable stem-cell Unes to the Space Shuttle to flight as soon as possible. federally funded researchers. However, this has Our second goal is to develop and test a new proved to be false. Many of the cells have turned spacecraft, the Crew Exploration Vehicle, by 2008, out not to be genuine stem-cell lines or turned out capable of ferrying astronauts and scientists to the to have no scientific value. As of today, there are Space Station after the shuttle is retired. But the only nineteen Unes available—less than a third of main purpose of this spacecraft will be to carry as- the number originally promised. tronauts beyond our orbit to other worlds.

Without federal funding, the nation's top re- Our third goal is to return to the Moon by 2020, searchers at universities, medical schools, and teach- as the launching point for missions beyond. Begin- ing hospitals cannot be part of the work to find new ning no later than 2008, we will send a series of ro- cures and treatments. Other industrialized nations botic missions to the lunar surface to research and have allowed extensive research on stem cells with prepare for friture human exploration. Using the strict ethical oversight. Due to the limited opportu- Crew Exploration Vehicle, we will undertake ex- nities for federaDy funded stem-cell research in this tended human missions to the Moon as early as country, many scientists—particularly young scien- 2015, with the goal of hving and working there for tists—who seek to engage in this research do so increasingly extended periods. We will then be overseas. As president, I will overturn the present ready to take the next steps of space exploration: ban on federal funding of research involving stem- human missions to Mars and to worlds beyond. cell lines that were created after August 9, 2001, and

I will allow doctors and scientists to explore the fuU 1 WILL BE A presil:)ENT WHOSE Sci- potential of these lines with the appropriate ethical ence and technology' policies are oversight, including regulations that reflect our \'al- always guided by sound science, ues: strict protections for women's informed con- not politics or ideology; I am a sent, for their privacy, and against their being pres- firm believer in sound science, and I beUeve sured into donations, as well as strict protections to that the shuttle mission has played a crucial ensure that blastocysts are never created solely tor role in advancina: our knowledge ot the uni-

October 2004 N.\TLiR.AL HISTORY 49 verse we live in. Specific decisions about air and clean-water regulations, and, over the next NASA missions will be made after taking five years, increase the operating budget of the Na- many factors into consideration. tional Park Service by $600 iTullion to put our parks

As president, I will boost support for the back on a path toward recovery and restoration. I physical sciences and engineering by increasing will fuUy flind this plan by modernizing the sale of research investments in agencies such as the Na- mineral rights and using the revenue generated to tional Aeronautics and Space Administration, as increase the operations budget of our national parks.

well as the National Science Foundation, the Na- tional Institutes of Health, the Department of En- ergy, and the National Institute of Standards and BIODIVERSITY. How will your administration Technology. This funding will help with the broad address threats to the loss of biodiversity on public areas of science and technology that wiU provide lands such as the national parks, the national the foundations for economic growth and prosper- forests, and the national wildlife refuges? ity in the twenty-first century.

I WANT PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND that if you are concerned about the PUBLIC LANDS. The national forests, national endangered species, then you need parks, and national wildlife refuges are scenic, eco- to be concerned about catastrophic

logical, economic, and recreational resources that are fire. Fires destroy the animals that, obviously, live often under pressurefrom competing interests. Wltat amidst the raging fire. If you're concerned about do you consider the proper priorities for the man- old-growth, large stands of timber, then you'd agement of the lands that currently fall tvithin each better be worried about the conditions that create of these jurisdictions? Hotv tvill you ivork to im- devastating fires. Thinning underbrush makes proi'e the maintenance of these valuable treasures for sense to save our species, and to save the big stands us and for future generations? Wliat steps tvill you of trees. take to modernize laws on mining and extraction

on public lands, including the Arctic National I AM DEDICATED TO THE ECOLOGICAL Wildlife Refuge? And do you have specific proposals Stability of our nation's public lands. My for reclassifying any lands in these jurisdictions, or administration will take steps to rein- adding to them? state protections for roadless areas in our national forests, protect old-growth stands on our All the parks are owned by the public lands from commercial logging, and reverse people of this country, and we want the Bush administration's secretive, behmd-closed- the park system to work weU and doors deals that have lifted vwlderness designations we want there to be a modern infra- and roadless protections from many public lands. In structure. We want the 80 million acres of national addition, my administration wiU take steps to restore parkland to be accessible and comfortable for the open, informed, and balanced decision-making to use of the American people. the inanagement of our public lands. The responsibihty to maintain our parks has not

always been met in America. And so I set out to do

something about it. I'm calling on Congress to SCIENCE EDUCATION. Science education has spend $5 billion over the next five years on mainte- been a national priority for the United States, par- nance projects and repair projects in the park sys- ticularly following the launch of Sputnik I in tem all across the country. 1937. Yet according to Science and Engineering Indicators 2004, published by the National Sci- America's national parks ai^ sym- ence Foundation (NSF), the U.S. lags behind many bols of our heritage, to be preserved other developed nations in secondary science educa- and enjoyed by future generations. tion. Moreover, since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Despite George Bush's proinise to get foreign students who want to study science in the rid of the maintenance backlog in our parks, U.S. at graduate or undergraduate levels havefound

they are now facing a budgetary crisis. it very difficult to get the visas they need to study

I will ensure that our national parks are here. Hoiv will your administration address these open, staffed, and managed to allow all Ameri- two threats to the health ofAmerican science and to cans to explore and enjoy our national heritage. our influence in science and technology throughout

I will pursue rigorous enforcement of our clean- the rest of the world?

NATURAL HISTORY October 2004 Today, children across America tional students to stop applying to U.S. col- are showing real progress in reading leges and universities. This not only damages

and math. When it comes to im- our economy; it also Hmits our ability to win proving public schools, we are turn- the war of ideas by educating the future lead- ing the corner. There's more work to be done. ers of developing countries.

We've got to recognize this world of ours is chang- ing. The jobs of the future will require greater knowledge and higher-level skills. And so we must SCIENCE MUSEUMS. Science museums pro- reform our high schools to make sure a high school mote the public understanding of science, and the diploma means something. collections of museums of natural history serve as We will expand math and science so our young scientifically indispensable repositories for specimens people can compete in a high-tech world. We will of plant and animal species. Yet, in order to remain expand the use of the Internet to bring high-level solvent, many museums face cutbacks and, in some training in the classrooms for four more years. We'll instances, the dispersal of part of their collections. help a rising generation gain the skiUs and the com- WJiat role do you see for the federal government in petence necessary to achieve the American dream. the funding of these museums, and in what specific

areas, if any, should funding be restricted to reflect

Education in math and science is social values or other policy concerns? especially crucial in increasing Amer-

ica's national security and high-tech [Editor's Note: No answer gii'en; no per-

competitiveness. But today, more tinent recent statementsJoHiid in the pnb- than half of America's high school students are lic record.] being instructed in the physical sciences by teach- ers who don't have a college major in the subject Science museums provide an in- they're teaching. valuable service to the American

As president, I will help Ainerica build the math, people by serving as a clearinghouse science, and technology workforce of the future. for knowledge and by advancing our My plan will offer summer institutes and mentors to understanding of the world around us. As presi-

50,000 K-12 math and science teachers and $5,000 dent, I will ensure funding and resources for Amer- bonuses for teachers entering these fields. I will pro- ica's science museums, and ensure that they are able vide $300 iniUion in innovation grants to encourage to pursue their mission of promoting knowledge

1 million girls and minorities to pursue science and and raising av^^areness of scientific inquiry. math. Among the initiatives I will support wiU be all-girl math/science schools, after-school programs, and internships with local businesses. THEORY OF EVOLUTION IN SCHOOLS. I will also increase the number of undergraduate Nearly all biologists consider the theoiy of evolution majors in math and science by fully funding the to be the bedrock of their science. Yet some people feel "Tech Talent" program and increasing support for that evolution should not be taught in the public math/science programs at colleges serving a high schools, or that it should be presented as one ofseveral share of disadvantaged students, and I will double competing theories about the development of life on NSF graduate scholarships for math and science. Earth. Would your administration lend its support to hi the wake of 9/11, America took important any group or initiative that advocates either of these steps to improve security for visa applicants to the approaches to the teaching of evolutionaiy theory? United States. However, we can improve our visa system to process visa applications for legitimate sci- 3\ [Editor's Note: No answer given; no entists and students more quickly, while still screen- J l_ pertinent recent srarcnicnrs found in the ing individuals who pose genuine security risks. We public record.] do not need to face a trade-off between scientific exchange and national security. As Robert M. I BELI£\'E IN OBJECTI\'E STANDARDS OF

Gates, former director of central intelligence dur- scientific inquiiy I support the tlind- ing the first Bush administration, has noted, ing of initiatives, like those of the Osama bin Laden and other terrorists are on the National Institutes of Health and brink of achieving an unanticipated victory, be- the National Science Foundation, that advance cause the unpredictability and delays associated our understanding of the natural and physical with getting a student visa are causing interna- world. Evolution is a part of tliat understanding. D

October 2004 N.^TUR.\L HISTORY 51 Dispatches from the Fern Frontier

Plants with an ancient pedigree are yielding

theirfamily secrets to molecular approaches.

By Robbin C. Moran

Just as Lewis and Clark are celebrated in the of its four leaflets. In a time of need, here, it seemed, United States, so too, in Australia, are Robert was a fern friend indeed. O'Hara Burke and William John Wills, leaders of Burke and Wills prepared the sporocarps the most the first European expedition to cross that island sensible way they knew how: they ground them

continent. In 1860, Burke and Wills, along with two into a powder, added a little water, and molded the other expedition members, John King and Charles mixture into small cakes. These they dried and baked in the hot ashes from their campfire. The food satisfied their hunger, but, mysteriously, they 'ik still became weaker with each passing day. In the end, Burke and Wills both died of malnutrition; King was rescued, but he suffered permanent nerve damage in both legs.

For many years, it was assumed that the sporo- carps simply lacked food value. But about ten years ago, nutritionists provided a riew explanation. The sporocarps, they discovered, are loaded with thi- aminase, an enzyme that destroys thiamine, or vita- min B,. When they examined the explorers' jour- nals, they found recorded a classic progression of the symptoms of thiamine deficiency, or the disease known as beriberi.

So much, it would seem, for Aborginal knowl- edge! But why didn't the Aborigines die from eat- Dying of malnutrition in the Australian outback: Robert O'Hara Burke, ing the sporocarps of nardoo? The secret lies in the the leader of an 1860-61 expedition, is mourned by John King. The watercolor by William Strutt depicts, near the pistol handle, some fern preparation. Unlike Burke and Wills, they mixed "beans" the men used for food. Recent research has revealed why the ground-up sporocarps with enough water to eating the plants actually made the European explorers weaker, even make a kind of drink or paste, which they spooned

though the Australian Aborigines could consume them with no ill effect. into their mouths with a mussel shell. Diluting the

thiaminase, it turns out, decreases its harmful effects

Gray, made the entire journey from Melbourne in to the point that the plant is safe to eat. The mussel

the south to the Gulf of Carpentaria on the north shell was also a smart move. If, for example, they

coast. On the way back, however, through a combi- had rolled up a eucalyptus leaf to make a spoon (a nation of bad planning and bad luck, they ran out of common Aboriginal technique), the enzyme could food. Gray died, but the others turned to a wild re- have latched onto organic molecules in the leaf that

source that they had learned about firom some Abo- would have increased its potency. rigines: the sporocarps—the hard, bean-like repro- It seems likely that some Aborigines in the distant ductive bodies—of a small fern. The fern, Marsika past, through trial and error coupled with astute ob-

(hiunmondii, called ncirdoo by the Aborigines, is more servation, had hit upon the right combination ofpro- commonly known elsewhere as water clover because cedures to unlock a resource in their environment.

52 NATURAL HISTORY October 2004 Perhaps those procedures had be- come so ingrained that they were taken for granted by the people who met Burke and Wills. Or perhaps the explorers failed to pay enough attention to what they were told.

One moral of the story is, surely,

that a little knowledge can prove a dangerous thing. But another lesson

is the extraordinary power of mod- ern biology to offer unexpected in- sights—^practical as well as theoreti- cal—about organisms as familiar and commonplace as ferns. Recent in- vestigations can explain far more

than the basis for such practices as the Aboriginal preparation of nar- doo, or the true cause of death of two national heroes. The study of

fern biology is a vast enterprise in it-

self, encompassing some 12,000 spe- cies of ferns, in about forty families, that grow throughout the world. The species range from tropical tree ferns with leaves measured in yards, to small free-floating aquatics with leaves less than a sixteenth of an inch long. The new tools of molec- ular analysis—along with painstak- ing field observations—are changing the botanical view of these plants.

Among the latest advances is the use of genetic information to help estab- lish the place of ferns in the family

tree of plant life. In some cases DNA analysis has overturned some long- accepted conclusions.

As a group the ferns have an ancient pedigree among the species of the Earth. Some living families have fossil records that date back to the Carboniferous Period, between 359 million and 299 million years ago, a time long before the rise of the dinosaurs [see

diagram on next page] . Later, during r the Late Triassic, Jurassic, and Cre- taceous periods, when dinosaurs r dominated the Earth (between 225 million and 65 million years ago),

-. Annulana, the fossil foliage of a giant c3/anii:'e trt'i .;.i.ii,,v . \ jboutone the bellies of these animals were and one-half times actual size. Catamites, which thrived in swamps of the tickled by the lush growth of fern Carboniferous Period (between 359 miilion and 299 million years ago), are close famihes such as the forked ferns, the relatives of the living horsetails. Considered "fern allies" until recently, horsetails twin-leaf ferns, the tree ferns, and are now classified as true ferns on the basis of DNA analysis.

October 2004 natur.m history 53 1

the ferns of the family Matoniaceae. The ven^

study of ferns is called pteridologv'; which to some calls to mind the pterosatirs, flying reptiles that

w"ere contemporaries of the dinosaurs. The name is not purely coincidental: the root pterido-, from the

Greek for "fern," is akin to preron-, the Greek for "wing" or "feather" (think feathedike fern). Before the advent of molecular phylogeny. biolo- gists construcred exTDlutionan," trees largely by smdy- ing the morpholog\' and anatomy ot li\lng species. They also w-ent to the fossil record, however incom- plete, for additional clues that could broaden the contemporary- picture. When had various groups of

plants first appeared? ''S'Tiat kinds of extinct species had once belonged to the groups? The DNA-based = . =-^jt. evidence developed in the past few years has rein-

forced some of these traditional classifications and lea'.ss -zz-cz-=:e i-- zsce^ : - z-:ge' -^ z' e synthesis oj

showTi where others were mistaken. orga" z ~: ec_ =s. -a'~e'= " ic_;-e=;:e" -s a, especially in The corrections are not limited to just a few mat- China and Vietnam, often grow the fem in rice paddies. When the paddies are subsequently drained, the decomposing ters of detail. Taxonomists can now say that the ferns serve as a nitrogen-rich fertilizer. A living library of ferns' closest cousins are the seed plants—^angio- hundreds of cutevars is maintained, so that rarmers can get the most suitable ones for their particular habitats.

bryofAytes hfoyf^ytes ferns seed plants sperms (flowering plants) and gjinnosperms (such as

: conifers). Both seed plants and ferns are vascular

planli. plants. ha\Tng conducting tissue in their stems. The o£ m ro E ra O E ° =» most ob\'ious ditterence between them is that ferns O » .S 5 -5 instead they disperse repro- Gnolaios do not form seeds; and u ginkgos conlfors J flowering cycnds O II II II Q- O J lis J >> duce by means of single-celled spores. Nevertheless, 1.8- ferns share a more recent common ancestor with Eiary seed plants than they do with the lycoph\n:es, a 65 group of vascular plants that also reproduce \ia CTBtsceoiss spores. Before DNA smdies were made, the h"co- ph^tes were considered closely related to ferns and 1A6 therefore termed "fem allies"—now a misnomer. By the same token. DNA anah'ses show that the whisk

!r'=£= z ferns and horsetails, two other groups also consid- 251 ered fem allies, now appear best classified as ferns. PermSsn ^t 299 One way the smdy of DNA can help recon- Carbonre 'c -5 struct plant family trees is to interpret the 359 genetic code as a kind of molecular clock. As spe- '2'E\ Z~~BT- cies evolve, they may or may not diverge rapidly in 416 re- ; _' ^" outward appearance or various other major 444 spects. .\t the molecular level, though, the accu-

FOSSIL EVIDENCE mulation of random mutations in DNA is thought

Direct 1 Indued I Absent I I 1 | | to proceed at a fairly uniform pace within a given lineage, largely independendy of natural selection.

EvciuBonsiy tree of Jjie major living groups of land plants, constructed on Measuring the accumulated divergence between fossi! evidence {in some cases indirect, based on dose but eiainct relatives) two homologous, or corresponding, sequences of and DNA analysis. The DNA evidence developed in the past few years DNA in tw^o different species can pro\ide an esti- suggests that ferns snafs a more recent common ancestar wftfi seed plants mate of how long ago the two species diverged. than Ihey do mth Ae lycofiiytes, a group ofplants previously considered Although the method is controversial, it can be dose to ferns and consequently termed 'fem allies.' The wfiisJc ferns, like the fiorsefeijs, were once considered fem allies, but they, too, now appear best tested and calibrated against the fossil record, wherever independendy dated fossils are a\-ailable.

lORY Ocicbsr 2IXS4 The molecular-clock technique can be particu- seen before in a book on plant identification: some larly useflil as a way to confirm hypotheses and cor- novel and rather curious-looking, netlike diagrams roborate other lines of evidence about what was called reticulograms. happening when some particular group of plants The diagrams look quite different from the arose. For example, toward the end of the Creta- more familiar evolutionary family trees, in part be- ceous (the period between 146 miUion and 65 inil- cause they do not attempt to show how recently lion years ago), flowering plants rose to dominance two species shared a common ancestor. Instead, in Earth's vegetation. Forests apparently became reticulograms depict the relationships between more deeply shaded than they had been earlier. This species and their hybrids, showing which species change may have helped cause the decline of some have come together to form which hybrids. They fern groups and the flourishing of others. For ex- also indicate whether the hybrids are sterile (pro- ample, ferns in the families Polypodiaceae and ducing "aborted," or nonviable, spores) or fertile

Davalliaceae are epiphytes, or plants that grow on (producing viable spores). Nearly all hybrids are trees rather than in soil. The change in vegetation sterile when they first form, but if they double might have worked to their advantage. Conse- their number of chromosomes through "poly- quendy, you would expect to see epiphyte species ploidy," they automatically become fertile. radiating, or diversifying as they filled newly available Reticulograms were included in the reference niches. By working with molecular clocks in those book because the processes they depict—hybridiza- two families, biologists can determine whether these tion and polyploidy—are important evolutionary ferns radiated at about the same time that the flower- mechanisms underlying the formation of new spe- ing plants began dominating the landscape. cies of ferns and lycophytes. Of the 420 species of ferns and lycophytes described in the treatise, about Molecular biology has also focused attention a hundred originated as hybrids and later became on another aspect of fern evolution. When fertile through polyploidy. What, then, are those the second volume (Pteridophytes and Gymnosperins) two processes, and how do they work in concert to of the Flora ofNortli America was pubUshed in 1993, form new species? something appeared in its pages that had never been The best way to explain polyploidy may be by ex-

Tree fern, with a trunk twelve feet tall and leaves five feet long, rises above its neighbors, though it is dwarfed by eucalyptus trees in Australia's Ferntree Gully National Park. Once a conspicuous element of the Earth's vegetation, tree ferns faded in importance as the flowering plants rose to dominance.

October 2004 N.ATURAL HISTORY 55 ample. Rdaied i^jedes of fenis able to disperse and repro- ofien have chioniosojiie num- duce, sometimes beyond the

beis diat aie multiples of a basic ranges of its parents. set For esanqjle, some species Hybridization and poly- ofwood fern (of die genus Dry- ploidy have been well smdied aptms} have 41 pairs of d'-rr'-r.r- in Europe, Japan, and North

somes in dieir soman: jl'_.-- America, but they have re-

Other q>ecies hawe 82, and still ceived httle attention in the others 164. All diose numbeis. tropics, fv-here most fern and of course, are mukiples of 41, lycoph-\T:e species occur. Fu- the lowest-known number of mre research will almost cer- chromosome pairs in the ^ous. tainly show that the two phe- Species with the lowest number nomena are just as common in such a series are called there as the}- are in the temper- "diploids" (two of each chro- ate zones. They are evolurion-

mosome) whereas die ones with ars" mechanisms that remain in hi^er multiples are called action todav; dri\ing the devel- "polyploids" (if you want ic opment ofnew species ot ferns be more speciiSc, yx)u can use and lycoph\,te5 for the fiiture. the terms "tetraploids," 'Tiexa- ploids," "octaploids," and so on). practical objecti\-e of the Polyploid formation is a A research on ferns is to process that typically starts with combat ^vhat—from a human Hdd/ehead, or unfurling frond, of an ostrich fern an abnormality in the cell divi- point of view'—are noxious is common /y marketed as a food in the eastern sion that produces qxjres. Nor- species. example, spe- Uniited Statss. The ostrich-fem fiddleheads are For one mally a spore gets only one safe to est, but analysis of bracken fiddleheads, cies, molesting sal\inia fSal-

chromosome from each pair of widely consumed elsewhere, shows that they vinia molesra), is one ot the chromosomes in the parent cantBin hamjfcJ suib^sncss. wx)rld's most widespread and fern, but sometimes that fails to pernicious aquatic weeds. A happen, and a spore gets a foil complement ofchro- free-floating aquatic native to southern Brazil, it mosomes—that is, two of each pair. When the ab- was accidentally introduced into Sri Lanka in 1939, normal ;qx)re germinates, the ^gs and sperm, that and has now? leaped the continents to become a are ultimately produced also cair^' the doubled ntmi- pest in Africa, Australia, India, and New" Zealand. ber of chromosomes. "Ilrat sets the stage for poly- About thirty x'ears ago it w-as also introduced into ploidy. If (&r example, by self-terrilization) a "dou- the southern United States, where it has spread pri- ble" sperm then meets a "double" egg, the fern niarilv from Honda to Texas. o^jring will be Cetr^loid, and tiiat generic makeup Under optimum conditions a colony of molest- will be perpetuated in future generarions through ing salvinia can double in size in about three days, normal cell di\?isioiis. and given enough time it will carpet the waters Polyploidy is oiSen associated with hybridization. surface with a thick, dense mat—a mat so dense Hybrids form when the sperm from one species fer- that it can support the weight of a cinder block. By tilizes lie egg of another. The hybrid z^'gote grows the 1970s, teams of entomologists had started into a plant with normal roots, stems, and leaves. searching for a biological control, an insect that but the plant turns out to be sterile. Its spores are would eat molesting salvinia into obHvion. They misshapen, blackened, and nonviable, because dur- eventualW found a small weevil native to the fern's ing the c^ division that produces the spores, the home range in Brazil. The wee\il teeds only on the

parents' chromosomes pair impioperi^T, if at alL and fern, attacking it in two w-avs: the adults eat the are dien distributed unequally to the daughter ceOs. leaves and the larvae tunnel throt^h the steins and Here s where polyploid\7 enters the picture. Ifpol^'- buds. The w-ee\il has been spectacularly successfiil

ploidy leaves twx> copies ofeach chromosome in a hj^ in controlling infestations in the Old World and is

brids ceBs, each chromosome gets a partner that is an beir^ investigated for use in the U.S.

exact duplicate of itself. During spore formation in Ferns are t\-pified by leaves that uiifold from

die hv'brid, normal pamng oi chromosomes can take coiled buds—^the fiddleheads. The coil is. to be place, and the chromosomes can be distributed exact, a logarithmic spiral, a kind of curve that oc-

equaly to the spores. The new plant is now fertiie. curs widely in natuie \see "Tlie Golden Kmnber," by

OIR.Y Odtofeor2!IM —

Mario Lii'io, March 2003]. Fiddleheads have long been \ralued as a food item. Worldwide, the fiddleheads most com- monly consumed are those of bracken (Pteriditiiu). In Korea and Japan they are sold commercially and cooked as a spring vegetable. Many Korean Ameri- can families living in and around Los Angeles gather bracken fiddleheads in the spring, particularly in the nearby San Bernardino National Forest. Harvesting there is so popular that it is regulated by the U.S. Forest Ser\dce.

Those traditional dietary uses have also prompted basic research that is illuminating the potential—and risks of ferns as food. Eating bracken fiddle- heads over many years has been corre- lated with high rates of stomach cancer. Medical scientists in Japan have isolated a compound called ptaquiloside, which they think is the main carcinogen. Bracken fiddleheads also—like the sporocarps eaten by the ill-fated Burke and WlUs—ttirn out to be loaded with thiaminase (though the mature leaves are not). Those high concentrations can be deadly for livestock grazing in early spring, when fiddleheads stand hke bea- cons above the slower-sprouting grasses. The animals become stricken wdth se- vere thiamine deficiency. In Britain be- fore the days of the automobile, bracken- induced thiamine deficiency was so ap- parent in horses that it earned the name "bracken staggers." But don't be alarmed. The commonly eaten fiddleheads m eastern North Amer- ica are those of ostrich fern (Matteuaia struthiopteris), a native woodland plant.

Unlike bracken, its fiddleheads are safe to eat. And in tropical Asia and many Pacific Islands, the fiddleheads usually served are those of Diplaziuni esculetiruiii, which tastes much like ostrich fern, and is also considered safe. So unless the nutritionists and plant biologists tell you otherwise, by all means enjoy the fiddleheads. They are delicious. Their taste has been likened to that of asparagus, but they have a flavor all their own, a flavor once described by the Lygodium micropnyuun" a c. '^^o re 'ern nar-ve ro Australia ana Southeast Asia, grows u\ c historic York restaurateur George New cypress trees in southern Florida. Trees that normally could survive a ground fire are now in Rector as "simple and beauriflil. Hke the danger because the ferns can carry fire a hundred feet up into the crowns. Biologists are soul of spring." D studying the fern and its native ecosystem in hopes of finding a method of natural control.

October 2004 natur.m. history 57 —

THIS LAND

Two Faces of Texas

Along the Devils River, wetland

meets desert, and eastern sycamore thrives in sight of Christmas cactus.

By Robert H. Mohlenbrock

The rocky Edwards Plateau support a rich wetland called the HiU Country by flora, yet on dry terraces Texans—extends from only fifteen feet above the Austin and San Antonio westward wetlands grow plants of

about 230 miles, where it merges the desert: lechuguilla,

with the Chihuahuan Desert. On its ocotillo, San Angelo

western margins, the plateau is semi- yucca, and Turk's head. arid; permanent rivers and streams Two places to sample are scarce. One that does flow year- both habitats are the Devils

round is the Devils River. Snaking River State Natural Area

southward for about a fifty iniles, it and, adjacent to it, the enters the International Amistad Nature Conservancy's Reservoir, created by the damming Dolan Falls Preserve. The of the Rio Grande. Fed by numerous state natural area covers

springs, the Devils River disappears thirty-one square miles and At Dolan Falls, the Devils River drops eight feet.

underground for some stretches, only is served by a hike-and-

to reappear downstream. In several bike loop trail. It is open for primitive plume or Anacacho orchid tree. It is a areas along the waterway, springs camping as well as for day use; member of the genus Batihinia, which entrance fees and other regulations occurs throughout the tropics but apply. Permission from the Nature rarely this far north. Bauhinia leaves

Conservancy is required to visit Dolan are divided from the tip to near the

Falls Preserve, which is open periodi- stem, forming two lobes. Texas cally for scheduled Conservancy field plume bears large, pink blossoms in

trips and volunteer workdays [see early April [see photograph at left]. contact information on opposite page]. One of the prettiest shrubs that The centerpiece of the Conser- grow along the bed of Dolan Creek

vancy's eight-square-mile preserve is and elsewhere in both the state

Dolan Falls, just downstream on the natural area and the preserve is Texas

Devils River from its confluence with snowbeU. On the federal endangered

Dolan Creek. At the falls, the river Kst, the species is known only from a drops eight feet over rocky ledges, few localities in southwestern Texas. creating a constant spray of water. In late April and early May the

"liT l . Ss Along the western side of Dolan Falls shrubs are covered with clusters of

Texas plume, also known as the Anacacho is a scenic, shaded woodland, home nearly inch-long white flowers. Each orchid tree, blossoms in early April. to a species of small tree called Texas flower has five narrow petals, which

:)8 I NATURAL HISTORY October 2004 Among the birds that nest of spikerush. Submerged in shallow in and around the state water are entanglements of coon's

natural area and the pre- tail, a common aquatic plant.

serve is the black-capped vireo, which spends the Woodlands In addition to Texas winter on the west coast of plume, mescal bean, or Texas

Mexico. It, too, is on the mountain laurel, offers cooling shade,

federal Ust of endangered and its deep blue flowers are pretty species. Other breeding in bloom. Other woody plants birds include Bells vireo, include fragrant sumac, evergreen

the black-throated sparrow, sumac. Little walnut, Mexican buck- the elf owl, the hooded eye, Texas persimmon, Texas snow- oriole, the tropical parula, bell, and western white honeysuckle. the red-shouldered hawk, the summer tanager, the Dry mesas Gnarly shrubs and cacti white-eyed vireo, the are prominent members of the dry yellow-breasted chat, and mesa flora, which includes allthorn, the zone-tailed hawk. bear grass, Christmas cactus, desert Other animals of note here myrtle croton, guayacan, javelin bush, are the Texas horned lizard lechuguiUa, ocotillo, San Angelo and the Texas tortoise. In yucca, Texas barometer bush (ceniza), addition, several rare fishes Texas sotol, and Turk's head. live in the springs and the

river, including the Devils Robert H. Mohlenbrock is projhscr

River minnow, federally emcriltis of plain biology at Southern Illinois listed as threatened. University in Carbondale.

HABITATS

Wetlands Eastern syca-

more often grows as tall as sixty feet, providing dense shade for plants such as American germander, bristly green- brier, Carolina vetch, spring above a circular leaf whose common boneset, giant goldenrod. underside is covered with silver hairs. scouring rush, and wild mint, all Rio Grandg ' Native Americans frequented this species common east of the Missis- International area long before the first settler estab- sippi River. Mexican ash and the Amistad Reservoir lished a ranch here, in 1883. On the shrubby hoptree often occur with M E X I basis of rock-shelters, pictographs, the sycamore. Southern maidenhair and other finds, the Texas Archeo- often hangs over the mouth ot the For visitor information, contact: Devils River State Natural Area logical Society has identified nearly springs, and watercress is common Dolan Creek Road 250 Native American sites in the state in the clear spring water. HC01, Box 513 natural area and the preserve; the Other wetland plants that occur Del Rio, Texas 78840 earliest ones date from about 8,600 along and in the shallow water of 830-395-2133 years ago. Historically recorded the river include American speed- www.tpwd.state.tx. us/park/devils groups include Apaches, Comanches, well, American water-wiUow, Cali- Falls Preserve Kickapoos, and Kiowas. At least one fornia loosestrife, common button- Dolan The Nature Conservancy battle between the U.S. Cavalry and bush, common monkey-flower, RO. Box 420757 the Comanches took place on the Jamaica swamp saw grass, manyflower Del Rio, Texas 78842 bluffs overlooking the Devils River. marshpennywort, narrowleaf blue- 830-775-9292 The Devils River Hes along a migra- eyed grass, neckweed, switch grass, nature.org/wlierewework/northamerica/ tion route for birds and butterflies. white star sedge, and several species states/texas/preserves/art6399.html

October 2004 N.\TURAL HISTORY 59 — —

REVIEW

It or Bit?

Many of the sciences—genetics, for instance—seem preoccupied with information, not matter. That raises a basic question:

Is information, not stuff, the essence of the universe? By Brian Hayes

computer screen, like are the words of the late physicist Rolf elicited answers to yes-or-no questions, The binary choices, bits. Alice's mirror, is a window Landauer of IBM: "Information is between two worlds. On our physical." Although a message might

side is the world of atoms, of matter take many different forms—it could be Whereas Landauer wanted to set and energy, of everything palpable and written on paper, encoded in the bits on a firm foundation of atoms, ponderable. Looking through to the magnetic domains of a computer disk Wheeler repUes that underneath the other side of the screen, we gHmpse a drive, spoken by the human voice atoms are just more bits. You begin to

world of "bits," a place where intricate Landauer insisted that it must always feel a little Hke Wile E. Coyote when

structures are built out of nothing have some physical representation. he runs off the edge of the cHff: It's more than information—abstract, m- There are no disembodied bits. "Pure" only when you look down and reaUze substantial, mathematical. Ours is a information, divorced from the world there's no ground beneath your feet

world of randomness and evolution of matter and energy, cannot exist, in that you begin to fall.

and accidents ot history; here we have Landauer's view. It foUows that when Von Baeyer introduces the discon- snowrflakes, no two alike. Over there, we want to manipulate information in certing "It from bit" trope quite early everything happens according to algo- some way, we are constrained by the in his story, which may make some rithm; if you replay the movie, it laws of physics—including all those readers nervous. If we are already comes out the same every time. Our deep in such murky metaphysics on

world is all rough edges and never-to- page xii, what kind of spookiness

be-repeated moments; the other is re- Information: might be waiting in the chapters

lentlessly deterministic. The New Language of Science ahead? But in fact what follows is a Any mention of the looking glass, by Hans Christian von Baeyer sensible and sober-minded tour of of course, raises a nagging doubt: Harvard University Press, 2004; the science of information, empha-

Which side is reality, and which is re- $22.95 sizing its connections with a surpris-

flection? Is it possible that our tamihar ing variety of other fields, from the universe of solid-seeming stuff—the engineering of steam engines to the whole hierarchy of atoms, molecules, irksome thou-shalt-nots about the fate of black holes and the under- planets, stars, and galaxies, not to speed of Hght and time travel and per- standing of the human genome. At

mention ourselves—is at bottom just a petual motion. the end of the journey you may not pattern of bits manipulated according The other slogan comes fi^om John be ready to trade in all your its tor to some unfathomable algorithm? If Archibald Wheeler, an eminent, bits, but the notion will seem a little we dig deep enough inside the ele- nonagenarian Princeton physicist: "It less preposterous. mentary' particles of matter, will we from bit." What could this pithy koan find there's nothing there but the signify? Wheeler hnnself (as quoted The key ideas in the theory of in- Cheshire-cat grin of information? by von Baeyer) has expanded on his formation—including the all- These are the provocative questions \vords, though perhaps not quite ex- important idea that it needs a theory that launch Hans Christian von plained them: were first stated clearly in a 1948 Baeyer on a journey through the sci- article by Claude Elwood Shannon, a Every it—every particle, every field of ence of information, through the legendary gadgeteer, juggler, and uni- force, even the space-time continuum it- "immaterial parallel universe." cychst as well as a deep thinker. Shan- self—derives its fimction, its meaning, its The main issues can be framed in very existence entirely—even if in some non suggested measuring intormation terms of two slogans. On one banner contexts indirectly—from the apparatus- in terms of those yes-or-no questions

60 NATURAL HISTORY October 2004 —.

alluded to by Wheeler. If I flip a coin, formation. When I report on the roll A connection between the world of you can learn the outcome by asking of the die, I am passing along about bits and the world of atoms was al- me a single yes-or-no question: "Did three bits. If I spin a roulette wheel ready apparent in Shannons 1948 arti- it land heads up?" If I roll a six-sided with thirty-eight slots and tell you cle. His measure of information is die, you might need three such ques- which lucky number comes up, I am closely related—by a sort of mirror re- tions to pin down the result. For ex- transmitting about six bits. flection—to the concept knov.''n else- ample, when you ask "Is it greater The term bit began as a contraction where in the sciences as entropy, the than 3?" I answer "Yes." Then you of binary digit, because a digit in the measure of disorder. If you take a 4?" ask "Is it and I respond "No." binary counting system has just two hunk of matter—say a biUion atoms After your third question you will possible values, or 1, which can be the entropy of the substance depends surely know whether the number is 5 made to stand for yes or no. The in- on the number of ways the atoms can or 6. Sometimes you might get lucky formation content of a message is the arrange themselves. The arrangements and guess the outcome sooner, but number of binary digits it would take are more varied for a gas than for a three is the smallest number of ques- to transinit it. In the case of the die, crystalline solid, because the crystal tions guaranteed always to yield the the six possible messages are the num- constrains the atoms to occupy only right answer. bers from 1 through 6, which in bi- certain positions, whereas gas atoms can wander willy-niUy. In other words, the gas has the greater entropy. If you write down the number of possible atomic arrangements, the en-

tropy is the number of digits in this number (or, if you want to be a stickler, the logarithm of the number of arrangements) Evidently, the mathematical formulas for information and for entropy are almost identi-

cal. Whether that comcidence

is trivial or deeply mysterious seems to be a matter of intel-

lectual taste, but it does appear that atoms and bits obey the same laws of nature.

For another look at the tan- gled relations of atoms and

bits, von Baeyer takes us to one of the strangest shores in the universe, the "event horizon" of a black hole. Suppose you throw something into a black Olivia Parker, Information, 1989 hole—say, a book about base- Shannon defined the information nary notation are written 001, 010, ball. As the book disappears across the content of a message as the number of Oil, 100, 101, and 110. These are horizon, its matter beconies inaccessi- yes-or-no questions needed to distin- three-digit binary numbers, and so ble, but it doesn't really cease to exist. guish the actual message from the set three bits is their approximate infor- We knovv' that because the mass of the of all possible messages, assuming they mation content. Roughly speaking, black hole (which you can measure are all equally Hkely. The fundamental counting binary digits is all there is to from outside) increases by an amount unit of measure in this scheme is the measuring information. (Speaking less equal to the mass of the book. But bit, which is the amount of informa- roughly and more niathematic;illy, the what about the information in the tion contained in a message that an- measure of information is the base-2 book—all those tables ot runs, hits swers a single yes-or-no question. logarithm of the number of possible and errors? Where does it go? If the

Thus when I tell you how the coin messages, but counting digits is usually bits are just crushed out of existence, landed, I am conveying one bit of in- close enough.) then the total quantit\' of information

October 2004 N.^TURAL HISTORY 61 — —

in our universe must be steadily de- and valuable information to another. questions the experimenter chooses to clining. Every day, there's less to know. Consider the number 14159265. . . . De- ask. When you decide to peek inside your prior knowledge, or lack That was the position taken by pending on one box rather than another, your ac- thereof, it is either a meaningless, random Stephen Hawking, the Cambridge tion has the pow-er to change w'hat's in sequence of digits, or else the fractional cosmologist. some thirD," years ago borh boxes. Presumably that is what part of pi, an important piece of scientific and he backed up his comacrions in a Wheeler has in mind when he argues information. The smeU of subjecavit\; of wager wixh another cosmologist, John that the real ground truth of the uni- dependence on a state of mind, is the verse Preskill of Caltech. This past July, how- source of both the elusiveness and the comes fi'om "the apparatus- ever. Hawking announced that he had power of the concept of information. ehcited answ^ers to yes-or-no questions, changed his mind: he had discovered a binary choices, bits." What is still miss- way for information to leak out of a Once again the comparison of bits ing is an explicit account of how the black hole, thereby keeping the num- and atoms is illuminating. In the case bits are to be assembled into atoms and ber of bits in the universe constant. So of information, it's no great surprise all the other its. Von Baeyer makes a

Hawking paid off the bet, presenting that meaning is imposed on a message vahant effort to fill in those blanks, fo-

Preskill with a baseball encyclopedia. bv the sender and recei^-er. We are all cusing in his fmal chapter on the inter- (The w'ager was settled too esting ideas and experiments late for von Baeyer's book, of Anton Zeihnger at the but he gives a lucid account Umversit)- of Vienna. But the of the underMng issues.) vagueness penists. The fault is not von Baeyer's; Wheeler has In the life sciences, too, the not clarified the process ei- role of information has its ther, nor has anvone else. puzzlements. The genetic code, with its alphabet of four on Baeyer is a physicist, letters grouped into words of V butb he is also an able three letters each, looks im- and accomphshed expositor, cannily Uke some kind of author of four earlier books computer file format. In re- and many magazine essays. As cent years this approach to un- one might expect, he is derstanding genetic informa- more sure-footed in his own tion has burgeoned into an field than in others; his worst Andrea Way, Shots, 1986 entire academic discipline, and stumbles are in the hte sci- indeed an industr)^: bioinformatics. Yet accustomed to thinking of communi- ences, as when he describes gene ex- there's more to generic information cation as something that happens be- pression as the synthesis ot amino than just DNA sequences that encode tween people, and so minds are nam- acids rather than the assembly of the structure of protein molecules. For rally a part of the process. But it's amino acids into proteins. Another one thing, organisms seem to difter unsettling when a similar kind ot sub- minor annoyance: Information w-as pub- more than their genomes do. The ques- jecti\itv is in\"oked to explain the be- hshed first in Britain, and no one has tion "Are you a man or a mouse?" is ha\ior of atoms or electrons. As von bothered to convert speUings and cur- not easy to arm\-er from a glance at the Baeyer says, "At the mention ot the rencies and such for American readers.

DNA; people and mice have 90 per- word subjecri\it); physicists cringe"' And I can't resist mentioning a subde cent ot their genes in common. Fur- even though it was physicists who got mathematical error. Von Baeyer sets thermore, most of the DNA in both us into this pickle in the frrst place, out to show- that binaiy notation is ""the species has no readily apparent tlinc- w'ho mffoduced ""the observer" as an least expensive way to handle rnforma-

tion; life's file format, whatever it is, essenrial element of ever\- experiment. tion,'" where the "expense" he wants to seems even more grotesquely wasteful We may prefer to think that atoms minimize is defined as the number ot of megabytes than the most bloated go their merry way whether we're digits in the numerical representation computer soft^vare. looking or not, that the material uni- of a message multiphed by the number The final informational mystery, verse maintains a dignified indifference of SNTubols possible for each digit. In and the one that seems most to in- to human whims—but the modern his example, any number from to 127 trigue von Baeyer, is the elusive seat quantum theory won't allow such can be represented by seven binaiy dig-

ot meaning. He wTites: aloofiiess. There are experiments on its, each of which has two possible val-

simple, inanimate particles, done with ues. The expense, theretore, is 14. The Information . . . resides partly in the mind. A coded message, for example, simple instrmrients. in which the out- trouble is, this supposed optimum isn't. might represent gibberish to one person. come depends on which yes-or-no (Continued on page 66)

1 HISTORY October 2004 —

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(Continuedfrom page 62) Sound like a snooze? Well, having In almost all cases, binary numerals are On the Wing: just finished On the Wing in one less efficient than a ternary (base 3) To the Edge of the Earth breathless sitting, let me assure you representation, in which each digit with the Peregrine Falcon that this book moves with the energy can have a value of 0, 1, or 2. In von by Alan Tennant of a four-star action movie. Avian in- Baeyer's example, ternary notation Alfred A. Knopf 2004; $26.95 stinct, not wise aviation practice, is would reduce the cost from 14 to 13. what sets the course for the flights, So perhaps information theory ought forcing the writer, Alan Tennant, and to be reformulated in terms of yes-no- So here's the story: One early the pilot, George Vose, to take to the or-maybe questions. spring day, in the free-flying era air whatever the weather, terrain, or Setting aside these quibbles, von long before 9/11, a young bird enthu- time of day. Aloft, they often find Baeyer's book brings us the straight siast and nature writer has signed on as themselves in the thick of adven- dope and the inside info. The presenta- a falcon trapper's helper with a crew ture—threading their way in dense

tion is smooth but never sHck. History of U.S. Army scientists on Padre Is- fog through a forest of giant oil-refm- and biography are given due attention land, off the western Gulf Coast of ery towers; catching updrafts that toss but don't overshadow the science. Texas. Out of the blue, the writer gets them around Uke feathers; flying dan- There's some hero worship, but the he- the idea that a peregrine, tagged and gerously low on fuel while venturing roes are mosdy deserving of worship. loaded down with telemetry, could be miles from any airstrip.

Math-shy readers will not be left be- followed in an airplane as it migrates hind (von Baeyer devotes an entire to its home above the Arctic Circle. Down on the ground, it doesn't get chapter to explaining logarithms). No one, to his knowledge, has ever much easier. Chasing their falcon accomphshed such a feat. across the Canadian border, they enter The science of information is He enlists the army project's pilot foreign airspace illegally, and eventually hardly an obscure or neglected in his plan: a sixty-seven-year-old vet- the Mounties bring them in for ques-

subject; on the contrary, it's a little too eran light-aircraft avia-

trendy for its own good. Part of von tor, former World War II

Baeyer's aim is to fmd out if it merits combat flight instructor, so much attention. He draws a parallel and the proud owner of between the current infatuation with a battered, hailstone- information and the popularity of an- pocked Cessna. After a

other big idea, energy, starting early in little planning, and with the nineteenth century. In both cases, a good dollop of crazy the initial impetus was a technological luck, the two lock on development—the steam engine for to a falcon fitted with a energy, the computer for information. iTuniature radio transmit- But the concept of energy soon spread ter filched from the army. far beyond the engineering of more ef- With scanner-receiver

ficient power plants. It became a cen- equipment also "bor-

tral and irreplaceable part of all the sci- rowed" from the army, Winging it: Female Faico peregrinus ences. How could we possibly they take to the air in understand anything about the natural pursuit of the errant bird, going wher- tioning. Every evening, when the fal-

world without the notion of energy? ever it happens to go. cons themselves have to stop for food

So far, though, the concept of in- Beheve it or not, bird, writer, and and rest, the two aviators come in to

formation has proved itself similarly barnstormer travel together almost all land and fiU thefr tank wherever there's essential only in the world on the far the way to Alaska, a summer breeding a convenient spot of flat ground. side of the computer screen. We may home for the tundra peregrine falcon. Once in a while, their impromptu have to wait a while to fmd out ex- Three months later, the gonzo team refueUngs even require a stop at a rut-

actly what role bits play on our side of repeats its performance, latching on to ted dirt strip where drug smugglers, or the looking glass. several falcons mid-migration in Texas armed mihtiamen, hang out. Coming and tracking them down to their win- into an urban airport in BeUze, they ter homes in Central America. Mostly barely escape rear-end collisions with Bri.'IN Ha^'ES is a Senior Writer for Ameri- can Scientist. His book Infrastructure: A Field the two men fly around Ustening for incoming commercial jethners. Fear- Guide to the Industrial Landscape will be beeps on their receiver, never catching less and imperturbable, Vose pilots published next year. sight of the birds they're chasing. them out of one near-death experi-

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ence after another, only to have Ten- w-aded into the ocean that separates continental shelf fringing Asia and nant urge them back into the air. the two continents. In 1590 Jose de North America was discovered off- To Tennant, who has loved raptors Acosta. a member of the Jesuit broth- shore. Geologic records suggested since he was a boy. the lure ot the mi- erhood, published a natural histon- of that sea levels during the last ice age gratory bird is too strong to resist. He the New World that drew on bibhcal were low enough to expose the shelf wants to learn how the peregrine does "facts" to prove the existence of such beneath w'hat is now the Bering it, how a bird can fly hundreds ot a bridge. Native Americans, he WTOte, Strait, between Alaska and Siberia. miles a day, feeding sporadically and being descendants of Adam and Eve, But "land bridge" seems an inexact buffeted by uncooperative wdnds. must have migrated on foot from term for a connection that, unlike the Luckily, though, the story also has a the en\irons of the Garden of Eden narrow isthmus that joins North and human love interest—Tennant's girl- easnvard to the mountains of Mexico South An:ierica, w'as probably, at its friend Jermiter. Only she has enough and Peru. Fray de Acosta reasoned widest, as broad as the north-south sense to know that you can't go on that they must have come across a land distance across present-day Alaska. chasing magic forever. And Tennant connection somewhere in northwest- For that reason, specialists prefer to balances his own passions with plent)" call the connection Berin- of fine nature wTiting: keen descrip- gia, reflecting its former tions of bird beha^'ior. weU-dra^^^l character as a shared terri- landscapes, and thoughtfiil discourses ton,', a cosmopoHtan prov- on what it means to be wild. StiU, the ince w^here the mammoths human action, in the end, is what and steppe grasses of the draws the reader onward. Old World mingled with Tennant and Vose's journey, made in those of the New. 1985, probably could not be rephcated today GPS radio locators and Internet In the past fifty years, in- software have done away with any vestigators have managed need to fly around wearing head- to reconstruct the vanished phones. Nowada\?s, migrating wdldhfe landscape ofBeringia—^from can usually be tracked much more eas- its varying size and coastline ily, and more safely from the comfort Davia M. Hopkins on the Russian coast of the Bering 5tra as the eons passed, to the of a universit^ oflice [bur see "lllierever namral histor\' of its plant. tlie IVind May Blow," by Henri IVeimer- em North America. That coastline, animal, and human populations. A skirch, pace 40]. It's a safe bet, too, that how'ever, would remain uncharted for central figure of that research, until his anyone buzzing around in the nvent)-- more than a century; until its explo- death in 2001, w-as Da\id M. Hopkins, first centurv; \iolating miUtar)' airspace ration by the Scandinavian navigator a geologist with the U.S. Geological and cruising without a flight plan Vitus Bering. Sur\?ey, and the "Beringian giant" of not to mention crossing international By the middle of the twentieth historian Dan O'Neill's book. boundaries without the proper paper- cennin,? the conjectured existence of Hopkins pioneered a mulridiscipU- work—^would probably not Hve long a Bering land bridge had been bol- nan,' approach to paleogeography, but enough to write about it. The reader is stered by a wide range of circumstan- he also inspired several generations of thankful that Tennant did, and the tial e\idence. New World animal spe- Arctic scientists with his love for the book (rumored soon to be a mo\ie, cies that Hve along the shores of the Alaskan wilderness. As a government with Robert Redford as Vose) will Arctic Ocean appeared to be similar employee during the cold war years, keep you rapt to the very end. to the Old World species that inhabit his ofricial task, at least early on, was to Siberia. And the farther south you find suitable sites for air bases and re- w?ent, the greater were the differences lated facilities, and to assess what nat- The Last Giatn of Beiingia: betw-een the species on the opposite ural resources might be exploited in Tlie Myster}' shores. The evidence suggested that a the barren sub-Arctic outback. But his of the Baing hand Bridge wave of animal migrations radiated superiors, recognizing his genius for by Dan O'Neill southward from the Arctic long ago; seeing the big picmre, apparently had Westiriew Press, 2004; $26.00 as time passed and the distance from enough sense to give him lots of slack. their common origin increased, the Hopkins's research was Hable to take The idea that a landmass once Asian species diverged from their an unplanned turn at any rime. As joined America and Asia arose North American counterparts. O'Neill tells it, the man had uncanny not long after the explorer Vasco Oceanographic data provided an- luck, augmented by a knack for Nunez de Balboa, in 1513. first other line of e\idence. A continuous quickly distinguishing what was im-

68 NATURAL HISTORY October 2004 ANTHROPOLOGY EXPLORED P RevisedRevh and Expanded

Edited by Ruth Osterweis Selig, Marilyn R. London, and P. Ann Kaupp

Praisefor the First Edition:

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[with] up-to-date information, and stimulating topics . widely read and . this superb collection deserves to be utilized." —American Anlloropologisl

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This award-winning book of essays by world-renowned anthropologists makes the most exciting thinking in cut- ting-edge anthropology accessible to all. Anlliropology

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portant from what was not. A chance 1964, Boundarv? Waters became one came, for a time, an mdustrial hub, and remark by a bush pilot who had seen of the most popular and treasured was then returned to \vilderness. Tlie

some arrowheads led Hopkins to Trail backcounrn,' preserves in the lower Forest for the Trees is enriched wdth the

Creek, in the remote Se\\"ard Penin- forn,?-eight states. On many of its wa- lore of the enterprising woodsmen and sula. Cave excavations there subse- terways a visitor can paddle a canoe for lumber barons who developed the

quently unearthed artifacts ot some of days ^^"ithout hearing the din of an rugged area, bringing in roads, rails,

the earUest people on the continent. outboard engine, or even the whisper and electricit\-. And its author tells A conversation about shells with an of another human voice. some good yarns about working the Inupiat native from Nome named Yet Boundan,? Waters is no \irgin timber mills and li\'ing in the timber WiUiam Oquilluk led Hopkins to rich territor\-. After the vast forests of New camps, about the rough-and-tumble deposits of fossil shells, which proved England, Penns\"lvania, and Ohio had life of the miU towTis, where dozens of key to tracing the changing shape ot been logged, lumbermen set their whorehouses and saloons offered the the Beringian coastline over the past sights on Minnesota, home of some of main entertainment after hours. 60 million years. the last large stands of unexploited But Forester also outlines the his- Hopkins was also energetic about forest east of the recruiting pioneers in other disci- Rockies. A centur\" plines for his field trips, and enlisting ago, the rhythmic their expertise in such disciplines as chtinking of lowers' dendrochronology" (tree-ring dating), axes and the scream pal\"nolog\" (the smdy of fossil pollen), of sa^^^nills were as and radiocarbon dating. In his later common among the years Hopkins was influential in es- trees and lakes of tabhshing the Bering Land Bridge Minnesota as the National Preser\"e in Alaska, a part of call of the loon. the U.S. National Park Service. Like On large lakes near many modern scientists whose work major access roads

involves close collaboration, he was and rail hnes, rafts of never a celebrit\? outside his field. floating logs often

O'Neill's Qiaiit of Beriiigia. appropri- made canoe travel

ately, is a modest tale, but a satisRing impossible. In sum- one, an instructive record of an in- mer, logging roads CanoerS paradise. M'mnesota's Waters quiring mind and a life well hved. were bulldozed over Boundary the rocky terrain, and steamships carried men and sup- ton' of social and economic develop- The Forest for die Trees: plies to remote forest camps. In winter, ment in this resource-rich region. The How Humaiis Shaped teams of horses dragged sledges loaded pioneering lumbermen, he notes, the North Woods with cut logs across frozen lakes. were independent operators, family by Forester Jeff The mill yard of the Knox Lumber men who just wanted to make a com- Minnesota Historical Society Press, Company, ia Winton. stretched for fortable Ufe for themselves and their 2004: $32.95 nearly a mile along the shores of Fall neighbors. As the pace of cutting in- Lake. In Ely, now the canoeing capital creased, however, the northern forest On topographic maps of Mm- ot the \^'orld and a mecca for outdoor came under the control of such com- nesota's Arrowhead region— adventurers, the steam whisdes oflum- manding industrialists as Frederick E. long, flat triangle sandwiched between ber miUs regulated the daily routine of Weyerhaeuser, who thought big and the northwestern shore of Lake Supe- to^^^lspeople well into the twentieth who hatiled great stands of trees to rior and the Canadian border—the centun,-. Bet^veen 1880 and 1920 the lumber yards with giant steam- Botindar\' Waters Canoe Area Wilder- alone, more than 2 billion board feet of driven tractors and mile-long trains of ness looks Kke a tattered pennant flut- white pine were shipped out of north- flatbed railcars.

tering against a clear blue sk\-. Its mil- ern Minnesota to build the to\^ns and By the time of Teddy Roosevelt, in- Uon-plus acres of forestland are so cities of the gro^^•ing nation. dustrial laissez-faire policies were being thoroughly perforated with lakes, challenged by a growing conservation creeks, and rivers that its hard to tell Jefi" Forester, a freelance \\Titer and movement. Properly managed forests, whether it is a land sprinkled A\dth frequent \isitor to Boundary' Waters, the movement taught, could prox-ide lakes or a sea dotted \Aith islands. After has written a thoughtfiil history^ of both exploitable harvests and recre-

Congress passed the Wilderness Act of how the Minnesota backwoods be- ational getaways. Yet it was only in the

70 NATURAL KJSTORY October 2004 A 1960s that wilderness advocates began profusion of fallen timber raised fears ter, for anyone who wants a better ap- to widely promote the idea that some of a catastrophic firestorm. Eventually preciation for the past, present, and fu- land should remain "forever wild," the U.S. Forest Service was forced to ture of America's forests. leading to the creation of the Bound- schedule controlled burns. Laurence A. Marschall, author of The ary Waters reserve. The concept of un- Whatever the forest policy these days Supernova Story, is the W.K. T. Sahm pro- touched wilderness there, however, is at Boundary Waters, Forester's book fessor of physics at Gettysburg College in being reevaluated. freak straight-line should be required reading for anyone A Pennsylvania, and director of Project CLEA, windstorm caused a massive blowdown planning an adventure in the Min- which produces widely used simulation soft- of trees in the area in 1 999, and the nesota north woods—or, for that mat- ware for education in astronomy.

nature.net

Mother Tongue By Robert Anderson

Visiting a neighbor recently, I found her chatting in sion of Ethiwlogue: Languages of the World (www.ethnologue.

Armenian with a workman. I Hstened intently; I'd com/web. asp), a compendium of information about the

never heard Armenian spoken before. Noting my inter- world's spoken languages, now in its fourteenth edition. est, the two speakers proudly informed me that their lan- Published by SIL International (an organization best

guage was not related to any other. When I checked their known for Bible translating), the "Ethnologue" site is on

claim on the Internet, I discovered, for one thing, that a language -preservation mission; it lists, for the year Armenian contains so many Farsi words, acquired during 2000, a total of 6,809 languages spoken (but not neces- centuries of Persian influence, that early linguists inistak- sarily written) worldwide.

enly believed it was a Persian dialect. But I also found out A cogent introduction to the major language farrdlies

that, though Armenian is a branch of the Indo-European of the world can be found at one section of a site oper- family, the language evolved for thousands of years in the ated by Kryss Katsiavriades and Talaat Qureshi, a well-

relative isolation of the Caucasus JVlountains; it is, in fact, traveled couple who work as computer-science profes- unlike any other. sionals in London (go to www.krysstal. com/language, html#

My curiosity piqued, I poked around for other lan- langfams and click on "Language Fainihes"). guage-specific sites and found an instructive Web page created by C. George Boeree, a professor ofpsychology at Although it isn't as easy to hsten to languages on the Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania (www.ship.edu/ Web as it is to read about them, you can still find an

-cgboeree/languages.html). I began by cHcking on "Lan- eclectic range of audio experiences. An issue of the on- guage Families of the World (maps)," and discovered a se- line magazine Exploratoriuni (www.exploratorium.edu/ ries of informative geographic charts, each one accompa- exploring/language/index. html) has five pages on the evo-

nied by brief but illuminating comments and statistics. lution of language that include several links to audio

The "ArchaeoHnk" Web site provides a page with nu- files. Listeners who go to Haukur Thorgeirsson's on- merous links to sites that specialize in linguistic anthropol- line course in "Old Norse for Beginners" (www.hi.is/ ogy (www.archaeolink.com/linguistic_anthropology_index.htm). -haukurth/norse/) can hear epic poetry recorded in Old

Click on the very first Unk to find a transcript of the PBS Norse, as well as in Icelandic and in English (click on NOl^ television program "In Search of the First Lan- "Recordings" on the main page, and then on "Vellekla"). guage." The material focuses on the quest for the linguists' For something more contemporary, Transparent Lan- holy grail—Nostratic—a hypothetical tongue that some guage, Inc., which sells learning software, offers maintain was once the universal spoken language. some language and culture pages at its online site (www. To show how parts of our modern alphabets evolved transparent.com/languagepages/languages.htm). You can from pictographs and symbols, Robert Fradkin, a classi- listen to the pronunciation of useful, common words and cist at the University of Maryland in CoOege Park, has phrases in thirty different tongues. And www.every

developed a Web page of animated course material tongue.com, which is afFihated with SIL, offers a relatively (www.wam.umd.edu/~rfradkin/alphapage.html). CHck on the long audio sample of nearly a hundred different spoken

last item in his list, "The evolution of the Latin character languages, from Armenian to Zulu. Not surprisingly, set," and watch as Phoenician symbols from the tenth most of the passages are readings from the Bible. century B.C. slowly morph into our own ABCs.

For the latest on living languages, go to the Web ver- Robert Anderson is afreelance science writer living in Los Angeles.

October 2004 natural history 71 OUT THERE

From 1837 until 1858, the star's mood swings were so visually amazing that the period was labeled the Great Eruption. In April 1843, Eta Carinae,

despite its distance (nearly 8,000 Hght- years from Earth) briefly became the second-brightest star in the night sky. Throughout most of the three suc-

ceeding decades, though, its energy output plunged to less than a thou-

sandth of that value. Since then, its lu- minosity has steadily risen again,

though on average it is still less than 1

percent of what it was in the glory days of the Great Eruption. Although the cause of the huge brightness variations remains unclear, astronomers have noted since 1984 that some of the variations are peri-

odic. In 1 996 the Brazihan astronomer Augusto Damineli confirmed that, since the 1940s, Eta Carinae's output has pulsed briefly but substantially

Double-lobed cloud of hot gas surrounds Eta Cannae (bright every five and a half years. To an as- white spot at the center of the image), one of the most massive tronomer, periodic behavior in a star stars l

companion star could be orbiting it Astronomers may have detected what lurks with a regular period. in the shadow of the giant star Eta Carinae. For several years most Eta Carinae experts have supported the compan- ion-star hypothesis. There's just one big problem: despite years of search- By Charles Liu ing, no such star has ever been found. But recently a group of astronomers the southern constellation other star in the Milky Way. For that led by Nathan Smith of the University InCarina, Uterally the "keel" of a reason alone, understanding the of Colorado in Boulder announced larger group of stars called Argo workings of Eta Carinae would go a they detected ultraviolet shadows that Navis—the celestial ship ofJason and long way toward unlocking the de- were moving in accord with the 5.5- the Argonauts—a giant star lies tails of the birth, growth, and death year cycle of Eta Carinae, suggesting shrouded in mystery. Eta Carinae is a of stars. the star may have a hidden partner. titanic object—at least fifty and per- But there's more: Eta Carinae also haps as much as 120 times the mass "hiccups." Actually, that's putting it The Great Eruption left a souvenir of the Sun—enveloped in a thick co- mildly—the star unabashedly belches for us to see today: two globular coon oi glowing, dusty gas. The star energy, varying so wildly in brightness blobs of hot, glowing gas, the equi-

is pumping out energy millions of over the years that its behavior has valent of roughly one and a half mil- timer- faster than the Sun is—prob- fascinated and baffled astronomers lion Earth-masses, bulging outward ably taster, in fact, than just about any since the early nineteenth century. from the star in opposite directions.

72 NATi; October 2004 6 Settle with \ Dubbed the Honuinculus—I guess it this radiation would be blocked in the looked like a little man to the as- direction of Eta Carinae by the thick [colonists t tronomer who named it in 1 950—the nebulosity of the giant star's sur-

two blobs are each expanding at more rounding gas, dust, and stellar wind. 1^ DEBATE WITH FUTURE \ than a million miles an hour. The Ho- For more than five years of its orbit,

munculus is a fascinating observa- while it is far from Eta Carinae, the .PRESIDENTS \ tional target in its own right—^it's the companion would shine its UV Hght and conquer a star-stuff of Eta Carinae, violently toward us largely unobscured. But \ ejected by the Great Eruption. But during the several-month period

our stunning view of materials blasted when the companion star is next to off the star has its downside: the Ho- or behind Eta Carinae, the compan- KING. munculus obscures the star itself, ion's emission would be dramatically

making it impossible to separate Eta altered. The ultraviolet shadow cast [ALL IN ONE TRIP. I

Carinae from its surrounding gas with by Eta Carinae, coupled with our any Earthbound observatory. ahgnment with the two stars, would •^^kf$?r^H^f*S?f*S!Hkt Enter the Hubble Space Telescope. illuminate different parts of the neb- Because Hubble orbits some 400 ula around Eta Carinae. N YOUR NEXT Colonial

miles above the Earth's surface, it is Examining Hubble images of Eta O Williamsburg trip, wJij' not immune to the obscuring effects of Carinae made between October 2002 visit Jamestown, the location of our atmosphere. The telescope can and November 2003 in both ultravio- I i England's first permanent North thereby resolve Eta Carinae itselt, dis- let and visible Hght, Smith and his col- American colony, and Yorktown, tinguishing the star from its surround- leagues studied subtle variations of ing nebulosity. As an added bonus, light and shadow from parts of the where the Continental Army won

Hubble's instruments can detect as- Homunculus within several billion I , the decisive battle against the tronomical emissions of ultraviolet ra- miles of Eta Carinae. Their analysis i> British. Both are just minutes from diation that would otherwise be ab- showed that the changes in the UV .1 our Historic Area, viiierc you can sorbed by Earth's atmosphere. Thus shadows were consistent with the J ipteract with our forefathers as ' Hubble opens a major window in the companion-star hypothesis—and that

electromagnetic spectrum for the the companion star's closest approach I tliej' lay the plans for our nation, j study of the universe. to Eta Carinae took place in mid- ^ It's one trip you'll not soon forget. J

That is particularly important for exactly the energy output • "• 2003, when ! 1 " ' I I II II . the study of Eta Carinae. The star it- of Eta Carinae hiccuped once again. self emits copious quantities of UV ra- Historic Tkungle diation, whereas the gas and dust sur- As attractive as the binary-star Package rounding it scatter and absorb UV. So model seems, the cause of Eta I patterns of hght and shadow—not just Carinae's 5.5-year periodicity is stiU the Ught and shadow of visible hght, not definitively settled. Further analy- but of UV as well—provide important sis of more data may weU point to a pcTpcrton, per night clues about the shape and dumpiness different explanation for the observed \ of won't re- the Homunculus and the other phenomena. The question ', ^includes admission to all three dusty clouds surrounding the star. ally be put to rest until a companion .historic destinations listed above, Smith and his collaborators take fuU star is detected more directly.

plus a hotel room, dail}' breakfast, j advantage of those facts in their search Happily, the data we need may al- ;

rescnTstions. ' for Eta Carinae's partner. Imagine, ready be in hand. Smith and his team I and preferred dining they suggest, that a companion star analyzed only a small part of a huge

about thirty rimes the mass of the Sun database the Hubble has coUected on \ , jCall 1-800-770-5924 today.

is orbiting Eta Carinae. The compan- the superstar and its environment. As 'Some restrictions may Jppl}'. , ion would be an impressive star in its astronomers continue to mine the 02004 Colonial Williamsburg Company 7/04 own right, but still dwarfed by Eta Hubble data, more information wiU

Carinae. Next, imagine that the com- surely emerge about what, for now, still

panion's 5.5-year orbit is highly ellip- lurks in the shadows of Eta Carinae. AMERICA. CHAPTER I. rical, shaped more like a kayak than a circle, with Eta Carinae near one end. CtLiRLES Liu is a prqfcssor ofiistwphysia at the The companion star would emit City Univcmty of New York and an associate plenty of its own UV radiation, but ivitli the American Museum of Natural Histor)'.

Coi.ONIALWiLLIAMSBORG.COM THE SKY IN OCTOBER By Joe Rao

Mercury reaches superior conjunction—on the opposite side harvest Moon, is sometimes called the hunter's Moon. of the Sun from Earth's \:antage point—on the 5th, and On the night of October 27—28 the Moon is totally thereafter moves into the evening sk\-. But the planet remains ecHpsed over North America, less than a year after the last hidden in the ^aw ofsunset throughout the rest ofOctober. such event over the continent. Almost everyone in the Americas and Western Europe has a beautiftil view of the Venus, at magnitude —LI, dominates the eastern sk}' for echpse. Over most of the United States and Canada the

more than three hours before sunrise. It is the brightest echpse begins well after dark, and the Moon is well up in

morning "star" this month, and remains so throughout the evening sky; only along the far West Coast does it autumn. Although Venus appears less luminous and begin in rwihght, just minutes after the Sun has set and the shghdv lower in the skv" than it did in September, the Moon has risen. But by late twilight even westerners will planet stiU dazzles. Seen through a telescope on successive have a fine view of the totally eclipsed Moon, probably

nighti. however, the planet is shrinking. Before dawn on glowing dimly like a reddish ember low in the eastern sky.

the 3rd. Venus appears only 0.3 degree (about half the ap- Across much of Alaska the eclipse is already underway parent diameter of the foil Moon) from the star Regulus, when the Moon comes up; over southwestern Alaska, the as seen the East Coast of the United States, and 0.2 degree Moon rises totally ecHpsed, appearing like a weird, mot- as seen from the West. ded, dim ball among the t\\ihght stars. Over Hawaii, moonrise comes just after the end of totaht}'; the Moon Dim, red Mars, shining at magnitude 1.7, emerges from the gradually emerges fixjm Earth's shado^v as the satellite rises.

morning Sun's glare toward the end of October. On the Totalit\r lasts eight)?-nvo minutes, which is somewhat 31st the planet rises in the east-southeast less than an hour longer than average, because the Moon tracks through the and a half before sunrise. During the next twehre months, northern portion of the Earth's shadow. Unless airborne

as Mars slowly approaches opposition, it \vt1\ volcanic aerosols or other atmospheric effects

rise progressively eadier and become nearly influence its appearance, the Moon's disk

forty rimes brighter than it is now. should appear relatively bright, particularly

during the beginning and end of totality". The

Jupiter leaps out of the gjow^ of sunrise this upper part ot the Moon is Hkely to appear month. At the beginning of October the giant brightest and to glow with a ruddy or cop- planet shines low, in the murk above the hori- per)" hue, whereas the lower half of the Moon

zon, as day brightens. But by month's end ir should look more gray or chocolate. beams brighdy in the east at dawTi, drawTng to The Moon enters the Earth's shadow at within five degrees of Venus by month's end. 9:14 P.M. on the 27th. Totaht)' begins at 10:23

Jupiter is now in the constellation Virgo, the P.M.: mid-echpse comes at 11:04 RM. and to- wgin; the planet shines from that constella- tahtv' ends at 11:45 PM. The Moon exits the tion for the next year. Because Jupiter takes uvelve years to shadow at 12:54 a.m. on the 28th.

orbit the Sun, it advances though the zodiac by one con-

steUarion each year. A slender crescent Moon, just thirty—six The Sun is partially ecHpsed by the Moon late on the after- hours from new, appears to hover above Jupiter on the noon of the 13th. Sk^' w-atchers hving in the western half morning of the 12th. of Alaska can see the echpse reaching a spectacular peak

just as the Sun is setting below the west-southwestern Saturn rises in the east-northeast about six hours after sunset horizon. Look for an eerie counterfeit twihght to tall over on the 1st. By the end of the month the ringed planet rises the landscape just prior to sunset.

ruo hours earher than ir did at the beginning of the month, Neivr look at even the smallest sliver of the Sun s disc unless which, \\ith shortening days and the return to standard time, you are using a proper filtering device, such as #13

AA'orks out to fi\?e hours after sunset. At any rate, Saturn has welder's glass or aluminized Mylar plastic, to protect your

climbed hi^ in the south-southeastern sky by dawn all eyes. You'll get all the safet\? tips from the local media—^be

month. At magnimde 0.2, Saturn is the brightest "star" in sure to obser\7e them! the constellation GJemini, the twins. In the early morning hours ot the 7th, shy watchers can see Saturn and a fat cres- Daylight saving time ends on the 31st. the last Sunday in cent Moon hovering near the tx^in stars Castor and Pollux. October. Clocks in Canada and most of the U.S. (with the exceptions of Arizona, Hawai'i, and Indiana) are set back The Moon wanes to last quarter on the 6th at 6:12 A.M. one hour, and the clock hour from 1:00 a.m. until 1:59

and becomes new on the 13th at 10:48 P.M. It waxes to A.M. is repeated. The mnemonic is "'spring ahead; taU back." first quarter on the 20th at 5:59 P.M. and to fiiU on the 27th at 11:07 P..M. That fiaU Moon, the first after the All precise times are given in eastern daylight time.

74 Nj^TUR.\L history 0ctobsr2004

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Totems to Turquoise

0~: rer ; : ;: :_: a: i:".e .Americaii Museum of and m^ihologv' in the Northwest and Southwest cultures. Or>er-i:'-; Xar.-£l H:;::r.-, 7::c"-,5 :: 7w::.r.se: Nature Nortli The outer dxde displays objects and stories relating to

A'-'-iericanJewdryArtsof-.-.i X: -:,.:;: .«?jd Sow&ivest cel- community forms: dans, moieties, and house groups. This ebrates the beauty, power, and symboiism ofmodem Native section contrasts the two geographic regions but also presents jeweliy arts with more than 500 pieces of dazzling contempo- similar communit}' rituals that per^'ade both territories. The laiy and historic Native American jewelry and artimcts. The roles ofmen and women as they relate to jeweky-maldng are pxhihitinn also presents recent totem sculptures, traditional also explored in this area. and modem masks, and photographs and videos of Northwest The final section of the exhibition explores further com-

Coast and Southwest rituals that are strongly connected with monahties between the two geographic regions, displaying arti- the sociological beliefe ofthe tribes represented. fects from the Northwest Coast and the Southwest that suggest

intriguing parallels in. the past and illustrate mutual in- fluence in the present Similarities in historical pieces Tsrhose creators were separated by hundreds of rmles of rugged terrain are httle imderstood, but contemporary'

objects show how recent meetings of artists from these r^ons have enriched and inspired new directions for jeach other's work A video display shows dramatic images of the land

and communities while artists whose work is repre- sented in the exhibition discuss art—^jewelry-making in particular—as a way of passing on tradition, sharing ideas between the geographic areas, and teaching those outside their communities about their living cultures.

Totems to Turquoise honors a rich, complex, and di- \'erse art form, the foimdations ofwhich He in thousands

Lrfb V/oman in the Moon pendant Jim Hart (Haida). 2003. Private colleciion. ofyears of culture and experience. "Both the Northwest

R^ht Universe Within the Bear pendant Jesse Monongya (Navajo). 1991. Coast and the Southwest feature an uninterrupted tradi- Private collection. tion of extraordinar)" indigenous artwork and iconogra- phy: transformed into jewelry, this tradition achieves a Artwork presented in the exhibition comes &om the North- powerful cultural continuation," said Peter Whitdey, Curator of west Haida, Kwakwaka'walcw, Tsimshian, Git^an, Nis^'a, North American Ethnology in the Museum's Division ofAnfhro- TJingit, Nuu-chah-nulth, Nuxalk, Heiltsuk, Haisla, and Coast pwlogy and co-curator of Totems to Turquoise.

Sahsh tribes, and the Southwest Navaj'o, Zuni, Hopi, Santo This is above all an exhibition about connections,'' noted Domingo, Apache, Taos and oiher Pueblos, and other tribes. Lois Dubin, lecturer, author of several authoritative books on Na- These magnificent pieces show how techniques, materials, and tive American jewelry, and co-curator of Totems to Turquoise. st^es have evolved as Native American jewelers have adapted These connections range fi-om sacred to pragmatic andent to to technical, societal, and commercial changes, transforming contempwrary, macro to micro, and Native to non-Native." traditional craft into a mU-fledged mode of artistic expression. Advising artists are Jim Hart, a Hereditar\" Chief ofthe GroujK ofspectacular jewelry and objects introduce \Tsitors Haida Nation and an accomplished carver and jewder, and Jesse to the key themes in the exhibition, such as cultural continuity Monongya, a highly regarded Navajo and Hopi jewder wiose over time and distinct regional styles. Motife transferred to jew- inlay work is considered to be among the finest today. elry &om other art forms are represented in masks and blankets. Cosmological and societal context is generated vpithin i Totems to Turquoise the exhibition space by a section divided into an inner and Nathfe NorOi Ainenam Jewdry Arts of^te Noriiiwesl and Southwest an outer drde. The inner drde displays jewelry together October 30, 2004-July io, 2005 with masks, headdresses, pottery, and other historic objects Gallery third floor to explore the roles of seasonaUty, cosmology, shamanism. 3,

I "Seeing" Earthquakes

reassuring for some to think that only California and create ocean basins, continents, islands, and mountain ranges. It's Japan are at risk for earthquakes—but incorrect. A colorful, Using stationary pens fixed on rotating mechanical drums real-time, three-drum earthquake station unveiled this summer of white paper, the seismograph records the squiggly-line sig-

in the David S. and Ruth L. Cottesman Hall of Planet Earth at nals of current earthquakes in different parts of the world the American Museum of Natural History clears broadcast to the Museum in real time via the up this misconception. By constantly recording Internet. Above the seismograph, a monitor w/orldw/ide ground shaking as it occurs and lists the times, magnitudes, and geographic lo- reaches stations in Fairbanks, Alaska; Tucson, cations of earthquakes that have occurred Arizona; and Matsushiro, Japan, the seismo- within the past few days. These data are up- graph shows that earthquakes occur daily and dated every ten minutes. A wide-screen color continually worldwide. monitor displays the locations and magnitudes Although some earthquakes are deadly and destructive of recent earthquakes as color-coded dots on global maps events, the seismograph also conveys the message that earth- based on satellite data. quakes of various magnitudes are signals of the ongoing geo- The real-time seismograph exhibit was donated to the logical processes that shape the planet's surface. Through ex- Museum by the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seis- hibits like these, visitors can learn that Earth is a dynamic mology (IRIS) and the U.S. Geological Survey, with support planet with a crust covered by constantly moving plates that from the National Science Foundation.

New Study Finds Teenage Tyrannosaurus rex Gained Nearly Five Pounds Daily

How did Tyrannosaurus rex, one of the most enormous tosaurus torosus. The circumferences of the specimens' leg terrestrial carnivorous animals ever, grow to be so bones were used to estimate the dinosaurs' body masses. large? Fast growth does it for some beasts. Long-lasting All these data were used to generate and compare growth growth does it for others. For T. rex, it was the former, in par- curves for the four tyrannosaur species. Gaining only 0.58 ticular a four-year, teenage growth spurt during which it to 1.06 pounds (0.31 to 0.48 kilograms) daily during a gained as much as 4.6 pounds (2 kilograms) daily, according growth spurt of equal length, the other tyrannosaurs could to a recent study by a scientist with the American Museum not keep up with T. rex's astounding daily weight gains. of Natural History and his colleagues. The growth spurt finding is described in the journal Nature

The study involved estimating the longevity, or ages, of by Mark A. Norell, Curator and Chairman of the Division of Pa-

T. rex and other related North American tyrannosaur speci- leontology at the American Museum of Natural History; Gre- fossilized Peter mens by counting growth lines in their bones, go7 M. Erickson of Florida State University; J. Makovicky just as tree rings arboreal Field Philip Currie of the Royal Tyrrell one might count to estimate age. of The Museum; J. Mu-

The T. rex relatives studied for comparison were Alber- seum of Paleontology; Scott A. Yerby of Stanford University; tosaurus sarcophagus, Corgosaurus libratus, and Dasple- and Christopher A. Brochu of the University of Iowa.

Behind-the-scenes work on the groundbreaking

new exhibition, Dinosaurs Alive: Ancient

Fossils, New Ideas, which will open at the

Museum on May 14, 2005, curated by Mark

Norell. On view through January 8, 2006, the

exhibition will highlight ongoing cutting-edge

research by Museum scientists and other

leading paleontologists around the world.

The coNTE^^rs of these paces are provided to Natural History by the American Museum of Natural History. Museum Events American Museum S Natural History ^

5 pology and Alexia Bloch, Uni- on sustainable cooking, eating, versity of British Columbia, and food production. A

discuss the AMNH's late 19th- resource fair precedes the pro-

century jesup North Pacific gram, beginning at 6:00 p.m. expedition to Siberia. FAMILY AND Quinine: Malaria and CHILDREN'S PROGRAMS the Quest for a Cure Giants of the Outer That Changed the World Solar System

Tuesday, 30/5, y:oop.m. Saturday, 10/2, 11:00 a.m.- Fiammetta Rocco weaves a his- 22:30 p.m. (Ages 6-y) or torical tale depicting the ravages r.^o-y.oo p.m. (Ages S-io] of malaria and the discovery of Learn about the Cassini mis-

quinine in the 17th century. sion, which is beginning a four- year tour of the Saturn system. One with Nineveh

EXHIBITIONS land- and seascape of Point Thursday. 10/y, y:oo-8:^o p.m.

The Butterfly Conservatory: Lobos State Reserve in Califor- Paul and Anne Ehrlich collabo-

Tropical Butterflies Alive nia. The photographer is the rate to expose how overpopu- in Winter abbot and founder of Zen lation, overconsumption, and

Opens October g, 2004 Mountain Monastery, in Mt. political and economic in- A return engagement of this Trernper, New York. equity are shaping today's pol- popular exhibition includes itics and humankind's future. more than 500 live, free-flying Vital Variety: tropical butterflies in an A Visual Celebration Becoming a Tiger Wild, Wild World: Bats enclosed habitat that of Invertebrate Biodiversity Tuesday, 20/29, 7-oo-8:jo p.m. Saturday, 20/9, 22:00 noon- approximates their natural Through Spring 200^ Susan McCarthy presents 1:00 p.m. environment. Invertebrates, which play a fascinating examples of animal Find out amazing facts about

The Butterfly Conservatory is made critical role in the survival of behavior in the laboratory, in bats in this interactive live- possible through the generous support humankind, are the subject of controlled "natural" settings, animal program with the Orga- of Bernard and Anne Spitzer. these extraordinarily beautiful and in the wild. nization for Bat Conservation. Frogs: A Chorus of Colors close-up photographs.

Through January 9, 200^ This exhibition Is made possible by the The Prism and the Space Explorers: The generosity of the Arthur Ross Foundation. This delightful exhibition Pendulum: The Ten Most Planets of Our Solar Sys- introduces visitors to the Beautiful Experiments tem (and Meteorites Too!) colorful and richly diverse Fall Colors across in Science Tuesday, 10/12, 4:^0-^4^ p.m. world of frogs, with over 200 North America Thursday, 10/21, y:oo p.m. (Ages 20 and up) live specimens thriving in Through March 23, 200^ Robert P. Crease, philosopher On the second Tuesday of re-created habitats. The fiery colors of autumn and historian of science, ex- each month, kids (and their

Frogs: A Chorus of Colors is presented come to life in these images by plores dazzling breakthroughs parents) can learn under with appreciation to Clyde Peeling's Anthony E. Cook, taken as he from the ancient world to the stars of the Hayden Reptiland. journeyed from northern tun- modern physics. Planetarium. Art in Nature: dras to deep southern bayous. The Photographs of SPECIAL PROGRAMS Visit the Space Station! John Daido Loori LECTURES Living with Nature: Saturday, 10/2^ 11:00 a.m.-

Through January 9, 2005 The Museum Healthy Eating for You 12:^0 p.m. (Ages 4-^) or These striking abstract at the End of the World and the Planet r.^o-y.oo p.m. (Ages G-y) photographs reveal hidden Saturday, 10/2, 2:00 p.m. Tuesday, 10/12, y:]o p.m. Come see what a day might be treasures and explore notions Laurel Kendall, Curator in the The Center for Biodiversity and like aboard the International of scale in the dramatic Museum's Division of Anthro- Conservation presents a panel Space Station. > and crafts, fun with roaming common celestial phenom-

characters, a film, and live ena. No astronomy back- INFORMATION

performances. ground necessary. Call 212-769-5100 or visit wAww.amnh.org. HAYDEN PLANETARIUM PLANETARIUM SHOWS PROGRAMS SonicVision TICKETS AND TUESDAYS IN THE DOME Fridays and Saturdays, y:^o, REGISTRATION

Virtual Universe S.'jo, and g:]o p.m. Call 212-769-5200, The Galaxies Next Door Hypnotic visuals and rhythms Monday-Friday, Artist's rendition of Cassini Tuesday, 10/y 6:}o-y:]o p.m. take viewers on an unforget- 9:00 a.m. -5:00 p.m., approaching Saturn table ride through fantastical or visit www.amnh.org.

This Just In... dreamspace. A service charge may apply.

Astrofavorites for 4- to 6- October's Hot Topics SonicVision is made possible by generous sponsorship and technology support Year-Olds: NASA Missions Tuesday, 10/ig, 6:}o-y:^o p.m. All programs are subject from Sun Microsystems, Inc. Three Thursdays, io/y-10/21 to change.

4:00-^^0 p.m. (Ages ^-6, Celestial Highlights The Search for Life: each child with one adult) Night of the Red Moon Are We Alone? Three programs on three Tuesday, 10/26, 6:jo-'/:^o p.m. Narrated by Harrison Ford Vikings consecutive Thursdays. Made possible through the generous Opens soon support of Swiss Re. COURSES Discover the historical Robots in Space Stars, Constellations, and cultural impact and Three Wednesdays, and Legends Passport to the Universe scientific and technological 30/33-10/27, ^:oo-y.]0 p.m. Four Wednesdays, lo/iy-ii/iy Narrated by Tom Hanks achievements of this

8-10 little (Ages j 6:jo-8:]o p.m. well-known but under- Learn how robotic rovers Learn to locate the stars of the LARGE-FORMAT FILMS stood society of seafaring can explore where humans season and enjoy sky lore LeFrak Theater explorers. cannot survive and build from different cultures. Bugs! your own robots. Closes soon Lewis

Sunday, io/;)i, 1:00-4:00 p.m. Six Mondays, 10/18-11/22 dramatic lives of a praying of Meriwether Lewis and

Enjoy a safe and fun 6:^0-8:^0 p.m. mantis and a graceful butterfly William Clark through the

Halloween in the Museum Topics include the Moon, the and ends with their inevitable uncharted West. with trick-or-treating, arts Sun, our solar system, and encounter.

Starry Nights Become a Member of the American Museum of Natural History Live Jazz As a Museum Member you will be among the first to embark on new journeys tc explore the natural world

Friday, October 1 and the cultures of humanity You'll enjoy: 5:30 and 7:00 p.m. • Unlimited free general • Free subscription Rose Center admission to the Museum to Natural History for Earth and Space and special exhibitions. magazine and to Rotunda, and discounts on Space our newsletter Joe Locke Shows and IMAX® films • Invitations to Members-

Tune into the 5:30 set • Discounts in the Museum only special events,

live on WBGO Jazz 88.3 FM. Shop and restaurants and parties, and exhibition on program tickets previews Starry Nights Is made possible by Lead Sponsor Verizon and Associate Sponsor Constellation NewEnergy. For further information, call 212-769-5606 or visit www.amnh.org.

The contents of these paces are provided to Natural History by the American Museum of Natural History. ENDPAPER

Fishing for a Living

By Deborah Stone

been obsening the birds in a heron rooken' on quickly opening its beak each time, just enough to I'da beaver pond near my home for more than two keep hold of the fish while positioning it more ac-

decades, betore I finally sa\v a great blue heron curately for swallo\\ing. Soon enough, the black catch a fish—three fishes and a frog, to be precise. fish followed the frog down the bird's gullet.

True, I hadn't tried terribly hard to witness the For its next catch, the heron switched strategies.

heron's fabled hunting prowess. My patience, I'd as- Suddenly its head and neck shot straight out, can- sumed, would be no match for its reputed abihD,- to tilevering over the water. A few seconds later the

stand morionless for long periods, waiting tor the bird jutted its neck out still farther, then plunged its

right moment to strike. I was wrong: my heron, at head into the pond. This time the heron barely had

least, was no statue. its catch by the tail fin. After several vigorous head The heron that changed my mind was standing in tosses, though, the bird cleverly manipulated that

fiall ^iew in the middle of the pond one day. the water fish, too, down the hatch.

just clearing the tops of its legs. The feathers on its The last fishing feat I saw that day was the most

underbelly hghdy brushed the lily pads on the sur- spectacular. AH at once the heron turned its head

face. I decided to wait and watch. I setded in on the sharply to the right and. ^^^thout moWng its legs,

shoreline, my back against a boulder, and positioned thrust its beak down past its right shoulder and into

my binoculars. the water. It spread its wings a litde and then went

Far from motionless, this heron was positiveh" under, up to its shoulders. The fish it came up wdth fidgety. It moved its head backward, for\\'ard, and was seven or eight inches long—^longer than the side to side. It stretched its neck high and then heron's bill—and it was putting up a mighty strug-

abrupdy lowered it: at rimes it rested its neck in a gle. I counted nearly a dozen head tosses, the heron

loose S curve. Occasionally the heron swallowed, as opening its beak and then clamping down hard each

if exercising its throat muscles in anticipation. Even.- time, the ftsh flopping furiously. The tussle lasted for

so often it opened its beak and shook its head \igor- more than a minute. ously. as if tnidng to dislodge a bad-tasring morsel. Most of us are used to seeing life in nature

While I ruminated on the significance of these through a Darwinian lens. We expect the pressures

gestures, the heron abruptly turned its head to look of natural selection to lead to the kind of simple,

over its left shoulder. Then, ^^"ithout turning its rigid behaxdor we associate with "hard^^dred" in-

body, it plunged its long sharp beak into the water stincts, and that's just what I had expected from the

so swifdy that the eye covdd barely follow—and heron. But after watching the bird, I came to think plucked out a frog. It raised its head high, tossed that there's ultimately not much difference between

back the frog, and swallowed. the ways my heron and I go about our hves: we After an interlude of more resdess fussing, the both keep our eyes wide open, we impro\ase, and

heron drew its neck into a tight S, then thrust it for- occasionally we stick our necks out. ward, shot its beak into the \A-ater, and ^^-ithdrew a

shiny black fish. This catch proved a lot trickier to Deborah Stone is a research professor in the Department oj handle than the frog. The heron solved the problem Government at Dartmouth College. She lives in Lempster, by pitching its head back three or four times and \'en' Hampshire.

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