6/04 !.*;'
"^•'''y REALLY NEED IN TODAY'S ENERGYl HUNGRY WORLD? : ^A
The Flower Gardens of the Gulf of have been working to protect this
Mexico. Home to some of the most magnificent area and other sensitive spectacular banks of coral and sponges marine environments. to be found in this port of the world. They're providing a habitat for all
In fact, this National Marine Sanctuary forms the most northerly manner of marine life, so everyone from ecologists to school- reef on the U.S. continental shelf. Which is why, when Shell teachers has the opportunity to study this wonderful world firsthand. went looking for oil and natural gas in this region, we looked Because at Shell, we focus on energy but that's not our only for help from Jim Ray— a marine biologist and Shell employee. focus. To find out more, see the Shell Report at v^ww.shell.com.
For some thirty years now, Jim and others just like him ^^:k M m
JUNE 2004 VOLUME 113 NUMBER 5
FEATURES
26 AGE AND BEAUTY
K'lw to both irises and onions,
orchids have a loiis^ liistory and a hu^e repertoire of enticing tricks. KENNETH M. CAMERON
34 A TRANSIT OF VENUS
Early on the niornin}^ of June 8. tlie sillionette
of I enns irill slip across the Sun. ELI MAOR
40 GOLDEN MOLDIES
Treasured by aficionados, fni{^i remain mostly anonymous subjects
of distant kini^donts. underappreciated for their role as recyclers. GEORGE W. HUDLER
COVER STORY 44 WHERE HAVE ALL THE FROGS GONE?
Biolo^iists hare examined a rogues' gallery of possible culprits.
A leading suspect is an infectii^efimgus.
JAMES P. COLLINS
ON THE cover: Bug-eyed stare of the red-eyed
treefrog (.^^;l!/)'^/(///.^ aillidryiis) might serve to scare off predators. .L_
DEPARTMENTS
4 THE NATURAL MOMENT Calni Before the Song Photograph by Leon G. Higley
8 UP FRONT k Editor's Notebook 18
10 CONTRIBUTORS
12 LETTERS
15 SAMPLINGS News from Nature
18 NATURALISTS AT LARGE Dirty Little Secrets Bruce Lyon and Robert Montgomerie
24 BIOMECHANICS As the Whale Turns Adam Summers
50 THIS LAND Mono Mania Robert H. Mohleubrock
52 REVIEW The Fate of the Soul William H. Calvin
58 BOOKSHELF Laurence A. Marschall
63 nature.net Animals By Ear Robert Anderson
64 OUT THERE A Desert No More Charles Liu
66 THE SKY IN JUNE Joe Rao
68 AT THE MUSEUM
72 ENDPAPER )IL^.J^ Patricia], Wynne
CREDITS: Page 6
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NEW YORK For an Official Rolex Jeweler call 1-800-367-6539. Rolex « Oyster Peipetoal.and Explorerll are trademarks. THE NATURAL MOMENT
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V ^ THE NATURAL MOMENT
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An insect's age is Higley and his family typically mea- had to shout to be sured in days or heard above the 120-
weeks, not years. Yet decibel calls. Females the periodical cicada cause significant tree
("locust" is a com- damage when they mon misnomer), like the one rake back the bark of twigs to lay
poised here atop its recendy shed their fertilized eggs. A few weeks
"skin," lives alone in the soil for after all the adults have died, new many years. Underground in their nymphs drop to the ground and flightless nymph form, the cicadas burrow down under their parents' slurp tree sap, biding their time. corpses for a long wait. Kevin Karlson Then, after thirteen or seventeen Such a long development pe- years (depending on the species), riod, followed by such a brief CALL the nymphs crawl to the surface window for mating puts all peri- OF into odical cicadas at risk. are and metamorphose red-eyed Yet they
adults. Incredibly, all the cicadas in far from vulnerable. The insects THE WILD the same brood—a population Higley photographed were so connected geographically—emerge dense near the Platte River, north- to take How great in synchrony. Billions of them take east of Lincoln, that predators wildlife photos over many forests across eastern could gorge themselves without North America for a few raucous making a dent in the ability of Photographing wildlife is a unique weeks of mating before they die. the brood to reproduce. Another challenge. In addition to finding the Leon G. Higley, an entomolo- evolutionary hypothesis is that the right animal at precisely the right time gist and photographer from the thirteen- and seventeen-year cy- with the right light and a clean University of Nebraska—Lincoln, cles help the cicadas avoid preda- background, there's the difficulty of observed the 1998 emergence of a tors with shorter, multiyear life cy- shooting a moving subject. seventeen-year cicada brood. The cles. Both 13 and 17 are prime Here's how to take picture-perfect insects were so thick, he recalls, numbers, divisible only by them- photos of animals in the wild or in that "you crunched them under- selves and 1. A predator in sync your own backyard: foot and were pelted by them from with the cicadas one year could Know your subject. Learn about the above." So perfect is the cast of not benefit fi-om them again soon animal's habits and habitats to discover the cicada's shed skin in Higley's enough to become a threat. the best time and place to find them. photograph that a mold of the This June the largest known insect's respiratory vessels, or tra- brood of seventeen-year periodi- For difficult lighting situations, use the cheoles, is visible (see the white cal cicadas, dubbed Brood X, will Canon EOS ELAN 7n. Its 35-zone stringy-looking strand of chitin at emerge across fifteen states in the evaluative metering allows pinpoint the left of the image). midwestern and eastern United accuracy when combining light, Males announce the mating States. Their next hurrah won't be shadow and strong backlight. frenzy with deafening noise; the until 2021. Don't miss out! Go quietly. Choose a camera with loudest choristers attract mates. —Erin Espelie whisper-drive technology to minimize
CREDITS Ctna: ©E Kaw-Surmil/OSP/Aiimk AmiiiyEiith Semes +-5: ©Leon G. Higty: 12 ©)c6eph Rinis 15(lDp), 26. and the risk of the animal's flight—and pp f. p p p28(2). p 32(top):®JudyWlTire/GaidenPhotofLcoin;p I5(lx«om):Crinise«ofdieNaQondMiBeumsofSo3dand;p 160dt):©RAnnarDi^Robati/CORBIS;p maximize your safety. 16(n^):0rhomasMang^sen/M]ndenPiauiEs;p 17{topldi):CiBobCcuKtDn/Ami]akAninnk/ETil]iSci3ios;p 17((DpriEjTt):CMaigiinaR.inios.Tulane UniwEity;p 17(bottDm):CiypdcCiraniTCs(a.handc):CTmiFfcdiTim/MindaiPictuiK(d):*^GtTT>'I^ pp l8-20and21-aDui1Esyof Be fast and flexible. Since your dieauix)cp27,M,31..Tnd,i:!
hary, p 38: Mitchell Library State Library oiNew South WJcs/Bndgmian Art Library p .KI(top), p 42(bottoin telt .-ind rifijit), p 43(bottoiii): (SJean-Y\e can up. the your camera keep With Giospai/Bios/Raer Arnold, Inc.; p 40(botrom). p 42{top), p. 43(tDp left): ©Jean-Louis LeMoigne/BicK/Ftter Arnold, Inc; p.41: ©Jean-Philip DcLobeHe/Bia/Hacr Amokl Inc.; p 4.XlDp right): ©Mx Lihaidt^icfc/Rtcr Amjld, Inc; p 44, 45. :uid 49: ©2002 Michael & Pjlrida Evjgden; p 46(top): fastest AF performance in its class, the ©Eiwin & R^i^y Bauer/Anintils Anuiitk: p 46 50-5 1 Canon EOS ELAN 7n tracks with Anitnals p. 48: ©Doiig TOdiskiyAiTiiiiak Aiiaiiik; pp : (COrrCHliDn; p 52: cT)urteS)'l>riise Bilm) fijK" Art NY ;iiil1 Co!^ p 55: Pholodieque R. M.ignlte-ADAGP/An Remrtce; NY e2CW C Heiscovia. Dnisds/Aflias Rifjils Sodcti' (ARS), NY; p 58: Sinitboniin American precision, speed and accuracy, taking up Art MiBeum WBhinffoii DC/An R<5ouice, NY; 'CaWT H Bcraon .and R_ R Benton Tesoiricnary TiTS^^ Ne\v York, NY; 62; Cltilxxly E*o; Salenx Libiary iliBIiation by P.ilncia p Museum. MAyUSA/Bridgenaan An p W: J. Wynne to approximately 4 shots per second. Canon NATURAL HISTORY June 2004 WARNING: May cause film lovers to drool, have bouts of ecstasy and go completely gaga VN^^* \ at. ^^^ continuous shotiting, 1/4(XK)'^ focus point automatically as you scan the scene, giving you ConsiJer this your tirst warning — the new features high-speed, 4fps level uaseen in other cameras in this class. and 1 1 shcwting mtxles whidi, a of control C.inon EOS ELAN 7n/7ne is here. The film camera sec top shutter speed under the most functions, make it unusaiUy For fast, accurate control thar gives photographers the speed, accuracy and ,ilong with its 13 aistom EL.\N 7n/7ne features its "-point wide .irea autofivus uses difficult lighting conditions, the rcliabilit)' they've been craving. nesponsiw. In f.ict, EOS-lv ,V^-zone evaluative metering, new distance-based The EOS ELAN 7n/7ne has the fastest autofcxus ^^_ .AF technology similar to tile (.jnon and EOS-.^, .lUowing you to tr.ick F-TTL II flash metering and is fully compatible with in its class* The new backlit display and all EOS accessories and EF lenses. Canon's exclusive Whisper Driv a moving subjtxt with astonishing accuracv-. The extraordinary ELAN 7n/7ne. Incredibly technology are built into its luxurious 7ne's fast. Remarkably sophisticated. Handle with care. metal exterior, taking your ,\nd the ELAN exclusive Eye Ojntrol system reads photograph)' to the next level. KNOW HOW movements to pick the C^kllOTI The ELAN "NrNK also \our eye EOS ELAN 7n / 7ne EOS EF Lenses 'As of Februaiy 2004 ol Canon Inc. Visit us at wwv(,.canoneos.coni or call 1-800-OK-CANON. © 20« Canon U.S.A., Inc. Canon, EOS and Canon Know How are registered trademarks UP FRONT Unwelcome Distraction mm Peter Brown Ediior-in-Chief And the locusts sang off in the distance. Mary Beth Aberlin Elizabeth Meryman Yeah, the locusts sang—such a sweet melody. Managing Editor Art Director Boh Dylan, "Day of the Locusts" Board of Editors T. J. Kelleher, Avis Lang. Vittorio Maestro generations of "locusts" (actually, seventeen-year periodi- Two Michel DeMacteis Associate Managing Editor cal cicadas—see "The Natural Moment," page 4) have passed Thomas Rosinski Associate Art Director since Bob Dylan wrote those lines. In June 1970 Dylan spent Erin M. Espelie Special Projects Editor Graciela Flores Editorial Associate a sweltering morning in cap and gown, receiving an honorary degree Haniiah Black, Caitlin E. Cox. Aimee Cunningham, from Princeton; then, as he says in the song, he headed for the hills. Joomi Kim, Adam Rathe Interns But what should have been simply a joyous graduation was overshad- Contributing Editors owed by the sickness of war, a pestilence next to which even the deaf- Robert Anderson, Charles Liu, Laurence A. Marschall, ening chorus of "locusts" was a welcome distraction. Richard Milner, Robert H. M o hie n brock, Joe Rao, Stephan Reebs, Adam Summers, Neil deGrasse Tyson Many of us who lived through those times of national trauma have hoped, and even believed, that wars fought by a nation deeply divided Charles E. Hariris Publisher might be a thing of the past. But with the passage of two generations Gale Page Consumer Marketing Director of seventeen-year cicadas, the only lesson that seems to have been Maria Volpe Promotion Director Edgar L. Harrison National Aduertising Manager learned from the mistakes of that era is, "Support the troops." Mean- Sonia W. Paratore Senior Account Manager while, many traditional American values—tolerance of difference, Donna M. Lemmon Production Manager openness to debate, respect for truth—not to mention some of the Michael Shectman Fulfillnient Manager hard-won American reputation for competence, decency, fairness, Jennifer Evans Business Administrator and transparency, have become casualties of war. In particular, this page Aduertising Sales Representatives Neii> VoriL-—Metrocorp Marketing, 212-972-1 is sickened and ashamed for our country by the breakdown of disci- 157. Duke International Media. 212-986-6098 pline that has led to the torture of prisoners in American custody. Detroit—}oe McHugh, Breakthrough Media. 586-360-3980 What, you may ask, do such issues have to do with Natural Histoiy? Minneapolis—K\ckcn Media. Inc., 612-920-0080 The American character and habits of mind have been fertUe soil for West C^i/—PPW Sales Group/Sue Todd. 415-543-5001 Toronto—American Publishers Representatives Ltd., 416-363-1388 science. Scientific inquiry, after all, is based on honesty, openness, un- Afhvilc} and Miami—Rickles and Co., 770-664-4567 fettered access to evidence, and candid, vigorous pubUc debate about National Direct Response—Smyth Media Group.646-638-49S5 individual views and theories. Yet as Hie New York Times reported re- cently, the United States has lost some of its world leadership in sci- Todd Happer Vice President, Science Education ence in the past decade. In part, that sUppage has come about from the Educational Adi'isovy Board Myles Gordon American Museum Natural History welcome spread of science to other countries. But we must be espe- of David Chesebrough Buffalo Museum of Science cially vigilant that American science itself is not threatened by the de- Stephanie Ratcliffe Natural Hisfor)' Museum of the Adirondacks basement of the habits of mind on which scientific inquiry is founded. Ronen Mir SciTech Hands On Museum Carol Valenta 5/. Louis Science Center Furthermore, we all have an interest in the freedoms that make it possible to discover the genealogy of orchids (see "Age and Beauty," Natural History Magazine, Inc. by Kenneth M. Cameron, page 26); or investigate the stresses on am- Chakles E. Harris Prcsidcm, Chief Executive Officer phibians (see "Where Have AH the Frogs Gone?" by James P. Charles Lalanne Chief Financial Officer Collins, page 44); or ponder how the workings of the solar system Judy Buller General Manager Charles Rodin Publishing Advisor give rise to a rare planetary alignment (see "A Transit of Venus," by Russell Cherami Publishing Advisor Eli Maor, page 34). Nature, the science of nature, and the interest in those topics by people young and old, get pushed aside—even, more For subscription information, call 800-234-5252 (witiiin U.S.) or 51 5-247-7631 (from out.side U.S.). darkly, put at risk—by the most unwelcome distraction of war. For advertising information, call 646-356-6555. Naimat Hhlory (ISSN 0028-0712) \s published monthly, cxcupi for combined Collins's cover story on frogs is the perfect complement to a visit iMUW in Jiily/Autiusl and DcccnibLT/Jjnuary. by Natural History Magazine, Inc., in afTiliation wiih ihc Anic:rii;;in Museum of Natural History, Central to a brand-new exhibition at the American Museum of Park We^t nt 79th Street, New York, NY 1(1(124. E-uuil; nhimB@naturalhis- lor)'nug.coiii. Natural History MaijazirK-, Inc.. is solely reiiponsible for cditori.il Natural History, "Frogs: A Chorus of Colors," which opened May content .ind piiblishinj; practices, Subscriptions: $30. fH) a year; for Canada and all other countries: S'tO.OO a year. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and 29 and runs through October 3. at additional mailing ofTices. Canada I'uHications Mail No. 4()O.W827. Copy- right 1-'' 20fi4 by Natural History Mapizinc. Inc. All rights reserved, No part of A final note: Neil deGrasse Tyson is enjoying a well-deserved this periodical may be reproduced without written consent of Niiiimil tiiiiory. If you would like to contact us regarding your subscription or to enter a new sub- break this month; his column, ''Universe," will return in our next scription, ple.ise write to us at Natural History. RO, Uox 500(1, Harlan, lA ' — 5l5'J3-()257. Postmaster: Send address changes to Naliiial History, V O. Box (July/August) issue. Peter Brc^wn 5000. Harlan. lA 51537-5000. Printed in the U.S.A. 8 I NATURAL HISTORY June 2004 I GALAPAGOS CXpGriGnC6 IVl3TtGrSa And so does commitment. I first visited Galapagos with my father in 1967, when he opened up the possibility of exploring the islands by ship. I still remember that voyage moment by moment. I was struck above all with the wildlife's total lack of fear as my daughter (below) discovered too in her first encounter with marine iguanas. Galapagos is a very special place and I believe that if you, the traveler, have a great experience there, your passion will play a big role in securing the future well-being of these islands. In so many ways, large and small, our longstanding "In the spirit of great curiosity, I approached commitment will ensure that you have a great experience. Galapagos on our historic cruise in July 1967. And, together, we will strive to make sure that the next No passenger could take our trip without gaining vastly generation may experience the expanded scientific knowledge. joy and wonder of Galapagos. Lars-Eric Lindblad — Passport to Anywhere Sven/Olof Lindblad 1-800-EXPEDITION expeditions.com/ga or see your travel agent li&t< t'^Mi %.\ Undblad W^^i. Expeditions — CONTRIBUTORS A professor of entomology with a penchant for photography, Leon G. Higley ("The Natural Moment," page 4) made his e On close-up photograph of an emerging seventeen-year cicada near the Platte River, northeast of his home in Lincoln, Ne- braska. In addition to conducting research on, among other anet ri — ."^ topics, forensic entomology, Higley hopes soon to initiate a ' .' course on macrophotography at the University of Nebraska- rth ^. Lincoln, where he teaches. For his tenth birthday, KENNETH M. CAMERON ("Age and -WStt, Beauty," page 26) begged his parents for a lady's slipper or- chid. That was the birth of his passion for and scientific cu- / riosity about these remarkable plants. A speciahst in the evo- lution of Vanilla and related orchids, he is an associate curator in the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Program for Molecular Systematics Studies at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. Cameron makes heavy use of DNA sequencing to reconstruct evolu- tionary patterns among orchids and other flowering plants. His work has been featured in T7;e New York Times and on the PBS television series NOVA. Mathematician Eli Maor ("A Transit of Venus," page 34) has published widely, both in professional mathematics journals and in such magazines as Orion, Sky & Telescope, and The Sciences. His essay on the history of trigonom- etry appears in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. He is also the author of To Infinity and Beyond; e: the Story of a Number; Trigonometric Delights; and Venus in Transit (all published by Princeton University Press). Maor received his Ph.D. from the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) in Haifa, and teaches at Loyola Uni- versity Chicago. The most popular course George W. Hudler ("Golden Moldies," page 40) offers at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he has been teaching since 1976, is Magical Mushrooms, Mischievous Molds (his book by that title was pubhshed in 1998 by Princeton University Press). In addition to his courses on mycology and plant pathology, for which he has won numerous teaching awards, Hudler known around the Cornell campus as "the mushroom man"—edits Branching Out, a newsletter about tree and shrub pests and pest control (on the Web at branchingout.cornell.edu/ BranchingOutHome.html). Biologist James P. Collins ("Where Have All the Frogs Gone?," page 44) devotes much of his professional life to protecting amphibian diversity. A Gorilla Glue is the versatij professor at Arizona State University in Tempe, he has spent the past thirty- interior/exterior adhesive five years studying the ecology and evolution of frogs and salamanders. ideal for most household Collins directs a team of international scientists in a project fixes and building projects: investigating emerging diseases that threaten amphibians, furniture repair, crafts, woodworking, and general and also acts as chair of the Declining Amphibian Popula- repairs around the house. tions Task Force, a specialist group within the World Con- Bonds wood, stone, servation Union (lUCN). For those interested in learning metal, ceramic & more! more about the threats to frogs, as well as their evolution, Incredibly strong and 100% waterproof. biology, and importance to ecosystems, be sure to visit the newest exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History in New York REQUEST YOUR FREE City: "Frogs: A Chorus of Colors," which opened May 29 and runs through INFORMATION KiTl October 3, 2004. www.gorillaglue.com I-80G-966-3458 10 NATURAL HISTORY June 2004 ,* Iff* , ^- /f^ Wb Can Do It! AMERICA. CHAPTER I, « Throughout our History, we've watched THE STORY UNFOLD. We've seen ordinary People overcome profound Injustice. We've witnessed /lets of Bravery that defy Belief. We've marveled at the infinite Power of human Ingenuity. And we've achieved extraordinary Things. Because 2S yfmcricans, we are free to think, and write, and say, and believe what we wish. It's this Concept of Freedom that is our Founding Fathers' greatest Legacy. And they conceived it right here. COME, EXPERIENCE THE DRAMATIC FIRST EPISODE in the STORY of^MERiCyt. Call i-800-HiSTORY. Williamsburg, Virginia ColonialWilliamsburg.com i \i :%^W LETTERS The Heat Is On biased I have yet come earHer melting. When Americans are today. He Robert Ehrlich ("Heat across. We learn that dis- Arctic sea ice melts, it leaves off the more impor- Exchange," 4/04) criticizes crepancies among projec- reveals dark water, wliich tant first half of my formu- the global warming projec- tions of fiiture warming ap- absorbs far more heat from lation, namely that I con- tions based on assumptions pear to be driven more by sunlight than ice. sider it fairly improbable built into the computer different assumptions about Mr. EhrHch alludes to that the developing world models. But his view, that growth in economies and "the end of cheap oil." will soon catch up with the there is no present need to energy use, than by differ- Consider that from the end West economically. My take action to slow global ences in views about inputs of the Second World War main point was to call at- warming, seems based on to cHmate-change models. until the 1973 oil embargo, tention to the tie-in be- his own questionable as- At the same time, the sci- carbon dioxide (COt) tween the high estimates sumptions. ence behind these models is emissions grew at the rapid for the extent of global He says it is "fairly im- itself not yet settled. For ex- rate of 4.7 percent annually, warming and highly ques- probable" that developing ample, as James Hansen of whereas from 1973 untU tionable assumptions of nations will be as wasteful NASA's Goddard 2002, market forces and economic growth. of energy as Americans are Institute for governmental actions Different economists today. Is there evidence to Space Studies slowed the annual have come to different support such an assump- points out in COt increase to just conclusions over whether tion? He states, with appar- 1.4 percent. If global warming will be ent approval, that "some world oil prices beneficial or harmful. economists" estimate that increase sub- Generally, those who say a warming of up to five stantially, as that on balance it will be degrees Celsius (nine they wiU when beneficial allow realistically degrees Fahrenheit) the world oil sup- for adaptation by farmers, "could be economi- ply stops growing, it and they consider poten- cally positive for the won't be surprising to see tially positive effects on United States." CO2 emission growth stop agriculture and timber re- Since climate or even go negative. sources, such as fewer scientists are stiU Tom Grahame killing frosts, less day-night debating how '^'^'^ Washington, DC temperature variation, and warmer tempera- higher COj levels. These tures might affect such Robert Ehrlich replies: economic analyses have things as the conditions for a recent article ("Defiising James J. Foley questions my mostly been limited to the growing crops, the circula- the Global Warming Time assumptions, distorts my developed world and may tion of the Gulf Stream, Bomb," Scientific American, position, and disparages the leave out some unpre- and the spread of tropical March 2004), the Green- work of unnamed econo- dictable effects, such as diseases, how can any land ice cap could melt at mists mentioned in my re- possible changes to the economists predict that lower temperatures than view. I never claimed that Gulf Stream, but they can- global warming will be a previously foreseen, causing there is no need to take ac- not be dismissed out of good thing? substantial damage by rais- tions to slow global warm- hand. Furthermore, as If global warming poses ing the sea level. ing; instead, I suggested Tom Grahame notes, mar- as serious a crisis as many Elsewhere, Hansen and that until the uncertainties ket forces could even lead climate scientists fear, we his colleague Larissa are reduced, it would be to dropping CO2 emissions will be in real trouble if we Nazarenko have noted that desirable to limit such ac- in the future, rather than do not try to alleviate it. though earlier studies took tions to those in the "no drastically rising ones. James J. Foley into account the warming regrets" category, such as One clear implication is Hiugham, Massachusetts that occurs when black car- energy conservation, which that the global warming bon aloft absorbs heat and are useful and economical problem (to the extent that In all the articles from all thus warms the atmosphere, in their own right. Mr. it is a problem) may well sources I have read over the when black carbon lands on Foley wonders how I can take care of itself because years about global warming Arctic sea ice and on glaci- say without evidence that it of market forces—so why and climate change, ers, it reduces reflectivity is "fairly improbable" that impose potentially costly Robert Ehrlich's is the and increases warming on developing nations will be actions now (such as those most thoughtful and least these surfaces, resulting in just as wasteful as mandated by the Kyoto 12 NATURAL HISTORY June 2004 a world of ADVENTURE in every issue Natural History takes you to the ends of the Earth and the far reaches of the universe to answer common questions with uncommon insight. From astronomy to zoology, the big bang to microscopic organisms, the depths of the sea to distant stars, Natural History spans the spectrum of science, nature, and history. Subscribe now and receive: 10 issues for just $25 — a savings of 37% off the regular newsstand price FREE (one-time only) general admission pass to the American Museum of Natural History Discount on a ticket to the Museum's spectacular IMAX" theater during your visit Discount on unique items in Museum gift shops, including books, crafts, jewelry, and collectibles To order, call 1-800-234-5252 or write to us at Natural History, P 0. Box 5000, Harlan, lA 5 1 593-025 7. Outside the U.S., please add $10mmfor postage and call 515-247-7631 for customei- ser\'ice. THE WONDERS OF NATURE AT YOUR FINGERTIPS ^ protocol) that will have a saltwater tank is easy." enough of us set criteria for with the usual kind of han- only negligible benefits? Another step lower are what we want, the market dlebar. People whose legs the same local fish stores will respond. cannot bear the full body Losing Nemo? that sell fish injected with weight, or can do so only Melanie L.J. Stiassny dyes to an unknowing Hobby Horses for short times, but can ("Saving Nemo" 3/04) is public. Dyed fish may be In his "Biomechanics" col- move in a walking motion, basically optimistic about attractive, but their colors umn "Meddling with could be held in a manner the marine ornamental will fade—if they live long Pedaling" (3/04), Adam that would put them more trade in clownfish, because enough. Suixmiers writes, "The first at eye level with walking market forces should en- The lowest step of all are bicycle . . . debuted in 1817 people. courage local fishers to the sellers of baby fish four as a toy, rather than as trans- Joan Lehmkuhl, R.N. maintain and protect the to six inches long, that be- port." But the bicycle histo- Nampa, Idaho reefs and their associated come four-foot-long adults. rian Hans-Erhard Lessing fish. That makes sense, but Amanda Parker would surely object to this. Adam Summers replies: I logic does not always hold Sharon, Massachusetts He points out that in 1815 am not surprised that, as sway. Overfishing has often the Indonesian volcano David Gordon Wilson re- put fishers out of business Melanie L.J. Stiassny Mount Tambora launched ports, bicycle historians because short-term profits REPLIES: Judith S. Weis is so much dust into the at- might have more to say outweigh long-term sus- right in stating that popula- mosphere that 1816 was about the vehicle's origins. tainability of the enterprise. tions of marine ornamental "the year without a sum- As for the figure of 350 When I was in Thailand fishes may be seriously mer": crops failed, there was watts, it refers to the meta- in January, an editorial ap- threatened by poorly regu- little food for horses or men. bolic input, not the output peared in the Bangkok Post titled, " 'Losing Nemo' through Greed." The edito- To the fisherman the market value of each ornamental fish rial speaks about an "assault on our already largely- is likely to he much higher than that of a 'food fish." ruined coastline" to meet the large demand for exotic reef fish. Despite some reg- lated trade. But the market and horses were slaughtered. of mechanical power. In ulations, inspectors in air- value to the fishermen of Baron von Drais therefore other words, a very efficient ports have found many each individual ornamental invented the Hobby Horse human "engine" needs 350 thousands of illegally caught fish is likely to be much bicycle at a time when it watts' worth of food fuel to fish in styrofoam boxes. The higher than the market value was needed for transport. obtain a mechanical power authors refer to reefs in the of an individual specimen of A second, unrelated of about 150 watts. Philippines and Indonesia as many species of commercial point: there must have I agree with Joan "being swept clean." "food fishes." Hence, at least been an error in the quot- Lehmkuhl that new means Obviously, the editorial m theory, local fishermen ing of 350 watts exerted by of assisting the physically writers in Thailand are not do have a strong economic walkers and pedalers at the challenged with wheels as optimistic as Ms. Stiassny. incentive for sustainable speeds indicated. The could be explored. As Judith S. Weis trade in ornamental fishes. actual value should be Steven Vogel points out in Rutgers University Steps must be taken to help around 150 watts. his book Cat's Paws and Newark NewJersey inform fishermen, so that David Gordon Wilson Catapults: Mechanical Worlds they can manage their re- MIT of Nature and People, nature I wish I had a dime for sources better. Cambridge Massachusetts makes little use of wheels every parent I've seen in Amanda Parker notes that because the terrains nor- the past year or so desper- retailers have a duty to pro- It strikes me that the mally encountered by ani- ately trying to explain to a vide accurate information Hobby Horse version of mals are not suited to child that, "Nemo is a salt- and reUable advice about the bicycle could be smooth rolling. water fish ... I don't know the fish they sell. However, adapted to help people with how to keep saltwater it is just as important for us, ambulatory difficulties. I The Wrong Stuff fish." Even worse are the the consumers, to research can see one made with four In his "Universe" column, unscrupulous local fish what we are buying. The wheels for stability and the my good friend Neil stores trying to convince Internet offers a wealth of seat between them, with a deGrasse Tyson argues that these parents that "keeping relevant information. If hand bar along each side or (Continued on page 67) 14 NATURAL HISTORY June 2004 SAMPLINGS In Hot Water HOW TO SPREAD DIVERSITY Seawater is always on the move, traveling Why do some plant families blossom forth with a wealth of species, whereas across the planet as if a giant conveyor belt others have so few? What contributes to the emergence of new plant species? were pulling it along, and the colder, saltier, One factor, according to Risa D. Sargent, a and denser the water is, the lower it sinks. zoologist at the University of British Columbia Most of the water at the bottom of the North in Vancouver, is symmetry: it makes a differ- Pacific Ocean has not seen the Sun in at least ence whether the flowers are bilaterally sym- 800 years. Some of it has been down there for metrical (the left half mirroring the right half, two millennia. It's understandable, then, that as in orchids) or radially symmetrical (the same oceanographers have assumed the temperature pattern all around, as in lilies). of the bottom layer is stable, impervious to Sargent, who studies the interactions be- atmospheric warming. New evidence, however, tween pollinators and flowers, compared nine- shows the lower depths there and elsewhere teen pairs of closely related plant families. have warmed significantly in recent decades. One member of each pair had bilaterally sym- Masao Fukasawa of the Japan Marine metrical flowers, the other, radially symmetri- Science and Technology Center in Yokosuka cal. In fifteen such pairs, the bilaterally sym- Invitation to a pollinator and his colleagues compared temperatures metrical families were the more species-rich. and salinities, measured across the full width New species usually arise from mutations, but at first the mutated genes of the deep North Pacific in 1985, with the may have trouble getting a foothold in the genetic pool of the population. same measurements, at the same latitude, Evidently, though, if the pollen (the male agent) of a mutated plant reaches a made in 1999. Below 16,000 feet, the water plant belonging to the same species—instead of being wasted on another, temperature had risen, on average, by nearly incompatible species—those mutations will spread more easily. What makes a hundredth of a degree Fahrenheit. That that scenario more likely? Well, one good way for a plant to spread mutations increase may sound trivial, but it reflects, is to rely exclusively on a specialized pollinator, usually an insect. Bilaterally and may also eventually trigger, major symmetrical flowers are good at inducing such specialization, because they changes in the dynamics of ocean circula- constrain pollinators to take exactly the right position on the flower to bring tion —a primary engine of the weather on the pollen into contact with the stigma, gateway to the next generation. planet Earth. ("Bottom water warming in the ("Floral symmetry affects speciation rates in angiosperms," Proceedings of the North Pacific Ocean," Nature 427:825-27, Royal Society of London B 271 :603-608, March 22, 2004) —Stephan Reebs February 26, 2004) —Sarah L. Zielinski Pass the Dinner Rolls it's not likely to grace the table of your favorite restaurant anytime Seeking to resolve it, Robert Berstan, an organic chemist at soon, but a greasy substance known as "bog butter" has long the University of Bristol in England, and his colleagues recently been found buried in some of the better peat analyzed nine Scottish samples (most packed in bogs of the British Isles. Burying it seems to in wooden kegs or troughs, one wrapped have been popular from about 2,400 years ago leather and placed in a cauldron, another stuffed through the end of the seventeenth century. inside an animal's intestine) to determine their Stashing fat belowground could have been origins. Because tallow and dairy fat are synthe- they done to preserve it or possibly modify it (into sized through different metabolic processes, soap or wax, for instance, which is what bog have different quantities of various fatty acids butter most resembles now), or perhaps to re- and, more tellingly, of carbon-13, an uncommon fine its flavor. Most archaeologists have main- isotope of carbon. The results of the chemists' tained that bog butter was literally buried but- investigations showed three of the samples were ter, long forgotten in the "fridge." But some originally tallow and the other six dairy fat. No have also recognized its resemblance to a fatty word yet on bog butter's potential as a replace- of wax called adipocere, which is known to form ment for olestra. ("Characterisation 'bog from body fats buried in wet, anaerobic envi- butter' using a combination of molecular and ronments. Whether bog butter was tallow or isotopic techniques," The Ana.'yst 129:270-75, Kelleher dairy fat has thus remained an open question. Barrel of bog butter March 2004) —T.J. June 2004 N.MUB.AI HrsTORY 15 , SAMPLINGS BEAR BEWARE Between July and mid-November, polar .r.lMipy"^B8BMi^Bi even one of the large vehicles is on bears lounge on the shores of Hudson the scene. The bears don't get their Bay, living off their own fat while they rest, because every ten minutes or wait for the sea to freeze up. Once the so another vehicle arrives or leaves. ice is thick enough to support their In autumn, the investigators note, thousand-pound bulk, the bears can polar bears need to just chill out, resume hunting for seals, their main and the increased vigilance could source of food. Since the early 1980s, lead to elevated heart rates and in- the huge loafing bears have become an creased output of stress hormones. autumn tourist bonanza, attracting bus- Intriguingly, only the males size tundra vehicles full of curious bear- become more vigilant. Dyck and watchers. The balloon-tired vehicles Baydack note that the main danger sometimes come within 1 30 feet of the to a female and her cubs is the male bears and stay near them for as long as of her own species. When males are two hours. Markus G. Dyck and Richard preoccupied with tundra vehicles, ^ K. Baydack, wildlife biologists at the the females can afford to relax. University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, recently confirmed that such ("Vigilance behaviour of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) in the tourism may be seriously disturbing the animals. context of wildlife-viewing activities at Churchill, Manitoba, The two investigators observed that polar bears interrupt their Canada," Biological Conservation 116:343-50, 2004) relaxation and visually scan their environment more often when —S.R. Sumo Star WHITER AND BRIGHTER How big is too big? Nature gas and dust, depriving the when a Florida cottonmouth snake sinks its fangs into prey, an puts size limits on stars, just star of the raw materials for enzyme in the snake's venom dissolves the blood clots normally as it does on animals, but further growth. In this case, present in the prey's system and thus enables the venom to what was once thought to be though, says Eikenberry, a the stellar max has just been supernova may have ex- dramatically surpassed, ac- ploded nearby while LBV cording to Stephen S. Eiken- 1806-20 was still quite berry, an astronomer at the young, sending out shock University of Florida in waves intense enough to Gainesville, and his collabo- push gas and dust toward rators. The team has been the child star, and stuffing it scrutinizing the infrared out- to beyond obese. put of a star 45,000 light- Several of LBV 1806-20's years from Earth, designated neighbors, too, are freakishly LBV 1806-20. This star, it large, and one is a much turns out, is at least 1 50 younger star. And that puts times as big as the Sun, and another supposed rule on the as much as 40 million times watch list: standard theory as bright. In fact, according maintains that all the stars in a For whiter cottons, try some cottonmoutli venom. to standard theories about given cluster form at the spread throughout its body. So Devin limoto, a chemist at the way stars form. same time. ("Infrared obser- Whittier College in California, and his students did what comes Eikenberry's colossus is so vations of the candidate LBV naturally: they tested the venom extract on a load of blood- big it shouldn't exist at all. 1806-20 and nearby cluster stained white denim. Lovers of spiffy laundry, take note: the In theory, long before the stars," to be published in The venom-treated denim, washed the next day with ordinary star reached its current size. Astrophysical Journal 61 1 detergent, came out noticeably cleaner than usual. its own radiation should have August 20, 2004) — Caitlin E. Cox blasted away all surrounding —Joomi Kim 16 N.^TURAL HISTORY June 2004 — — INVASION OF THE GIANT BLOBS Need for Speed This past February, the beaches of southern Chile lool washed ashore. The only thing extrater- (genus Tidarren) weigh in at only restrial about them, though, was that about 1 percent the weight of the the European Space Agency satellite females. Not surprisingly, that creates Envisat provided the explanation for a few problems. their presence. The male has two copulatory or- The bodies were jumbo flying squid gans known as pedipalps, and either Dosidicus gigas—creatures whose one can make him a dad. To do the length may reach thirteen feet. Deep- job properly, each pedipalp has to be sea dwellers, they make their living by enormous, relative to the rest of his hunting for fish at the interface between body. Sure enough, the two make up Jumbo flying squid cold and warm waters. about 20 percent of his body weight Prevailing westerly winds usually blow the warm surface waters of the austral more, apparently, than he's willing to summer out to sea, making room for deep, cold water to well up along the carry around. So, just before molting coast. This year, however, the cold upwelling ceased in late February, and a into his adult form, the male Tidarren renegade pocket of cold water got trapped within masses of warmer water, ac- half-emasculates himself. He spins a cording to Cristina Rodn'guez-Benito, an oceanographer at the company silk structure, ties it around one—^just Mariscope Chilena in Puerto Montt, Chile. Attracted to the interface between one—of his pedipalps, and then warm and cold, the squid must have come closer to shore than they usually do, twists off the unwanted organ. possibly following the nutrient-rich waters where they habitually find their food. (vww.esa.int/esaCP/SEMVNJYV1 SD_index_0.html) —S.R. Public Information In the forests of West Africa, Diana monkeys back the Dianas' two different alarm calls make one kind of bark when they spot a for hornbills to hear, the birds reacted only crowned eagle, another when they see a to "EAGLE nearby!" Weight reduction, spider style leopard. Both animals prey on Dianas, and It was already known that various spe- so the distinctive warnings provide crucial in- cies of monkeys can distinguish between Working in the laboratory of formation to troopmates. Now Hugo J. different alarm calls of birds, but this Duncan J, Irschick, an ecologist at Rainey and two other biologists at the study is the first to show that the tables Tulane University in New Orleans, un- University of Saint /Vidrews in Scotland can be turned. It is still unclear, though, dergrad Margarita Ramos and a col- show the Dianas' code can also be deci- how any of the eavesdroppers learns an- league quantified how much the pedi- phered by eavesdropping birds. other species' vocabulary. ("Hornbills can palps drag males down. By chasing Hombills are large, canopy-dwelling distinguish between primate alarm calls," spiders, the investigators found that birds that fear eagles but don't mind leof> Proceedings of the Royal Society of males with a single pedipalp move 44 ards—after all, the birds fly and the leof>- London B 271:755-59, April 7, 2004) percent faster, have 63 percent more ards don't. When the biologists played —S.R. endurance, and travel 300 percent far- ther before pooping out than males with both pedipalps intact. Evolution Cryptic Creatures didn't come up with a way to grow just one pedipalp so as to increase 1 mobility, but it did find a behavioral work-around. ("Overcoming an evo- lutionary conflict: Removal of a repro- ductive organ greatly increases loco- motor performance," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 101:4883-87, April 6, 2004) Only three of these pictures are close-ups of the same animal. Which one doesn t belong? (Answer on page 65) —S.R. June 2004 NATUR.AL HISTORY 17 NATURALISTS AT LARGE Dirty Little Secrets ''Dress for success" is the key to the mating game among Arctic ptarmigan. By Bruce Lyon and Robert Montgomerie Most birds act as if cleanliness in biosciences at Loyalist College in chartered airlines. Some years we really is next to godliness. Belleville, Ontario, confirms that the could take a six-hour commercial Watch any bird for a while, bird's strategy as a camouflage artist flight from Montreal that would land and you will see that it spends a lot of follows a predictable pattern, at least more than 1,800 rrules to the north, at rime preening its feathers and bathing in females. As it happens, though, the Hall Beach (population about 625), in in water or dust. Feathers are essential story for males is more complicated what is now the territory of Nunavut. for flight, waterproofing, and insula- than Darwm realized. From there we would charter a Twin rion, so it is not surprising that main- Otter to fly us the final sixty-mile leg taining them is a vital part ot a bird's For thirteen springs in the 1980s of our journey, transporting all the daily routine. How to explain, then, and 1990s, we headed for Sarcpa gear and food needed for a six- to the bizarre sartorial metamorphosis we Lake, on the remote MelvUle Penin- eight-week stay. Our field station was have observed in the male rock ptarmi- sula at the top end of Hudson Bay. To a former Distant Early Warning Line gan, a species of grouse? In just a cou- get there we had to hop and skip from radar site, abandoned in the 1960s ple of days in early summer, the male place to place on commercial and when satellites became the method of ptarmigan suddenly transforms himself from an immaculate, pugnacious white bird that stands tall on large boulders, to a filthy, bedraggled creature that skulks about on the tundra. Why do these birds get so dirty? Equally in- triguing, why are their feathers so white and conspicuous to begin with? Charles Darwin was one early nat- uralist who took an interest in such plumage changes. Probably referring to the willow ptarmigan, which win- ters in the boreal forest and flies north in the spring to breed in the Arctic, he argued that the species' su- perb camouflage—white in winter, brown in summer—supported his idea that natural selection shapes the traits that increase an animal's ability to survive. To buttress his case, he noted that the birds often suffer in- tense predation in the spring, when the snow melts and the once-camou- flaged white plumage stands out daz- zlingly against the brown tundra. Our Male rock ptarmigan's bright plumage, which provides good camouflage own study of rock ptarmigan in the in the High Arctic winter, stands out after the snow melts in the spring. In a Canadian High Arctic, assisted by matter of weeks he will lose his white feathers as brown ones grow in, but Karen R. Holder, currently a lecturer in the meantime he presents an easy target for sharp-eyed gyrfalcons. 18 NATURAL HISTORY June 2004 choice for watcliiiig for Soviet in- tasty. From overhead, nests and chicks breeding season, often changing their vaders from over the pole. are vulnerable to ravens and jaegers, colors through a feather molt. Al- We usually arrived at the end of and adults are exposed to gyrfalcons though the male ptarmigan also ac- May, when the treeless tundra was still and peregrines. From the ground, quires special breeding colors, in this covered with snow. At that time, flocks Arctic foxes, ground squirrels, and case the colors come tree of charge, of migratory shorebirds and watertbwl people are a persistent threat. The because it is the background that are yet to arrive, but small coveys of mottled brown summer plumage of changes. Then, a few weeks later, well rock ptarmigan are already roaming females helps conceal the nest and after the snow has melted, the male's about, looking for exposed seed heads chicks trom those unfriendly eyes. color finally does change, but not just to eat. Dressed in white ever since the The effectiveness of the female's by molting. All the males in our study preceding September, they have spent spring camouflage is as uncanny as that population changed color during a the winter on the snowy tundra as far of her white plumage in winter. We two-week period simply by getting south as the tree line and are all but in- once found ourselves crawling on dirty: literally bathing in dirt. Dirt- visible against the snow. Once settled on their territories, ptarmigan were spread thinly over our five-square-mile study area. A typical day ot fieldwork involved walking for miles as we followed and watched the birds. Our first priority each year was to find out which banded birds had re- turned from the preceding year and which birds needed to be captured and banded for the first time. The ptarmi- gan at our site were ridiculously tame, making it easy to catch them with a noose at the end of a twenty-foot-long pole. We found it hard not to giggle while slipping a wobbly noose over a walking but oblivious target. Once birds were individually color-banded, we spent our days recording the color Female ptarmigan, which acquires her mottled coloration at the very start of and condition of their plumage and spring, has a good chance of escaping the notice of raptors, Arctic foxes, docunienting the birds' daily activities and other predators. The low-growing tundra vegetation otherwise offers to see which males were successful at little protective cover. Why the male lags about a month behind the female attracting females. The hard part was in changing his appearance is one mystery the authors set out to solve. that the birds are active twenty-four hours a day, since the summer sun hands and knees in a small patch of bathing precedes their molt into the never sets in the High Arctic. tundra to rediscover a ptarmigan nest brown summer plumage by a couple we had found only a few minutes of weeks or more. The Arctic spring is brief and earlier. Motionless and blending al- intense—the transition from a most perfectly into the surrounding The presence of dirt)- males in sum- snowy winterscape to the brown tun- heather and lichen, the female was as mer seems to be universal in rock dra of summertime seems to happen close to undetectable as an animal can ptarmigan populations. In liis award- overnight. When the color of the get. Her mate, though, nervously winning book kdaitd Siiuiiiicr: Adveii- landscape changes, females shed their watching us from atop a nearby boul- iiiivs of a Bird Painter, the ornithologist white plumage as brown replacement der, was anything but cryptic. His George Miksch Sutton recalled ob- feathers grow in. This transformation white plumage practically glowed serving the same phenomenon: makes good sense, because the females against the dark tundra. The male ptarmigan was largely in winter are entirely responsible for incubating The males, in fact, delay their molt- plumage, but so worn and soiled \\'ere its the eggs and tending the chicks. The ing until about a month after the fe- feathers that it was pale gray rather than low-growing vegetation on the treeless males molt. Their spring plumage has wliite. Why the molt into dark summer tundra provides nothing in the way of two unusual features. In most bird feather should proceed so much more protective cover, and the Arctic has species the males sport conspicuous, rapidly in the hen than in her mate puzzled many predators that find ptarmigan even gaudy plumage during the us. How, \\-e continued to ask ourselves. June 2004 s.^rVK.\L HISTORY 19 — could retention of a conspicuous white male plumage throughout the period of egg laying and incubation be advantageous to the ptarmigan in its struggle for survival? Sutton was mystified by the male's delayed m.olt and conspicuousness, whereas our attention was first en- gaged by the male's dirtiness. We soon realized, however, that cleanliness and dirtiness are flip sides of the same coin. It is well known (at least among or- nithologists) that grouse and many other birds bathe in dust, a practice that discourages feather parasites and keeps the feathers in good condition. But dust-bathing does not necessarily lead to a color change, or to soiling. Studies of chickens have shown that dust-bathing cleans feathers by re- moving excess oils. And we have often seen male ptarmigan emerge from dust-bathing without soiling their plumage—though not during Male ptarmigan, only beginning to assume bis summer coloration, has stained himself the two-week spring period before light brown, a "quick and dirty" way of blending in. The stain, a temporary, transitional they molt. camouflage, is adopted when his mate begins to lay her eggs. Birds that get soiled seem to be exercising an option. Could this be mer, when males are at their most con- should prove to be true, however, it their quick and—as it were—dirty spicuous and females are ciyptic, male would not explain why males main- method of camouflaging themselves ptarmigan often suffer much higher tain their gleaining white plumage for without undergoing a feather molt? predation rates. Sometimes the casualty so long. Our findings show they do Certainly, dirty males evaded our de- rates are extreme. During May and not need to molt to become cryptic: tection until we were within twenty June, on the island of Hrisey in Iceland, getting dirty does the job just fine. yards, whereas we could easily sight Arnthor Gardarsson, an ornithologist The biologist and writer Julian clean males from more than 1 50 yards at the University of Iceland in Reyk- Huxley, grandson of Darwin's great away—or even from as much as a javik, found that a third of all breeding friend and supporter Thomas Henry mile away when the air was clear. males are killed by gyrfalcons. If this Huxley, thought that the white plum- predation rate continued year-round, a age of the male ptarmigan might dis- Detecting prey from far away is an thousand males would be reduced to tract a predator away from the female. essential element in the unique fewer than ninety within a year But when we tested that idea, pre- hunting strategy of gyrfalcons. These strong natural selection indeed! tending to be predators ourselves, the predators typically spot potential prey If predation is so high, why do ptarmigan males led us toward the from high above the tundra and then males stay conspicuous while females females rather than away. Of course, swoop down to within a few feet of the molt to a safer brown? One possible even though people have been seri- ground to launch a surprise attack. reason, suggested by the Danish or- ous ptarmigan predators for centuries, Gyrfalcons specialize in ptarmigan nithologist Finn Salomonsen, is that we might not be the best stand-ins for across much of the Arctic; in fact, they males cannot molt because their blood natural predators. are the main cause of ptarmigan mor- carries extra-high levels of testos- tahty. Because the gyrfalcon's vision is terone during breeding season. The Our close look at what was going much more acute than human vision, hormone not only plays an important on when individual males be- gyrfalcons should be able to see a white role in regulating male aggression and came dirty has, we think, shown why male ptarmigan on the brown tundra territoriality in early spring, but it also the transition to protective coloration is from many miles away. For the ptarmi- inhibits molting. In other words, de- delayed. As do many other male birds, gan, getting dirty could be a lifesaver. layed molting may be an unavoidable the male ptarmigan seems to gain mat- Several studies confirm the high cost side effect of being a good contender ing advantages from conspicuous of conspicuousness. In the early sum- in the mating game. Even if this plumage. Perhaps females find such 20 NATURAL HISTORY June 2004 No springs. No air. No water No l You'll enjoy the miracle of Weightless Sleep No better bed thanTempur-Pedic Our Weightless Sleep bed embodies an entirely new THE ONLV MATTRESS sleep technology. It's recognized by NASA. And widely RECOGNIZED BY NASA SPAC AND CERTIFIED BY THE SPACE FOUNDATION acclaimed by the media. It's the onl y one recommended -f worldwide by more than 25,000 medical professionals. Moreover, our high-tech bed is preferred by countless Free Sample/Free Video/Free Info stars and celebrities, people who demand the best. 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Either way, get dirty when their mates are laying shots, their choice may merely ensure more mating opportunities lead to their eggs and will soon have no more that their own male offspring will also greater reproductive success, or fitness. eggs to fertilize. We have also ob- be attractive to females and, therefore, As a result, the trait of sporting bright served a few males that obtained two have higher fitness. But it's also possible plumage is passed on to the male off- mates in rapid succession. These poly- that at the same time their offspring spring of bright-plumaged males. gamists got dirty later than monoga- win be inheriting some strong survival Darwin distinguished this kind of mous males, remaining clean until skills. By "strutting his stuff" with natural selection by the term "sexual their second female began laying. clean, white plumage, a male could be selection." In general, and more com- We wondered what would happen advertising his abihty to avoid preda- monly, natural selection favors traits if a female lost her eggs or nestlings to tion despite being highly conspicuous. that enhance the survival of the indi- predators and began the nesting cycle And such open risk-taking would be vidual in its environment, enabling it anew. Would her now-dirty mate have an honest signal, not a deception or a to reproduce. In the more specific case a mating disadvantage? Although such bluff, because staying alive while bear- of sexual selection, selected ing such conspicuous plumage traits direcdy enhance mating is proof of good survival skills. success (the male peacock's The other possibility is that showy tail is a classic example) clean white plumage mainly Such traits may actually reduce helps keep male competitors at the individual's chances of bay. Perhaps it functions as an long-term survival. Indeed, aggressive signal between males, the mortality data suggest that serving notice to would-be phi- among male ptarmigan, con- landerers to keep away while spicuous plumage can lead to the female is fertile. One way to untimely death, but bright distinguish between female white plumage might still con- choice and male-male competi- fer greater fitness, in the sense tion would be to create dirty that males sporting white males experimentally, early in plumage father more offspring the season, and examine the than less conspicuous birds do. consequences with respect to White plumage may be mate choice and interactions critical for attracting a mate, with other males. That experi- Establishing his spring territory, a male ptarmigan (right) has but even after pairing with a ment is much trickier than it attracted a female, perhaps thanks to his immaculate feathers. sounds, however. On several female during the breeding Another theory maintains that the male's conspicuous plumage season, a male that keeps a serves to warn away rival males. occasions we actually tried to clean profile may have an ad- "dirty" some males with so- vantage. Adulterous matings appear to re-nesting is extremely rare at our site, called indelible marker pens, but we be common in ptarmigan, and so by siinply because the breeding season is failed miserably: the males were just remaining conspicuous the male may so short, two intriguing cases suggest too good at keeping their feathers be able to better defend his territory the answer. Within a day after their clean. Those experiments highlighted against philandering neighbors and mates lost their nests to predators, two the importance of clean white plum- unmated males, or he may simply re- males cleaned up their act and went age for these birds, but they have also main attractive to his mate when she is from "medium dirty" to immaculate. taught us just how hard it can be to tempted by these intruders. So by The reason, presumably, was that their get at all of the rock ptarmigan's dirty staying white, a male could enhance mates became sexually receptive again. little secrets. his reproductive success. Once his Thus plumage soiling not only pro- Bruce Lyon is an associate professor of biology mate's eggs are fertihzed, though, he vides instant camouflage but, unlike at die University of California, Santa Cruz, would have Httle to gain by maintain- molting, is easily reversible. where he studies the evolution ofsocial signals and ing his sexually alluring appearance. reproductive strategies in birds that breed in open, evidence can offer that conspicuous plumage What we Although treeless habitats. Robert Montgomerie is a for mating this account is correct? Within a given appears important professor of biology and Killani Research Fellow breeding season, the tinting of trans- success, we do not yet know which of at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, formation firom clean to dirty often Darwin's two main mechanisms of sex- where he investigates sexual selection in a wide humans. varies dramatically among males, but it ual selection are at work—female variety of animals, including 22 NATURAL HISTORY June 2004 " IT'S AS EASY AS Immerse yourself The guaranteed in a language. one, two, three way to learn. uno, dos, tres Rosecta Stone' sottv/are Rosetta btonc will teach you a is hands-down the fastest, language fester and easier than un, deux, trois easiest way to learn a new other language-learning methods. language — and that goes for We guarantee it. 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S195 — NowS175.50 "Stui^eiidoiis...tlic Level 2 CD-ROM jitxtnjmsitioii of text, Reg. S225 — Now S202.50 sound, and fnctiire in any of these languages is masterful. Level 1 & 2 CD-ROM Reg. S329 NowS296.10 The Boston Globe — English • Spanish • French • Chinese Each fuUy inoeracrive course includes "/ German • Hebrew • Polish • Hindi • Swahili have learned over 90 lessons to help you master Korean • Dutch • Russian • Italian • Latin more in two weeks Listening, Reading, Speaking, and VVritiiig. Pashto • Arabic • Japanese • Portuguese with Rosetta Stone Indonesian • Thai • Viemamese than I did in 2 years Turkish • Danish • Welsh • Swedish ofcollege Spanishl" 1-800-695-5409 Mona. Takoma Park, MD RosettaStone.coni/rLhe064 Rosetta5tone Language Learning A Success BIOMECHANICS As the Whale Turns The shape of the humpback's flippers might hold the secret to more maneuverahle submarines. By Adam Summers ~ Illustrations by Patricia J. Wynne The humpback whale, aggregations of prey, as many that mighty leviathan of their cousins do, hump- of the briny deep, backs often make "bubble hardly strikes one as a marvel nets"—narrow, cyUndrical of agility; on the contrary, it walls of bubbles—by exhal- seems the very embodiment ing while they swim in of stateliness and power. Each circles beneath their prey the size of a school bus, these [see "Bubble Feast," by Erin awesome mammals cruise, Espelie, May 2003]. The mouths agape, so as to gather bubble nets concentrate the the tons of biomass they prey, and so, when a whale need to sate their appetites then swims through the cen- every day. ter of a bubble net, its payoff But the humpback gives is a rich mouthful. the Ue to the notion that Bubble nets vary in size, things of great bulk move depending on the kind of only by lumbering. After all, prey the whales are pursuing. who hasn't seen, at least on When a humpback is cor- film, the spectacle of a huge ralling herring and other whale's great breach, its fishes, the net may be 150 breathtaking leap from the feet wide. But when the water followed by a great humpbacks are rounding up returning splash? And under- kriU—smaU, shrimpy crus- water, the animals move with taceans—the net may be as such astonishing agility that small as five feet across. That they've caught the attention behavior raises an intriguing of naval engineers, who question: How can a thirty- hope that some of the five-foot-long animal swim principles learned from the in such tight circles? study of the humpback's The question has long flippers can be applied to Humpback whale attacks its prey by encircling tliem in a "bubble fascinated the apdy named net"—a turbulent cylinder of bubbles the whale creates by expelling designing submersible Frank E. Fish, a biomech- air through its blowhole as it spirals upward toward the ocean surface. vehicles of unprecedented anist at West Chester Uni- The path of the whale has been traced for clarity by a series of colurvns maneuverability. of bubbles. The bubble net can be as small as five feet in diameter versity of Pennsylvania. Fish Such tight turning is made possible by the hydrodynamic lift generated thought the secret to the Megaptera novaeangliae, by the whale's long pectoral flippers. humpback's tight turning the humpback's sci- radius might be its flippers. entific name, means "big-winged to their very long flippers. Hump- The humpback has the longest flippers New Englander"—a nod to the pods backs, like other baleen whales, eat of any whale, and they lie substanriaUy of humpies living near the SteUwagen large amounts of small prey. But forward of the whale's center of mass, Banks of Massachusetts Bay, as well as instead of simply swimming through well placed to exert turning forces on 24 NATURAL HISTORY June 2004 the vvlialc. In f.ict, tlic two flippers ing fluid, and the speed at which Hiiitl humpback turns, it can roll farther lc)i)k qiiitf .1 bit like wings: c.icli is and fin slitie past each other. onto its side without losing its "grip" between nine and twelve feet long, As long as the Reynolds number is on the water, and so make a sharper about four times longer than its width, held constant, a one-hundredth scale turn, because of the tubercles. and each has a rounded leading edge model oi Ml airplane wing will act just But the tubercles would seem to and a thin trailing edge. Most intrigu- like its full-scale version—and a scale solve one problem only to introduce ing, each Hipper also has large bumps, inociel of a flipper in a wind tunnel another. Protruding into the flow as called tubercles, that jut out from its can become a stand-in for the real they do, they would appear to increase leading edge, giving the flipper a thing in the ocean. That remarkable the drag of the flipper as the whale serrateci appearance. property is a huge convenience for swings into a turn. Appearances can be Over the years, biologists have engineers and biomechanists, making deceiving, though—particularly where suggested a number of possible it possible to study objects moving at drag is concerned. When the scalloped functions for the humpback's flippers. practical speeds simply by varying the flipper is held nearly horizontal in the Some have seen them as large heat viscosity of the surrounding fluid. In flow, the drag is no different from that exchangers, or prey attractors, or this case, Miklosovic and Murray kept of a smooth flipper, and at high angles devices for making sound when the Reynolds number for their scale of attack the drag is actuall)' lower. So, slapped against the water. Some have models appropriate to conditions in just when the whale is using its flipper seen them as hydrotoils—water nature by running the air past the to turn the dghtest, the flipper slides wings—that help the whale make its models faster than the whales would through water more easily than it turns. Oddly, the tubercles have not move in seawater. Yet they were still would if it had a smooth leading edge. led to the same level of speculation. Working with three engi- neers—David S. Miklosovic and Mark M. Murray, both at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and Laurens E. Howie of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina—Fish set out to test his hypothesis that the tubercles help the flipper hydrodynamically. For their work, the four investigators relied on Fluid—whether I/quid or gaseous—passing over a wing (blue arrows) rvvo scaled-down plastic replicas of a creates lift (upward-pointing arrow). But what distinguishes the humpback's flipper from an ordinary wing is the presence of tubercles, or bumps, on the humpback flipper, twenty-two flipper's leading edge (above left). The tubercles enable the flipper to inches long. One replica featured create lift at angles as steep as roughly seventeen degrees, because the prominent tubercles; the other had water gets accelerated into an organized, rotating flow behind the troughs the same area and cross section, but a formed by the tubercles. A flipper with a smooth leading edge (above smooth leading edge. Both models right) would stall, or cease to provide lift, at such an angle, because the were then tested in a wind tunnel. water would be spun into a disorganized series of eddies. A wind tunnel might not seem to be the environment ot choice for test- able to get a good idea of the effect of even as it generates far more lift than a ing a flipper that functions in water. having bumps on the leading edge. smooth flipper could. Fortunately, though, results obtained With their stiffbodies, w'hales are with airfoils in moving air can be The body of a whale is relatively far better analogues for man-made "translated" into findings that pertain stiff, and so the animal cannot submersibles than more sinuous to flippers moving in water. The key curve sinuously into a turn the way a aquatic animals are. Fish and his col- to the translation is known as the swimming seal can. To propel itself leagues hope to design guidance fins Reynolds number, a kind ot scaling around a corner, a whale instead for underwater vehicles that can give factor that combines three sets of relies on the lift generated by its flip- them some of the agilirs' that enables numbers to summarize how an object pers. Fish and his colleagues found a thirr\'-ton animal to turn on a interacts with a surrounciing fluid. In that the tubercles enable a flipper to dime—or at least a large doormat. this case, the sets of numbers relevant continue generating lift at angles of to the Reynolds number are the attack 40 percent steeper than are Ao.-iM Su.\[MERS ([email protected]) is an length and width of the wing, the possible \\'ith a smooth wing [sec ilhis- iissist.iiii protcssor ot ecology aud evolHlioiuvy density and viscosity of the surround- tration above]. In other words, when a hiolo^i)' iit the Unii'ersily of CaUfornia. Irvine. June 2001 NATUR.M HISTORY 25 — JUNE 2004 Age and Beauty Kin to both irises and onions, orchids have a long history and a large repertoire of enticing tricks. By Kenneth M. Cameron sk a glamorous older because of the advent of powerful molecular tech- woman her age and niques such as genetic sequencing—have plant bi- A the secret to her ologists been able to reconstruct the history of the beauty, and you're likely to family to which these alluring flowers belong. get a Mona Lisa smile and a deft change of subject. Until Dai-win argued that natural selection cannot take recently, botanists have met place unless organisnxs cross with other individ- with similar impenetrability uals. The reason he gave is that the survival of indi- when asking these questions viduals best adapted to prevailing ecological condi- about orchids, the glamour tions—often called "survival of the fittest"—depends queens of the plant kingdom. on the existence of a broad spectrum of characteris- The orchid family—Orchi- tics to meet whatever those conditions throw at the daceae—has a greater wealth ot individuals of a species. Sexual reproduction, with its species than any other plant radical reshuflling of genes in each new generation, family on Earth: naturally oc- gives rise to that variety. curring species number around Most plants—particularly the angiosperms, or 30,000, and artificially created hybrids in the tens of flowering plants—possess both inale and female thousands. Most of them are epiphytes, growing parts, and so they can, in principle, fertilize them- with their roots not in soil but instead harmlessly selves. The fact that they do not—indeed, that they clasping tree branches high in the forest canopy. A have evolved a wide range of strategies for prevent- few are parasites; lacking chlorophyll, they extract ing self-fertilization—seems to support Darwin's the necessary nutrients from the organism on which reasoning. In his book on orchids he documents they have made their home. One Australian genus the elaborate frills and furbelows, gimmicks and spends its entire life underground. Orchids come in traps, that lure and exploit insect pollinators, every color except black, and though few have any thereby ensuring cross-fertiUzation. Darwin's classic fragrance, the ones that do run the gamut from the volume thus also lays the foundation for the study scent of chocolate to that of carrion. of the coevolution of plants and animals: how The astonishing diversity of these plants is changes in one alter the other, leading to the ongo- matched only by the complexity and unconven- ing evolutionary adjustment of both. tionaUty of their lifestyles. Orchids are so unlike The blossoms of the orchid plant are simplified other flowering plants, in fact, that they seem to in certain respects but quite coniplex in others. live in a kind of splendid isolation from the great Consider the architecture of the stamen, the hierarchy of other organisms. Darwin wrote a book flower's male component, and the pistil, its female on them On the various coutrimnces whereby British component. Orchids belong to the class Liliopsida and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on tlie (informally called monocots), along with grasses good effects of intercrossing. The book served as a kind and lilies, which both produce stamens in multi- of sequel to his Origin of Species, and was intended ples of three. But orchid flowers typically bear just to clarify certain points crucial to the theory of nat- one fertile stamen. Furthermore, that stamen is ural selection. But only quite recently—and only fused with the pistil, forming a bisexual structure 26 NATURAL HISTORY June 2004 Orchids, the most species-rich plant family on Earth, come in an astounding array of shapes and colors. Above: Encyclia fragrans, the fragrant cockleshell orchid from Central America, is a member of the epidendroid subfamily. Opposite page: Dendrobium primulinum, an Indian epidendroid, has been overcollected because of its reputed medicinal value. June 2004 NATURAL HISTORY 27 called the column [see iUustmtion on bottom of opposite page]. PoUen is produced within the an- ther at the apex of the column. Typically, the pollen grains adhere to one another, forming one or two small masses attached to a sticky pad—a complex structure called the poUinarium. Atop the poUinarium is the anther cap, a kind of hood that prevents self- pollination and is easily dislodged by an insect's body or a humming- bird's biU. Any visitor that comes in contact with the poUinarium's sticky pad ends up conveying the entire structure, pollen and all, to Neuwiedia veratrifolia, an aspostasio/d Pogonia ophioglossoides, a North its next stopover—which may or orchid from Malaysia, has a number of American vanilloid orchid, is a close may not be another orchid of the primitive features in common with relative of Vanilla, without which baiters same species. other plants in the Asparagales order and ice cream lovers would be bereft. Because the poUinarium at- taches to any visitor that dislodges the anther cap, chance of success, may seem a risky reproductive the anther is empty when the insect or bird flies strategy—but evidently it works. Orchids, after aU, away. In other words, the orchid has a one-shot are one of the most successful famiUes of plants. chance of effectively attaching the poUinarium to a visiting pollinator, and thence to another flower. Once poUinated, the ovary of an orchid develops Increasing the odds of success is the flower's label- into a capsule fdled with tens of thousands of lum, or Up—usuaUy the largest, most colorful, most microscopic seeds. Within each seed is an amor- elaborate petal—which serves as a landing platform phous embryo made up ofjust a few ceUs; unUke the for insects, and positions the apex of the column embryos of most seed plants, the orchid embryo is immediately above the potential poUinator's body. not provisioned with a food source. Furthermore, Instead of relying primarily on firagrance or nectar the orchid progeny are protected from the elements to attract and reward poUinators, orchids generaUy by nothing more than a paper-thin seed coat, leaving use color, shape, mimicry, and overaU floral mor- them vulnerable to damage and desiccation, and to phology to lure (though usuaUy not to reward) attack by microorganisms. But the design has the them. All this reducing, restructuring, and fusing of great advantage of being economical, enabUng the the male and female floral organs, coupled with a seeds to travel great distances. lack of reward for the pollinators and a single Actually, and counterinmitively the seed's exposure to microbial attack is no bad thing. To ger- CLASS ORDER FAMILY SUBFAMILY minate at all, the seed must first be invaded by a tlingus. Once the orchid embryo makes a cellular- connection with a fongus, the im- mature seedling begins to siphon off essen- tial nutrients from its fiingal host. In other words, the orchid seedling becomes a para- site on the flmgus. The orchid may carry on with this living an-angement until it devel- ops leaves capable of photosynthesis, mak- ing it able to manufacture food on its own. Alternatively, the orchid may con- tinue to feed off its host for the rest of Simplified cladogram showing the evolutionary position of orchids in the its life, without ever producing green branching family tree of flowering plants. Orchids were the first group to chlorophyU. This strategy is caUed myco- branch off from the order Asparagales. More than 85 percent of orchid species are epidendroids, but species. from all five subfamilies are pictured in heterotrophism, and orchids are its most the photographs across the top of this page and the next. common practitioners. 28 NATURAL HISTORY June 2004 Paphiopedilum fairrieaiuim, one ot Western prairie fringed orchid Liparis condylobulbon, an epidendroid numerous orchids often called lady's (Platanthera praeclara) is a terrestrial from Southeast Asia, lives in trees, but slippers, is a cypripedioid that occurs in orchidoid that occurs in prairies in the some of its closest relatives returned to India and Bhutan. United States and south-central Canada. the ground—orchids' original dv\felling Clc.irly, oivliids arc .111 cxccption.il family iit cation, rooting it in history. Systematics— the plants. CHassitying them within the standard broad investigation into the discovery, naming, and system of taxonomy, and thereby indicating their cataloging of biodiversits'—has become not just a closest relatives, has been a matter of considerable collector's passion, but a tlindamental pursuit in bi- controversy among botanists. Some have focused ology. For the plant systematist, DNA sequences on the orchid seed as the basis for classification, yield crucial intormation about the ancestors and placing Orchidaceae alongside other myco- closest living relatives of orchids, when and where heterotrophs. Others have focused on the flower, orchids evolvetl, and wh\' they came to have such a and considered the fiimily closely related to the complex lifestyle. lilies. Still others have placed them in their own Genetic analysis shows that Orchidaceae is a unique order, Orchidales, which just sweeps the member of the order Asparagales, to which the controversy under the rug. agave, asparagus, hyacinth, iris, and onion families Recently, however, cutting- edge techniques of molecular biol- Anther cap ogy have otTered an entirely new Pollinarium basis for classification. The most Anther (partly important of those techniques is hidden) DNA sequencing—the process ot determining the exact order of the Filament Stigma nucleic acids diat coUecrively con- stitute the genes comprising the genome of the plant. Biologists have already sequenced the com- plete genomes of more than a Labellum dozen multicellular organisms, in- Ovary cluding mice, rice, and human be- LILY ORCHID ings. But the sequence ot even a small portion of an organism's Schematic representation of the reproductive organs of a lily, a "typical" bisexual genome can help reveal tuiida- flower with separate male and female parts, and a "typical" orchid, with male and female parts fused in a structure called the column. Pollen, the source of the male mental aspects of its natural his- gametes, must generally be transported by a pollinator, either as separate grains or tory the path the organism took — as the entire pollinarium (containing small masses of pollen), to the stigma of to ioiet to where it is todav. another flower to achieve cross-fertilization. The stigma leads to the ovary. The genetic approach, then, is containing the fema/e gametes; in the orch/d, the fert/feed ovary deve/ops into a amplifyino- the practice of classifi- capsule filled with tens of thousands of microscopic seeds. June 2004 N.^TURAL HISTORY 29 — Two other reasons for thinking or- chids are of relatively recent origin are that most are epiphytes (and thus pre- sumably arose after the emergence of forests full of flowering plants), and most sustain complex relationships with cer- tain insect groups (bees, for instance, didn't become pollinators until the ad- vent of flowering plants). And sure enough, most horticulturally popular or- chids evolved not so very long ago. Yet DNA data from several small groups particularly the one to which the genus Vanilla (source of the much-loved flavor- ing) belongs—support the idea that or- chids in general are of ancient origin. Vanilloid orchids, which encompass some fifteen genera that form the sub- family VardUoideae, have always posed an enigma to orchidologists. They in- Chloraea gaudichaudii, an orchidoid found in southern Argentina, has close corporate certain advanced features relatives in New Caledonia, an island in the southwestern Pacific, suggesting some are climbing vines, some have that the orchid family originated when the continents of the Old and New Worlds were still connected. winged seeds, most have highly elaborate flowers—as well as features that usually also belong. The orchid family, moreover, was the occur in more primitive orchids: they are terrestrial, first of those groups to branch off on its own. But their pollen grains are not lumped together on a pol- because orchids have left almost nothing in the fossil Hnarium, and the fusion of their stamens and pistil is record, determining a date for their origin has not less complete than in most other orchids. DNA se- been straightforward. quencing, in fact, shows that Vanilla and its close rel- Some biologists, therefore, have turned to an in- atives diverged from other orchid Uneages early on. vestigative tool known as a "molecular clock," Furthermore, vanilloid genera today are distrib- whose ticking is based on the assumption that DNA uted across the tropical belt of the Southern Hemi- mutates at a fairly constant rate. The clock is usually sphere: Africa, eastern Australia, the Pacific island of calibrated by comparing its (admittedly speculative) New Caledonia, South America, and Southeast readings with the independently agreed-upon dates Asia (especially Papua New Guinea, but also In- of some widely recognized fossils from various plant donesia and Malaysia), all of which were once part or animal families. Molecular clocks are not without of Gondwana. Although significant rifting began in their critics, but one such clock has enabled Gondwana about 165 iTdUion years ago, it was not botanists to calculate that Orchidaceae may have until about 100 million years ago that Africa and branched off prior to 100 irdllion years ago, around South America became distinct continents; Antarc- the end of the Early Cretaceous epoch—much ear- tica, Australia, and New Caledonia, however, re- lier than traditionally thought. mained in contact until as recently as 85 to 90 mil- lion years ago. If the orchid family evolved on One reason that age estimate seems surpris- Gondwana prior to 100 miUion years ago, the an- ingly ancient to many botanists is that most cestors of the vanilloid orchids would have had major orchid groups occur in either the Old World plenty of time to spread across the supercontinent or the New World, but rarely in both. A plant before it broke apart, and their family tree should group native to the continents in one of those re- reflect that historical pattern of continental breakup. gions, but absent from those in the other, might be Indeed, that's precisely what the DNA data show. expected to have established itself more recently than 100 million years ago—that is, after South So orchids have been around for a long time. But America and Africa (which were once part of the the same holds true for many other families of supercontinent Gondwana) had fuUy separated, flowering plants. What, then, has enabled orchids thereby preventing further exchanges of organisms to become so diverse? Extreme specialization in between the two landmasses. tandem with specific insect pollinators—an elabo- 30 NATURAL HISTORY June 2004 nitc li.ilk-t ot cocvolutioii — is iisii.illy i:it(.-i.l .is tin.- ing mark a shilt horn one kind of pollinator to an- priin.ny driving force. And that is almost certainly other? Does it signal some innovation in tiie struc- an iuipDit.int factor. Ikit tlic DNA dat.i suggest .in ture of the orchid's flower, fruit, leaf, pollen, seed, aitern.itivc, thoLigh ccimpleinentary, explanation. or stem? All are logical possibilities. Biologists often specify the evolutionary rela- tionships among organisms via a treelike diagram ut the DNA evidence—from five of the or- called a cladogr.im. In essence, a cl.idogram is a map B chids' chloropl.ist genes—actually points else- of history as well ,is kinship |.mc hoiioin ilhiitwiuoii on where. It turns out that the branching records a di- />.ii,'c 28\. CJenetic change takes place through time, \ergence between species that dwell almost and on the orchid's genetic tree, one of the most re- exclusively on the ground (terrestrials) and species cent (sometimes represented as one of the shortest) that dwell almost exclusively in trees (epiphytes). branches includes more than 85 percent of all or- Obviously that's a major shift, and. not surprisinglv, chid species. it was accompanied by changes in orchid physiology. That kind of pattern is generally a sign that a sin- Stems became specialized for water storage. Roots gle momentous event or a decisive biological inno- de\-eloped to absorb water from the atmosphere, vation has taken place—say, a drought that led to hold it like a sponge, and resist desiccation. Leaves desertification, or a petal transformed into a vessel learned to perform photosynthesis in sunny. wiiuK. for nectar. Such changes often lead to increased dr\'ing conditions. And so quite possibly this change e\'okitionary activity and speciation: in effect, an in both habit and habitat—even more than coevolu- evolutionary big bang. tion with pollinators—drove the evolution of the bi- The plant systematist seeking to explain such a ological innovations and the new orchid lineages. pattern would logically look for the distinguishing One mustn't rush to conclusions, though. A features ot the plethora of orchids populating that transition from a terrestrial to an epiphytic lifestyle single branch of the clado"ram. Could the branch- might ha\-e led to an explosion of diversit\- in orchid Encyclia megalantha, an epiphytic epidendroid that occurs in Brazil (compare this (lower with another species of Encyclia, pictured on page 27) June 2004 N.'iTUR.\L HISTORY 31 species, but that doesn't imply lous unrelated desert plant fami- the shift is always strictly a one- lies, such as cacti, milkweeds, and way trip, or that pollinators spurges. haven't played a major role in Yet the DNA data seem to in- the evolution of orchids. Quite dicate that orchids—^whose flow- the contrary. Several otherwise ers readily change color, form, epiphytic orchid groups appear shape, and size as a result of the se- to have descended from the trees lective pressure of specific pollina- back to the ground ("back" be- tors—disobey that "rule." Flowers cause orchids originally started can be misleading. The mode of out on the ground) . Once again, growth—whether terrestrial or DNA evidence has helped re- epiphytic—and the structure of solve the question. the leaves and stems turn out to be Consider the evolutionarUy the better indicators of malaxids' advanced group of orchids (as well as some other orchids') known as Malaxideae, which evolutionary history. traditionally includes at least Grammatophyllum speciosum, the tiger three genera: Oberonia, Malaxis, Biologists generally maintain orchid of Malaysia, is an epidendroid that and Liparis. All Oberonia species that hierarchical classification can grow several yards tall. It is the most are epiphytes, whereas all massive orchid plant on Earth. systems should be "natural"—that Malaxis species are terrestrials. Li- is, based on evolutionary relations paris, however, includes nearly equal numbers of epi- rather than on some shared attribute such as flower phytes and terrestrials. The traditional classification color, leaf shape, or geography. To some extent, a of malaxids is based on the assumption that epi- plant's name and its placement in the hierarchy should phytism was its ancestral condition, and that mem- enable one to infer part of its evolutionary history. bers of two genera independently adopted a terres- And as hypotheses about evolutionary relationships trial lifestyle. But now DNA sequences from both change, so must the names. the nucleus and the chloroplasts of more than frfty Darwin and countless other biologists of the past malaxid species show that all the epiphytic species made huge strides in understanding the natural are derived from a single common ancestor, and all history and evolution of orchids. Some of their hy- the terrestrial species are derived from another. In potheses, however, were based on educated specu- other words only one evolutionary event brought lation and have quite recently been shown to be in these orchids down from the trees again. error. New genomic data and high-speed comput- Such new hypotheses about the relations among ers have helped contemporary investigators pro- species challenge the traditional basis for classifica- pose more objective and testable hypotheses than tion: the architecture of the flowers. For centuries, those put forward by their predecessors. botanical taxonomists have Most of the DNA data focused on reproductive support traditional classi- structures, such as flower fications, but some—the parts, fruits, pollen, and data on the malaxids, for seeds. Their underlying as- instance—do not. From sumption was that the visi- where I stand, the present ble forms of vegetative century is an exciting time structures, such as leaves, to be in the business of roots, and stems, are subject botanical sleuthing. Soon to considerable change be- botanists will know a lot cause of the plant's need to more about the plant king- adapt to particular environ- dom's most glamorous ments, and thus those forms angiosperms—the flowers, are unreliable indicators of as Darwin put it, "uni- kinship. That process, called versally acknowledged to "convergent evolution," is rank amongst the most exemplified in the remark- singular and most modi- Myrmecophila brysiana, an epidendroid from Central able similarities among the America, has hollow stems that house colonies of ants, fied forms in the vege- thorny, leafless stems of var- which defend the plant against other insects. table kingdom." 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It's heaN's-^s-eight and Large Medtum quilted, and made of 200- Mtiximum Cells llCHNOSCOUT 1998 Ruffin Mill Road support for count 100% cotton v\ith a ^ " Colonial Heights, 23834 shoulders VA g and hi CO 14-inch deep stretchable skirt to fit a mattress Aii nghts reseated © 2004 TechnoBrands. Inc. A Transit of Venus Early on the morning ofJune 8, the silhouette of Venus will slip across the Sun. The event, last seen in 1882, was once the key observation in determining the size of the solar system. By Eli Maor Catcliing sight of celestial spectacles requires Kepler finished his last major work, the Rudolphine more than patiently sitting at a telescope set Tables, a compilation of astronomical data on the po- up in your backyard. Birdwatchers can pur- sitions of the Sun, Moon, and planets for every day sue their passion almost wherever and whenever of the year. On the basis of his tables, Kepler made a they choose. Flower and plant aficionados have only startling prediction, published separately: on No- to stroll through their favorite park to enjoy the vember 7, 1631, the Sun, Earth, and the planet sights and scents of nature. But to experience the Mercury would be in perfect alignment, so that for wonders of the heavens, the skywatcher must be in a few hours Mercury's dark silhouette would be vis- the right place at the right time. Moreover, even ible on the face of the Sun. That was not all: one predictable astronomical events are often notoriously month later, on December 6, the show would be rare. A total eclipse of the Sun, for example, takes repeated, with Venus in the place of Mercury. place on average only once every eighteen months. Mindful of the rarity of each of these celestial But to see it you may have to travel halfway around alignments, let alone the near coincidence of two the globe to station yourself in the path of the such events, Kepler issued an admonition to his fel- Moon's shadow. Even then, you're still at the mercy low astronomers in 1629, urging them to watch the of the elements. Some spectacular events, such as a two events with the utmost care. Should each tran- Leonid meteor shower as splendid as the one in sit take place at the time he had predicted, it would 2001, may happen only once in a lifetime—if at aU. verify the accuracy of his tables. Moreover, by ob- Few celestial phenomena can compete in rarity serving Mercury and Venus starkly projected against and in historical interest with the passage of the the solar disk, astronomers would have a golden op- planet Venus in front of the Sun; a "transit" of Venus. portunity to measure each planet's apparent diame- Only five times in recorded history has this event ter—which until that time had been a matter of been witnessed: in 1639, wild speculation. 1761, 1769, 1874, and 1882. As far as is known, only How lucky we are, then, to .•i#S^ four astronomers heeded 4'»» V Kepler's caU, one, be around for Venus's next ; and only visit to the Sun, scheduled to 't"', the Frenchman Pierre Gas- begin at 05:13 Universal sendi, left a written account. Time (1:13 A.M. Eastern day- Through a small telescope in Hght time), also called Green- his apartment in Paris, Gas- wich Mean Time, on Tues- sendi projected the Sun's day, June 8, 2004, and to end image on a screen in a dark- at 11:26 Universal Time ened room. Watching it in- (7:26 A.M. Eastern daylight tently, he could see sunspots, time) the same day. as usual, but there was also a "Transit of Venus over the Sun's Disc" is rendered in The story of the transits of small, perfectly round black this hand-colored drawing by the nineteenth- Venus begins in 1627, just dot that was slowly moving century English artist Charles F. Blunt, from his T849 three years before the death across the solar disk—the sil- book The Beauty of the Heavens. In reality, to an of the German astronomer Earthbound observer the diameter of Venus appears houette of Mercury! With Johannes Kepler. In that year to be only about 3 percent the diameter of the Sun. two perpendicular scales Gas- 34 NATURAL HISTORY June 2004 English astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks is portrayed observing the T639 transit of Venus in this oil painting, The Founder of English Astronomy, by the English artist Eyre Crowe (1891). sendi had drawn on liis screen, he estimated Mer- young, obscure English astronomer named Jere- cury's apparent diameter to he twentA' arc seconds, miah Horrocks (or Horrox, according to some about the angle a dime would subtend \\ hen viewed sources). Horrocks made a sensational discover^' from a distance of 200 yards. That was much smaller when he was just twents-one years old; he reex- than most astronomers had expected, and it stirred ai:iined Kepler's calculations and concluded that intense debate in scientific circles. Venus would cross the Sun's disk on December 4. Flushed with success, Gassendi now prepared 1639—-just eight years after the 1631 transit. himself for the transit of Venus the following Of relatively modest background, Horrocks had month. He set up his ecjuipment as before and shown an early passion for mathematics and astton- waited, but this time luck was not with him: the omy. He attended the University of Cambridge for sky was cloudy and he saw nothing. Today it is a time but did not graduate, and so was mostlv self- known that for most of Europe the transit actually educated. He made his meager living as a school- took place during the mght between the sixth and teacher in the hamlet of Hoole (now called Much seventh of December and was thus invisible. Hoole), some thirty miles northwest of Manchester. Barely a month before the transit was to take place. Kepler's success in predicting the transit of 1631 precipitated one of the strangest To obscivc the upcoming transit of Veinis, sec "Tlic episodes in the historv of astronomy. His predic- Shy ill Jiim;" by Joe Rtio, page 66. Do not look tion that Venus would not transit the Sun again directly at the Sun. until June 6, 1761, attracted the attention ot a June 2004 natur.m history 35 Horrocks hurriedly wrote to some of his friends, pared to observe the transit from his home near urging them to be on the lookout for this rare Manchester. When the moment fmally came, event. He himself began his vigil the day before, in though, he was so overcome by the sight of Venus case his calculations for the transit were a bit off. on the Sun that he momentarily lost his compo- December 4, the predicted day, was a cloudy sure, regaining it just long enough to make a few Sunday. Horrocks was at his telescope as soon as the hurried sketches before the Sun set. Sun was up, but around one in the afternoon he had Horrocks and Crabtree resolved to meet and compare their observations, but it was not to be. The day before their scheduled meeting Horrocks suddenly died at twenty-three years of age. Crab- tree, who mourned him deeply, survived him by only three years. As far as is known, only Horrocks and Crabtree recorded their observations of this historic transit. It would be more than 121 years before Venus would appear once again on the Sun's face. When that day fmally arrived, on June 6, 1761, hundreds of astronomers around the globe were ready, eager to greet the wandering planet at their telescopes. Transits ofVenus foUow a strange schedule. They cluster in pairs, eight years apart, after which no transit takes place for 105 years. Then comes an- other eight-year pair of transits, followed by 121 transitless years, before the entire cycle starts over again. For the present, and for the next few millen- Changing position of Venus against the Sun is shown for the transit of June nia, transits of Venus take place only in early June 3, 1769, as the Sun sets. The illustration was first published in 1769. and early December. That schedule is a result of the slight tilt in the to interrupt his watch, perhaps to perform some orbit of Venus around the Sun, relative to Earth's clerical duties at his church. When, by his own ac- orbit. The Earth's tilt keeps Venus clear of the Sun count, he returned to his telescope, at 3:15 P.M., (as seen fr-om Earth) during most of its passages between the Sun and the Earth. Those passages, The clouds, as if by Divine interposition, were entirely which take place every 584 days, or about every dispersed, and I was once more invited to the grateful nineteen months, are known to astronomers as in- task of repeating my observations. I then beheld a most ferior conjunctions. Only when Earth and Venus agreeable spectacle, the object of my sanguine wishes, a reach inferior conjunction along the line where spot of unusual magnitude and of a perfectly circular their orbital planes intersect in space do terrestrial shape, which had already fully entered upon the sun's observers see a transit of Venus. disc on the left, so that the limbs of the sun and Venus precisely coincided, forming an angle of contact. Not The next transit after 2004 wiU take place on doubting that this was reaOy the shadow of the planet, I June 6, 2012, followed by two December transits in immediately applied myself sedulously to observe it. 2117 and 2125. So we should consider ourselves doubly lucky to hve in a "double transit" period, But December days in England are short. Hor- giving many of us the chance to witness two tran- rocks followed Venus for barely thirty minutes be- sits in a hfetime. Meanwhile, you might want to fore the Sun set. Nevertheless, he was justly proud mark some future events on your calendar. For ex- that the transit took place at the exact time he had ample, on December 25, 3818, Venus will pass al- predicted. Alas, because of his church duties, Hor- most directly across the center of the Sun, making rocks missed what would become the most impor- this transit one of the longest ones possible—eight tant moment of the transit for determining the dis- hours and eight minutes—nearly as long as the the- tance between the Earth and the Sun—the instant oretically maximum duration. when Venus completely entered the solar disk. The next major figure in the history of transits One other person saw the historic 1639 transit: of Venus was Edmond Halley, of comet fame. On Horrocks's friend Wilham Crabtree, a draper by November 7, 1677, the twenty-year-old future As- trade. Following Horrocks's alert, Crabtree pre- tronomer Royal observed a transit of Mercury from 36 NATURAL HISTORY June 2004 the island of St. Helena, in the South Atlantic off the Ii.ivc to be determined witli great .icciiracy, a task coast ot Angola. Halley's observation t)f the transit of tliat was by no means easy in Halley's time. Ho rec- Mercury gave him an idea for answering one of the ommended the use of the rare transits of Venus for most pressing astronomical questions of his day: tile task, because Mercury is too close to the Sun to How far away is the Sun? The mean distance, called ensure accurate results. the astronomical unit, or AU—is known today to It took Halley nearly forty years to shape a de- the nearest mile (NASA puts it at 92,955,807 miles). tailed plan of action. In 1716, the now si.\t)'-year- But in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries its old astronomer submitted his plan to the Royal value was a matter of wild speculation. Most .istron- Society in London. He knew he would not live to omers, in fict, greatly underestimated it. witness the next transit, due in 1761, but he urged his younger colleagues to seize this golden oppor- Kepler's laws of planetary modon make it pos- tunity. It would be up to them to determine the sible to calculate the rcLuwc distance between length of the AU. each planet and the Sun, compared with the distance between Earth and the Sun—in other words, to cal- culate planetary distances in terms of the AU. But t:transit approached, expeditions from several finding the actual distances is another matter. It is as if European countries journeyed to remote corners of you had a map without a scale marked on it: you riie Earth, equipped with clocks and telescopes. All could tell that town A is twice as far away as town B, shared the single goal ot recording the exact mo- but you wouldn't know how many miles it is to ei- ments of ingress and egress. One team went to ther town. Determining the value of the AU was Siberia, another to the South Pacific. ,i diird to the thus the key to measuring the dimensions of the solar system. Halley's idea was a straightforward appli- cation of geometry: If two observers, posi- tioned tar apart on the Earth, could each record the duration and path of Venus as it crossed the solar disk, the times they mea- sured and the paths they plotted would dif- fer slightly because of parallax. To under- stand parallax, hold your arm straight out in front of you and raise your thumb. Now watch your thumb against a nearby back- ground, first only with your right eye, then only with your lett. Your thumb's apparent position with respect to the background will shift slighdy, depending on which eye is open. That shift is known as parallax. Surveyors employ the same effect to tlnd the distance to a remote landmark: choose ,- , , , , ,- , Device for training astronomers to time the precise moments that Ve,ius , ,. a baseline ot known length, and trom each , ^ j.u i t.i, i _/• i . ju c- ^ d _/_; n ^ entered and then left the solar disk was invented by Sir George Bidden ot Its two endpomts measure the angles be- Airy, England's seventh Astronomer Royal. Some observers practiced for tween the baseline and the landmark. With six months on the setup before traveling to faraway sites around the simple trigonometry, the surveyor can then globe where they would observe the 1874 transit. calculate the distance trom either endpoint to the landmark. Arcric Carcle: others went to .'Xfrica and India. Their According to Halley, the image of Venus would stories could till volumes of high adventure: some be starkly outlined against the solar background. w'ere successful, others were beset by \\ar, cloudy He figured that if the moments of entrance and exit skies, and giisn- winds. ot the planet from the Sun's disk (known as impress The most moving tale of all belongs to a and caress, respectively) could be timcLl by each of Frenchman by the impossibly long name Guil- his two observers to the nearest second, the AU laume-Joseph-Hyacinthe-Jean-Baptiste Gentil de could be determined to an accuracy of one part in la Galaisiere, commonly known as Le Gentil. He 500. Of course, the distance between the two ob- left for the Indian Ocean in March 1760, more servers—the length of the baseline—would also than a year before the transit. En route he stopped June 2004 NATUR..M HISTORY 37 t " at the island of Mauritius, where he learned that It was not to be. To quote Richard A. Proctor, his destination, the town of Pondicherry on the from his book T^xe Transits of Venus: southeastern coast of India, was under siege by the On June 3, 1769, at the moment when this indefatigable British it was the height of the Seven Years' War — observer was preparing to observe the transit, a vexatious between England and France. cloud covered the Sun, and caused the unhappy Le Gen- After surviving a hurricane and a bout of dysen- til to lose the fruit of his patience and of his efforts. tery, Le Gentil set sail aboard a French troop ship bound for Pondicherry in March 1761, less than To add insult to injury, Le Gentil later learned three months before the transit. Time was now run- that in Manila, his original destination, the sky had ning out. The British captured Pondicherry before been perfectly clear! It took him two weeks before the ship could dock, so it turned back to Mauritius, he could muster the courage to report his failure in plunging Le Gentil into despair. On the crucial day a letter to Paris. When he finally returned home, he was still at sea. He recorded the times of ingress he learned that he had been presumed dead, and his heirs were already dividing his property. He spent the rest of his life regaining his legal status and writ- ing a two-volume account of his exploration of the Indian Ocean. The elaborate efforts to observe the 1761 and 1769 transits marked the first large-scale in- ternational scientific cooperations in history. As a result, the AU was determined to be about 95,370,000 miles, a measure that became, in the words of the nineteenth-century American as- tronomer Simon Newcomb, "a classic number adopted by astronomers everywhere." But the "classic number" would not last for long: the re- sults of the next two transits, in 1874 and 1882, proved that it was too high; the new value was put at 92,500,000 miles. Even that value had an unac- ceptably large margin of error: about half a miUion Point Venus, Tahiti, was the site of the observatory from which Captain James miles. To the chagrin of astronomers, the atmos- Cook and several members of his British expedition viewed the 1769 transit of pheres of Earth and Venus conspired to make the Venus. The skies were favorably cloudless that day, and, as Cook wrote, "The exact timing of ingress and egress nearly impossi- little black dot [of Venus] could be clearly discerned moving across the face of the sun until it touched the far side. ble, often leaving an uncertainty of nearly half a minute. Fortunately, other methods for determin- and egress, but his observations, made from the ing the AU had by then become available, and deck of a rolling ship, were practically useless. those gradually replaced the transit method. But Le Gentil was not one to give up. He re- After a wait of more than 121 years, Venus will solved to stay right where he was, on the island of return to the Sun on the morning ofJune 8, 2004. Mauritius, waiting out the eight years until the None of the astronomers who witnessed the past next transit. During that time he explored the his- five transits of Venus are alive today, but they surely tory and geography of the Indian Ocean, crisscross- reflected on the rarity of what they saw—a re- ing it from Madagascar to Manila. The approaching minder of the brevity of human Hfe. Newcomb transit, however, was never far from his thoughts. watched the 1882 transit of Venus from the town He decided to watch it from Manila, but then got a of Wellington in South Africa, and mused: letter from the Academy of Sciences in Paris, the On our departure we left two iron pillars, on which our sponsors of his trip, instructing him to head for his apparatus for photographing the Sun was mounted, old destination of Pondicherry, even though only firmly imbedded in the ground, as we had used them. the egress would be visible from there. Whether they will remain there until the transit of 2004, He reached the town in March 1768, stiU more I do not know, but cannot help entertaining a sentimen- than a year before the event, and started at once to tal wish that, when the time of that transit arrives, the make all the necessary preparations. Transit Day ap- phenomenon will be observed from the same station, proached. 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Hudler Fungi tend to be inconspicuous, growing under a log, on a peach skin, inside a building wall. The gallery of photographs on display here highlights a few strikingly beautifU species, as visual reminders that there are entire king- doms of organisms, often neglected, that are not to be overlooked. For one thing, fiingi are extremely sensitive to the enviromnent. Whenever people get alarmed about the stability of the Earths ecosystems, j&om deforestation to global warming, This ghostly white specimen the threats to plants and animals are what invariably spring to mind. But behind IS Clavaria fragilis, a coral the scenes are the untold millions of flmgus species whose fate is bound up with fungus—so named for its the health of their sometimes more charismatic hosts—and vice versa. Fungi play a resemblance to the skeletons vital role in the web of life by taking apart the complex but specialized molecules of undersea creatures. Its assembled by plants and animals and recovering the basic molecular building blocks single-stalked fruit body is in a that fiature generations can use. Fungi are some of our best recyclers. much like the surface of a form features mushroom gill, rich with Fungi were once united as a taxonomic kingdom by such common spores. Long-term survival of as nucleated cells, the absence of chlorophyll, and reproduction by spores. Until fragilis colony requires a C. the late 1980s, for instance, students burrowed into mycology textbooks that that the germinating spores described "old" fungi (Hke your traditional mushroom) right next to chapters soon find new roots of a on such groups as sUme molds that usually don't even have cell walls. compatible plant—often a systematics have shaken the fimdamental bases tree or shrub. Together the Recent rapid advances in molecular fungus and plant form of flingus classification. Now, under the overarching headmg of the Fungi kingdom, structures known as mycor- or true fiingi, are grouped the phyla Chytridiomycota (one-tailed spores), Zygomy- rhizae (from the Greek words cota (pin molds and their diverse relatives), Ascomycota (sac fiingi), and Basidiomy- mykes, or "fungus, " and rhiza, cota (club fiingi). Similarities in critical nucleic acid sequences and morphological or "root"), which are essential features unite them all. The Oomycota (two-tailed spores), in contrast, are more for the survival of both partners. closely related to algae than to fungi. The Myx- omycota, or sUme molds, will probably be assigned to their own separate kingdom. Fortunately, many reputable scientists stiU speak about "fungi" colloquially. Thus, just as Vbu might forget you are on land as you stoop for a closer look at Calocera viscosa. It looks for all the world as if it should be among the 725 species of coral fungi because its reproductive bodies appear so similar to marine coral. But don't be fooled; the so-called yellow tun- ing fork IS actually a jelly fungus coated with microscopic spore-bear- ing cells, a feature that distinguishes the jelly fungi from all other fungi in their kingdom. Yellow tuning forks occur on the forest floor, where they digest decaying pine and spruce trees. 40 NATURAL HISTORY June 2004 Stinkhorns such as tnis Anthurus archen (a/so known as Clathrus archeri) come in all shapes and sizes, but they all give off the odor of rotting flesh. The source of the odor—enough to send even the most ardent picnickers packing—is the slimy, greenish brown matrix (seen here on the arms of the stinkhorn), which houses the spores. Some members of this group are colored bright pink to red, including A. archeri, and send out particularly strong signals: flies accustomed to dining on animal carcasses descend on the spore bodies with gusto. After they eat their fill, the insects do their part by carrying spores away on their legs or in their gut to other locations. botanists and nutrition experts unabashedly reter to fruits such as cucumbers and peas as vegetables, so it is acceptable to blame the mid-nineteentii-century Irish potato famine—caused by one ot the Oomycota, Phylophtliora iiijcsltiiis—on a tungus. Wiiat hasn't changed is tliat many people are still fascinated by fungi, drawn by their mysten,', tiieir taste, or their fantastical shapes. For some fungi, reproduction proceeds by way of niuslirooms. whicii bear spores on their gills, or by way of puflballs—the relatively large structures that produce millions of spores m dry, powdery masses, to be whisked away by a breeze. For others, spores come in slimy masses, often with characteristic odors or tastes that attract insects. And still other fungi have evoked to take advantage of the energy released by splashing rain or t,iUing sticks to impro\e their chances tor continued sur\-ival ot their species. To one who has made a career of introducing young minds to the world ot the fungi, I am con- stantly reminded that appearance is what causes newcomers to stop and look and learn and then learn some more. It seems unlikely that someone can just walk away, after seeing these specimens, without some curiosity about their structure or their role in the environment—tiingi, after all, are remarkably adept at using their spectacular forms to spread around and set up tor an extended stay. June 2004 N.^TURAl HISTORY 41 •^ > So-ca//ed earthstar puff- ^o ' bads (genus Geastrum) ^ have adapted their * \?^ shapes to literally "puff" ** their spores out from a 1 J single hole. The earthstar first keeps its spore ^hI packet enclosed in a Hi ^ tough shell of fungus tis- sue, then splits open at maturity to form a star- shaped platform. As it dries, the round puffball 3^ rises up slightly and then 4 spits out its spores. ^""r. «ti!^ii * \ w 1^4, 'wi4 ,_. •f m^ ;. ?^ H,-: : Novice mushroom nunters, beware! From the top, tins could be Macrolepiota rachodes, the shaggy parasol, edible and choice. But it could also be Chlorophyllum molybdites—the green-spored parasol, a mushroom re- feed on its Spinellus fusiger is a hairy-lool 42 NATURAL HISTORY June 2004 Rubbery fruit bodies of Bulgaria inquinans fungi are commonly found in autumn on the bark of dead oak trees. The shiny, blue-black layer that is so conspicuous or, each fruit body in the photograph is comprised of thousands of balloon- like cells, each pointing up and each containing eight spores. When the cells break open, the spores are shot a cen- timeter or more into the air, where they can be picked up by the wind. Wood decay fungi, such as Cyathus striatus, produce packets of spores in the shape of small eggs, giving them the common name bird's nest fungi. The characteristic cup-shaped fruit bodies are usually about eight millimeters wide at the top and as much as fifteen millimeters deep. When a raindrop scores a direct hit on the cups, the packets are forced up and out, dispersing the spores. Subsequent weathering degrades the shell, until eventually the spores blow free. Stemonitis splendens is one of those fungi that isn't. It's actually a slime mold, and differs from true fungi most conspicuously in the way it feeds. True fungi digest food outside their bodies by ex- creting enzymes; the prod- ucts of digestion are then absorbed into the fungus body. Slime molds flow over food such as bacteria, algae, and small animals, engulfing their meals whole. When resources dwindle, the slime mold is reprogrammed to produce spore-bearing fruit bodies. On S. splendens, these bodies look like thick brown hairs, and in this form, the mold is commonly called chocolate tube slime. June 2004 natural history 43 .^. .i^.5t.i','Saj.A . .. -Lj-Zi'-.'-Hov^i.'^-' Where Have All the Froes Gone? Biologists have examined a rogues' gallery ofpossible culprits. A leading suspect is an infective fungus. By James P. Collins 44 NATURAL HISTORY June 2004 Think of an outdoor place where yoii like the disappearances of species from national parks to walk. Take a moment and picture what and nature reserws, where the obvious historical you expect to see: familiar trees and flow- causes did not apply; somehow, habitat protection, ers, perhaps singing robins or stjuawking jays. perhaps the best way to ensure a species' survival, Think of your favorites, the plants and animals you was failing to protect some amphibians. look for, the pleasure and even reassurance that see- When the standard historical explanations could ing them brings. What if the next time you went not solve the mystery, we began to consider the pos- tor that walk, you toLuid that half of your favorites sible role of recent change. Three leading suspects were missing; that still fewer were arounci the next have emerged: global change, particularly global time; and that, by the third trip, everything you warming and increased ultraviolet radiation; to.xic treasured most had disappeared? It would be chemicals in the environment; and emerging—in painfully sad, of course, but wouldn't it seem odd, some sense, new—infectious diseases. Each suspect as well? if all the scjuirrels, say, or house sparrows in has its champions (or, perhaps, each has its accusers), the eastern United States were to suddenly disap- and most likely none is acting alone. What's more, pear, the first questions on everyone's lips would some suspected causes probably have accomplices be: What happened? Why are they gone? that we don't yet even know about. To crack the Unfortunately, for biologists studying the mystery of the disappearing frogs, the herpetolo- Earth's biodiwrsity, discovering that a familiar or- gists' "detective squad" must look at all possibilities. ganism is suddenly gone is an all-too-familiar ex- perience. Sometimes the explanation is easy. The To appreciate what kinds of stresses must be unmistakable marks of a chain saw on tree stumps considered, take the case of the California red- provide obvious clues. But more often the answer legged frog (Rana aurora draytouu), as documented is not so clear-cut. by Mark R. Jennings, a herpetologist at the Na- By profession I am a herpetologist, a biologist tional Biological Service in San Simeon, California, specializing in reptiles and amphibians. In the late and Marc P. Hayes, a herpetologist at the Washing- 1980s, my colleagues and 1 began reporting that in ton Department of Fish and Wildlife in Olympia. familiar amphibian haunts the numbers of frogs During the great California gold rush of 1849. and salamanders were declining. By the mid-1990s thousands of forty-niners made fortunes mining we were hearing reports that species were going gold. Food, though, was so scarce that even a rich e.xtinct in only a few years; the search for the an- man could have a hard rime finding something to swer to our question—why are they gone?—was eat; a chicken egg could sell for fifty cents. So becoming paramount. people turned to California's native species for food. Actually, our search became a quest for answers The red-legged frog was among the animals col- (plural!); the reality in the science, as in any good mystery, turned out to be compHcated. In fact, the full story of the decline and extinction of amphib- ian species remains unknown. But the dimensions of the problem are easier to appreciate if the lead- ing explanations are split into two major cate- gories, the historical and the recent. Historical explanations point to such causes as competition with exotic, introduced species, or pre- dation by the same; to the harvesting of wild ani- mals for food or pets; and to changes in patterns of land use. Those processes account for most of the damage to amphibian populations for much of the twentieth century, and even today. Although the details of how one of these pressures caused a species to disappear may elude biologists, liistorical stresses often leave clues—some as obvious as the mark of a Cloud Forest Reserve (above), in Costa Rica, used chainsaw—from which an investigation can begin. Monteverde to host the harlequin frog (opposite page), which is now extinct. Of course, none of these historical pressures is A variety of stresses likely related to rapid climate change is to unique to amphibians. in any event, the de- And, blame. Global warming causes the clouds that define the forest clines and extinctions in the 1980s and 1990s left habitat to form at higher altitudes than they have in the past, few, if any, clues. Perhaps our biggest shocks were essentially robbing the amphibians of their home. June 2004 N.^TURAL HISTOR.Y 45 port, wild stocks supply almost 95 percent of worldwide demand for frog legs and frog products. Worldwide, the FAO estimates, at least 5,200 tons of frogs—more than 200 times the peak harvest of red-legged frogs—^were collected annually world- wide from 1987 until 1997. Given the history of the red-legged frog, those harvests are so large that at least some local populations are almost undoubt- edly being depleted. Many countries on the FAO Hst of heavy producers are also rapidly developing countries (just as California was in the nineteenth century), which entails rapid changes in land-use patterns. Species such as the North American bull- frog are being introduced in new regions, such as South America. Clearly, the causes of historical amphibian declines have not disappeared. In spite of the worldwide scope of the problem epitomized by the red-legged fi-og, those threats California red-legged frog fell prey to the voracious appetites still do not explain the rapid disappearance of spe- of nineteenthi-century Californians, whio hunted the species cies from undisturbed and protected areas. Biolo- until it collapsed. Still craving frogs' legs, Californians imported ways bullfrogs to raise for food. The farmed bullfrogs became feral, gists have been forced instead to focus on the competing with, and often eating, the native amphibians. amphibians might be particularly harmed by recent environmental changes. Many amphibian species, lected, but populations could not sustain the hunt- for instance, have both terrestrial and aquatic stages, ing indefinitely. By the end of the nineteenth cen- making them susceptible to stresses on land as well tury commercial frog harvesting had crashed: after a as in the water. Permeable skin and eggs without a peak harvest of twenty-five tons (about 120,000 shell also increase their susceptibihty. The most frogs) in 1895, by 1907 CaHfornia produced quan- likely new threats, to which natural selection in react, tities too small to bother reporting. amphibian populations has had httle time to Even as populations of the red-legged frog col- include: changes in global climate at an unprece- lapsed, consumer demand for frogs remained high. dented rate, the introduction of novel toxic cheiTU- Between 1900 and 1935 entrepreneurs created cals, and emerging infectious diseases to which the "frog farms" in California's Central Valley. But be- amphibians have never before been exposed. cause native frog populations were largely gone, In the tropical cloud forests of Costa Rica and the producers imported bullfrogs (Ratia catesbeiana) from the eastern U.S. Although the commercial enterprises eventually failed, the bullfrogs thrived, and the animals left over from the abandoned '^S'- commercial operations established feral popula- tions. Large, invasive, and voracious as adults, bull- frogs often out-compete—and often eat—native amphibians. Since the 1930s they have replaced -^4 red-legged frogs in many habitats. What's more, even as the Central Valley became a major source •^^i^'ifS of edible frogs, Californians were converting wet- lands to farmland on a massive scale. The triple blow of uncontrolled harvesting, an aggressive ex- otic species, and the loss of habitat nearly created a Tissue of an Australian frog infected by the fungus an emerging pathogen, is knock-out punch for red-legged frogs. Batrachochytridium dendrobatidis, magnified some 400 diameters in the photomicrograph. The The case history of the red-legged frog is likely fungus infects amphibians around the globe. Of the three quite common. In 2001 the U.N. Food and Agri- banded layers in the sample, the upper one is infected; off- issued a report tided culture Organization (FAO) white vessels called sporangia (S) contain black spores. One "The World Market for Frog Legs," based on data sporangium (D) is releasing its spores as a hole opens in its collected from 1987 to 1998. According to that re- side; many other sporangia, already empty, are visible, too. 46 NATURAL HISTORY June 2004 P.m.iin.i, .It altitudes between .iboiit 5, ()()() to 9,000 lierkeley, and his students luive shown th.it minute feet, L;k)b.il warmiiit; poses a elear tlireat to the local levels of atrazine, .1 widely used herbicide, c.mse in- ecosystem. Changing climate alters the patterns of dividual leopard frogs (Rana pipieiis) to develop temperature, mist, and rainfall, causing cloudbanks lioth ovaries and testes. These accidental hermaph- tt) form at increasing elevations, ,uid compressing rodites cannot reproduce. Although no one knows the possible range for cloud forests. Such a clear how such deformed frogs affect a population, there causal relation makes the cloud forests excellent is no reason to expect the effect to be positive. natural laboratories tor studying the effects ot global warming on amphibians. The amphibians There is one threat, however, that might con- living there are often supported by the water in the nect a number of recent losses of amphibians: clouds. And sure enough, frog populations in cloud emerging infectious diseases. Several features distin- forests have significantly declined, and a number ot LTuish an emerij-inti disease from an established one: species have become extinct. Nevertheless, rising temperatures per se don't seem to be killing the amphibians. What is hap- pening instead, according to investigators such as Allen Pounds of the Tropical Science Center in San Jose, Costa Rica, and his colleagues, is that by narrowing the range of cloud forests, global warming could be forcing populations of amphib- ians to live together so densely that they become more susceptible to stresses such as disease-causing pathogens. Global warming is also making the cloud-forest habitat so attractive to species from lower elevations that they are invading and could threaten the amphibian communities. Oi course, global temperatures have fluctuated throughout the evolutionary history of amphibians, but that tact does not address the unprecedented speed with which temperatures and moisture pat- terns are predicted to change, and the possibility that amphibians won't be able to keep up with the shifting locations of their cloud-forest habitat. Even if the present amphibian declines are not caused by global warming, the magnitude of the predicted changes will likely threaten all amphibians. What about the role of ultraviolet radiation? Studies by Andrew R. Blaustein at Oregon Leopard frog is the poster child for the effect of pollutants on amphibian populations. The male leopard frog undergoes State University in Corvallis and his students have feminization when exposed to the common herbicide demonstrated how increased UV radiation has di- atrazine, which spurs the development of both testes and minished the hatching success of amphibians in the ovaries and leaves the animal unable to reproduce. Levels of Pacific Northwest. Blaustein has noted the effect atrazine high enough to cause this unhappy change have was particularly strong when other stressors were been identified in tap water in the American Midwest. present, such as global warming or changes in pre- cipitation patterns. So far investigators have not it m.i\' be newly recognized by biologists: it may been able to show that places where amphibians are be a known disease that has recently appeared in a declining are exposed to increased UV radiation, new population; or it may be an established disease but UV exposure could still be part of a complex that is rapidly increasing in incidence, \drulence. or set of interacting stresses that are causing declines. geographic range. AIDS. SARS, and hepatitis C are As tor the other environmental stresses, labora- aD diseases that have emerged in human popula- tory research has long demonstrated that pollut- tions 111 the past fifty years or so. Amphibians, of ants such as pesticides and herbicides can kill or de- course, don't sutFer from those diseases, but they bilitate amphibian lar\'ae and adults. For example, do sutTer from others. The two major suspected Tvrone B. Haves of the Universit\' of Cahtornia. emerging pathogens of amphibians are a fungiis. June 2004 NATL'RAL HISTORY 47 BatracliocliYtriditiin dendrobatidis, and a class of viruses Iridoviruses, the second kind of pathogen, make known as iridoviruses. up a large group of viruses that occur around the The decline and extinction of frogs and toads in world. A research group of students and postdoc- Australia, Central America, and North America are toral associates at Arizona State University in associated with B. dendrobatidis. Analysis shows that Tempe, led by Elizabeth Davidson, Bertram Ja- thirty-two globally distributed strains of the fungus cobs, and me, collected virus samples from tiger are closely related, which suggests it emerged only salamanders (Ambystoma tigriniiin) in six western recently. Of the infected amphibian populations, states and two Canadian provinces. We found only the most susceptible species occur at relatively high sUght genetic diversity in our samples, suggesting elevations in the tropics. They also have large bod- that, like the fungus strains, the viruses in at least ies and breed in streams, which is consistent with some populations only recently emerged as infec- what is known about the biology of the fungus. tious in the salamanders. Out of forty-six affected Australian frog species People are probably partly to blame for the quick analyzed to date, mainly from eastern Australia, but spread of the virus. Tiger salamanders are com- especially from the northeast, thirteen species appear monly used as bait in the western U.S., and so they to have decHned, and three are extinct. Of the frog are shipped by the millions from ponds, marshes, species surveyed in Costa Rica and Panama, many of and stocktanks in the Great Plains. Those bodies of which spend at least part of their lives in streams at water can serve as excellent incubators and reser- high elevation, three-quarters have declined, and B. voirs for the virus. Fortunately, though, the virus dendrobatidis is associated in almost every instance. has not proved to be as harmful to salamanders as B. The precipitous declines of the Wyoming toad dendrobatidis has been to frogs and toads. (Btifo baxteri) and the boreal toad (B. boreas) in the Ironically, even as some amphibian species are de- U.S. likewise are associated with infection by the clining or going extinct, others are increasing in fungus. Both species live above 7,500 feet. numbers and range. In fact, the latter species prob- ably play a major role in the overall pattern of de- cline. For example, marine, or cane, toads (Bufo mar- inus) were introduced into Queensland, Australia, from South America in 1935, to eat beetles feeding on sugar cane. As it turned out, they rarely ate the beetles, but they dispersed rapidly, by as much as twenty-five miles a year, and by now they have reached the Northern Territories. Likewise, American bullfrogs, endemic to the eastern U.S., have become established not only in the western continental U.S., but also in Hawai'i, South America, Mexico, various Caribbean islands, Europe, and Asia. And bullfrogs are just one of a number of amphibian species people have moved, either by accident or for some intended benefit. But the exotic newcomers not only displace native species through competition and predation; they can also carry pathogens such as B. dendrobatidis. The global decline and extinction of amphibians is not a simple problem. Whatever the causes, the extinctions can be understood in a couple of ways. On the one hand, the history of Ufe is a story of extinction: 99 percent of the species that ever ex- isted are now extinct. On the other hand, extinc- tion, as it is happening now in amphibians, also oc- curs on a much smaller scale, as one, two, tens, or American, or eastern, bullfrog, originally from the eastern even dozens of species die out in various locales. United States, has become an invasive species around tl^e Time affects how we understand extinction, too. globe, carrying diseases, out-competing native amphibians, and—somew,hat ironically—posing a general risk to the One can only stand in awe before the fact that 99 continued existence of amphibian biodiversity. percent of species have disappeared over thousands 48 NATURAL HISTORY June 2004 1 's: > m V -''^., Congregation of male golden toads competing for mates is likely a tfiing of the past. Once endemic to Costa Rica's Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, the frogs have disappeared. Their legacy, however, may be to spur the preservation of other frogs. Ibaiiez or millions of years: the span of time alone is im- Berkeley, were studied recently by Roberto possible to grasp. But the disappearance of amphib- and Cesar Jaramillo of the Smithsonian Tropical etiort to ians and other species in perhaps less than a human Research Institute in Panama as part of an species in the genus. The lifetime is far more shocking and worrying. These describe the number of is an un- e.xtinctions become a problem to solve rather than results suggest that the Monteverde form wiki the natural course ot thnigs. known species that had gone extinct in the The final irony of the recent amphibian extinc- before it was even described. not the tirst such case. tions is that, as the t\ventieth century gives way to That ti-og, of course, was the twenty-first, species are disappearing just when Some 360 million years ago, the forebears of today s than herpetologists are poised to make great progress amphibians, creatures that could grow to more that also har- in describing and understanding them. Throughout six feet long, walked in great marshes of the twentieth century the number ot ampliibian spe- bored ferns the size of oak trees. The amphibians Yet the present cies described by scientists increased each decade. today are smaller and less numerous. Molecular methods and more research combined to generation has its charms—in the sounds of spring tbrests. increase greatly the rate of discovery since the 1970s. and summer evenings in marshes, meadows, continuous sounds The harlequin frogs of the genus Atclopus, which and deserts, and in the nearly the inhabitants of disappeared in the 1990s from the cloud forests ot and stunning colors and shapes of coming to Monteverde, Costa Rica, afford a particularly tropical forests. Some of those songs are signs of life else\\-here in poignant case. Specimens collected m that region an end. Even as we look for species disappear decades earlier and stored in the Museum of Verte- the solar svstem, we are watching L brate Zoology at the University of Cahfornia, on our own planet even' day. June 2004 N.ATUK..M HISTORY 49 THIS LAND Mono Mania You can't drink the water, hut brine shrimp and alkaU flies prosper in a mineral-rich California lake. By Robert H. Mohlenbrock my wife Beverly and I ice age ended, about 12,000 years Asdrove down U.S. Highway ago, water from the melting glaciers 395, heading south toward enlarged the lake until it was 900 feet Lee Vining, California, we crossed deep and covered 358 square miles. over the crest of a pass and found a Since then, however, Mono Lake has large, silvery lake spread before us. been evaporating and shrinking. And Covering sixty-six square irdles, the as that process continues, the salts waters of Mono Lake fill a deep and minerals washed into it by the depression in the center of a basin- mountain streains become increas- shaped landscape. Beyond the lake we ingly concentrated. saw gray-topped mountains. Known On average, the region gets only as the Mono Craters, these mountains ten inches of precipitation a year, are volcanic in origin, and the gray mostly as snow: far too little to we were seeing was not snow, but ash counter the drying trend, hi addition, The peculiar tufa towers owe and pumice from eruptions that took in 1941 the city of Los Angeles began their existence to calcium in place as recently as 600 years ago. to divert the water from four of the freshwater springs entering beneath Approaching the lakeshore, we five major streams that enter Mono the lake and mixing with the lake could see that the water was bordered Lake. Within four decades the lake water. The result is the formation of by grotesque gray formations; others dropped forty feet and its surface area solid structures of a porous calcium pierced the lake surface from below. shrank from eighty-six to sixty square carbonate rock also known as traver- All were so-called tufa towers, forma- miles. Then, after much debate be- tine. The tufa towers originally tions of calcium carbonate deposited tween officials from Los Angeles and formed below the surface around the by the irdneral-rich lake water, which people concerned about the future of mouths of springs, but some of them is two and a half times saltier than sea- Mono Lake, the State Water have become partly exposed by the water and eighty times more alkaline. Resources Control Board issued a de- falling water level, and others are The federal government has desig- cision in 1994 that protects the lake now totally stranded on the shore. nated the lake and its surroundings and the streams that feed it. The ones in the readily accessible the Mono Basin National Scenic South Tufa Area are between 200 Area, and the natural attractions are and 900 years old. under the care and management of On the north shore of Mono Lake the Inyo National Forest and the Hes Black Point, a 576-foot hill orig- Mono Lake Tufa State Reserve. A inally created underwater by volcanic modern visitor center overlooks the eruptions. As its top cooled and con- west side of the lake. tracted, it developed narrow crevices The Mono Basin was formed more than fifty feet deep. Today you 3 million or 4 million years ago, For visitor information, contact: as the Sierra Nevada was uplifted IVlono Basin Scenic Area Visitor Center to the west. Water runoff from the Mono Craters P. O. Box 429 mountains created Mono Lake, i.^\~lnyo'National Forest Lee Vining, CA 93541 because the surroundingbasin has 'i \ 760-873-2408 1-" no natural outlet. When the last Miles www.r5.fs.fed.us/inyo/ 50 NATURAL HISTORY June 2004 Russian tiiistlc, smothcrwecd (also called bassia), svveetsccnt (better called stinkweed!), and western tansy mus- tard. The attractive alkali buttercup also grows here. Sagebrush scrub In some areas, such as around Panum Crater on the south shore of Mono Lake, plants grow in pumice and volcanic ash, using long taproots to reach freshwater lar un- derground. The shrubs, often widely spaced, include big sagebrush, bitter- brush, desert peach, hollyleaf burr ^<*--- ragweed, and spiny hopsage. Freshwater marsh A few wetlands around the lake are the freshwater '::WMi #^' honies of a variety of rushes and I'' sedges as well as cattails. Growing ^ among the tufa formations in the f-ti',>'- marshes are dock, giant red Indian paintbrush, groundsel, horsetail, Formations o( calcium carbonate, built up on the lakebed Rocky Mountain iris, an aquatic where catcium-rich spring water flowed into alkaline Mono speedwell, stinging nettle (w hich Lake, are now exposed because the lake level has fallen. often surrounds each tower), and wil- low herb. The marshes are excellent can walk inside the crevices and view walk into the lake in an air bubble areas to see red-winged blackbirds, tufa towers thought to be about and lay their eggs on tufa. After swallows, Virginia raUs, and yellow- 10,(K)() years old^ hatching, the larvae grow for three or headed blackbirds. Although sometimes referred to as a four weeks and then pupate. (The dead sea, Mono Lake supports ample Paiute Indians who lived in the area Streamside A good variety of woody hfe. Quite recently, in fact, Richard B. used the pupae for food.) The adult species grow along the streams that Hoover and Elena V. Pikuta, both mi- flies begin to emerge and mate in the feed the lake. Among the trees are crobiologists at NASA's National late spring. Most live for just a few Fremont cottonwood, lodgepole pine, Space Science and Technology' Center \veeks, but some adults, as well as narrowleaf willow, and quaking aspen. in Huntsville, Alabama, discovered some eggs, survive the winter to The shrub layer includes mugwort. some previously unknown bacterial begin the cycle anew. red osier, silver butfaloberiy, and species that live in the lake's salty, alka- The shrimp and flies are major food Woods' rose. The night-blooming line, oxygenless mud. (These investi- sources for eighty species of migrating Hooker's evening primrose is a gators are on the prowl for the kinds birds. An estimated 1 .5 million eared common \Aildflo\\er. of organisms that might survive in ex- grebes, 50,000 Wilson's phalaropes, treme extraterrestrial environments.) 50,000 California gulls, and 200 Mountain slope Surrounding the lake More conspicuous species are green snowy plovers visit Mono Lake each are open woods with relatively low- algae, brine shrmip, and alkali flies. spring and summer. Red-necked growing trees and a scattering ot In winter, when the single-celled phalaropes stop off on their way to shrubs. The most prevalent trees are algae reproduce unhindered, the lake their winter home in South America. juniper. Utah juniper, and single-leaf turns a pea-soup green. At other pinyon. Commonly associated with times of the year, the algae become HABITATS them are curl-leaf mountain ma- food tor the brine shrimp and the hogany, desert ceanothus. Mormon larval and adult tiies. The shrunp, Alkaline flat Trees are absent in the tea, and serviceberry. which grow to about half an inch salty flats that surround the lake, but long, are active from April to t^vo shrubs, greasewood and rabbit- Robert H. Mohlenbrock is professor October, laying eggs that oven\ inter brush, are common. Saltgrass forms ancrims ojphmt biology at Southern Illinois on the lake bottoni. Alkali flies can mats, above which protrude prickly University in Carbondale. June 2'j NATURAL HISTORY 51 REVIEW The Fate of the Soul Centuries of "experimental philosophy" and cognitive neuroscience have led to a revolutionary understanding of how the brain makes the mind. By William H. Calvin any organ could claim to be the boundary between the hving and the Soul Made Flesh traces the rise in Ifseat of feeling and intellect, surely inert, there is a gray zone at the level England of experimental philosophy it was the heart. Until three cen- of molecular biology. The stiU-useful through the lives of the so-called vir- turies ago, that seemed a fact too ob- distinction is expressed by the special tuosi—anatomists, physicians, and vious to contest. Unlike other organs, word we employ for the formerly ani- philosophers—in the dozen years be- you can feel your heart pounding mated: "dead." fore they banded together to form the away inside you. If you start thinking What really counts, physiologists Royal Society in London in 1660. It exciting thoughts, it beats even taster. now know, is "brain dead." Even was the virtuosi who began to re- If it stops beating, you are animated though some ancient philosophers place Aristotle's theory of the soul no more. And so the heart seemed to knew the brain plays a role in paraly- with knowledge about the body and be the seat of the soul. the brain gleaned for the first time "Soul" was the name for what ani- through the scientific method. In TIte Sotil Made Flesh: mated something, what gave it goals Birth of the Mind, Gary Marcus writes The Discovery of the Brain— and the ability to make things happen. from the twenty-first-century per- and How It Changed the World Just as people now distinguish hard- spective of how the brain makes mind by Carl Zimmer ware from software, anatomy from ("soul" has now been dropped from Free Press, 2004, $26.00 physiology, brain from mind, nouns the scientific vocabulary). He de- from verbs, and form from function, it scribes the biological basis for higher The Birth of the Mind: was once commonplace to distinguish mental processes, and explains how How a Tiny Number of Genes body from soul. Besides The Soul, the gene-controlled process of wiring Creates the Complexities philosophers also believed in various up the brain leads to behavioral differ- of Human Thought "httle souls," which made the bodily ences between individuals—the in- by Gary Marcus organs into something more than born source of the unique individual- Basic Books, 2004; $26.00 meat. The stomach's soul, for instance, ity of every mind. was said to attract food down from the mouth. Once seventeenth-century sis, seizures, and behavioral derange- Like most brain scientists, I am in- science began to realize the heart is just ment, that knowledge was regularly consistent in using the term a humble pump, it was as if the soul overlooked for the following 2,000 "mind" (and I haven't heard a serious had suddenly fled the chest Uke a rest- years. The Delphic oracle's reputed discussion about the soul's interface less ghost to lodge itself in the head. advice to "know thyself" has had a with the brain for thirty years). Some Today we physiologists would point rocky road. No one understood what say "Mind is what brains do," but most out that the "Httle soul" animating an was inside the brain. No one was able of what the brain does is routine and organ is simply its function, which to imagine how all that fatty stuff no different from what all other animal arises from the emergent properties of could animate us, enabling us to think brains do: controlling the search for a "committee" of cells. And we would complex thoughts and communicate food and mates, analyzing the sensory suggest that the big, catchall Soul is them to others. Soul, mind, and brain inputs, and deciding what to do next. one of the brain s higher functions. all overlap—but how much? Can we What are so obviously mindlike are Only forty years ago, it also seemed do without one category entirely? the higher intellectual functions in- obvious that the world was divided Two new books now provide im- volving structured thought. And de- into animated stuff and -nonanimated portant perspectives on that question spite the accomplishments of centuries stuff. But now, instead of a sharp for the general reader. Carl Zimmer's of science, which are celebrated in 52 NATURAL HISTORY June 2004 — these two hooks, scientific Iciiowledge Yet there is a major harrier to creat- about, just from the clues in the short of iiow and wily our remote ancestors ing longer sentences. As the number string of sounds I utter. You thus first developed these higher capacities of words increases, there are so many recreate my model of events in your is still anything but complete. ways they could relate to one another mind. This everyday exercise in struc- Some 5(1, 000 years ago a burst ot that you drown in ambiguiry. Short tured speech, even if its only use was to technological and artistic activity sentences—at least in context—are gossip about who did what to whom, erupted in Africa and soon became a seldom ambiguous, so structuring is likely facilitated logic, narrative, and great profusion of art, trading, body optional. But long sentences—the contingent planning—perhaps even decoration, and new tools. structured music. The material evidence of that creatiw explosion is evertheless, you may taken as an indicator of the N:ask, weren't our an- minds "big bang": the cestors gradually getting time .ifter which Homo smarter, as the brain en- sai'iciis did things from larged threefold in die past which we infer that, for several million years? Big- the first time, people ger is smarter, is better could think long, compli- why, it seems obvious. cated thoughts, much as That common assump- we do today. tion, however, is chal- What triggered that lenged by what archaeol- "modernity"? Was it an ogists have been finding enhanced ability to imi- in the past few decades. tate? Planning ability? There were two early The use of symbolism, periods of human his- even words? Many sus- tory, each lasting a mil- pect that the spark 50,000 lion years, without obvi- years ago may have come ous signs of toolmaking trom the development of progress, despite all of structured language. the brain enlargement A protolanguage made going on at the same of nothing more complex time. The increases in than short sentences, sim- brain size must have ilar to the ones uttered by been driven by some- two-year-olds, could have thing that has not been been around for a long preserved for the archae- time, slowly building vo- ologists to find—perhaps cabulary without length- protolanguage. imitation, ening sentences. Without expanding cooperation, longer sentences, though, or more accurate throw- ancestors ing. Perhaps cleverness our probably Jeremy Comins, Introspection, 2001 lacked long and complex was a by-product? But if thoughts. That most likely restricted kind that children today are begin- the bram-size increase resulted in them to a mental life in the here-and- ning to figure out at age three—are gradually increasing cleverness (ag^iin, now. They would have been unable to possible only through structuring the common assumption), note that it see themselves as the narrators of a life language with syntax. It works like didn't gradually improve their tool- story, always (as we are today) at a this: I can have a model in my mind making. Oops. Even more to the crossroads between alternative inter- of who did what to whom, where, point, by the time of the minds "big pretations of the past and various paths when, and why. If you and I share a bang," people who looked like us, projected into possible futures. (They knowledge of ho\\- to place words big brain and all, had been running might not have worried much, either, and phrases around a verb to tell a lit- around Africa for more than 100,000 Although they saw death every day, tie story, and of how phrases and years without showing signs ot mod- without the abilirs' to speculate about clauses can be nested inside one an- ern beha\-iors like fine toolmaking. the future thev could not conceive of other, you can correctly guess the Oops again. The big brain may (or their own mortality.) novel set of relationships In: thinking niav not) turn out to be necessar\- for June 2004 N.\TURAL HISTORY 53 our kind of intelligence, but it sure the practice of science as they went aristocratic patients to surrender the isn't sufficient for modernity. along, but also to navigate the treach- bodies of their dead for autopsies. Once writing was invented, around erous waters of well-estabHshed doc- Because the brains belonged to England's 3200 B.C., knowledge could not be trine regarding the soul. ruling class, it became hard for his readers lost as easily as before; you could actu- to dismiss his observations. The re- WiUis and the rest of the virtuosi who ally learn from dead people, and even spectability emerged from the English Civil War pon- of his success allowed Willis reanimate their ideas. Indeed, as Zim- his mechanical, dered how they should go about gather- to expand chemical ex- mer's historical account makes clear, ing knowledge through experiments and planations of the brain to include the soul the ideas about the soul expounded itself without being accused of heresy. observations, but only in an ad hoc way. It first by Aristotle and then by Galen, was [John] Locke who [subsequently] That tactic of WUhs's for gaining sci- the Greek philosopher-physician of transformed this kind of thinking into a second-century Rome, kept popping full-blown philosophy, one that would be- entific acceptance, as Zimmer points up—and preventing progress—for come the heart of the scientific method. out, was a clever bit of social jujitsu. two millennia. Beginning in the six- teenth century, as standards improved The new science of human nature One might think, in the enhght- for what constituted an adequate ex- conflicted with some vested interests ened present, that holding non- planation, many traditional concepts concerning the soul. Selling indul- conformist views about the comings about human bodily and mental ani- gences, for instance, to ensure pre- and goings of the soul would not be mation began to seem simplistic, or ferred treatment for your soul in the criminalized—but that's what is hap- even erroneous. In the seventeenth afterlife, had become a big business, pening. The fallacy of "the httle per- century, as Zimmer recounts, the aided by the invention of the printing son inside" (about which, more in a English physician WiUiam Harvey fig- press. The tortures imposed on dis- minute) has long confused matters ured out that the "soul" of the heart senters by the inquisitions of the even for modern psychology students, seemed to be all about pumping end- Roman Cathohc Church attested to who expect "a viewer" to be at some lessly. The organ just didn't seem to the dangers of thinking differently, location inside the brain. Centuries have the right stuff for all those other and many an early scientist-philoso- ago, a httle person was imagined to he functions ascribed to it. pher was wary and guarded for good within a sperm. (Now the little per- reason. The natural philosophers who son is imagined inside the fertilized The search for a better seat of per- populate Soul Made Flesh were no ex- egg. This is not progress.) The httle sonhood soon began to focus on ception. "In 1666," Zimmer writes, person or soul causes endless confu- the brain. Christopher Wren, remem- "bishops blamed [London's] fire and sion in otherwise responsible reason- bered today mainly for his grand ar- plague on [Thomas Hobbes's] athe- ing about regulating abortion. chitecture and for rebuilding London ism." Although Hobbes was never for- "When life begins" is a phrase that after the great fire of 1666, was partic- mally charged as a heretic, he was already carries with it the idea that the soul pops out of a starting gate at the moment the sperm enters the egg. Ascribing thought to a person inside the head is like Next we see the dubious hne of rea- soning that concludes that a single cell asking, "What makes a car move?" and answering, legal personhood. It's " has achieved "Another car inside" instead of "An engine. only another small leap to claiming that interference with such a one-ceU stage of a fertilized human egg is ularly skillful at illustrating dissected "forbidden to write ever again about manslaughter or murder. brains. (He also invented intravenous human nature." Few people, however, seem to real- injection—pretty good for an Oxford Even medical men such as Willis ize that nature seems rather careless professor of astronomy.) Wren's coun- had to tread warily through both the with early embryos; many beginnings tryman Thomas Willis, an anatomist religious and the social conventions. are not finished. At least one in four and physician who plays a central role Zimmer notes that for most of his embryos is spontaneously aborted in in Zimmer's history, "did for the brain working life, Willis was allowed to the first several months. In women and nerves what William Harvey had dissect only the bodies and brains of who smoke too much (or drink from done for the heart and blood: made condemned criminals—his results the wrong water supply), three out of them a subject of modern scientific could thus be ignored because they four may be lost. (The usual figures of study." As Zimmer makes clear, how- pertained only to the brains of the between 10 and 15 percent for "preg- ever. Wren, Willis, and the other vir- "abnormal." Willis, however, was nancy loss" refer to what happens even tuosi were forced not only to invent good at persuading relatives of his later, once pregnancy becomes obvi- 54 NATURAL HISTORY June 2004 — oils.) riiosc lumibcis arc, iit course, tar also containing a little person inside. must be possible for structured mental greater than those of elective abortions. With what, however, does science activity' to become qualitatively im- So when conflicts arise in the early replace the little person inside? How proved. How do you manage to do stages of pregnancy, many people have does the brain make mind? To begin something structured that you've never concluded that the beginnings need to address those questions—to do jus- done before—say, utter a long sentence not be finished—that other considera- tice to the complexity of human about a friend's hopes and fears? Some- tions (time, place, health, resources, imagination, foresight, and capacity how you start with an incoherent jum- the father, other responsibilities) can for reflection—you have to come to ble of concepts, then you improve its reasonably be taken into ac- count by the prospective mother. Many biologists and some modern theolo- gians, too—would add that, just as a pile of construction materials and some assembly instructions does not consti- tute a house, neither does a fertilized egg and its genome constitute a person, absent a lot of "value added" over many, many months. Whatever one thinks about the soul and its connection with the contemporary abor- tion conflict, the terms in which that issue is argued make it abundandy clear that big ideas still matter. And the soul is one of the big ideas of all time. immer gives us a his- tory early z of concepts Rene Magritte, Le Double Secret, 1927 of soul and mmd. in Soul Made Flesh, and Marcus gives us an grips with three basic conceptual fea- qualits-, editing them into a more co- overview of contemporary notions of tures of human mentality'. herent sentence in a second or two, be- mind, in The Birth of the Mind. In a First, mental life and functionality fore you finally decide to go with it. nutshell, the t\\o books tell the story develop gradually. They occupy no How did the human animal ever ot how centuries of scientific inquiry single spot in the brain. And thev acquire such features of mind? The have led to new and revolutionarv ex- form a push-and-pull web of influ- only relevant process known m nature planations for what animates us. ences rather than a tallmg-domino is DarA\in"s variation and selection. Many ot us, as I mentioned earlier, chain of causation. Of course, one can see the Dar\vinian imagine a litrie person inside the head Second, human mental life depends, process at work on a grand time scale, watching sensoi-y inputs, then telling crucially, on structuring to keep con- in the evolution of new species. But the muscles what to do. It took a long cepts from blending together like a one also sees its results after any flu time for scientists to realize that ascrib- summer drink. Structuring makes shot, in the response of the body's im- ing thought to a litrie person inside the complex sentences possible, such as "I mune system to the challenge of the head is the equivalent of asking, "What think I saw him leave to go home," in vaccine, creating better and better an- makes a car move?" and answering, which three sentences nest inside a tibodies. The Darwinian process is "Another little car inside" rather than fourth, like Russian doUs. Structuring the foundation of biolog)'. without "An engine." But to explain think- enables people to test out chains of which nothing makes much sense (yet ing, it is all too easy to argue in a cir- logic, enjoy complex music, plav many parents do not wish their chil- cle. And that classic beginner's mis- games with rules, make contingent dren to hear about it). Biologists are take is not always innocuous; it sets plans for the weekend. just beginning to explore how the you up to view a fertilized egg as Third, and probably most difficult, it brain could apply natural selection to June 2004 NATURAL HISTORY 55 — the memories it stores in order to im- of The Algebraic Mind: Integrating Con- emergence of persons and their roles prove the quahty of, say, a verbal per- nectionism and Cognitive Science, neatly and responsibilities toward one an- formance—and do it all in the few explains why genes are less like blue- other in a society, the old version sur- instants between an incoherent prints and more Hke recipes. A blue- vives, because it is so easily reinvented thought and a structured utterance. print has point-to-point correspon- by each succeeding generation. dences between plan and construct. A The problem is serious because re- Sotil Made Flesh provides an account recipe often shows no such correspon- lying on the "little person" concept of the first big steps toward an un- dence: indeed, what comes out of the may force us to devalue things people derstanding of how the brain makes oven is often impossible to reconcile might want to retain. Some optional mind. Zimmer, a science writer and with its list of ingredients. Similarly, add-ons to the soul (which vary the author of Evolution: The Triiiinph of Marcus explains, there is seldom a sin- around the world) include: comforting an Idea, the companion volume to the the bereaved or downtrodden, intimi- eight-hour PBS television series of the dating a misbehaving child, proselytiz- same name, has written a fme intellec- The little person ing, reaching for the greater meaning tual history of early neuroscience. It is of self and Ufe. Many are invaluable ap- or soul causes endless full of drama, and it brings to life the peals to kindness or long-term indi- struggles for insight that begin in confusion in reasoning vidual responsibiUty that could readily William Harvey's time with the flow- stand on their own. The ghostly prop about abortion. ering of physiology. (the "Httle person," the soul) carries a Most of us regularly fail to distin- danger with it: when a historic or sci- guish how from why, a process from entific analysis casts doubt on "the Ht- an object, distributed &"om pointUke, gle gene for the variable aspects of the tle person within," some wiU throw structured from simple, gradual ramp- body, such as eye color. Instead a gene out the baby with the bathwater and ups from sudden beginnings. Scientists, is usually part of a committee of genes turn away from the valuable teachings. in the course of centuries of investiga- in which some push while others puU of tion, have made all those mistakes; but to help control a process. Yet a stripped-down concept they also, eventually, corrected thein. Marcus also explains how genetic soul might continue to stand for We still eagerly compete to discover variations change the receptors stick- the uniqueness that different genes, in our present misconceptions, one of the ing out from the surface of a so-called conjunction with difi'erent formative things that makes doing science so dif- pathfinder cell. During embryonic experiences and different personal de- ferent from other endeavors. development those variations can give cisions, confer on each individual. One long-since-corrected but per- rise to alternative "wiring diagrams" While the term "individual" might sistent misconception, at least among of brain tissue, which, in turn, pro- suffice, the term "soul" might better nonscientists, is that "science says" mote some behaviors more than oth- connote human foresight, ethics, and genes determine behavior and des- ers. Finally, in considering the sense of responsibility, the personal tiny. If you share that nfrsconception, prospects for genetically modified hu- track record and outlook on life that you probably need to read The Birth of mans, Marcus squarely faces the prob- should matter to each of us. AH those the Mind. lem of unintended consequences. ideas are well worth emphasizing, no The real story, as Marcus is at pains Soon, he notes, geneticists will be matter what one's reHgious tradition to emphasize, is about the flexible in- able to synthesize "whatever genes we or beHefs about an afterlife. teractions between genes and the ways Hke." But, he warns: Once on the right track, science is the brain is wired up, then subse- pretty good at turning the crank. The For many years it will be difFicult, if not quently between experiences and how coming decades wiU likely see a revo- impossible, to gauge the potential side ef- expressed in the brain. lution in our thinking about how one genes are What fects of a given [gene] manipulation in cell slowly becomes a real person, emerges from those interactions are advance, I can live with a buggy beta-test life's behavioral propensities that allow for version of a new software package, but I gradually able to comprehend an ever-widening set of choices, not don't want to have to restart my child. great journey. "fate." "A brain built by pure blue- William H. Calvin is the author ofA Brief print," Marcus writes, "would be at a fate of the soul, I suspect, is The Histoiy of the Mind; From Apes to Intel- loss if the sUghtest thing went wrong; a to be reinvented again and again. lect and Beyond (Oxford University Press, brain that is built by individual cells That's because one nonessential as- 2004). He won the Phi Beta Kappa book prize it Httle inside following self-regulating recipes has pect of —that person liis book, Brain for All Seasons. for previous A the freedom to adapt." is a beginner's error. 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Wcstport CT 06SS0 ivww.archaeologicallrs.com Fa\:(203)22l4)?21.()/At'T;(7/in7(a(rt;/.avJi.itii-n;t7//ft7ia/J(i/i.Lr?w — BOOKSHELF Qy Laurence A. Marschall Social ills, however, were not the Insatiable and immensely powerful for human set- global agribusinesses such as Car- Against the Grain: only price to be paid gill, Inc., and Archer Daniels Midland How Agriculture tlement. As Manning sees it, the a Company now exercise enormous Has Hijacked Civilization transformation also represented of the overall stan- leverage on what we eat (processed by Richard Manning general lowering living. Periodic famines grains), what we drink (high-fructose North Point Press, 2004; $24.00 dard of punctuated times of plenty, and farm- corn syrup), and what we use to fiiel ers could not pack up their tents in our cars (farm states are heavily pro- harvests. when moting the use of gasohol). Don't get him wrong. Richard search of better Even he's a forceful advocate of Manning, who lives on seventy harvests were plentiful, domesticated Although organically run farms. Manning acres of unspoiled land in western grains, higher in energy than their small, easier to con- is no romantic Utopian, and he doesn't Montana, is not suggesting that mid- wild counterparts and cure-aU for the pre- western farmers, not to mention the sume when ground into soft gruel, see a practical dicament he defines so incisively. Take residents of New York City and Tok- made it possible to wean children earher, and so populations grew time off to hunt, he suggests—whether explosively. Communicable dis- that means using a rifle to fiU your eases spread more quickly under fi-eezer with deer meat or searching local crowded conditions, and, be- farmers' markets for the best-tasting cause farmers' diets depended fresh tomatoes and free-range chickens. too much on monoculture, de- Agriculture, after ten millennia, is here ficiency diseases ran rampant. to stay, but maybe we can find a way to Pressed by population pres- Uve the good life in spite of it. sure, settlements spread to mar- ginal lands, where conditions ofExq^uisite Mind— left people even more suscep- A Pirate Naturalist, and Buccaneer: tible to illness. Virtually every Explorer, malady, from malaria to tooth The Life ofWilliam Datnpier Michael Preston decay, could thrive in the new by Diana and $27.00 agricultural societies. Walker & Company 2004; anning makes a funda- Thomas Hart Benton, Wheat, 1967 M mental distinction be- Piracy—both buccaneering and privateering was a viable career yo, abandon their homes and take to tween farming—growing food in small — choice in seventeenth-century Eng- the woods, as he has. After aU, his own plots for local consumption—and for such as Wilham grandfather was a successful farmer in large-scale agriculture, whose ultimate land young men expansion- northern Michigan. goal (whether in ancient Mesopotamia Dampier. With mercantile its peak, the ships and colonies What he wants to make clear, how- or in the modern global economy) is ism at and France could be judged ever, in this amiably grouchy and care- the accumulation of wealth. "I have of Spain as as honest business enterprises but fially crafted polemic, is just how much come to think of agriculture not not in an economic we have sacrificed with our reliance farming, but as a dangerous and con- as legitimate targets those with adventurous souls on agriculture. The abundance of food suming beast of a social system," he war. To litde tolerance for military disci- that accompanied the domestication of writes. In its most recent incarnation but shipping out with a crew of plants and animals thousands of years as a mechanized, chemical-driven sys- pline, was an attractive option. ago also led to a concentration of tem of industrial-scale commodity marauders crews even practiced a form of power unthinkable in nomadic soci- growing—it has taken on a particu- Many participatory democracy, electing eties. Slavery, poverty, and poHtical op- larly demonic form, for it requires an apportioning their pression took root wherever there was energy-intensive and heavily subsidized their captains and considerable booty by fertile farmland; social inequity came, infrastructure to sustain it. sometimes common consent. True, the hfe of a it were, with the territory. Pharaohs as Having run out of arable land, farming in a trifle risky and a bit high priests feasted, while pirate might be and Aztec effect began to claim oil fields, steel mines, unsavory, but it appealed to the same commoners, who suffered the ravages phosphate mines, and the network of sort of entrepreneurial character who, of war and despotism, were tied to the gravel, steel, and asphalt needed to connect years later, might have fiarrow and the farmyard or labored to them. Once farming ran out of arable land two hundred the boiler room of a build public monuments. to devour, it started in on the rest. felt at home m 58 NATURAL HISTORY June 2004 powcrluiiisc brokerage or the otFico explorer (he made two more trips Yet Dampier's driving spirit re- of a start-up dot-com. around the world after the publicatioii mains a mystery. He spent so much of Even so, Dainpier was liardly your of his first two book.s), were as scientif- his life away from home that virtually run-of-the-mill cutthroat, dreaming ically substantial as they were enter- all we know of him as a person is only of Spanish gold. In two decades taining. He was the first Englishman to what we read in his books. Even of cruising the C^aribbean and the l-'a- explore Australia, and he had the finest though i^iana and Michael Preston cific—even during shipwrecks and in knowledge of ocean currents and wind haw not unearthed any remarkable the midst of fierce exchanges of can- patterns of anyone of his day. new insights about Dampier the man, non fire—he was never without his The Oxford Hnglish Dktioihir)' cites their appreciative biography may re- pen and his journals. Stcam\' jungles Dampier as the source of more than a vive an interest in Dampier the and mangrove swamps, sources of mis- thousand English words, many of writer. Perhaps then, another genera- ery to his shipmates, to him were them related to food: avocado, harbcate, tion will read his travel books with re- wonderlands of exotic plants and ani- and casheiv begin the Dampier ABCs. newed amazement and admiration. mals. While ashore, he savored unusual Captain James Cook read Dampier foods with the locals and carefully de- during his travels in the late 1700s, as The Secret Life Lobsters: scribed their methods of building, did Alexander von Humboldt and of How Fishermen and Scientists hunting, anci dress. While at sea, he Charles Darwin in the 1800s. Dam- Are Unraveling the Mysteries sketched the coastlines, reckoned dis- pier's "exquisite mind," the epithet of Our Favorite Crustacean tances between landmarks, and care- Samuel Taylor Coleridge recorded in by Trevor Corson fully observed the winds and the tides. his book of essays The Table Tilh and HarpcrColhns. 2004: S24. 95 He had, if not the training, the mind and the soul of a great naturalist. It takes about eight seconds for a ad Dampier remained an errant pair of lobsters to copulate: it takes H adventurer all his life, no one a lot longer to get them into the might have known of his brilliant mood. » powers of observation. But when he A female lobster makes the first returned to England, in 1691, he set move, picking out an attractive male to work preparing an account of his and hanging around the fellow's hid- exploits. The resulting book, A New ing place for several days. The targeted I i')'i!(,'c Round the World, handsomely hottie plays it coy, swiping at his ad- illustrated with maps and drawings, mirer with his claws and generally was published in London in 1697, and making things unpleasant for her. Un- a sequel appeared two years later. perturbed, the female waits for a mo- Written as engaging narratives, ment of suitable opportunir\\ Then Dampier's books were immediate best she molts, unzipping her shell, and sellers, combining eloquent descrip- dispLiys her tender body to the male tions with colorful impressions. "The in a kind ot boudoir strijitease. armadillo," he wrote, It's a bit of a gamble; the m,ile is usu- ally a Utde test\' from all the unsolicited is enclosed in a shell, thick which guards attention, and a careless claw stroke all its back. . . . The head is small with a William Dampier, on a voyage in the western to a shell-less midriff can be fatal. At nose like a pig, a pretty long neck, and Pacific, March, 1 700 (from an illustration by this point, a litde perfume is always a [the animal] can put out its head before its Alec Ball, 1912) turn-on, so the temale secretes a pow- body when it walks; but on any danger Onniiaiia, provided the title for Diana erfrjl pheromone to set the mood, and, she puts it under the shell, and drawing in and Michael Preston's biography. presto! the male becomes a crustacean her feet she lies stock-still like a land-tur- new soft ot de. And though you toss her about she These days Cook, Darwin, and Cary Grant, caressing the body will not move herself Humboldt are all well-know-n figures, the temale with his long antennae. but Dampier's fame, for some reason, If all goes well, the male lobster soon For the record, he added, "the flesh is seems to have faded. The Prestons, ac- embraces his mate fumly, assumes a very sweet and tastes much like a cordingly, have interwoven accounts ot posture suggesti\-e of the missionary- land-turtle." contemporary travelers into Dampier's posirion, and deposits liis sperm inside Dampier's books, and his later ac- story, to provide the modern reader an egg receptacle near her tail. 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It's the "lobster equiva- Even so, a book like this could be a lent," science journalist Trevor Corson pretty duU litany of facts were it not quips, "of edible underwear." for Corson's gift for delivering insights through moving, human narrative. Corson spent two years as a hand The courting, fighting, and survival on a lobster boat, and he has behavior of lobsters is so smoothly in- now constructed a book that cuts al- tertwined with episodes of courting, most cinematically between intimate fighting, and survival behavior among scenes of lobsters doing their stuff the fishermen and scientists that it is and scenes of people in lobster boats almost impossible to stop reading his and research vessels. His protagonists book until one runs out of pages. include the tight-knit population of Admirers of Verlyn KHnkenborg or Little Cranberry Island in Maine, John McPhee will recognize Corson's where families carry on a fishing tra- voice as that of a skillful practitioner of dition that goes back a hundred years. a style one might call "occupational Although the classic lob- ster traps haven't changed much over the genera- tions, the boats now carry 8x32 a GPS plotter, computer- Venturer LX ized depth sounder, and high-tech radar. The Nikon Venturer LX Often laboring along- 8x42 & 8x32 series side the fishermen ©2004 Nikon Inc. sometimes as allies and • 1 00% waterproof/fogproof sometimes as antago- • Phase-corrected BaK4 nists—are marine scien- high-index prisms tists, many of them head- • Durable, lightweight quartered in Woods Hole, magnesium-alloy construction on Cape Cod. Their • Rubber armor for a sure grip x tools, less high-tech no tobsterman wrth traps (Evelyn Carlson, Fingers Weary and • Nikon Inc. 25 year than the lobstermen's. Worn, 1983) limited warranty included range from remote-con- trolled minisubs to infrared video- documentary"—science writing in recorders operated from onshore labs. which the interaction between nature Corson's account describes how, in and people is the central theme. I ^ \ Nikon Nikon] the past thirty years, fishermen and hope that the fishermen and scientists PREMIER marine scientists have arrived at a who are profiled this way feel well Optics Dealer ; firmer knowledge of where and when served, because, speaking only as a lobsters mate, how they move from lobster eater, I can highly recommend Authorizetl Nikon Dealer www.nikonusa.com place to place, and what environmen- the book as one of the best things tal variables affect their reproductive you can enjoy without melted butter. and survival rates. Along the way he Spend a day at the beach with it and gives an authentic feel for the lives of then feast on its chief protagonist, fishing families in Maine. Homarus americanus; a great recipe is Fishermen and marine scientists provided at the end of the last chapter. share a common interest in the sex Kfe of lobsters because maintaining a Laurence A. Marschall, author of The healthy breeding population is essential Supernova Story, is the W.K. T. Sahm pro- to maintaining a healthy lobster fish- fessor of physics at Gettysburg College in ery. And that is important, of course, Peiinsyh'aiiia, and director of Project CLEA, EAGLE OPTICS not only to the small population of ii'hicli produces widely used simulation soft- (800)2894132 New England lobstermen, but also to ware for education in astronomy. www.eagleoptics.com 62 NATURAL HISTORY June 2004 nature.net in e.istern North .Ainerica in l'.'()4 (www. AikI tor recordings from a veritable Animals By Ear nprorg/features/feature.php?wf ld=l 783 Noah's Ark of animals—from the 346.html). American alligator to the zebra scaly By Robert Anderson Listening to recoriled birdsong is cricket—you can scroll through a re- only one of many ways on the Inter- markably long list of links, compiled not to tune in to real animal voices. If by an apparend)' anonymous nature All A\\d birder recently imited iiic \ou miss this year's live performance lover (members.tripod.com/Thryomanes/ to join him on a sprint; walk. His of the seventeen-year cicada |.«r "The AnimalSounds.html). ability to rattle otl" the names of the WiturdI Moinciil," by Ilriii llspclic, /wijc Additional insect sounds can be species Bitting through the scrub was 6|, you can find a recorded version found at .111 Iowa State University site uncanny. "Because my vision is so at the University of Michigan Mu- (www.ent.iastate.edu/list/insect_sounds. poor," he told me, "I can barely see seum of Zoology's Periodical C^icada html). Of particular interest there is them, so I've trained myself instead Page (insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/fauna/ a link to "Bug Bytes," where Richard to recognize them primarily by song." michigan_cicadas/Periodica I/Index. html). W. Mankm, an entomologist with I was so impressed that when I got As the weather heats up this sum- the U.S. Department of Agriculture, home, I turned to the Internet to mer, frog song may be as easy to hear as demonstrates how he and his col- learn more. bird warbling. One usefril site provides leagues are using sound to monitor in- A quick search turned up a site a long list of amphibian audio clips, sect pests (select "Digitized Sounds of dedicated to birdsong ID (virtualbirder. plus an amusing inventory of some Insect Movement, Feeding, and Com- com/bbestu), compiled by Dick Wal- onomatopoeic names from around the munication," or go direcdy to cmave.usda. ton, a naturalist and author of a world for the characterisric amphibian ufl.edu/~rmankin/soundlibrary.html). birder's field guide. I found one of the sound (allaboutfrogs.org/weird/general/ most comprehensive collections of songs.html). (In Sweden, tor instance, Robert Anderson is n freelance science birdsong recordings at the Web site of a frog goes "kvack.") wriicr /I'l'i'm; //) Lxis An^i^elcs. the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (www.birds.cornell.edu/programs/AIIAbout Birds/BirdGuide). You can choose from a long list of species, from Acadian flycatchers to yellow-throated vireos. 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By measuring the amount of Desert More redshift in the light from a distant A No source (usually a galaxy or a quasar), astronomers can deduce how long that light has been traveling—and Astronomers have finally learned how to see the hidden thus, how old the source is, compared to the time elapsed since the big bang. galaxies in a murky epoch of ancient cosmic history. Astronomers quantify redshift with By Charles Liu a number, commonly denoted by the letter z. For light that's not red- shifted at all, z is zero. Light for which a galaxy glows, but no astron- Here's how redshift works—sche- z is one began its journey to Earth Ifomer notices, does it give off matically, anyway. As Edwin Hubble when the expanding universe was just light? This celestial version of the demonstrated more than seventy years half its current size; Hght for which z is classic tree-falling-in-the-forest co- ago, the universe has been expanding two left its source when the universe nundrum comes to mind whenever I since the beginning of time. Now was a third its current size; for z equal think about the "redshift desert." As imagine a beam of light traveUng from to three, the universe was a quarter its its name implies, the desert is a zone one spot in the universe to another. As current size; and so on. For reference, of the cosmos where, after decades of the light beam travels through an ever- z is infinite for Ught from the big bang, if we could see it at all. The cosmic microwave back- One of the grandest challenges in observational cosmology ground [see "Sharper Focus," by Charles Liu, May 2003] today is to catch the superfaint light from distant sources appeared early enough for and decipher the early history of the universe. its value of z to be about 1,100; the Ught of the first stars departed sometime searching, astronomers had found al- expanding space, it gets "stretched" corresponding to z values between most no galaxies—even though it along with space. The farther it travels, twenty and ten. seemed that there should have been the more the beam is stretched, and so Not surprisingly, then, one of the lots of them. Now, thanks to the work the longer its wavelength becomes. An grandest challenges in observational of a research team led by Charles C. increase in wavelength is equivalent, at cosmology today is to search for light Steidel at the Cahfornia Institute of least for visible radiation, to a change from those ancient sources, superfaint Technology in Pasadena, there's proof in color, according to the familiar and super-redshifted, and to decipher that the zone isn't a desert at all: the order of the rainbow: violet has the the early history of the universe from galaxies have been there all along, but shortest visible wavelength, followed such cosmological fossils. no one could identify them. Before I by indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, Nearer at hand, though, there's an- get too far ahead of myself, though, and, finally, the longest visible wave- other problem. To measure redshift here's a brief—okay, very brief—his- length, red. So Hght emitted from a you need markers in the spectrum of a tory of cosmic time, and how astrono- very distant source—it needs to be distant light source to cahbrate the mers measure it. millions of light-years away for the ef- "starting point" for the redshifted Geological samphng puts the age of fect to be noticeable—gets shifted in Hght—its color when it was first emit- Earth at 4.56 billion years. Stellar data color toward the red end of the spec- ted. Those markers are recognizable indicate our Sun is slightly older trum. Hence the name: redshift. patterns of bright and dark spectral about 4.7 billion years old. But what In spite of its name, however, "red- features. The most proininent of those about the universe? It is more than 13 shift" also happens to electromagnetic features, which serve as benchmarks, billion years old, so it was already radiation that is outside the visible part occur only at a few specific unred- fuUy mature when the Sun and Earth of the electromagnetic spectrum. Ul- shifted, or "rest," wavelengths. were born. How were astronomers traviolet hght, for instance, which has Here on Earth, a number of ef- able to determine its age? The answer shorter wavelengths than visible light, fects—primarily atmospheric obscu- is, we measured it with the cosmically can be redshifted into the visible win- ration and technological limitations appropriate timekeeper—redshift. dow; visible light, in turn, can be red- have historically made those strong 64 NATURAL HISTORY June 2004 2 — spcitr.il lines all imdetett.iblo tor but units ot redshitt alone, we astrononicrs when our galactic home was born, it values ot c between about 1.4 anil 2.(1. must still (grudgingly!) convert red- wasn't an infant alone in a desert, but a At those redshitts, the stron;^ hues shitt into Earth years, if cosmic history baby surrounded by a thriving com- witli rest \va\e lengths in the visible is to be relevant to our F.arthbound munity of g.ilaxies. part ot the speetruni shift so tar red- existence. It's a complicated and in- It's not that these g-alaxies were once w.ird ill, It they betonie inti.ired hi;lu, e.x.ict con\'ersioii, but it's accurate lost, but now are found. Rather we as- and i;et blocked by liarth's atnK)s- enough to say that : v.ilues between tronomers were once blind to them phere; meanwhile, the strong lines 1.4 .iiid 2.1) correspond to cosmic his- but now. thanks to creative scientists with ultraviolet rest \\a\elengths tory between about M billion and 1 1 .md improved techniques, we see. aren't shitted tlir enough toward the billion years ago. In short, that epoch visible-light portion ot" the electro- is, at last, now otficially open tor study. 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It's hypo-allergenic, anti-microbial, and dust mite resist 1-800-447-2406 Perfect for e\ eiy body size and 10 Siayc Door Rd.. Fishkill. N> 1:524 shape, it has all the features and ww^v.abed. com/2 1 benefits of Tempur-Pedic at about Depl. 212 half the cost. • 2004 Dornii.1'. Compari.<;on Kiscd on 2004 nL-inutaciurcr's price lists. Tcinpur-Pedic" is a registered trademark .ind a competitor of normia .ind Poslure-TcnipT^'. Krcc shipping only uithin the continental United States. .\ll others call tor shipping quote. — THE SKY IN JUNE By Joe Rao Mercury is obscured thi-oughout June before sunrise. The disc of Venus be- side surface of the end of the shoe by the glare of the Sun. Superior con- gins to move off that of the Sun box opposite the pinhole [see diagram junction, the configuration in which within a minute of 7:05 A.M. Eastern on this page]. A dark dot—the image Mercury is behind the Sun from the dayUght time (EDT). The last bit of of Venus—will be clearly visible perspective of Earth, takes place on the disc of Venus leaves the Sun at against a bright circle—the image of the 18th. 7:26 A.M. EDT. the solar disk. Transits of Venus are visible with During the second half of June, Venus is close to the western horizon the unaided eye; the planet appears Venus begins to reappear low in the at sunset at the beginning of as a distinct, albeit small, black spot eastern sky at dawn. It will climb June, , and the planet may become more with a diameter one-thirty-second higher each morning and will leap ' difficult to see with each passing that of the Sun. But anyone plan- into brilliant prominence as a morn- evening. In a telescope or through ning to watch the transit must be ing "star" during July. good binoculars, Venus appears as a large but very thin crescent, before it Early in June Mars sets in the west- sinks into the fires of sunset. On northwest about half an hour after June 8 Venus reaches inferior con- darkness falls. But by the 30th, the crosses, or transits, di- planet, shining at 1.8 all junction and HOLE IN magnitude COVERED i rectly between the Earth and the PINHOLE BOX month, is setting half an hour before WITH FOIL Sun, appearing in silhouette on the IN FOIL evening twilight fades to dark, mak- solar disc [see "A Transit of Venus," by ing it difricult to see. Eli Maor, page 34]. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, In the first week ofJune Jupiter re- a transit of Venus was a key observa- places Venus as the evening "star" in tion for astronomers seeking to deter- the west at dusk. Jupiter is in the mine the distance of the Earth fr-om constellation Leo, the Hon, between the Sun. Transits of Venus, moreover, 10 and 13 degrees to the east of the ' are rare events: the last one took place star Regulus, which is roughly one- i on December 6, 1882. twenty-third as bright. The beginning of the transit will be visible from parts of northern and A pinhole camera obscura makes a safe The best views of Saturn can be had western Alaska, aU of Asia, Indonesia tool with which to view the transit of in the first week ofJune. On the 1st for instructions for and Australia, the eastern half of Venus. See text below it sets sKghtly more than two hours this and other viewing methods. Never Africa, and northern and eastern Eu- after the Sun; look for it close to the look directly at the Sun. rope, as well as from the northern- west-northwestern horizon as dark- most parts of Greenland. The end ness falls. By the 15th, though, it has will be visible over central and west- aware of the risk of permanent dam- all but disappeared into the sunset ern Asia and all of Africa, Europe, age to the eyes, and take the same glow, as it heads toward conjunction and Greenland, as well as from the special precautions needed to view a with the Sun in July. northernmost and eastern areas of solar eclipse. North Anierica and parts of northern It is not safe to view the transit The Moon waxes full on the 3rd at and eastern South America. through sunglasses or smoked glass. 12:20 A.M. EDT. It wanes to last In the contiguous United States Instead, use at least a number 13 quarter on the 9th at 4:02 P.M. EDT viewing opportunities are limited. welder's glass to look at the Sun and becomes new on the 17th at To the east of a line running roughly available for just a few dollars at most 4:27 P.M. EDT. It waxes to first quar- from Havre, Montana, to Galveston, hardware stores and welders' supply ter on the 25th at 3:08 PM. EDT. Texas, Venus is already on the Sun's shops. The safest method of all is to disk at sunrise on the 8th; in fact, for project the Sun's image through a The solstice takes place on June 20 at aU but the most easterly locations, small pinhole poked through one 8:57 P.M. EDT. Sunmier begins in the transit is nearly over by "sunup. To end of a shoe box, then view the the Northern Hemisphere, winter in the v/est of that line the transit ends image that is projected onto the in- the Southern. 66 NATURAL HISTORY June 2004 LETTERS (douliiiiifd from /iiU'c 14) astronauts arc needed to system is a quaint holdover Tanks But No Tanks fortifications, and artillery explore the solar system from the nineteenth cen- The caption to a picture in emplacements. Howitzers because preprograniined tury world ofJules Verne, Zainab bahrani's excellent can be selt-propelled or robots cannot react to the when no one could imag- article ("Lawless in towed by a truck; the self- unexpected ("Launching ine any other way to do it. Mesopotamia," 3/04) iden- propelled howitzer is lightly the Right Stuff," 4/U4). We've now wasted thirty tities the vehicle standing armored. Normally the this But argument over- years and stupendous sums guard at an entrance to the gunner does not see the tar- looks tlie intimate synergy so astronauts could orbit Iraq Museum as a "U.S. get directly: the howitzer is between remote robots and the Earth a hundred thou- tank." The vehicle is in fact aimed for direction and dis- their human controllers on sand times. a For small trac- an M- 1 n9Afi 1 5.Smm selt- tance using data provided by Earth. A robot on Mars. tion ot that cost, we could propelled howitzer. a fire direction center. The say, typically sends an have sent more and better In luiiitary parlance, a maximum effective range is image back to a large in- robots to return samples tank IS a heavily armored approximately eleven miles. terdisciplinary team of sci- and IMAX-quality images \ehicle tor attacking enemy Clay Smith entists, and the people then from the surfaces of every tanks, other enemy vehi- Lieutenant Colonel tell the robot what to do planet and large moon m cles, and enemy personnel. U.S. Army (Retired) next. With months or the solar system. The ma.ximum effective Ahwandria, I ir^inia years to work interactively If robot explorers ever range of the main tank gun in this way, the delay of a discover compelling reasons is less than t\vo miles. The Natural Histon,' uvkonies tew minutes between mes- tor us to send people to gunner \'irtually always sees correspondencefrom readers. sages is no problem. And other planets, then we can the target direcdy through Please send e-mail to nhmag® the controllers can repro- do It. the gunsight or other sight- naturalhistorynnag.com gram the robot to meet Steven Soier ing devices. .-1// letters should include a day- changing conditions. American Museum ofNauinil A howitzer is a field ar- time telephone number, and all The idea that people History tillery piece, used primarilv letters may he edited for lew^th have to explore the solar Neu> York, Xew York to attack enemy personnel. and clarity. Serious Sun Protection Thousands of dermatologists hove recommended Solumbra. It is the first line of clothing to meet published medi- cal guidelines for sun protection. Soft, lightweight and comfortable, our patented fabric offers 30* SPF sun protection and blocks over 97% of hormFul UVA and UVB rays—more than a typical sunscreen or summer shirt. 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This poison to kill ten people (or thousand, for those that lay the drug. summer, hundreds of them 20,000 mice); the African eggs—some frogs give live Frogs are perhaps the will be taking up temporary clawed frog that looks as birth.) Do some frogs eat world's most adaptable residence at the American though it was flattened in a birds? (Yes indeed.) denizens. There are more IVIuseum of Natural History. traffic accident; the Chinese Some frogs' skin is covered than 4,000 species of them, Opening May 29, Frogs: gliding frog whose webbed with a cocktail of protective and they live on every conti- A Chorus ofColors will nent except Antarctica. But showcase approximately 25 over the past 50 years, scien- spectacular, vividly colored tists have recorded precipi- frog species from around the tous declines in frog popula- world in re-created habitats tions, with some species complete with rock ledges, vanishing completely Frogs live plants, and waterfalls. are delicate creatures, and are The exhibition explores often the first casualties when the ^4i^3i biology of these popular pollution or human activity amphibians, their importance affects a habitat, making them to ecosystems, and the important barometers of threats they face in the world's environmental change and changing environments. giving an early warning for Frogs have filled the night endangered ecosystems. with croaks, yaps, grunts, Many frogs are also useful in Vietnamese mossy frog chirps, trills, and warbles other fields of scientific study: since the Age of Dinosaurs; their transparent eggs offer some can be heard from a toes act like a parachute; toxins as a defense against embryologists a chance to mile away. Frogs also sport and the smoky jungle frog predators, and many of these watch single cells grow into an amazing range of colors, that squawks like a chicken. toxins are remarkably potent wriggling tadpoles, and scien- shapes, and sizes: many are Also see fishlike tadpoles that in the human body Scientists tists have also used frogs to more vibrantly tinted than the will later meta- study frog study muscle function, per- most dazzling birds, and the morphose into toxins for use form pregnancy tests, and Frogs: A Chorus of Colors largest can grow to the size of American bull- in human experiment with cloning—the May 29-October 3, 2004 a human infant. frogs, sprout- medicine to first frog was cloned 30 years Gallery 77, first floor Among the fantastic frogs ing legs and treat such before Dolly the sheep. you might see in this exhibition losing their ailments as Frogs; A Chorus of Colors /s pre- are the dinner plate-sized tails. heart disease, depression, sented with appreciation to Clyde African bullfrog; the dumpy tree The exhibition is rich in skin and colon cancers, and Peeling's Reptiland. frog that can climb trees and froggy facts. How do frogs Alzheimer's. The phantasmal hang from a branch by one toe; drink? (Through the skin of poison frog from Ecuador Left column top to bottom: Dyeing the fire-bellied toad that throws their bellies.) What is the and Peru, for example, poison frog; golden poison frog; fire-bellied toad; golden mantella its legs into the air to show a world's smallest frog? (The secretes a painkiller called frog; smooth-sided toad. Right col- it is is times bright red underside when Cuban robber frog, which epibatidine that 200 umn: (top) blue dart poison frogs; disturbed; the dart poison grows to a length of only half more powerful than mor- (bottom) ornate horned frog ; The contents of these paces are provided to Natiiral H(5*0)?> p-t "he A'.:?r\c-\ Wusel'V' o' N'-ti^fal H'STor>, Museum Events American Museum S Natural History ^ The Bedouin of Petra SUMMER SOLSTICE Through July 6 The Science of the Sun Photojournalist Vivian Ronay's Sunday, 6/20 evocative color photographs 11:00 a.m.-i:]o p.m. document the Bedoul group of Sun-related activities for Bedouin tribes living near the children of all ages. archaeological site of Petra in Jordan. Quillas This exhibition is made possible by the Sunday, 6/20, 2:oo-]:oo generosity of the Arthur Ross Foundation. or 4:}o-y.]o p.m. Ecuadorian troupe Quillas Seasons of Life and Land: performs pieces from the Arctic National Wildlife RefUge traditional Quechua Festival of Through September 6 the Sun. Stunning large-format color Clant green sea anemone, Anthopleura xanthogrammica photographs by conservationist An Introduction to the Subhankar Banerjee focus on Middle of the World EXHIBITIONS at the crossroads of the the interdependence of land, Sunday, 6/20,y.i^-4:i^p.m. Vital Variety: ancient world's major trade water, wildlife, and humanity in Gabriel Roldos Prosserofthe A Visual Celebration of routes. Alaska's Arctic Refuge. Solar Culture Museum in Invertebrate Biodiversity In New York, Petra: Lost City ofStone Ecuador reveals surprising is made possible by Banc of America Through Spring 200^ Art for Heart links between ancient and Securities and Con Edison. The Invertebrates, which consti- American Museum of Natural History Through September 26 colonial sites at the "middle also gratefully acknowledges the tute more than 80 percent Paintings by children who lost of the world." generous support of Lionel I. Pincus of Earth's known species and and HRH Princess Firyal and of loved ones in the attacks on The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. play a critical role in the New York City's World Trade LECTURES This exhibition is organized by the survival of humankind, are American Museum of Natural History, Center on February 26, 1993, Why We Do It New York, and the Cincinnati Art Museum, the subject of these extraordi- and September 11, 2001, cre- Tuesday, 6/1, y:00 p.m. under the patronage of Her Majesty narily beautiful close-up Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of the ate a powerful and poignant Niles Eldredge, Curator in the photographs. Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Air memorial. Museum's Division of Paleon- transportation generously provided by Project by the Royal Jordanian. sponsored Lower Manhattan tology, challenges the almighty Development Corporation. Exhibition Exploratorium/AMNH status of genes in evolution made possible through the generous sup- Through August 15 port of Vyhite & Case LLP and Toys'R'Us. and human behavior. A book Fun, hands-on displays signing follows. clustered around four natural science themes— Earth Frog Songs processes, rotation, mirrors Thursday, 6/10, '/:00 p.m. and illusion, and pendu- Martha Tobias, Columbia lums—encourage audiences University, discusses frog of all ages and all levels to vocal behaviors and the investigate and play. evolution of song. Exploratorium/AMNH is funded in part by from a grant the Small Business Adminis- Digital People tration. For information on accessibility, call 212-769-5100. Tuesday, 6/iy j:oop.m. Sidney Perkowitz, Emory Petra: Lost City of Stone University, explores the role Through July 6 of artificial beings in science This exhibition tells the fiction and fantasy. A book story of a thriving metropolis Petra: Lost City of Stone signing follows. An Alchemy of Mind Dr. Ni'bula's Laboratory: Sunday, 6/27, io:jo a.m.- The Search fur life: Thursday, 6/17, 7:00 p.m. Light and Optics 12:00 noon (Ages 5-7, each Are We Alone? Diane Ackerman examines child with one adult) Narrated by Harrison Ford what it is about our brain that Children learn about the Made possible through the generous support of Swiss Re. makes us quintessential!/ metamorphosis of frogs. Vi-Hebulebulas' human. A book signing V LARGE-FORMAT FILMS follows. HAYDEN PLANETARIUM LeFrak Theater PROGRAMS Volcanoes of the Deep Sea -V, The Bounty: TUESDAYS IN THE DOME Explore Earth's most hostile The True Story of the Sunday. 6/ij, i.'oo-2;oo or Virtual Universe: environments and its strangest Mutiny on the Bounty yoo~4:oo p.m. (Ages 4 and up. The Grand Tour creatures, and consider the im- Thursday, 6/24. j:oo p.m. each child with one adult) Tuesday. 6/1, 6:}o~y:jo p.m. plications for our search for life. Caroline Alexander shatters the Dr. Nebula's apprentice centuries-old myths surround- Scooter "illuminates" the This Just In. . . Bugs! ing the story of William Bligh mysteries of light and optics. June's Hot Topics This live-action rain forest and Fletcher Christian. A book Tuesday, 6/1^, 6:jo-j:]o p.m. adventure follows the dramatic signing follows. Earthly Adventures lives of a praying mantis and Saturday, 6/12, i2:}o-2:oo p.m. Celestial Highlights: a graceful butterfly and ends Extreme Frogs (Ages 4-^, each child with The Summer Sky with their inevitable encounter. Tuesday. G/zg. j:oo p.m. one adult) or Tuesday, 6/2C), 6:]o-'/:]o p.m. Join Michael Klemens, Metro- ^:oo-4:]o p.m. (Ages 6-y) INFORMATION politan Conservation Alliance, Explore earthquakes, tornadoes, PLANETARIUM SHOWS Call 212-769-5100 or visit to learn about frog evolution and other forces of nature. SonicVision www.amnh.org. and current conservation Fridays and Saturdays. y:}0, efforts. Frog Wire Sculptures 8:}o, and g:}o p.m. TICKETS AND Sunday, 6/13 Hypnotic visuals and rhythms REGISTRATION FAMILY AND CHILDREN'S io:}o-ii:)0 a.m. (Ages or take viewers on an unforget- ^-y) Call 212-769-5200, PROGRAMS i2:-}o-i:}op.m. (AgesS-10) table ride through fantastical Monday-Friday, Talking with Your Create take-home crafts that dreamspace. 9:00 a.m. -5:00 p.m., Hands, Listening with capture the essence of frogs. SonicVision is made possible by generous or visit WAAAV.amnh.org. Your Eyes sponsorship and technology support from Sun Microsystems. Inc. A service charge may apply Saturday, 6/12, 1:00 p.m. Tadpole to Frog Children and adults will be Workshop Passport to the Universe All programs are subject to introduced to American Sign Sunday, a.m.- Narrated 6/20, 10:30 by Tom Hanks change. Language. 12:00 noon (Ages 8-10) 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 to explore the natural world i Friday, 6/4 ^^K^R. and the cultures of humanity. You'll enjoy: 5:30 and 7:00 p.m. \ § I^^E^^B K. ' Unlimited free general • Free subscription Rose Center for Earth ^ ^BT*^^ i admission to the Museum to Natural History and Space -'^^^^^^^V and special exhibitions, and magazine and to JP Rotunda. discounts on Space Shows our newsletter Harold Mabern Trio ^^ ^^^ 2 and IMAX® films • Invitations to Members- Tune in to the 5:30 set live on WBCO Jazz 88, Discounts in the Museum only special events, hosted by Morningjazz's Gary Walker. Shop, restaurants, and on parties, and exhibition program tickets previews Starry Nights is made possible by Lead Sponsor Verizon and Associate Sponsors CenterCare Health Plan, Constellation For further information, call 212-769-5606 NewEnergy, and WNBC-TV. or visit www.amnh.org. The contents of these paces are provided to Natural HiSTO^y ev the American Museum of Natural Histor>. ENDPAPER By Patricia J. Wynne 72 NATURAL HISTORY June 2004 RIGHT NOW.'FOR A LIMITED TIME, WE ARE OFFERING THE FIRST 2004 GOLD AND SILVER EAGLES OFF THE U.S. MINT PRESSES AT ABSOLUTE DEALERfBSf IT'S A FACT U.S. MINT 2004 FIRST RELEASE GOLD & SILVER EAGLES UMIT20PEil CUSTOMER. LIMIT 5 PER CUSTOMER. THE BRILLIANT UNCIRCULATED $5 GOLD EAGLE CAN BE YOURS FOR ONLY $47.00" THE $1 SILVER EAGLE IS PRICED AT ONLY S8.50" Gold his been the base of world economies from the beginning of recorded histor)'. The striking designs of U.S. Mint coin issues highlight golds standards of value. 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