In Context The Newsletter of The Nature Institute Letter to Our Readers 2 NOTES AND REVIEWS The Return of the Bald Eagle / Henrike Holdrege 3 Do Flowers Hear Bees? / Craig Holdrege 5 NEWS FROM THE INSTITUTE Our Foundation Year Program 6 Working with the Human Evolution Kit in Egypt 8 New Publications — In Print or In Process 9 At Home 10 Still Ahead 10 Our Staff 10 Thank You! 11 FEATURE ARTICLE Our Bodies Are Formed Streams / Stephen L. Talbott 12 # 42 Fall 2019 Dear Friends, One problem we constantly come up against in our work here at the Institute The Nature Institute has to do with the differences between our own human experience and the meaningful activities we try to describe in other organisms. Those activities STAFF include purpose-like behavior and the cognitive aspects of perception. How can Craig Holdrege Henrike Holdrege we characterize such activities in a paramecium or elephant without reading, or Elaine Khosrova seeming to read, features of our own behavior and perception into organisms Kristy King very unlike us? Judith Madey Veronica Madey In her article on the restoration of bald eagles in this issue, Henrike indirectly Stephen L. Talbott alludes to the problem when she remarks: “It is not so easy to be aware of and Adjunct Researchers/Faculty concerned about the disappearance of creatures less conspicuous than the Bruno Follador emblematic bird, such as many amphibians, reptiles, fish, insects, spiders, song Jon McAlice birds, and more.” What are the reasons that we come to value and rally behind Marisha Plotnik Vladislav Rozentuller certain creatures, while we attend to others—regardless of their ecological Nathaniel Williams significance—much less? Johannes Wirz Craig faces the problem of anthropomorphism in one of its more extreme Board of Directors forms when he asks, “Do Flowers Hear Bees?” — except that in this case we are Siral Crane not speaking of anthropomorphism proper: Craig Holdrege Henrike Holdrege I’ve noticed in the literature a tendency to animalize plants as a means of Marisha Plotnik Jan Kees Saltet giving them more credence as “substantial” beings on earth that we should Signe Schaefer be more aware of and care for. But this is not at all necessary. Plants are Jeffrey Sexton remarkable creatures in their own ways. We don’t need to analogize them with Nathaniel Williams animals, which scientists do when they refer to “neurobiology” in plants. Board of Advisors Will Brinton And Steve comes up against this problem in a yet different way when he Gertrude Reif Hughes discusses the “purposive” character of life. In his feature article, he writes that Wes Jackson Andrew Kimbrell the activity of proteins in the human body is “graceful, artistic, purposive, and Fred Kirschenmann meaningful.” This is not language typically used when describing molecules, and Johannes Kühl yet — given all the research findings — it seems much more suitable than all George Russell the talk of “molecular mechanisms” that are supposed to make life happen. The Langdon Winner Arthur Zajonc mechanistic language distorts our picture of living processes. In Context At the Institute our struggle to find the right descriptive language for the living Copyright 2019 The Nature Institute. qualities of life is ongoing. The wrestling with ideas and language sometimes leads Editor: Stephen L. Talbott to heated (if also friendly!) debates among ourselves. We don’t expect the issues to Layout: Mary Giddens go away any time soon. Cover Art: Kristelle Esterhuizen To perceive phenomena carefully and then to work to articulate experience Copies of In Context are free while the in adequate ways is something we focus on during our year-long foundation supply lasts. All issues are posted on the course, which you can read about in this issue. It is heartening to experience Institute website. the willingness of participants to challenge accepted paradigms and to strive The atureN Institute 20 May Hill Road to bring phenomena to expression in fresh and context-sensitive ways. This Ghent, New York 12075 too is ongoing work, and we are glad that through the course, participants and Tel.: 518-672-0116 Fax: 518-672-4270 teachers alike have the opportunity to stretch their abilities in the effort to let life Email: [email protected] manifest itself more fully. Web: http://natureinstitute.org The Nature Institute, Inc., Craig Holdrege Steve Talbott is a non-profit organization recognized as tax-exempt by the IRS under section 501(c)(3). Notes and Reviews The Return of the Bald Eagle HENRIKE HOLDREGE LIVING IN UPSTATE NEW our canoe trips in the YORK NOT FAR FROM THE Adirondacks and Catskill HUDSON RIVER at the Mountains. edge of the Taconic During one of my Mountains, I have train rides, I learned the good fortune to that there was a time, a occasionally witness the period of over hundred presence of the bald eagle years, when there were in our region. no bald eagles nesting On my sporadic train in the Hudson Valley rides to and from New region. In fact, there was York City along the Hud- a time when not one son River, I rejoice when pair of bald eagles was I am able to find a win- successfully breeding in dow seat on the river’s all of New York State. side. While most other passengers are engaged with their Nationwide, in the contiguous United States, the bald eagle screens, I watch the scenery outside: the sky and its clouds, was on the brink of extinction. early morning fog rising over the water, the tide coming The disappearance of this bird from our lands, and its in or going out, the waves or patches of smoothness of subsequent recovery, is a story to learn from, a story of the water, mirror images, the spreading of invasive plants warning and hope. at the river’s edge, the many species of birds that live near Here are numbers and dates: Along the Hudson River, or by means of the river. The river valley is beautiful at all after 1890, no breeding pairs of bald eagles were sighted times of the day. until 1997. So for more than a century, bald eagles appar- And I watch for bald eagles. Sometimes I count how ently did not breed in the river valley where once they lived many I see. On a recent trip this summer, coming from freely and thrived. In New York State, in 1970, one active New York City at midday, I had four sightings: one bald but unproductive pair was found. In the contiguous U.S., eagle was sitting low, close to the water’s edge; a juvenile in 1963, there were fewer than 500 breeding pairs. In 1973, bird was flying to a high treetop on which an adult eagle the bald eagle was listed as an endangered species under was perched; and a fourth eagle was situated on what ap- the federal Endangered Species Act. peared to be a nest on a steel structure in the river. While What brought about their decline? the train rushes by, I catch these glimpses. There were three main causes. First, the bird was deci- I sometimes see bald eagles closer to my home. Once mated by human predation for various reasons, or for no a bald eagle was feeding on the carcass of a deer that had good reason at all. Second, the bird lost its habitat due to been killed near our house by a car. With binoculars, we land settlement and agricultural development. It cannot observed it from our windows. Or I saw a bald eagle flying live without clean air and water, ample food supplies, and over The Nature Institute when we were doing outdoor large, undisturbed stands of trees. The third factor was studies during a summer course. We once watched a group contamination of the environment by toxic substances. of eagles feeding on a carcass in a field, among them ju- For example, after World War II, the insecticide DDT veniles that lacked the white of head and tail. Some were was widely and indiscriminately applied in the United actively feeding, others were perched in the high trees States. Land was sprayed with DDT from airplanes. In bordering the field. And we have spotted bald eagles on 1962, in her book Silent Spring, Rachel Carson was the fall 2019 In Context #42 3 first concerned citizen and scientist who drew public at- not mean that conservation practices can end … Increas- tention to the consequences of the use of DDT. One such ing human activity, chemical/toxic contaminants and habi- consequence was that the egg shells of birds ingesting DDT tat loss must be monitored and controlled if we want to became brittle and broke before a mature fledgling could encourage the eagle population on the Hudson.”1 hatch. The higher one looked in the food chain, the worse It is not so difficult to become aware of the disappear- the problem became — and the bald eagle lives at the top ance of a bird as large and as magnificent as the bald eagle. of the chain. DDT was banned from use in the United However, we could have remained oblivious to its threat- States in 1972, ten years after Rachel Carson’s book was ened extinction. Today one can be grateful that the alarm published, and one year before the eagle was listed as an was sounded, that the life-threatening conditions were endangered species. studied and understood, and that action was taken. After so long a period of no bald eagles breeding in the With the bald eagle’s return and with the restoration Hudson Valley region, what brought them back? of its required habitat, countless other mammals, insects, In 1976, New York’s Department of Environmental birds, and fish were also given a habitat.