"J/ ^^Ev*^'«m^^' E'«' |Ni#|S^ 9 |\^.?^:- t; 1 •"<^j>'is«i- te?^. ...^ V :«r*§r^ ^5^ ^J^'W ^>vi: ^ "( ^/< %^^^ a. >ii^. ff mm. S 's considered one of the world's premier jazz pianists. Ellis M 3 rS3 1 1 I He's taught some of the world's most famous musicians. Even fathered a few of his own. But with it came to money. Ii-etirement approaching, he didfl't Waflt tO llTiprOViSe. Not when plan, so money wouldn't get in the \li We worked with him on ways to make the most of his retirement ||way of his music. Now he's ready for the next act, whatever that may be. ^k ^idg on for ideas, advice, and results. TIAA-CRERorg or call 800.842.1924 ^^ Managing money for people with other things to think ahoutj"" I 1 INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT I I SAVINGS TRUSTS REfiREMENf I INSURANCE MUTUAL FUNDS COLLEGE product; Investors , distribute securities ifilisMarsalis became a participant in 1990. TIAA-CREF Individual and Institutional Services, Inc., and Teachers Personal Service h 2002 Teaehiers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF), Nev r" nm LAVISHW ILLUSTRWED mm. -The New York Time '^^^(%4. i^l %, < 1 11 ii ii# J anuary 4;2u04 T L Journeys of Body, Mind i Spirit K.-4,f # •i. % • « AMERi(i»Tv|MusELnv\ o Natural KTSTORY OPENDAp: CENTRAL PARK WEST AT 79TH STREET WWW.AMNH.ORG 212-769-5100 made ORGANfZED BY THE AMERICAN MUS£UM OF NATURAL HISTORY, NEW YORK, AND THE VIETNAM MUSEUM OF ETHNOLOGY, HANOI. This exhibition and related programs are for the collaboration between the American possible by the philanthropic leadership of the FREEMAN FOUNDATION. Additional generous funding provided by the Ford Foundation grant provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Museum of Natural History and the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology. Also supported by the Asian Cultural Council. Planning JUNE 2003 VOLUME 112 NUMBER 5 FEATURES 42 LOST TIME Damage control after the pillaging of Iraqi antiquities DAVID KEYS JOHN MALCOLM RUSSELL COVER STORY 34 PATTERNS IN NATURE The new focus on self-organizing processes links such diverse phenomena 52 PEERING AT as a zebra's stripes and a mound THE EDGE OF TIME of termites. In search of the black hole SCOTT CAMAZINE at the center of our galaxy FULVIO MELIA COVER Ron van Dongen, Cryptanthus zonatus, 1999 STORY BEGINS ON PAGE 34 46 CLOSE ENCOUNTERS Mountain gorillas and chimpanzees share the wealth of Uganda's "impenetrable forest." Visit our Web site at CRAIG STANFORD uniw.nlimag.coDi DEPARTMENTS 6 THE NATURAL MOMENT Pretty in Pink Plwtogmpli and text by Gary Noel Ross 8 UP FRONT From the Editor 10 CONTRIBUTORS 12 LETTERS 14 SAMPLINGS Stephan Reebs 18 UNIVERSE The Rise and Fall of Planet X Neil deGrasse Tyson 22 NATURALIST AT LARGE Impostor in the Nest Robert Dunn 28 FINDINGS The Owl That Hunts by Light Christoph Roliner 32 BIOMECHANICS Monitor Marathons Adam Summers 58 THIS LAND Ages of Aquarius Robert H. Mohlenbrock 60 REVIEW Voyage of the Barnacle Richard Milner 63 BOOKSHELF Laurence A. Marscliall 70 nature.net Robert Anderson 72 OUT THERE Ironmg Out the Solar System Charles Liu 73 THE SKY IN JUNE Joe Rao 74 AT THE MUSEUM 78 ENDPAPER Damsels in Distress Gwen Mergian PICTURE CREDITS: Page 10 Some people see a brilliant star reasserting his dominance. We see 32 of our lenses dominating a tennis match. Those distinctive white lenses. Canon's entirely new production technologies. In addition, ultrasonic oscillation, that gives you outstanding speed unrivaled collection of over 50 EF lenses are Canon created unique Diffractive Optics lenses, like the and precision in addition to near-silent operation. everywhere serious photographers work. Especially EF 400mm f/4 DO IS USM. These lenses boast higher So whether you happen to be using a Canon 35mm our trademark while ones. That's because, quite image quality, even with reduced size and weight. camera, or one of our digital SLRs, you can underetand simply, they're the world's most advanced lenses for Image Stabilization. Canon's exclusive Image why Canon EF lenses are always the focus of attention. the world's most advanced cameras, analog or digital. Stabilizer lenses correct camera shake signifigantly Advanced Optics. Canon pioneered Aspherical kns Till lrnt(( SublUaiion SytUm In fact, they increase technology for SLRs, to correct conventional spherical usable shutter speed (I •! (I • «-• lens distortion. The result is high contrast and range by up to a resolution with minimal flare, even with large- remarkable .? full steps for hand-held shooting. aperture lenses. We also tackled the problem of Ultrasonic Motor. To create the world's chromatic diffraction. To that end, we created leases of first lens-based autofocus drive motor, we crystalline fluorite and super IJD glass, which required had \i) first create a whole new technology; O ilUt^ Camin L',S.A. Inc. fjmm a/id iffit a/'.- n^Mtred Iradt-marks ^d (jtnon Kn(w How Iji a trad/.'m:irk of Cajion Inc. Canon KNOW HOW Pot more Hiimaiiun vtati us ai www.canoneosxom or call l-S(IOOIM>(NON. 4i i UP FRONT THE NATURAL MOMENT "< See preceding pages Front-Page News For more than a decade I've been pointing out to anyone who would Hsten that science and nature are big news. Disease organisms are news—think of AIDS, or anthrax, or SARS. Space exploration is news. The crisis in biodiversity Like most other katydid species, is news. Environmental degradation, earthquake prediction, energy resources, the western round-winged the Iceman, and genetically modified crops are all news. You can't be current on katydid (Amblycorypha pampeniiis) the events of the day without being on top of what's happening in science. is normally green. But throughout Seldom have we at Natural History more keenly felt this observation than its range, from South Dakota to we have this month. In Baghdad looters rushed into the National Museum, central Texas, both pink and yel- plundering priceless archaeological artifacts. We decided to cover the disaster low variants occasionally pop up. primarily by showing some of the artifacts—and leaving the reader to con- My pink lady—for this was a fe- template the fact that some of them may never be seen again. We also invited male—was still a wingless juvenile David Keys, a freelance reporter who specializes in archaeology, to puU to- when I came across her one early gether the main threads of the story so far. Finally, John Malcolm Russell, an June morning in western Mis- expert in Near East archaeology who wrote "Robbing the Archaeological souri's Wah' Kon-Tah Prairie. To Cradle" for the February 2001 issue of Natural History, has graciously allowed get better acquainted with this rar- us to reprint excerpts from his still all-too-relevant article. All three elements ity, I placed her in a terrarium. are collected under the title "Lost Time" (page 42). Then I began to worry—the As we go to press, another breaking news story has touched us closely. We insect wouldn't feed on the greens have learned to our dismay that Subhankar Banerjee, the photographer of I offered her, all prairie grasses and "Arctic Covenant" in our April 2003 issue, has become caught in the continu- leaves that should have appealed to ing pohtical cross fire over oil driUing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refiige a katydid. But then, observing that (ANWR). Banerjee's photographs documented the wildlife and flora of the her color was well matched by the refuge against the stunning backdrop of mountains and floodplain. pale purple coneflower, I offered On March 19 Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, held up her a bloom. She immediately Banerjee's book—from which our portfolio was excerpted—on the floor of the began to nibble on the petals. U.S. Senate. Advocates of drilling, particularly Senator Ted Stevens, a Republican After a few days I tried an exper- from Alaska, had portrayed the region as a barren land, devoid of wildlife for all iment to see ifshe got her pink pig- but a few months a year. Boxer challenged that view, citing the book. ment from the flowers: I started her The reaction was virtually immediate. According to Tlie Neu> York Times, on a diet of yellow blooms. But Banerjee's photographs, which were scheduled for display in the main-level even though she feasted on yellow romnda at the Smithsonian Instimtion's National Museum of Natural History in for the rest of her two-month con- Washington, DC, were moved to a far less prominent gallery there. Captions for finement, I found no hint ofjaun- the photographs were shortened from discursive to telegraphic. A letter from dice. Apparendy the color was in Lawrence M. Small, the head of the Smithsonian, responding to a request for an Illinois that her nature, not her nurture. Ongo- explanation by Democratic Senator Richard J. Durbin, maintained ing research on related species, by the earlier captions "might have been construed as advocacy" for ANWR, and David A. Nickle, an entomologist were therefore excluded as a matter of Smithsonian policy. with the USDA's Agricultural Re- The entire episode reflects the personalizing and retributive nature of con- search Service, and others, is un- temporary political discourse. According to the Times, Stevens had told his tangling how katydid color varia- Senate colleagues: "People who vote against [the drilling] are voting against tion is genetically determined. me. I will not forget it." Stevens serves on the Senate oversight subcommittee Why a pink (or yeRow) katydid? for the Smithsonian, as does Durbin, and so the Smithsonian can hardly be My guess is that the variants, blamed for fretting about its political support.