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MAY

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1

NUMBER

VOLUME 110

4

FEATURES MOTHERS AND OTHERS Rearing human offspring

to

most labor-intensive reproductive this

independence

tasks.

Early

is

one of nature's

human

anthropologist, weren't the only ones bringing

mothers, argues

up

baby.

BY SARAH BLAFFER HRDY

NEW ZEALAND SWEET STAKES Tiny drops

ot

honeydew exuded by

a

bark-dwelling insect are prized by

many animals in a beech BY LAURA SESSIONS

forest.

THE

REWARDS OF CHANCE COVER

Thanks

to the

random

Female Barbary

macaques with

a

molecules, a beetle can

baby. Primate

mothering

is,

behavior of agitated

to

varying degrees, a

flex

its

wings and

can open up

its

a

chared venture.

STORY BEGINS OH PAGE 50

PHOTOGRAPH BY CYRIL RUOSO/BIOS; PETER ARNOLD, INC.

BY

clam

shell.

MARK DENNY

DEPARTMENTS 8

UP FRONT Others'

Day

10 LETTERS 12 CONTRIBUTORS 14 IN

SUM

16 FINDINGS

Tiny Conspiracies BONNIE L. BASSLER

34 THIS LAND

The Two Centuries of Caddo Lake ROBERT H. MOHLENBROCK 38 CELESTIAL EVENTS

The Mysterious

Side of Mercury

RICHARD PANEK 39 THE SKY IN MAY JOE RAO

40 IN THE FIELD Riding the Witches'-Broom

marchand

peter'j.

42 THE EVOLUTIONARY FRONT Alternative Life Styles

CARL ZIMMER

46 UNIVERSE Cosmic Plasma NEIL DE GRASSE TYSON 78 AT THE

MUSEUM

The Genome Writ Large HENRY

S.

F.

COOPER

JR.

82 MUSEUM EVENTS

84 REVIEW Most Excellent of Fishes LES

KAUFMAN

86 nature.net Tnlobitophilia

ROBERT ANDERSON 86 BOOKSHELF

88 THE NATURAL MOMENT Circle of Lite

PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN SERRAO 90 ENDPAPER Celle Fantastyk

JENNIFER ACKERMAN Visit our

Web

site at

u'wti'.iiaturalhistory.com

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— 8

NATURAL HISTORY 5/01

UP FRONT

C ?. I

Day

Others'

The magazine of the American Museum of Natural History Ellen Goldensohn

Probably because small and nuclear,

m a part of the world where most families were

grew up

I I

—

Rebecca B.

Thomas Page

not the baby-sitting jobs, certainly not complaints from their overworked mothers, not aU of Erma Bombeck's brilliant wisecracks prepared them

had quite

caring for their

first

for the night-and-day relendessness

baby. (The only person

among

ahead of time was herself the oldest of eleven.

Kathy had already been

A human nature.

And

infant it

fathers are not

is,

It

us

of the task of

who knew

the score

Board of Editors

Michel DeMatteis, Avis Lang

could truly be said that

Thomas Rosinski

as helpless a

one fmds

creature as

in

skills

Carol Barnette Editorial Coordinator

required. (Basic issues of caretaking Is

Merle Okada

crib death best prevented by putting

down on

its

Mark A. Furlong

stomach? The most

from pediatricians that the

back as

is

Judy Lee-BuUer General Manager

is

Edgar L. Harrison National Advertising Manager

an infant

can crawl,

Sonia W. Waites Senior Account Manager

its

Jessica

moment-to-moment existence

is

threatened

as

one of Ufe s most challenging long-term commitments. (The Agee once observed that "begetdng a child is at least as serious

murder." Yet for the most part,

Humans

and what we consider the proper and child varies with cultural background,

up a and individual experience. Yet we

to bring

financial circumstances,

We

cheerfully opt to reproduce.)

are flexible creatures,

most loving way flexible.

we

our offspring

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American Museum OF Natural History

bottom Hne.

Hrdy ("Mothers and Others," bottom hne. PuUmg together

at that

evidence from social anthropology, endocrinology, and studies of animal

fr-om nuclear.

bolsters her

hunch

that the original

human

As Mother's Day approaches, we can pause

just the traditional

honorees but

uncles, day-care workers,

labors of "others"

made

UNDERSTANDING AND PRESERVING

BIOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY

page 50) takes an extended look

Hrdy

(212)

6: Assoc. (847)

—

In this issue, anthropologist Sarah Blaffer

behavior,

Publisher

Circulation Assistant

An INSTITUTION DEDICATED TO biological

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are not infinitely

mammals, primates with a unique evolutionary history. If are to survive and behave as social creatures, we must toe a

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vigilance, its

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Gladys Pavera Assistant

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infancy requires

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Adrertising Production

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Getting a child past

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safest.)

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needs support for an extremely long time. Mothers and

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sometimes stymie even the experts.

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a parent.)

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Maire Crowe Managing Editor

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and it

family was far

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also fathers, siblings, grandparents, aunts,

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possible for

It

humans

may

well be that the devoted

to evolve.

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NATURAL HISTORY

I

5/0

1

LETTERS

The note

itself fascinating.

about the author on page 13

A

Larva By

Other

Any

Name

On page

56 of

"A World

DNA but

only

mitochondria." If Brown

I

was reminded of an incident that

happened

(3/01),

two photographs

'47.

I

was

1946 or

in

in the Scientific

and Technical Division

at

a

correct and

McVey

via e-mail is

some

Russell

L.

replies:

from father to

preservation of

does

child,

shed doubt on the

Chances

MacArthur's headquarters,

"mitochondrial Eve" date

age.

occurs in a snail

where we had the

of 170,000 years?

less

metamorphosis.

responsibihty ot overseeing

Adam

and even

Unfortunately, the

Japanese research.

photographs are of two

project was

decidedly different types of

silkworm pupae

While the

snails.

nudibranch

is

adult

silk

correctly

identified, the veliger larva IS

not a nudibranch.

past ten years

be discontinued

M.

cooked

of snail, one

Jolin

silk.

H. McClendon

of

The author

writes about

/*%

\

insects

Asia.

1

is

I

was

a child

Hong Kong, we were

none have been well enough preserved to provide

is

had was

any

DNA. No

fossils

"Peking man" for

DNA testing,

as all

the originals have been

w

.Hiij^

Dislodged Beavers In "In the Field" (3/01),

paternal contribution, and

Peter J.

of egg

fertilization

Marchand writes "show little

that beavers

showed that significant numbers of sperm

inclination to chisel

mitochondria did enter the

and emerge from

More

recent studies,

through" the

ice

of a pond their

lodges during winter. Here

however, have indicated that

on the U.S. -Canadian

sperm mitochondria

border along the Saint

entering the egg are

Lawrence River,

subsequently destroyed, and

been observing

between

the

JKk

belligerent insects,

pendulum of opinion swung back. I was

wliich were sold by

has

vendors

reflecting the current

sitting outside the

I

by

school gate.

scientific uncertainty

saying that the sperm might

Santa Barbara, California

Peter Parks, responds:

Eve and

Paula Mikkelsen

In

have beaver

colonies this winter, and

beavers from five of them

harvest trees

and brush. The

other colony happens to be

deHver "only a few or no"

the deepest.

mitochondria.

beavers in shallower ponds,

Adam

less

I

suggest that

than three feet deep, are

make

Hominid Bones After reading "The

more

writes that "a father cannot

Scavenging of 'Peking

running waters that

contribute irdtochondrial

Man,' " by Noel T. Boaz

turn, caused

"prosobranch" (not

genes to a child, because

and Russell

dam

"opistobranch").

mitochondria in sperm

(3/01),

might make.

The

is

quite

original sHde for

photo was mislabeled.

It

should have been captioned

"The Evolutionary

six

have been out frequently to

A. Zee

The photographer,

this

lost.

,

%iVJj^)

right.

of

then some work on mice

always staging fights

in

of

are available

indicated there was a

egg.

fairly universal in

When

It

that there

erectus

three to fifteen

no paternal inheritance, but

studies

Japan, but playing with

^ .;.

used to

DNA

inherited paternally.

only two have

so,

DNA. Homo

times older; in addition,

about whether

any mitochondrial

been assumed

via e-uiail

Natural History

&

the

essentially

in the water

loosen the

Mikkclscn, Ph.D.

Mnseum

all

rather

short at that time, and the

Division of Invertebrate Zoology

American

ate

Food was

pupae were

a

of the neogastropods. Paula

women

responds:

debate over the

scientific

to

pupae.

four-

Guy Brown

fossils are all

than 100,000 years old,

yielded

There has been some

had

doing the work

different type

after the

Neanderthal

fossils are

Unfortunately, the research

sculptured, darkly colored

lobed velum, point to

Jackson, Newjerscy

had been unwound.

because the young

Its

Klein

on the use of

multispiral, heavily

shell, plus its large

One

for the

DNA

decrease with the specimen's

morphological change that at

Ciochon

mitochondria can be passed

that

DNA.

with Neanderthal Kathleen

few or no

("Contributors") mentions

by Gregory A. Wray the drastic

delivers a fuU

it

the eating of insects, and

Apart,"

illustrate

conception,

load of nuclear

Front" (3/01), Carl

enter the egg

Insect Allure Erik L. Laurent's

cell."

Zimmer

can't

Yet in

"Symbionts and Assassins" article

on

the Japanese fascination with insects ("Mushi," 3/01)

was

(7/00-8/00), writes,

Guy Brown

"When

a

sperm

penetrates an egg cell during

I

likely to

holes in the ice created by

L. Ciochon wondered if

that they or otters

Bob Arnebeck

in-process

Wellesley Island,

eflforts

erectus

to

are, in

by holes in the

there were any planned or

repHcate the

or find

New

York

DNA of Homo Homo

and/or

as has recently

habilis,

been done

Natural History's e-niaU address

is

[email protected].

^^

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JlHHii iT

;

IN

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12

NATURAL HISTORY

5/0

1

CONTRIBUTORS was a picture showing the bacterium Vibrio harveyi glowing in the dark that drew Bonnie L. Bassler ("Tiny Conspiracies," page 16) to study ceU-to-ceU communication in bacteria. At the time, she was just finishing her doctorate in biochemistry and wanted to It

do research in

genetics.

She thought

V harveyi would make

an ideal subject because she

could induce mutations that affected luminescence and then simply turn off the Hghts in the

room

to identify the interesting mutants. "After eleven years of studying the

'languages'

of this

species," she says, "I realize the

compHcated than

I

first

associate professor in the

phenomenon

department of molecular biology

An

slightly

is

However, making the mutants

suspected.

is still

more

fian."

Bassler

is

an

Princeton University.

at

anthropologist with a long-standing interest in the natural relationships

and

females,

their offspring,

Hanuman

research in the 1970s with a nine-year study ot as sacred.

Her evolutionary

perspective

on

Hrdy

males,

langurs, a species that Indians regard

farrulies has resulted in

Natural History: "Daughters or Sons" (April 1988) and 1995).

among

Sarah Blaffer Hrdy ("Mothers and Others," page 50) began her

(pictured with her son, Niko)

is

two previous major

essays for

"Namral-Born Mothers" (December

professor emerita of anthi'opology at the

University of California, Davis, and the author of four books, including, most recently. Mother Nature:

Laura Sessions

"The

Little

A History ofMotiiers,

("New Zealand Sweet

Stakes,"

Run

as

Things That

the

World"

been looking

for

examples ever

New Zealand fiU

the

bill.

has

Sessions

since.

moved

page 64)

first

(Pantheon Books, 1999).

Selection

read E. O. Wilson's article

an undergraduate biology student and

Honeydew to

and Natural

Infants,

insects in the

says she

southern beech

New Zealand from the

United

forests

—on

After finishing her master's degree at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch effects

of Australian brush-tailed possums on

program there

in science

—

the

she enrolled in a doctoral

communication. Sessions leads natural history tours of New

Zealand for American students and recently islands,

New Zealand plants

of

States in 1996.

where she had an opportunity

visited

South Georgia and other subantarctic

to "play with the penguins

and

After writing his doctoral dissertation

Chance," page 72) turned shores. Currently the

Denny conducts

sea Uons."

on

slug slime,

his attention to the plants

DeNault

fieldwork

Mark Denny ("The Rewards of and animals that Hve on wave-swept

Professor of Marine Sciences at Stanford University,

Hopkins Marine Station

at Stanford's

California. Together with Steven Gaines,

he wrote Chance

in

in Pacific Grove,

Biology: Using Probability

to

Explore Nature (Princeton University Press, 2000). Their interest in chance began while

attempting to predict the toughest conditions intertidal organisms could tolerate. reports that for a biologist (not a

written

a

book about

mathematician or

—

probability theory

fellow biologists and then "observes

them

statistician),

especially,

get a

he

John Serrao ("The Natural Moment," page 88) grew up in the borough of Queens, New York City, where he pursued his passion for Hving things by hunting black widow spiders around Jamaica Bay and collecting cicada-kiUing wasps in his backyard. Alter receiving an M.S. in Science and Environmental Education from

Cornell University, Serrao (pictured here with a two-month-old black bear) began his career as a professional naturalist, leading nature

home

programs for schools and

Pocono Mountains. His wildUfe photography has appeared in dozens of magazines and field guides and in nearly a hundred nature books. Serrao's most recent book is a self-published photographic guide, Tlie Reptiles communities near

his

in the

and Amphibians of the Poconos and Northeastern Pennsylvania

(J. S.

says,

wary look

Publications, 2000).

it

feels strange to

when he mentions

in their eye

Denny have it

to

and edge away."

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14

NATURAL HISTORY 5/01

SUM

IN

CHICKS

SIS'S

Brood parasitism— tricking

another mother into incubating one's eggs pariiicularly

common

in

simply lays her eggs in

—

is

a

good deal

the nest of another

for the

parasitic bird: she

avoids the energetically costly business of in-

cubating and raising her own chicks and also avoids being a sitting

2000)— Kirsten L

Academy of Weir

duck for predators.

Processions of foliage-

common

toting leaf-cutter ants are forests of Central

ants return to their nests, they don't eat the leaves they have collected but use

them

to

is

species of the genus

incapable of growing

its

fungi but has evolved to steal the fungus

ied this thievery-prone species both in the

and

field

Panama,

in

nests of Cyphomyrmex longis-

Brazilian National

that

routinely

per-

forms this seemingly impossible feat.

The

researchers

observed the

water-

ofthe inch-and-a-half-

Matti Ahlund, of Sweden's Goteborg University,

them

species invade colonies

long fish in the swift

peacefully with

freshwater streams of

and

as parasites. But

live

members

Federal Uni-

ofthe South American

taking over the colony.

of fungus growers

Brazilian ichthy-

Museum and the

fall-climbing abilities

the group. Zoologists Malte Andersson and

climb a wet, slip-

headed by Paulo A. Buckup, of the

capus ants, driving out the fungus growers and

Some Megalomyrmex

fish

A team of

versity of Rio de Janeiro, has observed a species

the laboratory. Native to central

it raids

Salmon swim up

darter (Characidium)

and colleagues stud-

versity of Texas at Austin,

among

but can any

waterfalls,

underground chambers. Now scientists have

Biologist Rachelle M. M. Adams, of the Uni-

studied this kin-selection hypothesis

ROCK-CLIMBING FISH

ologists,

new ant

Weir

stream to spawn, sometimes leaping over low

pery, five-story cliff?

farmers' carefully tended harvests.

would be outweighed by the genetic benefit to

2000)— Kirsten L

wissenschaften 87,

feed the nutritious fungi that they cultivate in

own

the host and parasite are closely related,

new

Usurpation of Attine

in the rain-

and South America. When the

Megabmyrmex that

If

("Agro-Predation:

Fungus Gardens by Megalomyrmex Ants," Natur-

POACHED FUNGI

discovered a

the cost of caring for these extra offspring

predators" must seek out and take over a nest.

ducks. A female duck

duck, leaving the host mother to care for them. It's

Bird," Proceedings of the National

Sciences 97:24,

of the newly

discovered species invariably attack

all

the

female goldeneye ducks (Bucephala dangub)

original inhabitants by pulling at their legs

by exploring whether the birds parasitize only

and antennae and perhaps by excreting venom.

individuals to which they are closely related.

Espirito

Santo in east-

ern Brazil. Using their

two

large

of

pairs

long, flat, stiff-rayed fins,

the darters cling to the base of the verti-

cal rock surface while still underwater,

Without harming the developing embryos,

then

the researchers drew small albumen samples

inch themselves upward with strong lateral

from goldeneye eggs and looked for genetic

movements. Their

flat,

scaleless bellies and

markers specific to each mother. Andersson

slender, elongated bodies facilitate the proc-

and Ahlund found that the hosts and parasites

ess. Resting for a

were, in fact, more closely related than one

effort,

would expect

if

foot

nests were selected by chance.

few minutes between each

they are able to gradually ascend a

cliff

fifty-

beneath a waterfall. The same adap-

Female goldeneyes return to their birthplace

tations that enable the darters to cling and

to lay their eggs, so are they simply more

climb also enable them to recolonize upstream

likely to

same

nest— and

area, or

parasitize

areas after being

nests— in the

do the ducks recognize and

floods.

tar-

flash

maintain populations in the isolated uplands,

get their relatives? The scientists discovered that females most often parasitized the nests

washed downstream by

The scientists think this behavior helps

Unable to defend themselves, the surviving

C.

where,

it

seems, more species of darters have

evolved than in the lowlands.

of their mothers and sisters and that female

bngiscapus ants abandon their broods and flee

more time together than ran-

the nest. The predaceous invaders consume the

Other kinds of fishes, notably some tropical

more

fungus and, researchers suspect, feed the

gobies and Asian loaches, which also have the

relatives spent

dom female

pairs did. In addition, the

closely related the

greater the

sion.

the

stolen larvae to their

own

broods.

ability to climb tall waterfalls,

have indepen-

dently evolved fin and body shapes similar to

fungus growth for a

those of the darters. ("Wateri'all Climbing in

was more amenable to the inva-

while. But they don't add necessary nutrients

Characidium (Crenuchidae: Characidiinae) From

Shown by

to the high-maintenance gardens, so the fungi

Eastern Brazil," Ichthyological Exploration of

nest

extra eggs a parasite

— suggesting that a

("Host-Parasite Relatedness

Protein

pair,

The nest raiders may do some light garden-

number of

laid in a host's

relative host

host-parasite

Fingerprinting in a

near-

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eventually

become depleted and the "agro-

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2000)— Richard

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16

NATURAL HISTORY

5/01

FINDINGS

Tiny Conspiracies Cell-to-cell

communication allows bacteria

to

coordinate their activity. By Bonnie L Bossier

Bacteria have adapted to a huge range

of envhonments

earth, surviving

on

and multiply-

ing in and on plants and animals, in rock layers deep beneath the surface, in searing desert soils,

under

releasing chemical molecules

autoinducers.

When

known of

a cheirucal

type becomes sufficiently concentrated in the

environment

organ such tract),

as

(for

example, in an

the lungs or intestinal

bacteria that are sensitive to

it

polar ice, and under extremely high

spond by turning on genes

temperatures and pressures in thermal

the production of certain proteins.

on the ocean

vents

past decade,

we

that the success

floor.

During the

have begun to realize

of these

tiny,

celled

organisms may depend

singlein large

as

this

newly manufactured

re-

that regulate

The

proteins, in turn,

affect

the behavior of the bacteria,

which

take advantage of

one another's

presence in their efforts to survive and

on their abihty to converse with one another using chemical signals. Cell-to-cell communication allows

proliferate.

bacteria to coordinate their activity and

trait

thus enjoy benefits otherwise reserved

cellular organisms.

for multicellular organisms.

of only

By means of a process called quorum sensing, bacteria are able to detect when they are assembled in large numbers as opposed to when they are essentially alone. They may then adjust

communication and considered them the exception rather than the rule. But now scientists are realizing

part

their behavior accordingly. alert

one another

Artist's

Bacteria

to their presence

by

Until recently,

the

exchange of

chemical signals was assumed to be

a

few

a

of "higher," multi-

characteristic

cases

Researchers

knew

of bacterial ceU-to-

cell

that this capacity

but

is

not only

common

critical for bacterial survival

and in-

teraction in natural habitats.

The phenomenon of quorum

sens-

concept of a biofilm, a bacterial community that organizes itself in part

through cell-to-cell chemical signals. Attached to such surfaces as intestinal linings, biofilms have channels that allow nutrients to reach the individual residents.

discovered in two species of

I

ing was

I

bioluminescent marine bacteria, Vibrio

i

fisclieri

first

V

and

Both of

harveyi.

these

glow-in-the-dark organisms produce

I s

light

I

ability

only

when

notifies

their

quorum-sensing

them

that they have

manufacture

luciferase,

They then an enzyme con-

coction that

facilitates a

Ught-producmg

reached a high

cell density.

biochemical reaction. Although the

two

species are quite closely related,

they inhabit very diiferent niches in the ocean.

Vfisclieri Hves

ciation

with a number of marine ani-

in symbiotic asso-

mals, producing light that host animals

use for such purposes

as

luring prey,

scaring off predators, and attracting

Vfisclieri gets to reside

mates. In return,

in the hosts' speciaHzed light organs,

where

it

is

provided with amino acids

and other nutrients. trast,

is

a free-living

By means

by con-

organism, and no

of a process

quorum

called

V harveyi,

sensing,

bacteria are able to detect

when

their population has

reached a high density. one has yet figured out what advantage it

derives fi-om emitting light.

One

of

associations

V fischerih

most

fascinating

with certain bobtail

is

squids of the genus Ettprymna, the best

studied being the

ters,

Hawaiian bobtail

knee-deep

squid. Living in

this small creature

coastal

comes out

the sand during the day and to

hunt

wa-

buries itself in

makes the

after dark. Its Ufestyle

squid especially vulnerable to predation

on

clear,

bright nights,

when

ing on the animal from the stars

tip

could cause

it

to cast a

Hght shin-

moon

and

shadow and

off predators patroUing beneath

But through an

alliance

with

it.

l{ fisclieri,

the squid has evolved a Ught organ that

%

¥.

serves as a camouflaging

The amount of light organ, located creature's body,

on is

mechanism.

emitted from

this

the underside of the

controlled by an

iris-

— 18

NATURAL HISTORY

like structure.

tensity

5/01

The

of light from the sky and regu-

lates its light

organ accordingly, so that

from below, more or

the animal, seen less

squid senses the in-

matches the background.

The

squids light

is

prepares to bury itself in the sand for a

many

day of sleep, so

Hving in

bacterial cells are

hght organ that the animal

its

cannot supply them

with adequate

all

The squid circumvents this problem by pumping out about 95 pernutrients.

produced by the

V fischeri.

symbiotic bacteria inhabiting the Hght

cent of the

organ. After a baby squid hatches, Vfis-

the level of autoinducer in the light

the seawater

bacteria in

cheri

swim

through ducts leading into the immature hght organ,

where

the hospitable

organ below the

This also reduces

critical

threshold and

causes the bacteria remaining within to

The pumping

stop producing light.

is

may improve

pact.

Invading bacteria

their

odds of overcoming a

by releasing

fenses

when

simultaneously and only

tors

de-

host's

their virulence fac-

A

they are present in great numbers.

premature release might

immune

host's

off the

tip

system.

In natural environments, bacterial

compete with one another

species

under

survival

Many

hostile conditions.

produce

bacterial species

for

and for

nutrients, for entry into hosts,

antibiotics

chemical compounds to which they themselves are

By

immune

but that

kill

releasing their toxins

simultaneously, invading bacteria

may

improve

odds of overcoming

their

host defenses. competitors

their

Quorum

growth.

or

impede

their

sensing enables the

bacteria to coordinate the release of these antibiotics in high doses.

Quorum A Hawaiian

bobtail squid owes its luminescence to Vibrio fischeri bacteria housed in

an internal light organ. The bacteria secrete a chemical that, when in suffident concentration, stimulates

has accumulated

it

DNA

sensing also enhances the

of some bacteria to acquire

ability

fragments

that,

because of the

death of some of their fellows, are up

them to glow.

for grabs in the environment.

conditions enable

them

to multiply.

There the bacteria Hve suspended in of their normal behav-

fluid and, as part

an autoinducer (the chemi-

ior, secrete

cal that signals their presence) into

The

it.

bacteria interpret a threshold con-

centration of this cheinical as their cue to switch

and

one an-

bacteria alert

squid's circadian

activated only at sunrise.

is

rhythm As the

day goes by, the bacteria begin to divide, their

numbers

increase,

autoinducer accumulates. the Hght organ

do

its

is

"on"

By

and more nightfall,

again, ready to

sensing

is

not restricted to

other that they are inside a suitable host.

the past decade, scientists have found in

however, the bacteria and their autoin-

ducer chemicals never reach concentrations. ria

Then

critical

again, the bacte-

probably do not gain anything by

A

remarkable part of

symbiosis

is

the

way

this exquisite

the squid keeps

the bacterial culture fresh within light organ.

At

sunrise,

when

many

its

the squid

it

other species, with variations

in the autoinducer molecules secreted,

the

means by which they

are detected,

the biochemical reactions they trigger,

and the behavior they ample,

einitting light outside the squid.

for repairing

quorum

production of

regulate.

For ex-

sensing controls the

virulence factors (toxins

mutated or damaged chro-

mosomes. Only where there

is

a

con-

centrated population of bacteria

is

there

likely to

free

be any substantial amount of

DNA

available. In this case,

sensing turns

Bacterial mating,

more

which

diverse array of individuals

a

species,

sensing

donor

know

as

seems to employ quorum weU. The process involves

cells

and recipient

cells.

We

that in Agrobacterium tumefaciens, a

species that causes plants, the

tumors in susceptible

donors communicate with

one another through quorum but exactly what function

im-

and

can spread advantageous genes through

numerous human and

that have a clinical or agricultural

DNA.

creates a

and other disease-causing agents) in plant pathogens

quo-

on the machinery

that enables cells to take in this

glow-in-the-dark marine bacteria. In

When

dispersed in the ocean water,

DNA

rum

job.

Quorum

on the production of Hght. In

V fischeri

effect,

tuned to the

These

fragments are a useful resource

not yet understood.

sensing,

this serves

is

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some

another auto-

inducer. This second chemical signal

responsible for producing the

Our Universe

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luminous bac-

in addition to having

cases,

least

proper formation ot

poisoning), below, are bacterial

among the

spedes known to produce

and recognize a type of interspedfic chemical signal.

A bsfiiig impression ^for your futurea Deposit Accounts from ,,.

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for

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has been found in a variety of other

These and other find-

bacteria as well.

ings have led to speculation that this

widespread molecule a

common

is

the basis ot

"language,"

bacterial

a

Esperanto providing communication

between

The

species.

capacity to distinguish signals

both from

more

its

own

—through —from

kind and

code

universal

a

others

could provide a population of a particular bacterial

mation.

It

species

with valuable infor-

could learn not only the

consistently ranked

wide-and help ensure

may be communicate mth

Different species able to

Earn high yields, which have

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''language," a

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most of the prevailing conditions.

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22

NATURAL HISTORY

5/01

now been shown

have

to

produce the

interspecies signal molecule.

They

in-

clude Escherichia coh (food poisoning), SahnoiieUa typhiiiiuriiun (food poisoning),

S.

typhi (typhoid fever), Haeiiio-

phihis influenzae sepsis),

tis,

ulcers, feri

(pneumonia, meningi-

Helicobacter pylori

stomach cancer),

(Lyme

(peptic

Borrelia burgdor-

disease), Neisseria meningitidis

(meningitis).

Yersinia pestis

(bubonic

tract infections). Streptococcus

Staphylococcus aureus

Vibrio clwlerac (cholera),

cobacterium tuberculosis (tuberculosis),

MyEn-

terococcus faecaUs (endocarditis, urinary

(pneumonia, endo-

shock syn-

septiceinia, toxic

carditis,

advantage. For example, Pseudomonas

bacterium present in

habitats, poses a threat

specific

function served by the autoinducer in these bacteria

is

not yet known, there

mounting evidence cases,

it

The

is

some

that, at least in

explosion of research in

quorum

sensing, especially in pathogenic bacte-

new

by

victim's

By

detecting and re-

body may be

the

signals,

able to hinder the

secretion of this bacterium's toxins. In

molecules that mimic, and in some way

to

quo-

sensing, such drugs

constitute a

antibiotics.

A

new broad-spectrum

an-

of

might

nals.

way can be

devised

underixdne

developed that manipulate

quorum sensing, such drugs would constitute or disrupt

of antibiotics.

novel research

While much applied research

is

di-

quorum

The

idea

is

to

molecule that

a

sensing, the process can also

ample, cell-to-cell communication

enhance the production of

detector of a particular

By

bacterial species, block-

sensing, scientists

abihty to sense

its

appropriate

signal

This would

prevent pathogenic bac-

be

exploited in a positive way. For ex-

binds to the autoinducer

molecule.

quorum

finding ways to promote

may

may

antibiotics.

discover

how

to

improve the commercial production of natural antibiotics, enzymes,

and other

biochemicals useful in the prevention

and treatment of

disease, for the

pro-

teria

from recognizing

tection of food sources, and in indus-

when

they are assembled

trial

in

thus

process that triggered.

proach

is

avert is

the

normally

Another ap-

to design drugs

processes.

Whatever the

numbers and

great

would

signals, but the function this serves is not understood.

class

turally similar to autoin-

the

communicate with one another through chemical

new

rected toward finding ways to disrupt

ing

some spedes, donor

algae.

molecules that are struc-

ducers.

a donor

and

If therapies could be

focused on designing

make

E. coli,

This has been observed in some

plants

a

Some is

sig-

result, for

instance, if a

to

quorum-sensing

interfere with, the

new

system.

cells

burns, cancer, or

fibrosis,

other cases, hosts appear to produce

way

the interspecies signaling

a tube. In

cystic

other conditions.

nological applications. If therapies could

pointing the

tibiotic

DNA through

of

biotech-

ria, is

class

transmits

soils

infection to people already debihtated

sponding to autoinducer

increases virulence.

would

cell

own

quorum-sensing systems to their

and wetland

rum

shown here for

al-

aeruginosa, a

most part the

for the

nipulate or disrupt

bacteria mate, as

host organisms

cases,

While

be developed that ma-

When

some

In

ready seem capable of manipulating

drome, meningitis, food poisoning).

plague), Campylobacter jejuni (tood poi-

soning).

pneumoniae

(pneumonia, ear inflammations), and

tions,

practical

applica-

of

quorum

investigation

the

sensing promises to provide biologists

with insights into

a

key step in the

evolution of multicellular organisms.

that specifically interfere

An

with the enzymes in-

mechanisms

volved in synthesizing

process will lay the foundation for a

autoinducers, thus pre-

better understanding of the develop-

venting

ment of organs and of

the

bacteria

from sending out simal molecules.

their

appreciation

teractions

that

of the molecular govern

this bacterial

cell-to-cell in-

and information processing

in higher organisms.

D

ft: ..V

.

L: R. J: J ...S.

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BYWAYS New York New York

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Out of vietting

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here

I

one of the most

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from across the country.

New York

is

teeming with scenic byways, from

Hudson River

a 150-mile journey along the to a leisurely 340-mile journey

and waterfalls

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through the wineries

of the Finger

Lake region. You

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The tour

of the

Hudson River

homes

the natural beauty of the region with the

Thruway

of great Americans. Exit the

trip.

combines

Valley

(1-87) at

Tarrytown. Follow Route 9 north, visiting historic Philipsburg Manor, to Peekskill and Route 6,

which takes you along River.

cliffs

Hudson

high above the

Cross the Bear Mountain Bridge to Bear

Mountain State Park, where you can or enjoy a picnic lunch.

swim,

hike,

9W

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north to Route 218, which brings you into the village of Highland Falls. Don't miss a tour of the

United States Military

Return to Route

9W

Storm King Highway, to

Academy

at

West

Point.

north to Route 218, the

for a winding drive leading

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9W through

Newburgh, where General George Washington's Headguarters are located, and past several wineries, tasting of

where you can stop

some

for a tour

and a New York has hundreds

of the region's best wines.

of golf courses

and miles of beaches. The Adirondacks, the state's highest mountains,

are a favorite hiking and fishing area.

Continue north to the Mid-Hudson Bridge (Route 44/55). Crossing the river again, head north on Route 9 to the Franklin

D.

of waterfalls:

Roosevelt

Sites

and on

to the Village of Rhinebeck. Travel

north on Route 9G, and

visit

and Olana State Historic

Montgomery Place

city limits

miles.

hike at hidden areas, such as Buttermilk

While

in

and

Stop and Falls.

Follow Route

89 north along

the shore of

Cayuga Lake and drive to Taughannock

where the

Falls

state's highest waterfall

drops

Park,

Route 82 to Route 44 to the scenic Taconic Parkway

215 feet into a rock amphitheater The Cayuga Wine

which leads to the Saw

Trail (for

Elmira,

River Parkway and,

back to Tarrytown and the Thruway

The tour

(1-87).

of the Finger Lakes region begins

home

of the

Mark Twain Study and

Woodlawn Cemetery, where Mark Twain

17

southeast to Corning, where you can

is

with eight wineries

buried;

is

call

1-800-732-1848)

located along Route 89.

Travel northwest to Geneva. Take Route 14

in

Exhibit;

more information

south along the shore of Seneca Lake— one of the

11

Finger Lakes,

known

for their

deep clear

and the National Soaring Museum, an impressive

waters. Travel to Dresden and follow Route

exhibition of sail planes and historic gliders.

to

Travel northeast on Route 13 to Ithaca, the city

Penn Yan. You are

travel south

still in

54 west

wine country, so

on Route 54A along the shore

Corning Glass Center.

From Corning, take Route 414 and

State

Follow Route 199 through winemaking country to

finally

Museum and numerous

wineries. Next, drive to Bath on Route 54. Take

explore 3,500 years of glassmaking at the

to Route 23. Take Route 22 south to Millerton.

Mill

Keuka Lake to Hammondsport. Here are the excellent Glenn H. Curtiss

Route

Ithaca, don't miss Cornell University

Site.

Next turn east into the Taconics, taking Route

23B

dozens are within the

hundreds more are within several

and the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic

of

Glen State Park, with

its

hiking paths

visit

Watkins

and natural

pools formed by the age-old waterfalls tumbling into stone basins.

of

Montour

Falls

and

Falls,

visit

Take Route 14 south to the town

where you can see Cheguaqua

Havana Glen

scenic walk to Eagle

south on Route 414 For

Park, with a short

Cliff Falls.

will

Continuing

take you back to Elmira.

more information on these

travel ideas or

the other fabulous cities and great outdoors call

1-800-CALL-NYS, or

visit

sites,

www.iloveny.com.

S

s^^-^^fS^

Discover

New

York's

many

treasures. You'll find sparkling beaches,

butterfly sanctuaries

ak)ng breathtaking waterfalls. Take a wild ride at an amusement park, or play through a golf courses.

New

York's extraordinary people

T ^A ^^r^^ ilavenvcnm STATK OF

NfwvoRK

are as diverse

honor and celebrate relaxation,

1-800-1

you'll

many

find

it

as

LOVE NY ((ode 1212)

circuit

you seek adventure,

amid spectacular scenery

in

trails

of superb

our landscapes; attractions and

cultures. >X1iether

all

and nature

festivals

recreation or

New

York.

Gal|

for a free travel guide. Let the discoveries begin.

ficofgt K. I'alaki

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WYOMING HAS SOME OF

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the sense of adventure and

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Of COURSE ALL OF THESE ROADS AND MORE lead you on an adventure through the real

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outstanding state.

pride of the

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Backways Program allows

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The Cloud Peak Skyway traverses the southern Big

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Wild and WDnderiul

The state of West Virginia has four national scenic byways designated by the

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West Virginia has some beautiful byways from

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Scenic Byway Program. These are the Highland Scenic Highway, the Midland

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Virginia's

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industrial revolution. Before interstates, the

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Virginia

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NATURAL HISTORY

5/01

THIS LAND

Park (estabHshed in 1934), whose recreational

and camping

does die and waters,

facilities

lodged in the decaying

border Big Cypress Bayou.

About logjam formed 200

years ago, a

huge

in the

Red

River where

it

two centuries

In the

Lake's formation, plant

flows through

have adjusted to

its

and animal

—including —

northwestern Louisiana. Because of the

and water snakes

venomous water moccasins

nearby Cypress

Valley, creating Caddo body of freshwater that

common which

straddles the

border between Texas and

Louisiana.

Caddo

is

in a

life

presence. Alligators

buildup of logs, the river spiUed into

Lake, a large

Caddo

since

and around the

haven for several

often nurtures considerable vegetation, especially species

Bottomland is

stands only

lake,

fishes

and

wood and

A fallen log thus

sometimes germinate.

elevation

are

swampy

into the

fall

wUdflower seeds become

of beggar's-hce.

forest

grows where the

sHghtly higher and water

some of the

time.

A

still

higher zone, which remains free of

A legend recounted by the

Indians attributed the lake's

origins to an earthquake. In fact,

Caddo Lake did develop close in time to the great New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-12, which formed Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee and altered the course of the Mississippi River.

Archaeological evidence, however, reveals that

Caddo Lake

arose earher,

about 1800, and was simply the

of dead

trees piling

result

up in what was

a

slow-

relatively

flowing, shallow section of the river.

The logjam, known locally as the Great

Red

Texas and Louisiana.

Pdver Raft,

partway up the adjacent

upland forest occupies the upper slopes

expand untU the

white water

1870s,

when

federal

government

the

level,

it

sampled

gelatinous sHme.

now has

century, the

of oil

a stable water

fifty

a protective coat

of

slopes,

while

tops.

Caddo Lake

is

one of only

seventeen wetlands in the United States that

have been designated

sites,

so

named

for the

Convention on Wetlands, which resulted in

from

Ramsar,

a

forum

that

Iran, in 1971.

took place

The

whose ridge tops are less than a hundred feet above the elevation of Caddo Lake. Next to

convention estabHshed guideUnes for

the lake, in low-lying areas that often

conservation.

contain standing water year-round, are

are

terrain consists

of low

hills

extensive bald cypress forests.

With

enlarged, buttressed bases and cone-

its

shaped "knees" to anchor them in their

square

and ridge

Ramsar

cypress

may be Caddo Lake State

diverse habitats

shield,

In the surrounding region, the

river to

maze of bayous and

in Texas's

whose three-inch-

explosives. This

with an average depth of eight to

Its

water

enveloped in

for purposes

with

smaller aquatic plants

underwater

swamps, the lake covers miles.

Among its

wide, nearly circular leaves are

ten feet. Altogether, including associated

fruits. is

exploration, flood control, and water

and

lotus,

cleared the

During the twentieth

supply,

and water

lily;

huge creamy flowers and woody

blockage with

stopped the overflow of water into the

dammed

(moist) forest. This habitat extends

aquatic plants include spatterdock,

and the

navigation farther upstream and

was

lake's large

with yellow, club-shaped flowers;

maneuver opened the

lake

The

standing water, supports a mesic

lake continued to

persisted

lake.

amphibians that are rare elsewhere in

may The

watery habitat, bald cypresses high

tower

as

knees

also store

as a

form of starch.

hundred

feet.

food reserves in the

When

a bald cypress

identifying "wetlands of international

importance" and ensuring their

now

More

than 120 nations

contracting parties to the

convention.

The United

States ratified

Ramsar agreement in 1986, and Caddo Lake was listed in 1993, when the

nearly twelve square miles' worth of

Texas-owned land

parcels in

and

around the lake were designated tor protection.

35

36

NATURAL HISTORY 5/01

it

For a wetland to be a Ramsar must do one of the following;

(1)

site,

contain a representative, rare, or

unique example of a wetland type; (2)

support endangered species or

threatened ecological communities; (3)

support populations of plant

and/or animal species important for maintaining the biological diversity ot a particular region; (4) serve as a

refuge for plant and/or animal species

or support

them

at a critical stage in

their life cycle; (5) regularly support

20,000 or more waterfowl; support

(6) regularly

the individuals in species

a

1

of watei-fowl;

(7)

significant proportion fish species;

or

percent ot

population of one support a

of indigenous

provide

(8)

fish stocks

with an important spawning ground, nursery, migration path and/or

Caddo Lake meets Ramsar criteria. It is

source of food.

many of

the

lice (or stick-

a

plants

and animals

the region;

it is

yellowish flower heads, and

that are rare for

home

200 species of birds,

members of the

more than 50 of mammals, to

and 500 of native

attracts well

plants;

and

nettle family: false nettle

is

Bottomland

the

of the Texas Parks and Department and of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and its

forest trees

responsibility

Wildlife

offices in Texas. In

often

HABITATS

1999 the

protected area was increased to

Bald cypress forest contains the

thirty-three square miles.

trees

m the area.

cypress are

two other

species

of trees

that

of plant biology at Southern

but lack the cypress's "knees"

Illinois

University, Carbondale, explores the

and geological

national forests

and

highlights of U.S.

other parklands.

commonly have

gum are

and pumpkin

buttressed trunks

ash.

—

Other

water hickory, planer

swamp

largest

Growing with the bald

Robert H. Mohlenhrock, professor emeritus

tree,

tupelo

visitor information, contact:

Caddo Lake State Park PJ^ 2, Box 15 Karnack,

TX 75661

two

in the

species,

shrub

layer.

both bearing

fi-om nurseries

and garden

canopy

in

Common

tall,

forming

grow

a dense

summer and autumn. species in the seventy-five-

foot range are sweet

gum, overcup

oak, cherrybark oak, and willow oak.

Often growing below these

is

a

secondary canopy of trees from twenty

Among them is box

to fifty feet

member of the maple family with compound leaves, and green haw,

These

attractive

white flowers, are commonly

and

and

red maple.

bush grow

straight

species

Virginia sweetspire and snowbell

For

and

clearweed.

it

over 20,000 waterfowl.

Conservation of this ecosystem

biological

two

stingless

90 of reptiles and amphibians, 90 of fishes,

with

tights)

good example of a bald cypress swamp; it supports a number of

available

centers.

tall.

elder, a

which has two-inch-long curved spines on some or all of its branches and sometimes even on its trunk. Vegetarion on the forest floor in this shaded habitat

is

often sparse but

Among

(903) 679-3351

Plants that colonize fallen tree trunks

includes a diversity of species.

www.tpwd.state.tx.us/park/caddo

include two varieties of pink St.-

the grasses are the bamboolike giant

/caddo.htm

John's-wort, several kinds of beggar 's-

cane

as

well

as

lower-growing

wood

OiAer hM\k^

l\Ae common species hickory,

are

water oak, bitternut

and sugarberry

(a

type of

hackberry). Black walnut trees appear in the

more elevated tracts. A midcanopy is formed by hop hornbeam,

layer

musclewood, and pawpaw. Ferns plentiful,

named

among them

are

ratdesnake fern,

for the tiny spherical spore cases

arranged on a special tufted frond.

and

Violets, wild geranium, mayapple,

After a bit

bloom in April and May. of a summer luU, the blues of

woodland

asters

blue phlox

1

and the yellows of

woodland goldenrods render the

i

forest

vibrant in late August.

'J

m

Upland forest

Here,

trees include large, It's

it's

sturdy black walnuts and southern red before you

reed grass and white

grass.

Wildflowers

include water horehound, jack-in-thepulpit,

shorter black

Here and there

are

of shrubs such

as

possum haw,

type of hoUy that loses

its

leaves

thickets

sassafras trees.

a

during

the autumn. Greenbrier vines and a

vine

known

as

supplejack (or rattan

\ine) climb over

some of the

somewhat

gum, red mulberry,

redbud, flowering dogwood, and

green dragon, and a triangular-

leaved blue violet.

oaks, in addition to the

vegetation.

large-leaved,

Here and there is the prickly stemmed

Hercules' club, also

known as the The brilliant

Mesic forest

tree cover

bottomland

is

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38

NATURAL HISTORY 5/01

CELESTIAL EVENTS The dark there,

our

of the

side

done

Moon? Been

Another dark

that.

however,

solar system,

side in

is

beckoning to some astronomers

much

Moon's did

the

as

an

to

today,

earlier

generation. In this case the dark side

Mercury's, and discussions,

on

its

is

always in such

as

very existence depends

the definition of "dark."

The dark one,

isn't

of the Moon, tor

side

—dark

that

is,

at least in

any

day-and-night sense of the word.

Every crater on the Moon's surface gets

some

sun. In fact, during Earth's

new Moon

phase,

"dark" side that Still,

that side

in the sense that

with

that

it

its

can't see

it.

satellites in

Moon

rotation with

Moon's

the

indeed dark to

is

we

many major

system, the

it's

JWas there volcanism^n Mercury?t-ij

fully in sunlight.

is

is

us,

As

the solar

The Mysterious

in synchronous

host planet,

meaning

always shows the same face to

Earth, never the other. That unseen frontier,

Side of Mercury

perhaps more appropriately

termed the

proved to be a

far side,

most tempting

dawn of

target at the

The

the space age.

Mercury's dark side

now

is

to arouse a similar curiosity

starting

MESSENGER launch in 2004

promises to lead us out of the dark.

among

astronomers. No, this dark side doesn't

By Richard Panek

actually dwell in darkness either,

although until the

1

960s most

astronomers believed that Mercury

cover sHghtly

was

Mercury's surface.

in

synchronous rotation with the

Sun and

that

one

side

of the planet

did indeed experience perpetual

we know

though technically or from

satellite

The

useful, for

other half

visible

sizes

from Earth

about the planet, just about half its surface remains, for

the planet's proximity to the

But

in terms

all

practical

1

flew past Mercury three

on March 29 and September 1974, and on March 16, 1975.

had

to

And

1999). is

the

same obstacle observers have always

purposes, hidden.

Mariner

—

relative to the

overall scale

of the

(see "Celestial Events,"

the

Sun

example, in determining the

of the planets

and the

observatories such as

Hubble Space Telescope, is still pretty much oft-limits. The problem

night.

of what

than half of

less

overcome when studying

planet's

a

November

seeming anomaly

substantiate Einstein's general theory

of relativity.

But Mercury

when

itself?

Consider:

logged on to Yahoo!

Mercury. Partly tor that reason,

Recently

21,

observing the planet has historically

and followed the Science topic

it.

The photographs

spacecraft sent

that the

back comprise just

served

more

as a

means of gathering

general astronomical information than

of Mercury

about the entire database of close or

as

even rehable observations of the

(when, from the point of view of an

surface features of the innermost

observer

—and they

planet of our solar system

an end in

on

itself Transits

Earth, the planet crosses

the surface of the Sun) have

been

in the

orbit around the Sun helped

times:

That's

Sun

system

solar

I

trail

from Astronomy to Solar System Planets,

fewest

found

I

that

to

Mercury had the

number of entries among the a mere 4. Even Pluto had

—

planets

double that number, while Mars

weighed

in

with

a

whopping

143.

— THE SKY IN MAY

By Joe Rao

Now, however. Mercury's relative anon^Tnity just may be nearing an end. What most surprised astronomers during the Mariner 1 flybys some

northwestern horizon

at

twenty-five years ago was the presence

climbing higher night

after night.

of a magnetic

field,

about 1/100 the

strength of Earth's, possibly indicating

an active interior. re\'isiting that

Now researchers

Mariner

found evidence of volcanic the surface of the planet.

activity

on

New radar

Sun

was already

in the

(an

works

acronym

—

it is

at

hill

all.

magnitude brighter. During the

evenings of May 13-17,

Geochemistry, and Ranging)

tracks past the brighter Jupiter.

2004 and rendezvous with the planet in 2009

day-old crescent

due

spacecraft,

to launch in

has recently assumed

Unhke

Mariner 10,

new

to

of Saturn on the evening

Mercury: Surface, Space Environment,

significance.

MESSENGER

left

Moon

against the

brightening Mars

though

of May 6 and wiU appear nearly one

the

for

backdrop of stars.

is

a thrilling,

challenging, planetary

still

The Martian north

target.

toward us

tilted well

pole

spring

this

summer draws

to an end.

Look

as

well

increasingly prominent

as

rapidly

it

sits

A

two-

off to the

of Mercury on the evening of the

Jupiter

low

in the west-northwest

being

down

its

It is stiU

the brightest

dusk in early May, despite

"star" at

24th. Thereafter, the planet dives back to the horizon, fading rapidly

is

during twihght.

dimmed by

its

low

running out of time to view

Technically

giant planet sets only about fifty

Mercury ventures far enough from the Sun to provide us with a clear, if fleeting, glimpse. This month. Mercury makes its brightest appearance of the year. Look for it at twilight, trailing the Sun over the horizon in the west-northwestern

—but look

quickly, because the

sky

hours the

after the

first

light

week

Sun.

By

the end of

in June, the

from the Sun

opposite side of the solar system). Jupiter has had a brUhant yearlong

Venus

a dazzling

is

diamond low

reaches

it

its

on May 4 (magnitude but wiU look about the same all month. Venus gains only a Uttle altitude in

in

greatest

brilliance

May, continuing to

-4.5)

rise at

through

a telescope, the planet

dwindhng

in size.

At the same time,

is

thickening.

A waning crescent Moon sHps well to the right

morning of the

of Venus on the

forgotten.

Believing:

Our

is

How

the author of Seeing

the Telescope

and

Opened

Eyes and Minds to the Heavens

(Penf^iiin,

1999).

By

on with

sets

the 24th,

gone completely, hidden glare

of the Sun.

Saturn might be gHmpsed very low after sundown during week of May. Use the brighter Mercury to guide you to Saturn on

the

first

the month, Saturn Hes too close to the

about 11:30 P.M. local

Sun

to

be

visible. Saturn's solar

conjunction occurs on

May

25.

daylight time

becomes everyone's object of Pichard Panek

is

it

the evening of the 6th. For the rest of

19th.

on the 1st but about two hours earlier by month's end, dominating the south-southeastern sky the rest of the night. Mars

especially

the fading twihght.

later

near the west-northwestern horizon

crescent

more be

— among astronomers— nowhere near

and two weeks

,

Jupiter

of twilight

about an hour

its

rises at

not dark, gone but

1

end

and the Sun,

unobservable, and Mercury will once there but not there, dark but

May

after the

because of its position vis-a-vis Earth

Mars, in the constellation Sagittarius,

it

minutes

The

it.

is

wash of

will render

apparition, but sky watchers are

behind the

about the break of dawn. Seen

below and

planet will be setting one to two

and

altitude

from Earth (on the

great distance

the east at early dawn's hght.

when

for

surface features.

formation.

those infrequent occasions

as

the shrinking northern polar ice cap

into the sunset.

continue to content themselves with

is

the planet's northern-hemisphere

would map the entire surface of Mercury and, in the process, possibly resolve some questions about planet In the meantime, observers can

of all

the

1 1

For observers with telescopes, the

at

It's

be positioned above and

will

to the right

will in

it

On May

stars) in brilliance.

motion

from the

The only trick knowing when to look.

not so elusive

13 through August 2,

fact surpass Sirius (the brightest

planet begins retrograde (westward)

offers the year's

22nd, rendering the "elusive planet"

Mercury

NASA mission

For

on the evening of the

(22.5°)

seeing

MESSENGER

mid-May

latitudes,

even indicate the possible presence of

that

midtwUight,

observers at temperate northern

water in the form of ice. a

May

just above the west-

greatest eastern elongation

observations of Mercury's north pole

For these reasons,

is

best chance to see Mercury.

data have

1

Mercury

fascination this

month

as its

golden-

The Moon

is

Last quarter

A.M.,

22

at

May

hiU

and the

new Moon

10:46 p.m.

29

at

on May 7

at

9:52 A.M.

comes on May 15 First

at

6:11

on May quarter is on falls

6:09 P.M.

orange glow brightens from

magnitude

-1.1

on

May

1

dazzling -2.0 by the 31st.

to a

From

Unless otherwise noted, in Eastern

all

Daylight Time.

times are given

— I

40

NATURAL HISTORY 5/01

IN THE FIELD

was tagging along with friends

I

on

"hay ride" through

a

Colorado's Arapaho National

Forest

when

the old wrangler at

the reins suddenly

puUed

his

team

to a halt. Interrupting his nonstop

he gestured toward a

storytelling,

dark shape high in a lodgepole pine and drawled, "Porcupine nest," jerking his

head upward in

the general direction of the

My eyes followed his

object.

motion

of twigs

to a dense tangle

wedged between

the trunk and an

oddly twisted branch near the top

of the

Recognizing the

tree.

cluster as a large witches '-

—and having never heard — of porcupines

broom

nesting in trees

wondered folklore.

if this

Or

was just

local

did the old

outdoorsman know something about witches'-brooms that

I

had missed? Witches'-brooms are odd growths of stunted and closely

packed branches. They occur

many

sporadically in

different

kinds of trees and shrubs, both

broad-leaved and coniferous, and

come

in

all

sizes

and shapes,

from small spmdiy

clusters to

large globose masses. like nests.

result

Many

look

Witches'-brooms

from

prolific, localized

growth, occasionally induced by genetic mutation but most often

caused by parasitic organisms

ranging in to large

size

from microscopic

and luxuriant

—

manipulate the plants'

that

own

growth hormones.

Among

the smallest agents ot

witches'-brooms are amoeba-shaped phytoplasmas, often no larger than a

possess only one-fifth the

hundredth of a millimeter

genes found

that infect the

in diameter,

these simple pathogens can

phloem, or food-

transporting, cells of many broad-

leaved trees and shrubs.

Though

m

number of

the typical bacterium,

they

havoc within their

wreak

hosts, redirecting

hormones and causing broom

formation near branch

tips,

plant sugars and nutrients

where

become

concentrated.

The most conxmon

architects

witches'-brooms in coniferous

of

trees are

community by

certain rust tungi as well as the

and photosynthetic, dwarf

^^'idesp^ead,

Both these organisms cause and convoluted

niisdetoes.

creating additional food

resources and habitat for

A

few months ago,

I

many

came

downed Engehnann

animals.

known

are

to utilize witches'-brooms

for nesting or protection. In addition,

across a

ten perching bird and eight raptor

spruce that

species, including

Mexican spotted

especially large

huge,

brooming (of the sort the old wrangler

held three large witches-brooms, two

owls and goshawks, sometimes nest

of which contained recently occupied

within these structures.

had pointed

immune

to),

and few conifers

to their attack.

The

are

rusts,

red-squirrel nests.

One broom,

spread by tiny spores, induce a dense

situated close to the trunk about sixty

packing of branches with characteristic

feet

vellow foliage that

contorted branches, some four to

though the

broom

is

itself keeps

year-round. Spruce infect almost any

cast in the

broom

tall,

growing

rust can

of the native North

American spruces but

is

found only

\\here the understory shrub bearberry is

available as

an alternate host (many

produce generations that

parasites

between two

alternate

one of which

species,

different host it

may

not aflect

adversely). Fir rust produces similar

packed brooms in most of the

tightly

true

firs

but

chickweed,

By

grows.

species of

is

its

limited to areas

where

above the base, consisted of many

dense tangle of twigs, they created

contrast, the forty or so

New World dwarf

a

mass exceeding four feet in height. this

broom was

—

nest system

a three-tiered

a

bed of coarse spruce

Incorporated into considerable hair,

this

dependent on witches'-brooms for

Honduras Pacific

across

But the

nest

sites.

end

there.

The

list

dwarf mistletoes are fed upon by dozen species of birds, including

many

—such

hairstreak butterfly, solely

on

the thicket larvae feed

and mimic

almost perfectly their color and shape.

Add

to this twenty-nine or so

known

different fungi

mass was a

concentrated resources of witches'-

brooms (some

including a lone crimped

mistletoe

to tap the

parasitizing the

itself),

and the

hst

of species

benefiting from the tree-parasite

elk. Fecal

were buried within the floor to

interaction

is

impressive.

What, then, of the old wrangler's "porcupine nest"?

to the

New

I

Porcupines feed

I

heavily

more found in the Old World), need no

on

the

nutritious shoots

^.

England (with eight

alternate host,

as

whose

these mistletoes

Northwest and to

at

grouse, and also by

insects

from

Canada

of users doesn't

shoots and fruits of

least a

mistletoes, collectively

distributed

raptor,

needles.

amount of grass and

guard hair of a deer or pellets

One

in eastern

Oregon, may be particularly

numerous

a veritable squirrel

condominium. The floor of the bottom chamber consisted ot partially decomposed, densely packed organic duft' about two inches thick, overlying

animal

alternate host, also

five

inches in diameter. Together with their

Within

owl

the long-eared

I

of dwarf

g

mistletoe,

U

researcher has

and one

observed

and

one or another of

porcupines in the

them

Pacific

attacks almost

during winter

species within their

range.

The

within some of

sticky

seeds of dwarf

A

tree to

another by exploding fruits,

birds;

and grows,

is a treat for a

it

once the seed attaches

adds

its

own

cluster

of

branches promoted by the infection of

depth exceeding one inch, indicating

long usage of the

Red

parasites, the

to ride the witches '-broom,

share in the spoils of

—and

competition between these diminutive parasites

nest.

creatures that take advantage of large

that

it

and their giant

hosts.

squirrels are not the only

witches'-brooms

host.

Unlike most plant

a

—

were

wagon

porcupine (inset).

as

shoots to the profusion of abnormal

its

organisms are

parasite that distorts tree growth, dwarf mistletoe

(above)

often aided by

wind or

brooms seems that no end ot ready to jump on the the larger

mistletoe are spread

from one

Northwest

seeking shelter

every coniferous tree

—

or of the parasites

produce them. Abert's and

Marchand

is

aiireiitly a

broom-forming dwarf misdctocs may considerably benefit a forest

martens and bushy-tailed

rats,

i'isitiii{<

Carnegie Museuin of

Natural History's Powderuiill

northern flying squirrels, as well as

wood

Peter J.

scientist at the

Bioloi>ical

Station iu the Allegltetiy Mountains oj

western Pennsylvania.

42

NATURAL HISTORY 5/01

THE EVOLUTIONARY FRONT

Alternative Life Styles Computer

and biologists are finding common ground in the evolution of artificial and scientists

natural organisms.

By

Carl

Zimmer

Do

universal laws of evolu-

no big-

tion exist? There's

ger question

m

biology,

we

systems,

have to look tificial

will at ar-

ones."

and none harder to answer.

In

the

nine

To discover a universal rule, you need more than a single case, and when it comes to life, we're stuck with a data set of one. All Hfe on earth descends

years

since

May-

firom a

common

species storing

in

DNA

case

form of

moon

compare

own and

see

it

the

perhaps

life,

may be

histories have

followed the same playbook. But such

an opportunity

may be

a

long way

off.

In 1992 the eminent biologist John

Maynard Smith declared that the only way out of this quandary was to build a new form of hfe ourselves. "We badly need "So

a

comparative biology," he wrote.

far,

we

have been able to study

only one evolving sy.-tem, and

we

can-

not wait for interstellar flight to provide us with a second. If

ate a

it.

They've tried to cre-

menagerie of

artificial

Hfe-forms,

ligent"

of Jupiter or in

two

their

best to answer

someday

evolution to our

its

done

have

call,

scientists

firom self-repUcating software to "intel-

distant solar system, they

able to

computer

of some

If scientists

discover another

some

the

in

(or,

lurking on a

genetic information

its

RNA).

viruses,

ancestor, with every

nard Smith's

we want

to dis-

cover generalizations about evolving

robots,

and they've

set

off

plenty of breathless hype in the process.

Some

claim, for example, that

fifty years,

robots

with superhuman inteUigence will be

walking

among

us.

Neuroscientists

have countered that brains are

years could pass before scientists

comprehend

human

much

more than just masses of neurons: they consist of complex networks that communicate with one another using dozens of chemical signals. Even the

fiilly

the workings of the 100

neurons

billion

com-

puter processing speeds are climbing so quickly that within

research teams. At that rate, miUions of

that

make up

the

brain.

But not

all is

hype and skepticism.

humble

experts on artificial open-minded biologists are starting to work together. One promising collaboration is being led by Chris Adami, a physicist at the CahforSuitably

Hfe and suitably

nia Institute of Technology; Charles Ofria, a former student of Adami's is

now

at

Michigan

and Richard Lenski,

who

State University; a irdcrobiologist at

Building on pioneer-

simplest of these networks can take

Michigan

decades to decipher. Just figuring out

ing

the system of thirty neurons that lob-

University of Oklahoma), Adaini and

work by Tom Ray (now

use to push food through their

Ofria

stomachs has taken more than thirty

grams

sters

years

and the

collective labor of fifteen

State.

have

—

created

at

the

computer pro-

—

digital creatures

in remarkably HfeUke ways.

that

behave

And work-

— shown that which they call Digievolve much the way biological

ing with Lenski, they've these creatures, talia,

Adami and

have tound

his associates

that their digitalia consistently evolve in

ways

certain

—ways

them

into useful proteins, digitalia are re-

quired to read these numbers and transform them into meaningful outputs. With the right combinations of com-

experiment, they created several

through the program, methodically

line

command

until

whereupon

it

each

executing

reaches the end,

back to the beginning and

it

loops

starts over.

A

program can reproduce by instructing

computer

the

program, and

running on

make

to this

a

copy of the

duphcate then

starts

Adami and

his colleagues

of the digitaHa

conceive

organisms Uving on a

as

down to sleek, short sequences of commands as few as eleven command Unes in some cases that carried the minimum amount of

—

information necessary for repUcating.

copy

takes less time to

a short

Sam Spiegehnan and

In the 1960s his colleagues at

the University ot

nois got

studied the evolution of

the adjoining

reproducing,

starts

Once

cells.

a digitalian

progeny can race

its

mold spreading

across the plane like

They put

can watch their progress by means of a

After

on

a

although the screen

—

computer

the

itself isn't actually

there's

evolve.

replicates,

copy

replicate again.

few rounds, the

Every time

there's a small

waited

scientists

T

more than a

switch one

sophisti-

cated data processors that can crunch

numbers

comphcated ways.

in

Human

you need With life, we're

tasks,

may copy

command

in the real world,

part

for another.

most mutations

five.

By

viral

RNA had shrunk to

the end of the experiment, the

The

its initial size.

17 percent of

viruses evolved into

ceUs.

and

commandeer

host

These had become unnecessary

now

only slowed

down

the

RNA's

repHcation. As with digitalia, the most successful viruses

under these condi-

sometimes the digitaha evolve versions that are unlike anything ever conceived

by

a

human

designer.

Someday produce

this sort ot

new

evolution

may

kinds of efficient, crash-

proof software. But Adami and Ofria are not interested in the

possibiHties

commercial

of digitaHa; they're too busy

working with Richard Lenski, comparing their

artificial

Hfe to biological

lite.

needs

And some

help digi-

taken care of by a technician. Organ-

graph charting the creatures' repHca-

Those

so blessed

isms have to

Other mutations have

little

or no

building up like junk through

the generations.

used to invade and

but

The partnership began after Lenski heard Adami give a talk about his digitalia. Adami showed the audience a

bugs that prevent them from repUcat-

replicate faster.

to

Instead, they evolve

creatures.

programs to carry out these

program twice instead of once or

come

down

from simple repHcators into

then only ten ininutes, and finaUy only

are harmful to digitalia, inserting fatal

talia

complex conditions,

these

the digitaHa don't turn into stripped-

chance the

Mutarandom changes in a

example, the computer

effect,

capable digitaHa.

also write

of random changes in a program. For

ing.

they multiply

numbers overwhelm

their

programmers, of course, can

cause they could shed genes they had

As

less

Under

single case.

such small versions of themselves be-

may

the

as a result,

discover a universal rule,

'o

mutations consist of certain kinds

a

The programs of

only fifteen minutes each time, and

sequence of DNA; in the case of digi-

of

tasks.

a digitalian

will contain a mutation.

tions in nature are

talia,

do these

stuck (so far) with a data set of one.

cells.)

Digitaha don't simply repHcate; they also

new

can turn a string

opposite ("10101"

these lucky organisins start running

and

a

row

screen,

no one-to-one correspondence between the pixels and habitat

the

a

them

let

ity to

Soon

Twenty minutes transferred some

its

in a

becoming "01010"). The scientists reward the digitaha for evolving the abil-

faster.

of the newly rephcated viruses to beaker and

of numbers into

faster,

and sup-

numbers

three

are identical, or they

the enzymes they

to rephcate.

over a shce of bread. (The researchers

graphic display

all

mine whether

they

viruses into a beaker

the researchers

later,

when

Illi-

mands, for instance, they can deter-

RNA viruses.

similar result

a

pUed them with needed

can multiply.

it

Each digitahan occupies a single cell, and when it reproduces, its offspring take up residence in cells.

It

program

than a long one, so the shorter the pro-

two-dimensional plane divided up into thousands of

one

consistently shrank

gram, the more quickly

own.

its

let

that these

Num-

programs

Each digitaUan consists of a short program that can be run by a computer. The computer moves Une by

biologists see in real hfe. In

They found

to eat to survive.

differ-

what

evolve.

them

Each organism is supplied with a random sequence of I's and O's. Just as some bacteria eat sugar and transform it

that are similar to

life-forms do.

ent strains of digitalia and

require

bers are their food.

dominate

their artificial world,

tions

were the

Normally,

simplest.

however,

exist in a test tube,

eat,

somehow consume

the

matter around them. To

adapted biological

more

lifelike,

all

doesn't its

or photosynthesize, or

just as natural selection favors welllife.

life

with

Adami and

energy and

make

digitalia

his colleagues

tion rate. a

The

line

on

the graph rose for

while before reaching a plateau and

then rose to ries

stiH

of sudden

higher plateaus in a se-

jerks. Lenski

was aston-

— 44 NATURAL HISTORY 5/01

He and his colleagues how Eschericliia coli

ished.

served

which

had ob-

eight copies ot a single program,

bacteria

they used to seed eight separate digi-

evolved over thousands ot generations,

them

The organisms were

taha colonies.

warded

re-

making

it

possible to ask questions

about digitaHa that can't be addressed in ordinary experiments.

of logical

For example, biological evolution

become

has produced structures and organisms

had

well adapted, the researchers changed

of awesome complexity, fi-om termite

charted their evolution, he had found

the reward system so that an entirely

colonies to the

acquiring mutations that helped

consume sugar more produce

same

the

Adami

When

faster.

and

efficiently

Lenski

punctuated

pattern

that

and E.

identified. DigitaHa

some profound common. The two teams of

re-

coli

apparently had

things

m

scien-

tists

Since then, they have found

between

more

and biolog-

digitalia

organisms. In 1995 Lenski and a stu-

ical

Mike

dent,

ment

to

Travisano, ran an experi-

gauge

importance

the

ot

chance, history, and adaptation to the evolution of bacteria.

From

a single E.

they cloned twelve populations,

coli

which they

regularly supplied with the

simple sugar glucose.

2,000

generations,

becoming

evolved,

adapted

of

colonies

better and better

Then

diet.

team switched the bacteria

Lenski's diet

the course of

the

glucose

the

to

Over all

different

—

vored

of operations was fa-

set

of switching

a digital version

Adami and Wagenaar observed

a different sugar, maltose.

to a

Over

the course of another 1,000 generations,

in

new

They

—

a trait that

proved

kept track of the size of the microbes

as

relatively

unimportant to

their fitness, just as cell

was for the

size

Wagenaar found

bacteria.

Adami and

that the evolution

of

a

program's length was determined mainly

by

history

its

rather than

These

by the pressure to adapt.

parallel

again, that artificial

and biological

sci-

maltose, they had diverged into a range

of different

sizes.

Then,

as

the bacteria

new diet, their size Some colonies changed

adapted to their

changed

again.

from big

to small, others

from

sinall to

big. Overall, the researchers found, the bacteria's adaptation to their diet

nothing to do with their

Chance mutations could with

little effect

on

Adami and

change.

alter cell size

—such

as

the

mechanisms

for find-

ing food or crunching numbers

may

—

much of a

the

their

computer

results

traits

tion

erase

that experience only

—such

as

weak

trait's

selec-

the size of a bacterium or

computer program

the length of a

chance mutations can send evolution off in unpredictable

directions,

They

created

rise

and

fall

is

branches of the tree ot

Though tle

on

random

reaUy the

of complexity in different Hfe.

fascinating, this debate has

because

scientists

a definition

have yet to set-

of complexity in bi-

ology or on a way to measure

its

and

One is

a picture

Galileo

it's

of Jupiter transmitted by the

probe or the sound of a

friend's

on the telephone. Since digitaUa genomes are strings of commands in

voice

other words, information

— —Adami and

have been able to adapt

his associates

mathematical methods to measure digitaHa

complexity

as well.

the organism's survival, the researchers

that they're so

work with than

much

easier to

And

command

in the

in every possible

of different

digitalia

whether the organism can

is

compHcom-

preserved on a

puter, instantly available for study

program

way and then

You can

every step of that

cated journey

mutate each

biological Hfe.

thousands of generations in a matter of hours.

complexity of information, whether

of the great attractions of digi-

as historical vestiges.

taHa

not unique to

is

To gauge how much of the information in a digitaHa program is vital to

a

and watch them evolve for

creatures.

interpret as an overall trend

toward complexity

long time

Hnger for

their effects can

billions

iment into one they could run with

may

people

found precise ways to measure the

tion

create

Daniel Wage-

Human

that experience intense natural selec-

strains

a student,

Tlie Logic of

Stephen Jay Gould, on the other hand, has argued that what some Destiny.

change. Complexity

is,

converted Lenski's exper-

book Nonzero:

his

biology, however. Mathematicians have

comes

and rephcation.

their fitness, that

their success in survival

naar, recently

size

had

it does; one Robert Wright, in

to traits

it

previous history. But in the case of

but by the time the

is

some of

When

the same rules.

were

switched them firom glucose to

recent example

stalled

experiments suggest,

end

identical,

of rising

long line of

thinkers have claimed that

and by chance mutations,

they adapted. Originally the colonies

entists

A

ofgenerations in a few hours.

was not

of adapting

a steady trend

Y

Hfe evolve according to at least

his colleagues also

dominated by

But does

brain.

evolution has been

can create billions of digital organisms and watch them evolve for thousands

grow almost as well on their new food. But the evolution of the colonies and

human

that

'on

once

just a simple story

had.

coli

also monitored the length of the

the colonies adapted until they could

to food. Lenski

that

and thrive

conditions, just as E.

programs

mean

this

complexity over time?

fi-om glucose to maltose.

digitaKa could evolve quickly

joined forces in 1998.

similariries

for mastering a set

operations, but once they had

still

see

func-

A

program may be stuffed with useless commands and turn out to be quite simple; even if you tamper with a tion.

lot

of its code,

it

will

still

tlinction.

But

another program of the same length

mav

Serious Sun Protection turn out to be complex, using

most of

commands

its

that don't tolerate

Following

in precise

much

ways

Recommended by

tinkering.

method, Adami and

this

coworkers have measured the com-

his

of

plexit\-

digitalia colonies as they've

evolved through

10,000 generations.

Overall, the complexity consistently rises tmril

levels off. Its ascent

it

is

jagged but

is

digitalia,

at

an ascent nevertheless. For

evolution does have an arrow

least,

As

SPF sun protection and blocks over

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ologists

measuring the complexity of

summer

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interesting as these results are,

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pointing toward greater complexity.

dermatologists,

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information encoded in a genome.

no simple equation

There's

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Another caveat

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that the complexity creases in a fixed

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—

that

ADVERTISEMENT

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the rewards for processing data don't

change. In the natural world, conditions are always changing,

with an end-

less

flow of droughts, floods, outbreaks

of

disease,

and

other

H-IIST

life-altering

events. Ever\' time conditions change,

Is

genes that were specialized to deal with

become may mutate

The

the old conditions

useless.

obsolete genes

or even dis-

and in the process, the com-

appear,

as

ditions

genome

dwindles.

the species adapts to

new con-

of a

plexity'

Only

species'

may complexity

increase again.

arrow of

In the natural world, the

complexity

may

get turned back too

often to have any significant effect

on

long-term evolution. But just finding that

Online!

arrow

an admirable

is

everything about digitalia

ment, a

—

start

start.

Indeed,

at the

is,

the start of a

new

of science and just maybe the

.start

mo-

Science writer Carl

Zimmcr

is

of a

the author of

Parasite

"Natural

Moment" and

check out what has on the

Web

"Natural

From

the Past,"

NATURAL HISTORY

for you.

Let us know

Subscribe online.

how we

We want to

are doing.

hear from you.

kind

new kind of hfe.

At the Water's Edge and

From

Selections," to our editors' "Pick

Rex.

A place tofind out more about the world loe live in.

Check

us out at

www.naturalhistory.com

46

NATURAL HISTORY 5/01

UNIVERSE rarely does the medical

Only

doctor's

vocabulary

v/ith that

of the

The human skuU round

cavities

has

two

your

bodies

"lenses"

midof

eyes,

— though

our

no quasars and no

contain

For orbits and

galaxies.

eyeballs

in the

sits

and your

chest;

have

course,

"orbits," the

where your two

go; your "solar" plexus dle of

overlap

astrophysicist.

lenses,

the

medical and astrophysical usages resemble each other greatly;

on

hand, the term "plasma"

is

the other

common

to

both discipUnes, yet the two meanings have nothing whatever to do with each

A

other.

transfusion of blood plasma

can save your

with

a

but a brief encounter

Hfe,

glowing blob of million-degree

plasma would leave

puff of smoke

a

where you had just been

standing.

Astrophysical plasmas are remarkable

ubiquity,

their

for

yet

they're

hardly ever discussed in introductory

textbooks or in the

press.

science books often

call

Writers of plasmas the

fourth state of matter because of a

panoply of properties that apart

and

from the

gases.

A

can conduct electricity act strongly it

them

plasma has freely moving

but a plasma

particles, just as a gas does,

ing near

sets

familiar soHds, Hquids,

as

well

with magnetic

or through

a plasma have

it.

fields pass-

Atoms within

had some or

electrons stripped

mechanism or

as inter-

all

Cosmic Plasma There's a lot of it out there but, thankfiilly, not

too

much of it down here.

of their

from them by one

And

another.

the

com-

By

Neil de Grasse Tyson

bination of high temperature and low density in a plasma only occasionally

allows electrons to recombine with their host atoms.

plasma remains

Taken

whole, the

as a

electrically neutral,

cause the total

number of

be-

electrons

(which are negatively charged) equals the total

number of protons (which

positively charged).

But

a

plasma can

seethe widi electric currents and netic fields, so in

nothing about

in

many

ways,

like the ideal gas

are

we

it

mag-

behaves

aU learned

high-school chemistry

class.

The

and magon matter almost al-

effects that electric

netic fields have

ways dwarf the

effects

forty

is

gravity.

between

electrical attraction

and an electron

of

a

The

proton

powers of ten

stronger than their gravitational attraction.

So strong

are

forces that a child's

paper

electromagnetic

magnet

easily

lifts

a

clip off a tabletop, despite Earth's

Want a example? If you man-

a cubic millimeter

of atoms in the nose

of

and

a space shuttle

those

electrons

to

if

you attached

the base

of the

launch pad, then the attractive force

would would budge.

inhibit the launch. All engines fire,

And

but the shuttle wouldn't if

the Apollo astronauts

had brought back to Earth trons firom a 100-inch

all

the elec-

cube of lunar

formidable gravitational tug.

dust (leaving behind the atoms from

more

which they came), the

interesting

aged to extricate

all

the electrons from

force of attrac-

(Please turn to page 47)

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Day 14

Seychelles

CURIEUSE AND ARIDE ISLANDS Visit Curieuse, home to giant land tortois-

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cream and Gardenia and the recently discovered Aride Peponium, found nowhere else on earth. life

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Day 15

Berpnty PriYate

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Morning

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uninhabited Cousin,

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Itinerary Day

black-and-white, ruffed, and

1

DEPART USA Day

lemurs;

Transfer to an airport hotel until the

evening

Madagascar.

flight to

arrival

in

This morning, cruise up the Antainambalana River by pirogue to Ankofa, daily

life

of a

Day 17

PRASLIN ISLAND Explore the Vallee de Mai, believed by

Antananarivo.

some

4&5

FT. DAUPHIN BERENTY PRIVATE RESERVE

On

I

the morning of

Day

4,

fly

to

LA DIGUE Noddy Tern; Cousin,

Call

Seychelles

Day 10

MAROANTSETRA ANTANANARIVO Antananarivo. Transfer to the

BERENTY PRIVATE RESERVE ANTANANARIVO FT. DAUPHIN

Hotel Colbert.

Ry from Ft. Dauphin to Antananarivo. Upon arrival, visit Ambohimanga, the old

ANTANANARIVO

Merina royal family. Antananarivo and the Hotel

the

Colbert.

Day

n

I

Morning

aboard ship in

to

Maroantsetra. Travel

protect

the

Accommodations

region's

at Reiois

wildlife.

du Mosooia.

Day

Mahe, the main island in Embark Callisto. Overnight Mahe.

13

Silhouette Island reveals several species of

at

Nosy Mangabe Reserve,

hike through the pristine rain forest

endemic

orchids,

bwa

sandal,

bwa

kapisen, and other trees.

limited to only 34 guests call classical cruises today at

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MAHE DISEMBARKATION I

Day 20

EUROPEAN CITY

USA

I

USA.

Departures Return

December

A to the endangered aye-aye lemur.

at

Day 19

Depart

SILHOUETTE ISLAND AND CURIEUSE BAY

NOSY MANGABE RESERVE Spend the day

In the evening,

to

Day 8

home

Anse Source d' Argent. dock in Mahe.

the return flight to the

EMBARKATION

the Seychelles.

to

REUNION

Day 12 Morning flight

Andrifotra Private Reserve, created

tour of the

a

and a swim

Arrive in a European city to connect with

ANTANANARIVO MAROANTSETRA I

I

Tour Antananarivo, then fly to Reunion. Overnight at the Hotel Meridien.

MAHE

Day?

for

Disembark at Mahe for a tour of the island. Relax at the Hotel Plantation before the evening flight.

I

I

La Digue

at

forested nature reserve

I

Transfer to Maroantsetra's airport for the flight to

flight

the

and

sunbirds;

Day 18

Ft.

Day 6

to

black parrot;

Seychelles flying foxes.

Found here are 115 plant species, 83 bird species, and several species of mamprominently lemurs. mals, most Accommodations are at the Gite d'Etape.

Continue to

Garden of Eden. Watch

Seychelles

I

River.

of

to be the

the

Seychelles blue pigeon;

Dauphin. Transfer to the Berenty Private Reserve, on the banks of the Mandrare

capital

profu-

and other plants. Afternoon swimming and snorkeling at tiny Coco isle. sion of palms

for

ANTANANARIVO

Lazio for swim-

Day 16 FELICITE AND COCO ISLANDS Morning at Felicite, covered with a

9

Trarisfer to the Hotel Colbert.

Days

noddies, and others.

Anse

to Praslin's

Day

ANTANANARIVO, MADAGASCAR Morning

sail

ming, snorkeling, and relaxing.

where we experience the typical Malagasy village.

3

Then

and several species of chameleon.

ANKOFA

2

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The New

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Hotel stays

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thoughout the pro-

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House wine and soft drinks with lunch and dinner aboard ship. Welcome and farewell receptions aboard by the captain.

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17 of Caifcto's staterooms

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all

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tion.

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you

— NATURAL HISTORY 47

5/01

going.

By

the gravitational at-

plows through the atmosphere. Along

Earth's

atmosphere near our magnetic

and the Moon.

the way, the temperature drops, the air

poles, the solar

The

(Continued from page 46)

would exceed

rion

traction bet\veen Earth Earth's

most conspicuous plasmas

are lightnmg,

the

of

trail

and the ordinary

star,

get after shuffling around

you

living-room carpet in your

and then touching

a

gets denser,

shock

munication

electrons that

when

the air

doorknob. Electri-

of

abrupdy move through

many

too

place. Lightning, for instance,

it

can no

electrons go

and com-

to their atoms,

relatively rare

includes every glowing star

tally

Hubble Telescope's beautiful photo-

and "gas" cloud. Nearly Space

happens

the

all

coUiding with molecules in

also the direct

is

cause of the aurora borealis and aurora

northern and southern

(the

australis

not only on Earth but on

lights),

magnetic

most conspicuous plasma? Try

all

and strong

fields.

Depending on a plasma's temperature and its mix of atoms, some free recombine with needy

electrons will

down En

atoms and cascade

energy

levels within.

emit light

electrons

Earth's

wind

planets with atmospheres

quickly restored.

is

the visible matter in the cosmos.

all

This

one

collect in

The

state

as

on Earth, plasmore than 99.99 percent mas comprise While

socks

discharges are jagged columns ot

cal

home

back

on your

vs/ool

and the plasma

longer be sustained.

shooting

a

electric

down

continues to slow

craft

The

wavelengths.

in

the myriad route, the

prescribed

auroras

owe

their

beautiful colors to these electron hi-

lightning, or the

of a shooting

trail

star.

do neon tubes, fluorescent and those glowing plasma

jinks,

as

lights,

to strike Earth's surface thousands of

The

rimes per hour.

centimeter-wide

column through which

air

lightning travels

is

of

a bolt

turned into glowing

graphs of nebulae in our galaxy depict colorful

clouds in the form of

gas

monitor the Sun and report on the

pulsars.

The

solar

field into

day's

a tiny particle

is

of interplanetary debris moving so that

burns up in the

it

to Earth as harmless

air

cosmic

dust. Al-

to

a

spacecraft that reenters our atmosphere.

near-Earth orbital speed of

the

at

occupants don't want to land

its

18,000 miles per hour (about five miles per second), the craft must slow

and

down

must go some-

kinetic energy

its

where. Shock waves along the leading

during reentry.

The

edge heat the

craft

heat

whisked away by protec-

is

rapidly

tive shields.

This

unlike shooting

Earth

as dust.

is

why

stars,

For

the astronauts,

do not descend

several

ing a descent, the heat

is

minutes dur-

so intense that

becomes

ionized, cloaking the

astronauts in a temporary plasma barrier that

none of our communicarion

signals can penetrate.

mous blackout is

a

magnetic

This

period,

is

the infa-

when

the craft

aglow and Mission Control knows

nothing of the astronauts' well-being.

its

whims.

This marriage of plasma and magnetic field

is

a

major feature of the

wind

as

sUghtly faster than the plasma near

pen

bad news for

the Sun's complexion.

With

magnetic

field

"frozen" into

the Sun's its

plasma,

the field gets stretched and twisted.

Sunspots,

flares,

prominences,

come and go

other solar blemishes gnarly

the

and

magnetic

field

as

punches

through the Sun's surface, carrying plasma along with

solar

Because of aO flings

charged

this

up

bad things would hap-

when

it hit.

Severe

plasma ejections can fry the circuits

at

on

and knock out transformers

satellites

power

But

stations.

mild and innocent.

I

one was

this

told the viewers

— —and

not to worry

that Earth's

field protects us

to use the occasion to

I

magnetic

invited

them

go north and

enjoy the aurora that the solar wind cause.

The

hubbub, the Sun

particles into space,

first-ever

(or at least the reporters)

that

to civiHzation

would

it.

My

miles per second, directly at Earth.

was scared

is

was part of the

news was triggered by the report of a plasma pie hurled by the Sun, at 300

plasma near the Sun's equator rotates

poles. This differential

it

forecast.

televised interview tor the evening

Everybody

its

though

weather

The

Sun's eleven-year cycle of activity.

to

every molecule surrounding the space capsule

the field to

fast

and descends

most the same thing happens Since

plasma can lock

as

place and torque or otherwise shape

Even,' shooting star

observatories

give us an unprecedented capacity to

nearby sources such

ing electrons.

shops.

satellite

from

been

of the Sun's surface by these flow-

gift

days,

fields

by the presence of magnetic

that

These

of these clouds are strongly influenced

plasma in a fraction of a second, having raised to a temperature ten times

lamps in tacky

density of some

The shape and

plasma.

spheres offered for sale next to the lava

during

Sun's rarefied corona, visible total solar eclipses as a

glowing

including electrons, protons, and bare

halo around the silhouetted Moon, forms a five-million-degree plasma

helium nuclei. The resultant

that

to a million tons

of them per second

stream, sometimes a gale and

times

a

zephyr,

is

particle

some-

more commonly

known as the solar mous of plasmas ensures

wind. This most

tails

ter

that

fa-

comet

point away from the Sun, no mat-

whether the comet

is

coming or

is

the outermost part of the solar

atmosphere. With temperatures that high, the corona

of the Sun's fit

is

the principal source

X rays. Without the bene-

of an eclipse to block the Sun's

bright surface, the corona easily gets lost in

the glare.

48

NATURAL HISTORY 5/01

There's an entire layer ot Earth's at-

mosphere where

been

electrons have

kicked out of their host atoms by ultra-

Hght from the Sun, creating

violet

a

plasma blanket called the ionosphere. This layer

of

reflects certain frequencies

AM

including those of the

radio

vi'aves,

dial

(which can reach hundreds ot

and of shortwave (which can

miles)

reach thousands of miles beyond the

horizon).

FM

broadcast

television,

and those of

signals

however,

pass

right through the ionosphere, traveling

out to space

at

eavesdroppmg

know

all

alien civilization will

TV

about our (probably

good

a

will

know

AM

talk-show hosts like

all

our

thing),

and

nothing of the poHtics of

baugh (probably

Most plasmas ganic matter.

the one

wore

always

he

Star Trek

who

planets they

must

a red shirt.)

gets vaporized.

visit.

that this person

crew member meets

this

the

glowing blobs of plasma

me

Born

a

to a

thousand degrees. Before then,

all

few

Hght

not melt, vaporize, or decompose. To

both of them translucent instead of

design

it,

we'd use the relationship be-

tween plasma and magnetic

fields to

advantage, creating a container

our

whose

walls are intense magnetic fields that the

nomenon

by the

fro

—

plasma

free electrons in the

phewhat

a

that greatly resembles

happens to Hght

as

through

passes

it

frosted glass or through the Sun's inte-

Light can travel through neither

rior.

without scattering, and

As the universe cooled

transparent.

below

renders

this

to

few thousand degrees, each

a

electron in the

cosmos combined with

an atomic nucleus, creating complete

You'd think those Star Trek people would have learned to plasma cannot

tells

history,

its

down

was getting scattered to and

problems with the

is

all

half-million years into

the universe had cooled

been stripped from their hydrogen atoms and roam free. How might you hold a glowing blob of hydrogen plasma at milhons of degrees? In what container would you place it? Even microwave-safe Tupperware will not do. What you need is a botde that will

are not friendly to or-

on the uncharted

(My memory

At these temperatures they've

here.

A

routine

a

is

for attached electrons

treat

plasma with respect.

Rush Lim-

most hazardous job on the investigate the

hope

a safe thing).

The person with

television series

No

thing.

programs

(probably a bad thing), will hear

FM music

Any

the speed of Hght.

thermonuclear fusion

Every time plasma blob,

in the

twenty-

plasma place, It's

is

it

cross.

that if

tends to

One

you squeeze it in one pop out someplace else.

Hke trying to squeeze

make from

it

of the pesky

confinement of

smaller.

a balloon to

The economic

return

a successflil frision reactor will rest

on

in part

the design of this magnetic

on our understanding of

"bottle" and

how

the plasma interacts with

Among

atoms of hydrogen and helium and

amounts of lithium.

trace

as every electron had home, the pervasive plasma

As soon found

no longer

state

way

a

would

it

the most exotic forms of

that's

the

hundreds of mil-

of years, at least until quasars were born, with their central black lions

holes that dine

on swirhng

before the gas faUs

it.

And

existed.

stay for

gases. Just

ioniz-

in, it releases

ing ultraviolet Hght that travels across

third century, these space-faring, star-

matter ever concocted

the quark-

the universe, kicking electrons back

trekking people would, you'd think,

gluon plasma, newly created by physi-

out of their atoms with abandon. Until

have long ago learned to

cists at

with respect (or not to wear the

in

twenty-first

enough

to treat

plasma

treat

We

red).

know

century

plasma with respect,

and we haven't been anywhere. reactors,

monitored

at

a

where plasmas safe

distance,

we

are at-

tempt to slam together hydrogen nuclei at

high speeds and turn them into

heavier helium nuclei.

By doing

so,

we

hberate energy that could supply society's

we

need

for electricity.

Problem

is,

haven't yet succeeded in getting

more energy out than we put

in.

To

achieve such high coUision speeds,

a

blob of hydrogen atoms must be raised to tens as

hot

of millions of degrees as

—

the center of the Sun,

Brookhaven National Labo-

ratory, a particle-accelerator taciHty

New

at least

where

Long

York's

Island.

on

Rather than

being fdled with atoms stripped of their electrons, a

In the center of our thermonuclear

fusion

the

is

prises a

quark-gluon plasma com-

mixture of some of the most

basic constituents

of matter: fractionally

charged quarks along with the gluons that

normaUy hold them together

to

form protons and neutrons. This unusual form of plasma greatly resembles the state of our trillion-degree cosmos a few microseconds after the big bang about the time the observable

—

universe was not solar system.

much

larger than our

Indeed, in one form or

another, every cubic inch of the uni-

the

emergence of quasars, the universe

enjoyed the only interval of time (before

or

since)

nowhere

to

when

be found.

the dark ages and look

time

when

upon

it

assembling matter into

visibly

was

call this era

as a

gravity was silently and in-

plasma baUs that became the

first

the

gen-

eration of stars.

Neil de Grasse Tyson, an astrophysicist, is

the Frederick P.

York City's

Rose Director of New

Hayden Planetarium. He

(along with Steven Soter) coeditor well as a contribtttor

zons:

Astronomy

Edge, a

collection

to,

at

of,

is

as

Cosmic Horithe

Cutting

of essays written by as-

verse was in a plasma state until a half-

trophysicists

miUion years had

cosuiological research.

elapsed.

plasma

We

working on the frontiers of

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a 50

NATURAL HISTORY 5/01

By Sarah Btaffer Hrdy

Mothers and Others bees to elephant matriarchs, many animal mothers are assisted by others in rearing offspring. Anthropologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy maintains that our human ancestors, too, were "cooperative breeders"

From queen

—

THAT ENABLED THEM TO THRIVE IN MANY NEW ENVIRONMENTS. TODAY, ARGUES HrDY, OUR CONTINUED ABILITY TO RAISE EMOTIONALLY HEALTHY CHILDREN MAY WELL DEPEND ON HOW WELL WE UNDERSTAND THE COOPERATIVE ASPECT OF

MODE OF

LIFE

OUR EVOLUTIONARY

HERITAGE.

Mother cases, suckle

it

apes

—chimpanzees, humans— dote goril-

orangutans,

las,

on their babies. And why not? They give birth to an infant after a long gestation and, in most for years. With humans, however,

all

may

late.

A

mother

in a forag-

give birth every four years or

so,

few children remain dependent long

back, a mother

after

fishes with a

foragers,

basket in the

for eighteen or

Okavango River

10-13 million calories that anthropologists such

Botswana.

as

get those calories?

would

And under what

manage

to

conditions

natural selection allow a female ape to pro-

beyond her means to rear on her own? The old answer was that fathers helped out by hunting. And so they do. But hunting is a risky

and her

in

million until roughly 10,000 years ago)

other ape babies, ours mature slowly

on and

Her child on her

first

each

hving in the Pleistocene Epoch (from 1.6

duce babies so large and slow to develop that they

and reach independence ing society

cestresses

on.

the job of providing for a juvenile goes

Unlike

young human to independence, a mother needs help. So how did our prehuman and early human an-

new baby

arrives;

among nomadic

grown-ups may provide food

more

years.

to children

To come up with the

Hillard Kaplan calculate are

needed

to rear a

are

occupation, and fathers

may

die or defect or take

up with other females. And when they do, what then? New evidence from surviving traditional cultures suggests that

may have had

men who

mothers in the Pleistocene

a significant degree

of help

—from

thought they just might have been the

mm

.m»Ki\

"^^J

m^-

— 52

NATURAL HISTORY 5/01

from grandmothers and great-aunts, from

fathers,

to

These helpers other than the mother, called aUomothers by sociobiologists, do not just protect

Hewlett,

as

the Efe

and Aka Pygmies of central Africa, aUomothers actu-

them

ally hold children and carry

tight-knit

about. In these

communities of communal loragers

within which men,

much

women, and

humans

with

nets,

tens

of thousands of years ago

cles, fathers,

as

are

children

hunt

stiU

thought to have done

—

siblings, aunts,

day of Hfe.

When

University of

New Mex-

the

breeding allows

ico anthropologist Paula Ivey asked an Efe

many members

"Who

of the dog family

"We

to rear large

contact with aUomothers 40 percent ot the time.

Below: An

arctic wolf

and

her puppies.

first

cares for babies?" the

all

do!"

un-

and grandmothers hold newborns on

Cooperative

litters.

Washington

older children.

and provision youngsters. In groups such

By

three

woman,

immediate answer was,

weeks of age, the babies

are in

By

more time gestational moth-

most of whom

caretakers,

According

are close kin.

State University anthropologist

naturalness as

weU

as

of mother-centered models of child

which

the nuclear family in

nurtures while the father provides,

the

we

Westerners

tend to regard the practices of the Efe and the exotic. is

But

to sociobiologists,

comparisons across species,

faiTdhar ring.

It's

sociobiologists started to

spectacular surprises has

this

helping has a

all

as

but

among

notes,

how much

one of the aUomater-

human

on cooperative

with aUomothers than with their

breeding for the best of evolutionaiy reasons.

average, Efe babies have fourteen different

A

broad look

so-

animals generaUy. Evidently, di-

verse organisms have converged

On

Dur-

anthropologists and

compare been

as

stock in trade

nal care goes on, not just within various cieties

Aka

whose

called cooperative breeding.

ing the past quarter century,

care,

mother

eighteen weeks, infants actually spend

ers.

Barry

Aka babies are within arm's reach of their fathers for more than haU" of every day. Accustomed to celebrating the antiquity and

at

the most recent evidence has

cominced me duce

costly,

that cooperative breeding

was the

ancestors to pro-

slow-maturing infants

at shorter inter-

take advantage of new kinds of resources in

vals, to

mixed savanna-woodland of

habitats other than the

tropical Africa,

and

more widely and

to spread

any primate had before.

swiftly than

know

own

permitted our

strateg)- that

that animal

who

mothers

We

delegate

already

some of

monkeys

ican

that are, besides us, the only tuU-

—

among primates

fledged cooperative breeders

male has to be ready to be a helper

this

a fe-

year and a

mother the next. She may have one mate or

several.

In canids such as wolves or wild dogs, usually only the dominant, or alpha, male and female in a pack

reproduce, but younger group

mother and return

the

members hunt with den

to the

to regurgitate

the costs of infant care to others are thereby freed to

predigested meat into the mouths of her pups. In a

produce more or larger young or to breed more

fascmating instance of physiological

quendy. Consider the case of sUver-backed Patricia

Moehlman, of

Union, has shown

fre-

jackals.

World Conservation

the

that for every extra helper bring-

ing back food, jackal parents rear one extra pup per Htter.

cies

Cooperative breeding

expand into

also helps various spe-

which they would norany young at all. Florida

habitats in

mally not be able to rear

scrub-jays, for example, breed in an

exposed land-

subordinate female

may

swells,

and she begins to manufacture milk

and may help nurse the pups of the alpha tiges

of cooperative breeding crop up

undergoing

a

Russell terrier chased away the

young of another

siblings help

erative

guard and feed the young. Such coop-

arrangements permit animals

naked mole

world) and wolves to

move

sometimes to spread over

as diflierent as

of the maimnal

rats (the social insects

new

into

habitats

and

call

an adaptive

ment

species

When

mothers animal delegate some infant-care costs to others, they can produce more or larger

own

in

does

it

take to

breeder? Obviously, this for creatures capable

tated as

lifestyle

of living

is

young

Florida scrub-jays)

is

it

does not contribute

But

in the environ-

family evolved, a female's

when

—combined with her nancy—^would have need

born

an option only is

to the

According to the

infants signaled their

capacity for pseudopreg-

late

dominant female.

W D.

Hamilton, evolu-

tionary logic predicts that an animal with pooi prospects of reproducing

be predisposed to that at least

petuated.

assist

on

his

or her

some of their shared genes

Among

faciU-

individuals (such

do not or cannot im-

number of

own

should

kin with better prospects so

be per-

will

wolves, for example, both niak in the

pack are

netically related to the alpha htter

a

a cooperative

in groups. It

when young but folly mature

fainily's

likely to

and

reasons for not trying to reproduce

less-than-ideal habitats. What

neighbors' Jack

cat and To suckle the hardly what Darwinians

survival).

which the dog

in

tendency to respond

and female helpers

them

become

Ves-

increased the survival chances

vast areas.

pjvise

pair.

well in do-

kittens.

(because

trait

to the surrogate's

for large Htters

young and

my

pseudopregnancy,

snakes usually precludes the fledging of young; surpossible only because older

as

mestic dogs, the distant descendants of wolves. After

adopted and suckled her

is

a

transformations similar to those of a real pregnancy:

her belly

scape where unrelenting predation from hawks and

vival in this habitat

flexibility,

undergo hormonal

actually

on

be ge-

good

to have their

own:

in

cooperatively breeding species (wild

dogs, wolves, hyenas, dingoes,

dwarf mongooses,

marmosets), the helpers do

but the dominant

female threat

is

try,

The

likely to bite their babies to death.

of coercion makes postponing ovulation the

better part of valor, the least-bad option for females

who must

wait to breed until their circumstances

mediately leave their natal group to breed on their

improve, either through the death of a higher-rank-

own and

ing female or by finding a mate with an unoccupied

cation. sal

instead remain

among

As with delayed maturation, delayed

disper-

of young means that teenagers, "spinster" aunts,

real

and honorary uncles

their kin rear

shift to

will

be on hand to help

young. Flexibility

for cooperative breeders.

In

kin in their natal lo-

breeding

mode

is

another criterion

Helpers must be ready to

should the opportunity

marmosets and tamarins

—

the

little

arise.

South Amer-

territory.

One primate strategy is to Une up extra fathers. Among common marmosets and several species of tamarins, females mate with several males,

which help Charles

T

rear

her young.

Snowdon

all

of

As primatologist

points out, in three of the four

genera of Callitrichidae

{Callithrix,

Saj^uinus,

and

The meerkats of southwestern Africa's Kalahari

Desert are

cooperative breeders par excellence. Here, a

subordinate "baby-sits" for

another female's litter.

— 54

NATURAL HISTORY

5/0

1

more adult males the group has the more young survive. Among

"primary" father

available to help,

married to their mother) and

species, females ovulate just after giv-

sui-vival for

around

surprisingly, as

until after babies are born. (In cotton-top

hormonal changes

a

a

(the

man

"secondary" father

survived to age fifteen, compared with 64 percent

ing birth, perhaps encouraging males to stick

tamarins, males also undergo

Not

those with a primary father alone.

soon

as a

Bari

woman

suspects she

is

mothers, by contrast, don't ovulate

more successful fishermen or hunters in her group. BeUef that fatherhood can be shared draws more men into the web of possible paternity, which effectively translates into more food and more protection. But for human mothers, extra mates aren't the

again right after birth, nor do they produce off-

only source of effective help. Older children, too.

that prepare

them

Among

birth.)

in the

same

Human

of

to care for infants at the time

cooperative breeders of certain

other species, such

wolves and jackals, pups born

as

Utter can

be

by

sired

more than one

different fathers.

Two African

spring with

elephant females

Ever inventive, though, humans solve the problem

tend a newborn

of enlisting help from several adult males by other

The larger

had both

those

many of these

calf.

who

Leoiitopitheais), the

ineans. In

some

genetic father

mothers

cultures,

rely

on

time.

at a

pecuUar

a

social group

belief that anthropologists call partible paternity

fadlitates the

the notion that a fetus

is

up by contributions

built

men

whom women

mother's task of

of semen from

rearing a single,

have had sex in the ten months or so prior to giving

Among

all

the

with

the Canela, a matrilineal tribe in

large, slow-

birth.

maturing

Brazil studied for

offspring.

of the Smithsonian Institution, pubhcly sanctioned

many

years

by WiUiam Crocker

and

men

other

HER YOUNG.

play a significant role in family survival. University

have just shown that

is

among

in the Kalahari

a significant correlation

between

where works among the

men

Older matrilineal kin may be the most valuable

lead

disaster

to

else-

helpers of

all.

University of

Utah anthropologists

a

broad

Kristen

Hawkes and James O'ConneU and

their

swath of South

Amer-

UCLA

colleague Nicholas Blurton Jones,

who

ica

Across

—from Paraguay

up

have demonstrated the important food-gathering

women among Hazda

into Brazil, westward to

role

Peru, and northward to

ers in

Tanzania, delight in explaining that since

human

life

Venezuela

—mothers

rely

wisdom to hne up multiple help them provision both children. Over hundreds of

of older

spans

menopause, older

to

for

—and

to

younger

of the world where food sources are unpreand where husbands are

as

Hkely

as

not to

return from the hunt empty-handed. Bari people of Venezuela are

believe in shared paternity,

to provide vital food for kin.

hunter-gather-

may extend for a few decades after women become available to care

folk

generations, this behef has helped children thrive in

The

RAISE

HER

how many children a parent successfully raises and how many older sibHngs were on hand to help during that person's own childhood.

nity.

who

MALES, ALL OF WHICH HELP

Desert, there

ceremonies.

beheve in partible pater-

dictable

FEMALES MATE WITH SEVERAL

lagewide

Canela because the

themselves and their

to

MARMOSETS,

!Kung hunters and gatherers Uving

marital

a part

SPECIES OF

takes place during vil-

What might

on this convenient honorary fathers

SOME

is

extra "fathers." In

LINE UP

Raymond Hames

men

sometimes many

~'.

primate strategy

of Nebraska anthropologists Patricia Draper and

than their husbands

~^"

One

between

intercourse

women

pregnant, she accepts sexual advances from the

—

children born

Hawkes, O'ConneU, and Blurton

Jones further beUeve that dating from the earUest days o{Hoino

crectiis,

the survival of weaned children

during food shortages

may have depended on

among

those

and according

to

anthropologist Stephen Beckerman, Bari children

with more than one father do especially

well. In

Beckerman's study of 822 children, 80 percent of

tu-

dug up by older kin. At various times in human history, people have also relied on a range of customs, as weU as on coerfor excion, to line up aUomaternal assistance ample, by using slaves or hiring poor women as wet nurses. But all the helpers in the world are of no use

bers

—

carry, or provision

not motivated to protect,

if they're

For both humans and nonhumans,

babies.

main ways: through

vation arises in three

this

the

moti-

manip-

ulation of information about kinship; through ap-

coming from

pealing signals

and, at the heart of it

to infants' signals. Indeed,

spond

many

from the endocrinological

that induce individuals to re-

and neural processes

in a

all,

the babies themselves;

other

mammals

nurmring way

primates and

all

eventually respond to infants

nonbreeding female, primates can respond although quite different

fants' signals,

levels

to in-

of ex-

posure and stimulation are required to get them

Twenty

going. levels

were

years ago,

when

reported in

first

elevated prolactin

common marmoset many when the

males (by Alan Dixson, for Callithrixjacdius), scientists refused to believe

it.

Later,

finding was confirmed, scientists assumed this effect

would be found only

in fathers.

But based on

ex-

it

posed long enough to their signals. Trouble

"long enough" can

is,

mean

vers' different things in

males and females, with their ver\- different re-

sponse thresholds.

For decades, animal behaviorists have

been

aware ot the phenome-

non known A mouse or

priming.

Adult

encoun-

are adapted to

pup

recognize and

tering a strange

is

respond by

likely to

mammals

as

rat

respond to infant

ei-

ther ignoring the

pup or But presented

signals,

earing

sometimes even

after pup, ro-

across species.

it.

wth pup

Left:

dents of either sex eventually

to

become

sensitized

baby and

the

caring for

it.

with twin

start

Even

daughters.

a

Below: A house

male may gather pups into a nest

A male

pygmy marmoset

cat nurses an

and Hck or

huddle over them. Al-

orphaned eastern

though nurturing

gray squirrel.

a routine part

repertoire,

is

not

of a male's

when

sufficiently

primed he behaves

mother would. Hormonal change

is

as a

an obvious

Con-

candidate for explaining this transformation.

sider the case of the cooperatively breeding Florida

scrub-jays studied by Stephan Schoech, of the

of Memphis. Prolactin,

versity'

that initiates the secretion

mals,

is

also present in

of both lactin

sexes.

go up

their nest

a protein

of milk in female

male mammals and

Schoech showed

that levels

when

helpers and are also at their highest

it

happens, male,

don,

Lucille

Snow-

Roberts,

and many others that deals

with

—work

a variety

of species of marmosets

and tamarins

of pro-

know

that

—we

all

now

sorts

hormonal changes

of are

associated with increased

More-

nurturing in males. For

nonbreeding

example, in the tufted-

when

they

assist

eared marmosets studied by French and colleagues, testosterone levels in males

feeding nesdings.

As

Jeffrey

French, Charles

that these levels

they feed their young.

over, prolactin levels rise in the jays'

in

mam-

Scott Nunes, Fite,

in birds

in a male and female jay as they build

and incubate eggs and

reach a peak

Uni-

hormone

work by Jeffrey

as well as

immature and

gaged

went down

in caretaking after the birth

as

they en-

of an

infant.

56

NATURAL HISTORY 5/01

Testosterone levels tended to be lowest in those

proposed that

with the most paternal experience.

sleep deprivation, but this

The Yoruba

girls in

Benin: In

human

many

biggest surprise, however, has

something cies.

Anne

similar goes

on

in males

of our

this

drop in testosterone

that

the parallel testosterone drop in

own

spe-

housed with parturient

levels in men who were women went up toward the end

females.)

during pregnancy and lactation

more pronounced

are,

mothers than in the

ported that prolactin

Hving

putably

with pregnant

ot the

men

consorting with them, and no one

play a key role

pregnancy. But the most significant finding was a 30

that

male consorts

as mothers'

percent drop in testosterone in

helpers.

birth.

men

(Some endocrinologicaUy

right after the

Hterate

wags have

due to

of course, indis-

older siblings

societies,

is

marmoset males Hormonal changes

been

Storey and colleagues in Canada have re-

levels

would probably not explain

in

is

suggesting

are equivalent to mothers.

both sexes are surprisingly susceptible to infant

—

nals

explaining

why

fathers, adoptive parents,

But sig-

wet

Genetic relatedness alone is a surprisingly unreliable

predictor of love. matters are cues

what from

nurses,

volved with the infants they care

and how we process

Genetic relatedness alone, in

cues from infants and emotionally.

hooked

The

—

how

fact, is a surpris-

who

is

—

What

becoming emotion-

also explains

well-being than a detached mother

creep

From

motivated to

—

a

fuUy

to the infant's

will.

can't forget the real protagonist

story: the baby.

fully

how

in frequent contact with his

become more committed

But we

matters are

these cues are processed

capacity for

or primed

engaged father infant can

these cues emotionally.

for.

ingly unreUable predictor of love.

ally

infants

and day-care workers can become deeply in-

newborns

birth,

stay close,

are

to root

of

this

power-

—even

to

in quest of nipples, which they instinctively

suck on. These are the

first

innate behaviors that

But maintaining contact is A !Kung-San harder for Uttle humans to do than it is for other mother with her primates. One problem is that human mothers are children: Among not very hairy, so a human mother not only has to traditional any of us engage

in.

on her

position the baby

breast but also has to

keep

foragers, having

him there. She must be motivated to pick up her extra helpers baby even before her milk comes in, bringing with it may be what enables human a host of hormonal transformations. Within minutes of birth, human babies can cry and vocalize just

as

other primates do, but

human

and make

newborns can also read facial expressions a few of their own. Even with blurry vision, they engage in eye-to-eye contact with the people around them.

Newborn

babies,

about eighteen inches away. faces within range, babies

when

may reward

child from

infancy to

this attention

attached to and interested in their mothers' faces. But unlike humans, other ape mothers and infants in gazing deeply into each

other's eyes.

To the extent cians have us

that psychiatrists

thought about

and the other

human mental

and pediatri-

this difference

between

apes, they tend to attribute

it

to

agihty and our ability to use lan-

guage. Interactions between mother and baby, in-

cluding vocal play and babbling, have been interpreted

as

protoconversations: revving up the baby

to learn to talk. Yet

face stimulation talk.

even babies

—

who

lack face-to-

babies born blind, say

—

learn to

Furthermore, humans are not the only pricontinuous rhythmic streams

mates to engage

in the

of vocalization

known

as

babbling. Interestingly,

marmoset and tamarin babies that the infants

calories required

to bring each

can see

by looking back or even imitating facial expressions. Orang and chimp babies, too, are strongly

do not get absorbed

supply enough of the millions of

put their

alert,

When people

mothers to

also babble. It

may be

of cooperative breeders are specially

equipped to communicate with caretakers. This

is

independence.

58

NATURAL HISTORY 5/01

not an important part of

Mother and child

not to say that babbling

in a day care

learning to talk, only to question

center:

A major

—babbling

first

predisposition to

no

among

ill

which came

so as to develop into a talker, or a

study showed effects

is

evolve into

a

talker

because

cooperative breeders, babies that babble are

very rarely observed fact,

the only primate species in

anywhere near as

among primates

as

mothers in our

ative breeders.

in the wild. In

which mothers

Hkely to abandon infants

own

A

at

are

birth

species are the other cooper-

study of cotton-top tamarins at

New

of high quality

degree of a

and infants

fant should

social support

England Regional Primate Research Center showed a 12 percent chance of abandonment if mothers had older sibhngs on hand to help them rear twins, but a 57 percent chance when no

had a secure

she herself can expect. Mothers in cooperatively

help was available. Overburdened mothers aban-

relationship with

breeding primate species can afford to bear and rear

doned

from day care if

the care was

better tended If

and more

humans evolved

human

as

cooperative breeders, the

mother's

be Hnked to

parents to

such costly offspring

begin with.

help

as

the

likely to survive.

commitment

how much

they do only

if

to her in-

they have

on hand. Maternal abandonment and abuse

are

infants within seventy-two hours

This history,

new way with

its

of birth.

of thinking about our species'

implications for children, has

made

me

concerned about the

future.

So

most West-

tar,

ern researchers studying infant development have

presumed

that li\dng in a nuclear family

fixed division of labor \-iding)

is

the normal

a

nurturing, dad pro-

human adaptation. Most con-

temporary research on

velopment

(mom

with

children's psychosocial de-

derived irom John Bowlby's theories

is

of attachment and has focused on such variables

as

how available and responsive the mother is, whether the father is present or absent, and whether the child is in the mother's care or in day care. Sure enough, studies done with this model in mind

always

mothers are

show

how

available

But

know

I

with

less

responsive

and

first

who

and foremost,

how committed

its

senses

mother

is.

of no studies that take into account the

humans evolved

possibiUty that

and economic backgrounds) and was con-

ducted in ten different U.S. locations. This extraordinarily ambitious study statistics

as

cooperative

showed

home and

the

was launched because

62 percent of U.S. mothers

that

with children under age

six

were working outside of them (willingly work within three to

that the majority

or unwiOingly) were back at

months of giving

five

Because

birth.

this

new

was an entirely

so-

phenomenon, no one really knew what cial

NICHD's

the

at greater risk.

the baby,

It is

that children

1,364 children and then- families (from diverse ethnic

would

research

reveal.

The

main

study's

finding was that both

maternal and hired caretakers' sensitivity to in-

cooperative breeders, the degree of a mother's In

commitment to her infant should correlate with

how much she pierself

social support

can

predictor of a child's sub-

development

sequent

and behavior (such

traits as social

"compliance," re-

and self-control were measured)

spect for others,

a

good

indicator of her social sup-

In terms of developmental outcomes, the

ports.

most relevant factor might not be insecurely attached to the

variable

that

baby

is

—but

in relation to

all

securely or

mother the baby

developmental

trained to measure

how

is

—

psychologists

rather

how

the are

secure the

the people caring for

him

way might help explain why even children whose relations with their mother suggest they are at extreme risk manor her. Measuring attachment this

fme because of the interventions of a committed father, an older sibling, or a therewhen-you-need-her grandmother. The most comprehensive study ever done on age to do

how nonmaternal

care affects kids

is

compatible

with both the hypothesis that humans evolved

as

cooperative breeders and the conventional hypothesis that

clusively Institute

human

of Child Health and

(NICHD)

Human Development

in 1991, the seven-year study included

spans,

be uniquely able

continuous presence of the mother herself but to supplement

how

felt when cared for by who had been convinced that

secure infants

else.

People

normally were stunned by these cates

of day care

felt

Not

at

to

We

all.

results,

vindicated.

mean

other, similar findings

something we need

while advo-

But do these and

that day care

is

than mother care abusive.

the

the study

showed no

care only

when

detectable

infants

had

a

wanted) and only

quality.

And

scenarios,

effects

ill

from day

secure relationship

with parents to begin with (which that babies felt

I

take to

when

of caretakers to babies, that

caretakers

all

the day care

staff

needs

—

in

acted like committed kin.

possible to find.

Waiting

equate care.

high

other words, that the

Bluntly put, this kind of day care

sive.

a

had the same

it

the time, and that the caretakers were

sensitive to infants'

day care

mean

in this study's context,

"high quahty" meant that the facihty had ratio

better

mother was neglectful or

But excluding such worst-case

was of high

The

should keep worrying.

if

not

worry about anymore?

NICHD study showed only that day care was

babies are adapted to be reared ex-

by mothers. Undertaken by the National

life

we humans may

babies need fuU-time care from mothers to develop

happens to be

long

In other words, the critical variable was not the

someone

breeders and that a mother's responsiveness also

Because of our

than was actual time spent apart from the mother.

rather

expect.

was a better

fant needs

lists

The

Where

it

are long,

exists at

is

all,

almost imit's

expen-

even for cheap or inad-

average rate of staff turnover in

the child-rearing efforts of

younger

kin.

— 60

NATURAL HISTORY 5/01

day care centers

30 percent per

is

For

year, primarily

developing

a

because these workers are paid barely the mini-

baby and

child, the

mum

practical

way

wage

(usually less, in fact, than parking-lot

attendants).

Furthermore, day care tends to be

age-graded, so even

move

bers stay put, kids

This kind of day care

where

centers

at

is

staff

new

annually to

mem-

teachers.

unlikely to foster trusting

relationships.

most

to behave

might vary drastically, depending on whether the

is

who

mother has kin

whether the father

help,

around, whether fos-

ter

parents

meaning or These

well-

are

exploitative.

however

factors,

unconsciously perceived

by the

im-

child, affect

portant developmental

Being

decisions.

ex-

tremely self-centered or

being oblivious

selfish,

to others or lacking in

conscience

—

psychologists and

development

may view cal

—

that

traits

child-

theorists

pathologi-

as

are probably quite

adaptive

traits

dividual

who

for an in-

short

is

from

support

on

other

group members. If I

Children at a

garment-industry

day care center in

New

York City:

For a developing child, the

practical

most

way to

What

conclusion can

we need

care,"

I

make day

to

this?

hi-

And

care better.

this

is

think todays evolution-minded researchers

have something to

say.

how human

Impressed by just

able child-rearing conditions can eties,

all

"mother care" versus "other

stead of arguing over

where

we draw from

several anthropologists

be

in

(in-

Henry

Harpending, and James Chisholm) have suggested

depending upon

that babies are

and sensitivity

to

more than just maintaining

propose that babies actually

the

These researchers

monitor mothers to gain

of its earliest

information about the world they have been born

caretakers.

into.

Babies ask, in

people

who

survive?

are

Can

I

effect, Is this

world fdled with

going to provide for count on them

the answer to those questions

me

to care is

me

and help

about me?

If

they begin to

yes,

sense that developing a conscience and a capacity for

compassion would be no, they

may

a great idea.

then be asking.

count on others? Would

what

I

need, however

I

I

Can

It I

the answer

hindrance than a help.

is

not afford to

be better off just grabbing

can? In this case, empathy, or

thinking about others' needs, v/ould be

more

tocene

whose

babies

mothers lacked

social

than fuUy committed to

cluding Michael Lamb, Patricia Draper,

up

erative breeders. Pleis-

soci-

and psychologists

relationship with their mothers.

hu-

coop-

support and were

behave might

commitment

that

as

vari-

vary drastically,

the

am right

mans evolved

ot a

infant care

less

would have

been unlikely to survive. But once people started to settle

10,000

or

down

20,000

or

perhaps 30,000 years ago

—

the picture changed.

Ironically, survival chances for neglected children

increased.

As people hngered longer

ehminated predators,

—not

food

to

in

one

place,

built walled houses, stored

mention inventing things such

ber nipples and pasteurized milk

—

as

rub-

infant survival

became decoupled from continuous contact with

a

caregiver.

Since the end of the Pleistocene, whether in preindustrial or industrialized environments,

some

children have been surviving levels of social neglect that previously

death.

Some

would have meant

certain

children get very httle attention,

In effect, babies ask:

world

Is

this

with people who are going to provide for me and help me survive? Can COUNT on them to CARE ABOUT ME? I

filled

even in the most benign of contemporary homes.

A boy and

In the industriahzed world, children routinely sur-

younger sister

vive caretaking practices that an Efe or a

mother would

tional societies,

alone

at

no decent mother

leaves her

baby

any time, and traditional mothers are

shocked to learn fants

!Kung

find appallingly negligent. In tradi-

unattended

that

Western mothers leave in-

in a crib

all

night.

Without passing judgment, one may point out that only in the recent history of humankind could infants deprived

of supportive human contact sur-

vive to reproduce themselves. Certainly there are a lot

of humanitarian reasons to worry about

this sit-

his

— 62

NATURAL HISTORY 5/01

one wants each baby, each

uation:

be lov-

child, to

From my evolutionary perspective, though, even more is at stake. Even if we manage to survive what most people

ingly cared for.

are

mothers and other committed

else's

this

is

why

we still be human thousands of years down the Hoe? By that I mean human in the way we currently define ourselves. The reason our species has man-

our

icle

get so worried. Just because

I

humans have evolved

will

be smart enough to chron-

to

species' histories, to speculate

and to figure out

gins,

someone

perspective.

And

global warming, emergent dis-

rogue viruses, meteorites crashing into earth

caretakers, each indi-

vidual learns to look at the world from

—

worrying about

eases,

within the context of early relationships with

Hfe,

genes in our

genome

we

that is

about

ori-

its

have about 30,000

no reason

assume that

to

aged to survive and proliferate to the extent that 6 billion

with

people currently occupy the planet has to do

how

we want

readily

And

to.

the things that

At

a

we

our capacity for empathy

made

us

rudmientary

good

tures are

at

when

can learn to cooperate

good

at

doing

of course,

level,

one of

that.

sorts

all

of crea-

movements

reading intentions and

and anticipating what other animals

is

going to do.

are

Predators from gopher snakes to Uons have to be able Below:

Woman

and grandchild in

Himachal

to anticipate

and

gorillas

where

know

likely to

Pradesh, India.

of humans,

Opposite:

cal perspective

The

Pregnant mother

oped

United States.

(including

is

capacity to entertain the psychologi-

this

our

in

Chimps

takers, individuals learn

of other individuals

empathy

species, so

me)

is

much

is

crude.

look at the world from SOMEONE else's PERSPECTIVE. evolution has

many people

believe that along with language and

the expression of those genes. instance, that fish benefit

their visual capacity. traits

and

griefs

AIDS orphans Psychologists know that

than 12 miUion

We

puts

spend time and

we

have never

of more

there

is

and

a

heritable

that this af-

development of compassion among indifourteen months of age, identical twins

more

who

alike in

how

even

if

reared in sunlight.

ular rearing conditions,

and

if

an increasing propor-

tion of the species survives to breeding age without

developing compassion,

how

useful this trait

become

No from

it

won't make any difierence

was among our

like sight in

cave-dwelling

now

wiU stUl be Most Ukely they

at

stiU

using sophisticated technologies.

be

human

in the

way we, shaped

long heritage of cooperative breeding, cur-

D

rently define ourselves?

are fraternal

Tliis article

and

the

was adapted from "Cooperation, Empathy,

Needs of tinman

Infants," a

Tatmer Lecture de-

It is

more

mission of the Tanner Lectures on

Human

thy also has a learned component, analytical

skills.

which

During the

has

first

wiU

(should our species survive)

But wiU they a

It

doubt our descendants thousands of years

wiU be adept by

ancestors.

fish.

hvercd at the University of Utah.

do with

If

compassion develops only under partic-

twins (who share only half their genes). But empa-

to

time,

they

pretends to painfully

chpboard than

all,

If human

bipedal, symbol-generating apes.

in Africa.

to emotional capacity

a

Through evolutionary

that are unexpressed are eventually lost.

sight at

and

novelist

as

bies left in dumpsters, about the existence

pinch her finger on

to develop

enough, youngsters descended from those original

even met, about ba-

genes) are

the small,

fail

populations will no longer be able to develop eye-

people

all

as are

and

"fears

energy worrying about

share

able to see. Yet

— of Mexico —

species reared in total darkness

populations of these fish are isolated in caves long

it.

(who

one doubts, for

ot understanding other

Edmund White

react to an experimenter

No

from being

pable of compassion,

vanities,"

By

As gene frequen-

cave-dwelling characin

ings

viduals.

to a standstill.

symboHc thought, it is what makes us human. We are ca-

motives, their long-

fects the

come

change, natural selection acts on the outcome,

cies

uniquely well develso that

people's

component

to

or not know. But compared with that

capacity tor

with child.

their quarry will dart.

can figure out what another individual

During early childhood, through relationships with mothers and other care-

years of

poration, University of Utah,

used with the per-

Sah Like

Vahies, a

City.

Cor-

^•^r^

'''v-yi^^,i:

's^* %*.*!

i\^i

:f

.

V * \'*j

i»

64 NATURAL HISTORY 5/01

New Zealand Sweet Stakes Sugar was a shared resource in a forest community until a greedy newcomer

moved

in.

By Laura Sessions •i^iologist E. O. Wilson has called invertebrates

^^# "little things that run the world," because of r^% their numbers, variety, and influence on

m^^ New

larger organisms

home

and even

entire ecosystems.

Most of the

world's 33,000 species produce

dew, but few can match the beech

scale's

honey-

enormous

and constant output of the substance. In the Northern Hemisphere,

honeydew producers such

as

to "httle things" that, while

aphids are active only seasonally, but beech scale in-

each only a few miUimeters long, have benignly

draw off and convert energy from beech trees year-round, and they do so copiously during the

Zealand

is

modified about 250 million acres of the country's

beech

forests.

Known

as

sects

sooty beech scale insects,

these agents turn the resources of the beech trees

own

into a substance crucial to their

A

tiny sap-

that

of other

The

association of the insects

survival

from fungi

forest dwellers,

and the

trees

and

to

to birds. is

an an-

and the expansive food web in which

cient one,

they are actors was, until recently, intact.

sucking

Sooty beech

invertebrate, the

sooty beech

and

scale insect

grow

scale insects {Ultriu-oelostoina assimilc

U. hrittini) are sap suckers, or

in the

homopterans, that

furrowed bark ot four species of south-

New

Zealand. Dur-

(in early

ern beech trees (Nothofagus) in

developmental

ing

stage, right) has

goes through several developmental stages called in-

a big

impact on

millions of acres of

New

Zealand's

complex Ufe

its

beech

cycle, the

scale insect

stars.

The

females pass through four stages, the

males

five.

Second- and

their

third-instar females insert

long mouthparts into the

— —and suck up

cells

of

a beech's

beech trees,

phloem

the tissues that carry nutrients through

opposite.

the tree

sugars. After satisfying their

appetites, they excrete the excess sap

through

a

waxy

anal tube.

A

and wastes

sweet Hquid, called

honeydew, accumulates one drop

at a

time

at

the tip

of this tube, which looks Uke a thin white thread.

Homopterans

are

common

and widespread.

austral

summer. From January

to April, the tree

trunks in a southern beech forest often

with

a thick coat

heady, sweet smell In

some

forests,

shimmer

of honeydew, and the droplets' fills

the

air.

ten and a half square feet of tree

c^^

a

66

NATURAL HISTORY 5/01

recorded feeding on honeydew. In European

forests,

consume about two-thirds of the honeydew produced by aphids and other sap-suck-

for example, ants

New

ing insects.

species; here

on

avidly feed

Zealand

dew

it is

Zealand has only birds, rather

from

a

The fungus

few native ant

While some New rely on honey-

the honeydew.

and beetles do

caterpillars

tor food, invertebrates

rectly

a

than invertebrates, that

more

often benefit indi-

fungus that grows on the sticky drops. provides invertebrates with food and

with lodging in

its

spongy interior and

fissured sur-

Often solitary during the day as

they forage for insect larvae, kaka

tend to gather at dusk at

and the forest with squawks and

honeydew-rich then rings

sites,

whistles as they socialize. face.

Aptly

named

the sooty

mold

fungus, this or-

ganism coats any surface where honeydew lands after

A drop of

Right:

honeydew

—

trunk (think ot the top of an average card support

as

many

as

2,000 scale

insects.

may

table)

More

than 40

sugary liquid

percent of the food the trees have produced through

excreted through

photosynthesis

a threadlike

tube

to

—

fall.

is

sooty beech scale in-

lost to

These beeches do not appear to be harmed,

although for most plants, losses of much

by a scale insect

sects.

may be

poised

Drops are

less

than 40

percent of their energy reserves would be insupportable.

Currently, scientists can only guess

how

the

withstand such a drain, but various

avidly eaten by

trees are able to

forest dwellers

theories are being explored. Possibly only the

such as the

vigorous and faster-growing beech trees are tapped

introduced

by beech

honeybee, above,

ars to

and the kaka, a

promote

scale insects. Fallen drops soil

and thence to

trees,

may

recycle sug-

or the insects

may

extra photosynthesis in host trees.

Researchers have

native parrot,

opposite page.

the

more

a better

understanding of hon-

eydew's huge importance to other organisms that

Hve in southern beech are less diverse than

forests.

many

Because these

forests

other forest types and be-

cause few of the resident plants provide fleshy or abundant nectar, sects,

a

many

fruits

native birds, lizards, in-

and other invertebrates

rely

on honeydew

for

high-energy food, sipping drops directly from the

threadhke tubes. (The beech scale

from honeydew

eydew

feeders;

itself benefits

removal of the sticky hon-

stimulates the flow of sap through the in-

sect's digestive

system, preventing "constipation.")

In the Northern Hemisphere, vertebrate species

—

more than 250

—have

ants in particular

in-

been

falling

from the

insects'

trunks, roots, shrubs, sapUngs, floor. It

may

anal

tubes

—

and even the

tree

forest

cover beech trees so thoroughly that

their pale gray bark turns as black as charcoal,

new honeydew

drops shining on top.

with

and other inverte-

Caterpillars, beetle larvae,

brates find a

home

in sooty

mold and become

a

source of protein for foraging birds, but the honeyprovides the birds with essential energy. Bell-

de\\'

and

birds

tuis

—

forest birds in the nectar-feeding

family called honeyeaters

them to lap They hop up the beech that enable

—have

brushlike tongues

up honeydew drops

easily.

trunks, Ucking as they go

and occasionally pausing to clean the sticky sugars irom

Most

their feathers.

on more

frequently they feed

the branches in the canopy, possibly because

honeydew

is

found in the higher Hmbs of the

than near ground

time in out

The

it.

level.

forests \vith

the vwnter,

honeydew than

birds will flock to

when

fruit

tree

Honeyeaters spend more in forests with-

beech

and nectar

forests

during

are scarce; tuis

may spend more

than 80 percent of their feeding

time harvesting

honeydew when

plentiful.

is

it

Without the scale msect and its sugary excretions, these birds would be much less common in beech forests, to the detriment of some resident plants. Honeyeaters are the primary pollinators for native mistletoes plants.

If

and certain other nectar-producing these birds decline, the plants will no

new seeds.

longer be able to produce

(See

"A

Floral

Twist of Fate," September 2000.)

Also reUant on

New

honeydew

known

Zealand parrots

are the threatened

kaka. These large

as

and spend

forest birds nest in holes in old trees

hon-

about a third of their feeding time collecting

eydew when

it

enough energy

abundant. Kaka can obtain

is

whole day

for a

of honeydew foraging. This

in just three hours

then allows the

fiael

birds to exert themselves digging out beetle larvae,

of protein, from under beech

a vital source

bark. Larvae of

kanuka longhorn beedes

tree

are har-

vested only by the males, while females collect

other kinds, usually from rotting

during the

tary

when at

day,

they forage on honeydew.

dusk

at

Often

trees.

kaka can become quite

honeydew-rich

sites,

They

soli-

social

often gather

and the

forest

then

rings

with squawks and whistles

Now

surviving only in remnant populations, kaka

congregate

also

at the

as

beginning of the breeding

season, but today these gatherings

weak

reflection

when

flocks of more than a

In the late

1

of their

970s

a

tally

introduced into

(Vespula vulgaris)

may be only

sociability a

new

—an

southern beech forest to ruin the intricate

they interact.

a

century ago,

hundred could be

seen.

"litde thing" entered the

interloper that threatens

honeydew food web. Acciden-

New

Zealand,

common

found the conditions

perfect.

wasps

With

68

NATURAL HISTORY 5/01

the

warm

climate,

abundant honeydew, and lack of

such

as

honeybees, bumblebees, and

German wasps aircraft parts at

rogues' gallery

ished

of introduced

wasps have proved to be ruthlessly

(

honeydew suppHes of their

creatures

erage, thirty

be found per

on native

honeybees reach

clump of

Vespula germanica,

acre.

to a degree, but

hives,

And

common

efficient.

On

av-

most on the ground, can

whereas

densities

which entered via II), had dimin-

War

the end of World

wreaking havoc

are in a

forest,

where, thanks to

wasps. In these forests, the biomass of

their arrival, other exotic

among the

juveniles below

honeydew beech

numbers exploded. Before Stoats are

The

m

their voracity, they have largely displaced

social insects,

wildlife.

trated

natural enemies, the wasps flourished and their

of 22

insects

such

as feral

insects per ten

and

a

mind the card table with 2,000 honeydew insects), more than 300 common wasps can occupy the same space. The yel-

half square feet of tree trunk (bear in

speargrass on

low-and-black, bee-sized

the South Island.

found

in other types

common

wasps are

also

of forests but are most concen-

wasps exceeds that of together; if

many

one were

all

common

other creatures added

to collect

wasps and put them on a

German

scale,

all

they

common

the

would outweigh

the resident birds, rodents, and stoats combined.

Experunents using devices

from landing on beech large

numbers

of

trees

that prevented

have

shown

conunoii wasps in beech

wasps

that the

forests are

responsible for a reduction of up to 70 percent of annual,

dew

and

fully

99 percent of

austral

summer, honey-

By removing such vast quantities of honeydew, wasps may alter nutrient cycles and perproduction.

haps decrease the

thermore, because

soil

quaHty for beech

common

trees.

wasps constantly

Furrevisit

— the

same

of beech trunk, they do not allow the

areas

honeydew drops time duce the drops'

to

fiilly

re-form and thus re-

and sugar content. To

size

must

energ\' requirements, bii'ds

eat

£Ii11l11

their

many more of

and spend more time become too small and may abandon honeydew altogether and

these smaller, less sweet drops in search

of them.

scarce, birds tn,-

to search out

sugar sources

A New

If the drops

whatever

may be

fitiit,

and other

nectar,

available.

Landcare Research in Nelson,

scientist at

Zealand, Jacqueline Beggs has spent the past effects

of wasps in honeydew

that the

wasp-induced shortage

decade studying the

She believes

forests.

of honeydew could contribute to a decline of naover the long term. Beggs has

tive birds

when

wasps reduce the number and

below a

certain level

shown

that

size ot

drops

a threshold reached

when

—

the insects revdsit drops eveiy six and a half hours

kaka give up even trying to feed on honeydew. SiniUarlv,

Henrik Moller, now

Otago

Dunedin,

in

New

at the

Zealand, and other col-

leagues at Landcare Research have eyeaters are even

more

University of

sensitive. It

If one were to collect

all

shown wasps

that

hondrops

visit

the

introduced

common wasps and put

them on a

scale,

I

The common

-fi wasp,

outweigh

they would

I

appeared

in

first

New

§ Zealand in the

of a honeydew beech

alt

above,

1 late 1970s. Its

and

forests resident birds, rodents, stoats combined.

I

numbers have since exploded. Left:

at a rate

of once every three hours, honeydew

be depleted to the point that bellbirds and

will

tuis will

switch to other food sources or be forced to conserve energ)'

such

as

by spending

less

time on

vital activities

mating and nesting. Furthermore,

bellbirds. tuis, kaka,

when

and native insectivorous

the

birds

attempt to feed on native invertebrates, they again face competition caterpillars,

from wasps, which devour

ants, bees,

these invertebrates have

eradicated in areas

and

flies.

been decimated or even

where wasps

are

Unfortunately, scientists do not

how wasps may partly because

common. know precisely

affect native species in the

no one

spiders,

Populations of

fully

long run,

understands the organ-

isms involved, especially the invertebrates, and partly because their interactions are so varied

complex. Land mammals are

New

Zealand has no native

but a

raft

also a

and

major problem.

terrestrial

mammals,

of mammals has been introduced

in the

A beech

tree infested

with honeydew-

hungry wasps.

70

NATURAL HISTORY 5/01

harm than

serious

many of

sums, for example, eat (such

as

group would alone. Pos-

either

the same things

mistletoe) that honeyeaters do, so the birds

often cannot switch to other food types

honeydew

deplete the

Other

stores.

when

effects

wasps

of immi-

grant species have proved difficult to tease apart.

During

a

Island of

long-term research project on the South

New

Zealand, Beggs and Peter Wilson,

wasps

Scientists estimate that if visit

honeydew drops at a

rate of

With nectar in short supply in

once every three hours, the

the southern

honeydew

beech forest, two

bellbirds

native species of

will

and

be so depleted that

tuis will

to other sources

honeyeaters (the

have to switch

of energy.

bellbird, right,

also

of Landcare Research, noted that kaka changed

get their energy

how

they foraged and fed in response to competi-

from honeydew.

tion with wasps for

and

tui,

below)

tists

on

could not

test

honeydew. However, the scien-

the overall effect of food shortage

the kaka's ability to raise young, because stoats

had raided most of the

more than 70 more dire, four

nests, killing

percent of the kaka chicks and, even

of the seven nesting females. Female kaka incubate their clutches

of one to

five eggs for

about twenty-

four days; fledging takes a further seventy days.

Dur-

ing these three months, both mother and chicks are at

high risk of

on

females

a stoat attack.

Moreover, the death of

their nests leads to a serious

the population;

many breeding-aged

able to find a mate.

imbalance in

males are un-

Beggs and Wilson estimated that

the kaka population they studied for ten years suffered 7 percent mortaUty, a rate that could cause this

South Island population to become extinct in

less

than thirty years.

For native residents of southern beech recover.

No

forests to

New Zealanders have to play an active role.

pest-control measures currently available can

turn the situation around, but various tools are

being developed, such nests

last

100 to 150

ferrets

years. Cats, rats, stoats,

have had drastic

effects

on

bird species,

many of which

few defenses

against the invaders.

ficult to separate

possums, and

native plants

are flightless It is

and have

therefore dif-

the "bottom-up" effects of Httle

things Hke beech scale insects and wasps

"top-down"

and

effects

from the

Wasps and marm-nals may

interact to cause

more

the poisoning of wasp controls. This year,

one operation succeeded

in eradicating

of the wasp nests within

740-acre area, enough to

restore the

honeydew

this little

a

to natural levels

tect other invertebrates last,

parts are restrained, the

beech

forests

90 percent

and

to pro-

from wasp predation.

invader and

its

mammaUan

If,

at

counter-

reward wiU be southern

once again ahve with the songs of

honeydew-coUecting

of larger predators.

as

and the use of biological

invading wasps.

birds rather than the

drone of

D

72

NATURAL HISTORY 5/01

The Rewards of Chance By Mark Denny

Sometimes

most profound messages

the

in bi-

ology reside in the most pedestrian creatures.

Consider the lowly clam. Slow afoot and very tasty,

predators.

clams are attractive to a wide variety ot

When

threatened, a clam uses

adductor muscles to clamp

no

gether, leaving

senting a daunting gain entry.

shells to-

exposed and pre-

living material task for

strong

its

armorlike

its

any predator trying to

A serious difficulty arises, however, when

the animal needs to

open

its

shell again to breathe

or

that caused the shell to

"clam up"

can't help, since they're effective at pulling

but useless

feed.

The muscles

when

comes to pushing the

it

up, the

clam instead employs a pecuHar material in-

corporated into the this

material

forms

on

open. To open

shell

—

As the

hinge.

shell's

shell closes,

protein rubber called abductm) de-

(a

either stretching or compressing,

of clam. In the process,

the species

much as when this

chanical energy, energy. Later,

a

garage-door

energy

is

found

materials are

besides clams.

The wing

depending stores

in

me-

spring stores

released,

vides the force needed to reopen the

Rubbery

it

it

pro-

shell.

many

animals

supports of beetles, the

neck Hgaments of buffaloes, and the knees ot fleas all contain structural elements made from materials akin to the

man-made rubber

in automobile tires

GIANT CLAM

and rubber bands. The walls of mammalian

A rubber protein

provide a pertinent example.

in the hinges of its shell

enables

a clam to open up; muscles help it

shut tight

again.

a

pulsatile

pump:

blood into the

during contractions,

arteries,

but

arteries

A mammahan heart

it

is

squirts

it

must then wait

to re-

Pumping in this intermittent fashion requires much more power than would be needed to move the same

fill

before dehvering the next pulse of fluid.

amount of blood

in a steady stream. Fortunately, as

the heart contracts, stretch a protein

walls

of the large

cal energy.

some of

its

rubber called arteries,

As the heart

power

elastin,

is

used to

found

in the

thereby storing mechani-

refills,

these arteries relax,

releasing the energy. In essence, the arteries act as a

Thanks to the random movements of agitated molecules, biological rubber allows clams to open wide and insects to fly efficiently.

74

NATURAL HISTORY 5/01

secondary pump, smoothing out the uneven flow

of blood and allowing our hearts to beat more

dictions about the behavior of the gas as a whole.

we

For example,

effi-

The circulatory systems of other verteas weU as those of squids and octopuses, em-

speak of a gas in a container

The

as

ciently.

being under pressure.

brates,

impact of individual gas molecules on the con-

ploy similar rubbery materials.

What

mechanical energy? Surprisingly, perhaps, the an-

swer

randomness.

is

Biologists

just a bit

easier

more

orderly, they

time understanding

however, randomness can

how plants

how tell

bemoan

often

chance events in nature, lamenting that

were

if

the world

would have an

Ufe works. In fact,

us a great deal about

randomized by pressure

ual gas is

domness. At

room

temperature, molecules of gas

know

how gases

exactly

molecule will roam, but

we

random,

long

as

shifts

mechanical energy they can

store. In

amount of energy

The stiffness and extensibility of rubber tissue in animals comes from random movements

very

of proteins.

spectrum, mucus (such

of force (it

is

The

storing energy.

is

but

bone

is

relatively

At the other end of the underlying the foot

as that

very extensible

500 percent) but not

it)

can deform only 2 to 3 per-

storing energy.

snail)

stiffness

required to deform

is

cent before breaking). As a result,

of a

of material

that a bit

Bone, for example,

extensibility.

its

lot

not very extensible

at

how much

mathematical

proportional to the material's

is

multiplied by

poor

the aver-

through time.

same token, the random behavior of

the

stifli'(a

individ-

aU motion

as

how

rubbery proteins allows us to predict

terms, the

Again,

difiiase.

where any

can accurately predict

age location of molecules

can store

is

can predict that the

the same in aU directions. Similar consid-

is

impossible to

it is

By

ago recognized the value of ran-

we

collisions,

erations allow us to predict

and animals function.

Physicists long

Because the motion of molecules

tainer's walls.

gives rubbers this special abihty to store

comes from the

pressure

at all

(it

can

stiff".

So

by

easily stretch it,

too,

is

poor

at

biological rubbers in animals,

however, epitomize the happy medium. They are

both reasonably

stiff

and highly extensible and,

weight for weight, can store nearly a hundred times as

much

energy

as

Their secret?

high-tensUe-strength

A

network of protein tein

steel.

complex, three-dimensional

chains. In

chain (and what works

the material as a whole)

many

for

respects, a pro-

one chain holds

for

analogous to the kind of

is

bead-link chain that one finds attached to oldfashioned bathtub stoppers.

such

a

chain

is

set

The

overall length

by the number of beads, and

though the beads cannot be stretched can rotate chain

is

relative to their neighbors.

move

BEETLE

ond), changing the direction of their flight

In

many

flying

at

high speeds

quently and

at

(a

random

thousand

as

other.

materials

vigor of

provide the

us,

elasticity that

known

helps the wing

makes it where any individual molecule

flap

and

fold.

motion being,

fl-e-

gas molecules (the

as physicists

would

teU

proportional to the temperature of the gas) as

is

thermal agitation. This wild game of mol-

ecular billiards

impossible to predict exactly

time or exactly what speed cists

per sec-

they bounce oS^ one an-

The random motion of

insects, rubbery

this

feet or so

it

will

be

at a

given

will have, but physi-

can use thermal agitation to make precise pre-

is

a

they

a result, the

each amino acid in a pro-

flexible. Similarly,

tein chain

HARLEQUIN

As

apart,

of al-

"bead" that can rotate around the

peptide bonds that link the amino acids into the chain. Like the bead-link chain, the protein chain

combines a frxed

flexibility

and

a fixed length (in this case,

number of amino

acids).

Imagine holding the ends of

one

in each hand,

the chain

ffilly

extended, each Hnk

neighbors, and the chain

one arrangement of links its

is

in

taut.

With

Hne with

its

as a

whole

has a very or-

is,

in fact,

one and only

derly arrangement. There

stretched to

bead-Unk chain,

a

and pulling the chain

that allows the chain to

fuU length.

Now,

be

allow your hands

to

move

together a

gether, the chain

and

tions,

if

With

bit.

is firee

you shake

its

ends closer to-

on new configurarandom, it will ratde

to take it

at

the chain

is

random, we can never

shape will be

this

cause the

motion

at is

say for sure

what

any moment. But precisely be-

we

random,

can use

statistics

to

around among these configurations. The closer to-

describe the probability that the chain

more arrangements the more freedom it has to ratde around. The concept works the other way as

ular configuration.

we somehow knew how many arrangements the chain could take, we could infer how

erage end-to-end distance of a friUy disordered chain

gether your hands

the

are,

chain can adopt and the

\\'eU:

if

close together It

its

you were

length,

to extend a protein chain to

its frdl

amino acid "beads" would be in a and the chain would be entirely or-

straight line,

reality,

however,

this

kind of order

is

At the temperatures

earth,

thermal agitation, including the agitation of

amino-acid molecules,

is

sequently, as individual

chain

And

just as

more disordered

amino

life

occurs

on

Con-

acids in a protein

becomes

the chain

dis-

with the bead-link chain, the

the molecular chain becomes, the

closer together (on average)

Put another way, assume

which

constantly occurring.

move about randomly,

ordered.

to

at

a

its

ends

are.

rubbery protein chain tends

a disordered shape.

cule. In

Because the motion of

these probabihties,

we

mathematical terms, that

is

because the av-

turns out to be proportional to the square root of

cal

number of its

Links.

For example,

rubber has 100 amino-acid

ural,

links,

if a

hypotheti-

then in

its

nat-

disordered state the ends of the chain will be

only about 10 amino-acid lengths apart.

What

un-

Hkely.

in a partic-

can then calculate the average shape of the mole-

the

the

all

dered. In

ends must be.

Knowing

is

does

all this

jump? Everything, cal

as

it

fly,

and

a

fleas

it

is

pulled

For similar reasons, most actual rubbers have

no trouble extending three ing length.

The

comes from the

stiffness

to four times their rest-

of biological rubbers

natural tendency of rubber protein

chains to coil, requiring force to extend them. This stifihess,

in part of

of huge ligament to

100-hnk amino-acid

chain can be extended tenfold before taut.

ability

turns out. In the hypotheti-

example cited above,

Made

rubber protein, a

have to do with the

clams to open wide, beetles to

AMERICAN BISON

coupled with the chains' great extensibil-

in

the neck of a bison (or a cow, horse, or

wildebeest) provides most of

the force

necessary to hold up the animal's massive

head.

76

NATURAL HISTORY

5/0

ity,

1

accounts for the special ability of rubbei.7 pro-

teins to store

is a

powerful force in

rubbers

the physical, as

tion

well as the

gins to lose

biological, world.

that

is

is

of rubber

easy. If a bit

of its molecules

cooled, the

For example,

its elasticity.

resilient at

is

mo-

reduced and the material be-

is

a

rubber band

room temperature becomes

leath-

As waves

ery and relatively inextensible

when

converge at sea,

kitchen freezer. This effect

in large part,

their crests and

doomed

troughs combine

launched on an unusually cold

randomly,

rubber

determining the

function properly. Taken to an extreme, rubber

height and force

cooled by Uquid nitrogen behaves very

of the waves that

glass; it is

reach the shore.

energy.

is,

cooled in a

what

the space shutde Challenger. Challenger was

seals in its solid-fiiel

day,

and one of the

boosters was too

stiff

to

much Hke

britde and has very litde capacity to store

Without random motion

—rubber

sence of heat

—

that

is,

in the ab-

And nor human

simply not rubbery.

is

without rubbery materials, neither clams

would operate as effectively as they do. Only a few proteins are rubbery, however. In most of them, at least some of the amino acids are held rigidly together by bonds between sulfur

beings

—

atoms in cystine molecules and by the hydrogen ^ bonds

and hydrophobic interactions among the so-

5 called side chains of other

amino

acids. In addition,

these side chains are often too bulky to permit them I I to move relative to their neighbors. Only when a i protein

is

^connected i

constructed from the right amino acids in the right order does the resulting chain

have the flexibihty necessaiy for rubbery behavior.

randomness

Paradoxically, FLEA Fleas are great

jumpers, some leaping 200

times the length of their

enables scientists to predict much about how nature works.

own

As important

bodies. This

impressive ability is

due to

as

rubbers are for animals, they are

only one example of the in nature.

The same

of random behavior

statistics that

to

that

can be used to predict

—from

wide range of phenomof waves breaking on a beach a

compressed

ena

when the

to the reason people are not deafened

cocks

insect

its

allows us

determine the average shape of protein chains

rubbery material is

utility

type of

the force

at a cocktail party.

In these cases, the

by the noise ampHtude of

"knees" (the

ocean and sound waves, rather than the

joints between

of protein chains,

its

hind legs and

the same.

its

body).

far

The

from being

ture

is

is

flexibility

involved, but the principle

message of the gaping clam a frustrating obstacle,

cause for celebration.

^

\

Demonstrating that random molecular motion plays a necessary role in the mechanical properties of

BREAKING WAVE Chance

mechanical energy.

is

is

clear:

chance in na-

D

;

>?>;

**^:'

•^

'

^.••^••y^^-.^t;,,^^^^^ ,

^at'A.;rf.*>-fc»>» -./I

.

78

NATURAL HISTORY 5/01

MUSEUM

AT THE

The Genome Writ Large A new exhibition unravels the wonder, the promise, and the By Henry

S. F.

Cooper Jr.

This past February 12, Charles Darwin's birthday,

two

human

versions of the

genome were announced duced by

—one

pro-

a public organization, the In-

Human Genome

ternational

DNA research.

of human

potential dangers

Sequenc-

pear to float overhead like

hologram. Three and billion nucleotides tural units

of

—

a

a quarter

the struc-

DNA—on twenty-

three pairs of

chromosomes

are

ing Consortium, based in Cambridge,

contained in the nucleus of each

England, and the other by

human

a private

company, Celera Genomics in RockMaryland. Now, on

viUe,

Museum

May

26, the

opens the exhibition "The

Genomic Revolution." DeaHng vwth

invisible matter, the exhibition re-

on models

lies

largely

under

spotlights

that

gleam

like jewels

and on glowing images

cell.

end

laid

mol-

to end, the

would form an

ecules

invisible thread nearly six

feet long.

The informa-

tion in such a thread, if

printed out, would fiU

140 Manhattan phone

—and

projected across computer monitors

books

and high-defmition plasma

three stacks, are exactly

while

LED

displays spell

genome

the

direct

screens,

out news ot

Just past the entrance

is

devoted to James D. Watson and Francis H. C. Crick's revolution-

stallation

ary

1953 double-helix model of the

structure of the straight

ahead

is

DNA a

And

molecule.

brand-new, floor-to-

cerhng rendering of the double helix

an organic, undulating,

slightly

He serpent of the night.

It's

a

as

metal-

long way

in

In a small theater close to the big

DNA

a small in-

nearby,

number of them.

that

from the laboratory

in bright, ever-flowing letters.

and

If teased apart

model

a five-minute

is

anima-

tion loop that explains the uses of gein medicine,

both to

treat dis-

and to prolong

human

Hte.

nomics ease

hope

that in decades to

is

identified

and

fected,

many

ways of removing

as

them or spHcing

in

new

ones are per-

illnesses will

be treated

genetically or even prevented alto-

from Watson and Crick's mechanical, tinker-toy

diseases,

Also near the entrance, in an encased glass tiling:

vial, is a

sample of the

a single strand of

DNA

real

repli-

cated thousands of times and forming a

white mush.

A

parabolic mirror inside

the case makes the

DNA

material ap-

as

genes that cause various diseases are

gether. Already the genes for

affair.

The

come,

from

sickle-cell

many

anemia

to

heart disease, have been pinpointed,

though genetic means ot are

still

issues,

plays reflect

and

how

a

itself,

—not

unlike the

according to

DeSalle, the exhibition's curator as lar

codirector of the

as

Rob well

Museum's Molecu-

Systematics Laboratory and a cura-

tor in the Division

of Invertebrates.

"Most people would agree that curing disease is a good use ot genetics. But

sorts

what about changing the color of eyes from brown to blue what we call genetic enhancement? Harmless, per-

in their infancy.

of ethical

double helix

them

treating

Genoinic research has raised

ethics are intertwined

all

number of

closely science

dis-

and

—

— a

But then the next

haps? is,

my

'Well, I'd like

step after that

child to be a Uttle

Or 'Gosh,

smarter than normal.'

I'd like

her to be able to slam-dunk a basket-

know

Before you

ball.'

you're into

it,

designer babies. These are ethical questions we'll

you carry the genes

It

able disease,

for an incur-

would you want

mation made

available to

that infor-

you? To insur-

enthusiastic

less

about

mounting an exhibition on genomics, as traditional mandate has been natural

its

history

—

the study of organisms at a

higher level of complexity than that of

"We

the gene.

and sponsor

face sooner or later."

all

been

have

thousand through says.

a decade,"

"We wanted ot us

Salmon? At three computer polling

sta-

tions in the exhibition, visitors can register their

how

opinions.

They can then

their answers tally

people sampled in a Harris

Genome

see

with those of Poll.

on

the concepts of continuity and variation,

another pair of intertwining displays.

Seven percent of our genes are the

same

as

those of Escherichia coh bacte-

and we share 90 percent with mice

ria,

and more than 98 percent with chimpanzees. "This

is

Salle.

"The

continuity; the other variation," says

De-

difference between,

say,

of the coin

side

you and me,

is

small but

is

it

variation

groups. alike

—

99.9

truly a single entity

is

a

more

percent

—and

that

is

an important point of the exhibition."

Another point concerns the num-

human genome.

ber of genes in the

This

number

turns out to be only

about one-fourth the

initial

projection;

between 30,000 and 40,000, compared with an

earlier estimate

140,000. Fruit

flies,

uni-

the tips ot

we needed

knowledge

26

in Gallery 3

of more than

by comparison,

branches,

that extra depth

of

biology

ecular

Novacek

Museum,

the

though Novacek points out that he was supported by several visionary cu-

among them

rators,

Niles Eldredge,

was already beginning to recruit

seum opened

its

1990 the

Mu-

Molecular Systematics

Laboratory, codirected by DeSalle and

A second molecular

Ward C. Wheeler.

partment. This year, under the

man-

agement of molecular biologist Bob Hanner, the Ambrose Monell Collection for Molecular

search

—

and Microbial Re-

a repository that

wiU eventu-

ally hold 750,000 frozen samples of

organic tissue and species

—

DNA from a host of

begins operations.

Now, drawing on

Ten

years ago, the

ries,

Museum might

and

its

the breadth of its

collections, the

molecular biology.

It

its

laborato-

Museum

ative

is

has, in fact,

been catapulted into the forefront of

new

provost of science.

Another goal of comparative geto plot evolutionary relation-

is

Evolution can be tracked back

ships.

by comparing genomes

across the eons

and using

as yardsticks

and mutations

the similarities

—whether

in different species

traits

are a

legs.

Using molecular biology

as

backbone, two

traditional

scientists

same

ot genes for the

traits

the

eyes, or four

morphology.

well

as

Museum

can compare and contrast the

evidence.

The two approaches do not mammalogy de-

always agree. In the

partment, tor example, molecular re-

a

molecular specialty called compar-

genomics:

the

primitive

comparison of

fly.

mammalian order Mono-

which includes the platypus, branched oft during the Cretaceous tremata,

Period (between 140 and 70 million years ago). This

supial

and

would make

placental

now the

mar-

the

mammals

thought to have branched off closely related.

field ot

Michael J. Novacek, the Museum's

I

Morphologists long thought that the

nectedness with says

where

is

in."

search projects are causing fur to

in a strong position to contribute to the

other organisms,"

going to happen in

Museum comes

think the

diffi-

is

where the

it's

Joel Cracraft, of the ornithology de-

notion of evolution and of our conall

is

says.

laboratory opened in 1995, headed by

research in natural history,

genes, and

work

process

but

the near future, and this

nomics

DeSalle,

into

really neat

the evo-

between 13,000 and 14,000 roundworms have 19,000. "The lower number fortifies the whole

have

"The

2002.

1,

the

is

DeSaUe

same,"

cult,

"led the charge" toward bringing mol-

who

and runs

through January

map of Hfe and to

chances are

that the function in the

lutionary process of Hfe."

According

it

its

human genome

for a very similar mission: to

understand the

locate

identify

The exhibition opens May

many

its

we

The Genomic Revolution

brate department. In

There

are

all

felt

all

some of them and we

in

and evolution ot

and

—

function,

to understand the di-

we

nematode, and yeast

that

at a

worm, a of whose

a fruit fly a

so. If

DNA we

than between racial

within

Humans

when

mouse,

in a

it

sequenced or nearly

a

molecular researchers for the inverte-

one change, meaning

0.1 percent difference.

so

DNA se-

wondered why we

exists: for

every thousand base pairs of share, there's

is

versity

are associated

take a

either completely

But our mission

versity.

"We

genomes have been

work might

ot

readUy be done

life

research also focuses

themes incorporated into the

kind

traits.

all

museum,

And would you

a

No-

to protect

What

modified corn? Bananas?

with which

for

should bring molecular biology to

about cloning?

which sequences of genes

human genome

in the

hundred expeditions

a

ance companies? To the govermnent?

eat genetically

goal of comparative genomics

to identify

quence from our genome and search

vacek

Some

One is

care for vast collections

year, a

that.

DNA throughout the animal kingdom.

later

But molecular evidence and

suggests that the marsupials

monotremes branched

off

much

earUer than the placentals did and that

they are therefore the closer relatives.

Following the demise of the dinosaurs at the

end of the Cretaceous,

— —of

there occurred a great radiation "star burst," as

Novacek

calls

it

'

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82

NATURAL HISTORY

mammals,

5/01

particularly of placentals,

and molecular biology

proving a

is

valuable and controversial tool in find-

have

hands-on experience

a

to learn

forensics or

morphology, most mammalogists of

lyze a sample of their

the

century agreed that rabbits, for

last

Today molecular

dents.

Museum

For any

who

studies at the

suggest they are.

know more

wants to

nitty-gritty

of

about the

DNA—and maybe even

even to produce and ana-

on the way small

own

genes.

And

you walk through where your image

out,

gallery

a

A, C, G, and T, representing the four basic nucleotides in the

The

cule.

idea

pervasiveness and relevance.

Henry

S. F.

for the

New

—ex-

cept that instead of the image being

formed of pixels,

it's

made of the

mole-

is

by computer software, and

projected onto the galleiy walls

DNA

produce one's

to

is

image out of the elements of the genome, a graphic expression of its

picked up on a video camera, processed digitally

visitor to the exhibition

a small

about genetic appUcations in

ing out what happened. Based on

instance, are not closely related to ro-

—

laboratory near the exit permits people

letters

Museum

CooperJr., a former staff writer Yorker, has been

since he

him

sat

his fatlier

visiting the

was four years a

in

old,

cavity

when

of the

Willamette meteorite.

MUSEUM EVENTS MAY

1, 8,

Four

MAY 14

AND 22

15,

and

"Genetics

lectures:

Richard

neuropsychiatrist

Brain,"

Mayeux,

May

1;

"Learning and

ory," neurobiologist Eric

May

(Nobelist, 2000),

8;

the

Mem-

R. Kandel "Develop-

Lecture:

Astronomy

"The Multiwavelength Uni-

verse" (Frontiers in Astrophysics se-

15;

tionizing

Medicine

May

MAY 29

Planetarium.

Lecture:

turns

'^sm^^Z

May

"Wild Nights: Nature Rethe

to

7:00

Two

lectures:

"Indigenous Peoples: Perspectives and

including

"Making of Precious

weekend programs,

instructor.

May

Caught

and

a Prayer:

the

Monarch

3;

5:00 P.M., Leonhardt People Center

and the Linder and Kaufmann The-

p

Mystery of

at the

For information and a complete

aters.

schedule,

Butterfly," entomologist

and author Sue Halpern,

May 10 Museum

to the

tory

American

Ecological History of

and

Its

Frontier:

An

North America

Bronze African termite Steve Tobin, on the

mound by

sculptor

Museum grounds

Tim

Flannery, director of

the South Australian

Museum. 7:00

MAY 10

Young "Uncovering the Origins of

"An Evening with Mary vocalist.

7:30

7:00

at

the

Museum

Paleontologist Oscar Alcober.

P.M.,

Kaufoiann Theater.

newsletter for science ed-

being launched. Published

three times a year

by the Museum's

Naturalist

The American Museum of Natural Histoiy

is

and 79th

Awards ceremony

and luncheon. Noon, Astor Turret.

listings

hours,

Dinosaurs in Ai-gentina's Ischigualasto Valley" (Earthwatch

is

National Center for Science Literacy,

P.M., Kaufiiiann Theater.

Lecture:

of Natural His-

MAY 18 Concert:

Redhouse." Navajo jazz

RM., Kaufhiann Theater.

Museum

Education, and Technology.

Peoples." Manunalogist and pa-

leontologist

series).

Web

ucators,

"The Eternal

(212) 769-5315.

(www.amnh.org/learn/musings/),

a free

MAYS Lecture:

call

Musings: The Educators' Connection

3:00 P.M., Linder Theater.

series).

1:00—

workshops.

Mu-

in the

(Thursday Afternoons

and

mances,

perfor-

lectures,

films,

"Four Wings

Stones," Peter Vreeland, senior

seum

Kaufcnann

DURING MAY

Cen-

IMAX Theater.

AND 10

3

p.m.,

Theater.

Perceptions." Free

MAY

Science writer

City."

Anne Matthews.

22 (Revolu-

in the 21st

tui7 series). 7:00 p.m.,

J.

Space The-

Hayden Planetarium.

ater,

Astronomer Alyssa Goodman. 7:30 P.M., Space Theater, Hayden

"Brain Imagery," neuropsychiatrist

David Silbersweig,

p.m.,

ries).

ment and Cognition," developmental psychobiologist Michael Posner,

Astronomer

series).

Bachard Gott. 7:30

located

Street in

(212)

MAY 21 "Time

Travel in Einstein's

Universe" (Distinguished Authors

in

Central Park West

New York

of events, call

City.

exhibitions,

769-5100 or

visit

For

and the

Web site at www.amnh.org. Space Show tickets, retail products, and Museum memberships are also Museuni's

Lecture:

at

available online.

With so much more to see, you'll want to come more often. Especially when you have

UNLIMITED FREE ADMISSION.

With

your subscription

to

Natural History, you're

already exposed to the American

Museum

of Natural History. Because each issue of the

magazine vividly the

reflects the

excitement and scope of

top of that, membership allows you to be genuinely

involved in the work of the

Museum: because your

dues help finance our scientific research, expeditions, educational initiatives and exhibitions.

Museum.

Yet visiting you'll

want

AMNH

is

to repeat

coming months with ot Planet Earth

a whole other experience.

many the

times

statc-of-thc-art

a

And one

particularly in the

and premiere of the Rose Center for Earth its Cullman Hall of Hayden Planetarium.

Member, you can

whenever you

—

newly opened Gottesman Hall

and Space with

As

On

like,

visit as

the Universe and

frequently as you like,

without ever paying an admission

And you can extend

the

same

fee.

privilege to a spouse or

These are remarkable times new exhibitions, displays and

at

AMNH,

with a mass of

attractions. There's so

admission.

As a

special gift to

free

IMAX

starts at

new Members, we

tickets (an

$45 for a

full

$18

value).

will

AMNH

send you two

Membership

year.

friend or child.

American Museum of Natural History

much

and do; you'll certainly want to visit throughout the year. Become a Member and enjoy unlimited free to see

Call: 212-769-5606 to

become a Member today!

— 84

NATURAL HISTORY 5/01

Most Excellent of Fishes

ing, cichlids

may

turn out to be the

most diverse of all vertebrate families

or just

about.

among them

In the annals of piscine diversity,

a

But the differences

can be subtle, and

it

takes

master to bring them to Hfe on the

printed page.

cichlids break

all

records.

In his introduction. clear that cichlid

By Les Kaufman

hype.

Up

to

1

Barlow makes

hyperbole

is

not mere

,000 species of this one

family live in a single African lake,

Almost

all

living things, even the

scure

and

their

human

distinctly

have

and

their briOiant, protean garb

makes them come

Fleas

their Barlow. colorful,

and

endearingly nasty creatures, fanuliar to

fishermen, aquarium hobbyists, and

Never mind

that

most people seem constitutionally unable to

pronounce

hds") in any other

their

name

way than

of chewing gum. Anyone this

book

large part

("sick-

as a

brand

who

reads

will not forget these fishes, in

due

to the narrative skills

of

most other

to anybody watching more than a few seconds), occupy a place among fish

Laurentian Great Lakes. ter

for

or

among

how

cichlids' biggest

to

fame

ually

is

and

But claim

that, individ-

collectively,

they exhibit legendary diversity

fit

in

The

Cichlid

ture's

first

chap-

Fishes: Na-

Grand Experiment

cichlids are

into the broad fish

and

scheme of

evolution.

In the

next

chapter,

"Jaws

Two,"

Barlow

tackles

in Evolution, by Geoige IV

with

gusto

Barhiw

palate

of cichlid feeding

(Perseus

Publishing,

2001; §28)

habits,

They

evolutionary biologists, the maddest of

are,

for

eruptions out of Santa's workshop.

Depending on who's doing the count-

the

which

mined by

both be-

George W. Barlow, of the University of

all

they

cephalopods

mollusks.

The

begins with the best popular ac-

count yet given of what

comparable to that of parrots among birds

Eu-

and 235 in the immensity of the

rope,

them

havior and appearance.

Because of their behavior (which

the freshwater lakes and rivers of

(which

across as sensitive

and emotive cichlids

215 in

families live in the world's seas,

fishes)

the famously cichhd-smitten ethologist

CaUfornia, Berkeley.

while only 2,800 species of fishes of all

inquisitive

Dar-

tasty,

diners worldwide.

more

intelligent than

cichlids,

large,

far

and

enthusiasts.

now

Cichhds are

makes them seem

unromantic, have

their Rothschild; barnacles, their

win; and

ob-

rich

are deter-

the

varied

shapes and deployments of their jaws

and

teeth.

leaves

Chapter

3,

"Plastic

behind morphological

sions to

Sex,"

oral obses-

examine the realms of sex deter-

!

—

of the parsimonious

ponents of the sympatric model (speci-

warm

not dependent on geo-

is

South Africa, according to Barlow

a

into the process of speciation,"

because

its

population of 250 to 400 color morphs. In

outline"

—

might not have spent

thirty years

last

ing about

it)

to the

lid species flocks

anybody

as

The

cichlids

life

is

devoted to

history that transpire be-

tween parental pairing and the young setting off

ing, isosexuality (bet

term

Monog-

with bag and pole.

mouth brood-

amy, sexual subterfuge,

you haven't heard

will

a

wine than

become

nibbled off by their

many

intriguing, however,

treatment

among

and discussed. Even

plained, illustrated,

more

fry) are

topics that are carefully ex-

Barlow's

is

of long-standing

about cichlid reproduction.

myths

Do

cles

about nature with

maudHn

as

genre unto

all

line art

—

throughout

is

its

that

clear,

appeahng

nonpareil.

context.

Bar-

off the I

how

Barlow

discusses

species

might have come

all

these cichlid to be.

His

overview of speciation hypotheses and cichlid radiations I've seen.

Barlow

is is

as

good

as

anything

clearly an adherent

two

to as

has

stories

we

ele-

difierent species, but

Hum-

P.

phrey Greenwood's groundbreaking

work

and 1970s changed

in the 1960s

But

that nomenclature.

taxonomy can

chlid

biologist.

lid

this

how

other illustration of

derful

just an-

confusing

and has

ci-

even to a cich-

be,

The

is

book

itself

is

old-fashioned

a nice,

won-

and very useful bibhography, and

(thank goodness, for glossary.

And

the

many of

book

and pretty rugged,

as

is

us)

a

bound

well

indicated by

my

copy's capacity to absorb several cups of

coffee with only a sUght stain

on

its

at-

tractive off-white pages.

In sum, TJk Cichhd Fishes

is

mar-

a

velous narrative about an extraordinary

family of creatures. Barlow's thesis

of the behaviors

fertile

syn-

belongs in the pantheon of nat-

that

make

cichlid parents so remarkable.

end of his book with panache.

wish there had been more men-

temperate-zone

Most of us

Westerners,

living

cichlids are notably scarce (ex-

cept in pet stores and supermarkets),

means to hop month or two to

about them, so ture

shows

we

—and

find out

more

setde instead for na-

indeed. Barlow does

mention the spectacular Geographic film about

1

996 National

cichlids in

Lake

Tanganyika. Also oddly missing from his

account

is

ural history classics: G. E.

Hutchinson's

"The Cream in the Gooseberry Fool," Konrad Lorenz's King Solomon's Ring, Niko Tinbergen's Curious Natiimhsts, and Howard Ensign

famous

essay

Evans's Life on a Little-Known Planet.

to the Tropics

lack the for a

In chapter 12, "Cichlid Factories,"

in the text. Haplochromis

gans and Astatotilapia elegans are referred

low has pulled

the

amazing

and there

few minor gHtches here

Mouth broodlng is just one

it-

In

self.

are a

well

where

in

At

arti-

of anthropogenic destruction that

may

There

end books,

females hot? Barlow's vivid accounts of life

it

and newspaper

tion of cichlids in the wild.

variants—illustrated by

of cich-

complete

chapter, but

egg-shaped spots on the anal fm of some male mouth brooders really make cichlid family

as

chapter, "Fish

so formulaic to

in closing" as a

the

issue

about

may sound more Uke

television shows,

and secretocyte ingestion (parental skin cells

last

book

a

folks'

heft. It also has a great index, a

is

parting shot. That

from

whole

—

got diversity, balance, and a good

It's

be observed

far

attractive

Risk," deals with cichhd conservation.

judge "words

for

now

of their Hves obsess-

be getting for a while.

book's

homosexuality before),

that

don't

wonderful introduction

a

who

those

(for

the

we

the basis of cichlid diver-

very well. But his "pretty good

sity

the events in a

my

window

comprehend

—

introduction, but

front doors in Florida.

—"may own be

one of

refers to

the end, however. Barlow says

The bulk of the book

human

doing cool things not

endeirdc species in a tiny sinkhole

cichlids in

southern waters only in terms of

the evils of

An

exists in five distinct

Barlow's real forte

mentions the

these aUen fishes can

favorites, Tilapia giiinasana

sexual domination,

He

graphic isolation) will be disappointed.

and here he

ratios,

the only native cichlid in U.S.

tuiii),

waters.

in

and other trappings of sexual conquest.

the Texas cichlid (Cichlasoma cyanogutta-

because of geographic isolation); pro-

ation that

minarion, sex

model

allopatric

into separate species

(differentiation

any detailed treatment of

Ill

his

Aquatic Conseivatioii and Ecology

Laboratory at Boston University, Les Kauf-

man

studies aquatic biological diversity.

favorite workhorses are the labroids,

include cichlids,

and for

the past

His

which

dozen years

he has analyzed the evolution offish species flocks in Africa's Great Lakes.

— 86

NATURAL HISTORY 5/01

Sam M. Gon

tained by

nature.net

with

Trilobitophilia

have been found,

fossils

By Robert Anderson

where,

state

(a

bites).

An

a biologist

Conservancy

Nature

the

Hawaii

III,

in

alone trilo-

deep-sea, thermal-vent symbionts

Gon

"enthusiastic amateur,"

For nearly 300

flourished in the world's oceans.

It

took

was drawn

to trilobites

by

their

with more than 15,000

bers:

and

num-

they are the most diverse group in the

the Permian Period, to stop their long

fossil

mammals

record.

Gon's

are

icons for the following eras, these hard-

on

ings

very well done. Offer-

main menu range from

shelled, crustacean-like animals have

formation on the eight orders of

coiTie to represent the Paleozoic.

bites to sections

on what the

animals were

Animations

Recently

I

renewed

my

childhood

fascination with these fossil critters by a

Web

the

visit to

A

site

Guide

to the

how

like.

term used

illustrate

posture). Perhaps the

section

is

most

interesting

"Evolutionary Trends" (click

Evolution's Workshop:

God and

Sci-

ence on the Galapagos Islands,

The Biodiversity Counts,

edited

Crisis:

by

Losing What

Michael

$19.95; Earth: Inside

J.

Not'acek.

and Out,

edited by

Edward J. Larson

Museum

Press /American

of Natural History 2001)

Museum's

halls

essays related to the

cover such topics

mass global extinctions and

how

as

all

time

to

hope of either

come," wrote visit

sity),

the evolution oi continents and

mountain ranges ot Planet Earth),

(the

in

Herman

Gottesman Hall

and cosmological

dis-

Here you find

.html).

a great recipe for

edible trilobites. Hart, neither a gas-

tronome nor

a paleontologist, says

So do

just Hkes the cookies.

Robert Anderson

he

I.

is

a freelance science imter

Los Angeles.

living in

This biography of the

real-life inspiration

for the fictional Indiana Jones

how

a "passionate

shows

single-minded rnan

mad dream

of unlocking

phant

scientific quest,"

says

Museum

paleontologist Michael J. Novacek.

to the Galapagos in

The Energy of Nature,

histoiy, the islands are seen instead as a

(University of Chicago Press.

of evolu-

A

by E. c. Pielou

2001; $25)

mathematical ecologist takes

a sys-

tion in action, their harsh environment

tematic look at the myriad ways in

an opportunity rather than

which energy and

a curse."

earth and

Kids: How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Raise Our Chil-

dren,

by Meredith

E

Small (Doublcday,

its

its

transfer affect the

inhabitants.

The Dragon Seekers: How an Extraordinary Circle of Fossilists Discovered

the Dinosaurs and Paved the

2001; $24.95)

Anthropologist Small follows the vari-

Darwin,

ous strands of nature and nurture that

Publishing,

Cullman Hall of the Universe).

determine the

(the

(www.

Hart

georgehart.com/trilobites/trilobite

Rose

and hypotheses

you might want to one maintained by

W.

George

sculptor

Center for Earth and Space and the

coveries

site, this

1841. In Larson's intriguing scientific

to pre-

serve wildlands (the Hall of Biodiver-

another

the secrets of central Asia into a trium-

archipelago of aridities, without

"field laboratory for the study

Three books of

If you find yourself converted into a trilobite enthusiast,

"An

Melville after a

Soter and Neil de

from one form

to another.

converted his

Edge,

$24.95 (New

by

Books /Perseus, 2001;

(Basic

inhabitant, history, or

edited by Stei'eii

remarkably detailed record of

$27.50)

Edmond A. Mathez, $19.95; and Cosmic Horizons: Astronomy at the Cutting Grasse Tyson,

(a

to

to describe their defensive

/~smgon/ordersoftrilobites.htm) main-

BOOKSHELF

trilo-

living

they molted and "enrolled"

Orders of Trilobites (www.aloha.net ,

in-

left a

their transformation

try

site is

the

and

species,

the worst mass extinction, at the end of

run. Just as dinosaurs and

wide range of ecological niches

from free-swimming pelagic feeders

studies current biodiversity issues

million years, trilobites

a

"Classification"). Trilobites filled

no

ironically, let

under

fate

of our children.

by Christopher

Way

McGowan

for

(Perseus

2001; $26)

The word

"dinosaur" was coined by

Owen in

Treating us to wide-ranging and infor-

anatomist Richard

Racing the Antelope: What Animals

mative research about kids in the larger

and other paleontological

"firsts"

are

Can Teach Us About Running and

context of

chronicled in an engaging

book by

the

by

Band

Heuiricli {HarperCollins,

"For millions of

years,

Life,

2001; $23)

our ultimate

form of locomotion was running," writes zoologist Heinrich, who examines animal physiology

and

evolution and cul-

servations of her

own

and

lively

ob-

daughter.

senior curator of paleobiology at the

Royal Ontario Museum.

Dragon Hunter: Roy Chapman Andrews and the Central Asiatic Expe-

The books mentioned

and behavior

own

ditions, by Charles Gallenkamp (Viking,

5150, or via the Museum's

2001; $29.95)

www.amnh.org.

applies these insights to his

long-distance running.

human

ture, she also offers astute

1842. This

able

m

the

Museum

are usually avail-

Shop, (212) 769-

Web

site,

EXPLORER GUIDE Madrid,

Rome $200.

So.

GALAPAGOS

America

$200. Bangkok, Hong Kong $300. Ifou,

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will

Hawaii $238. ALL ROUNDTRIP!

eleven other adventurers, and our naturalist explore

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more islands than ony other Golopagos From fine sailing adventoes to splendid

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THE N AJURA L^fM

M

E N T

—

1

of

Circle

Photograph by John Serrao

Last July, while strolling through mixed

hemlock-hardwood forest

in Pennsylvania's

Pocono Mountains, photographer John Serrao gently turned over a rotting log. To his

was treated to

delight, he

a rare glimpse of

arthropod maternal behavior: a centipede coiled around her eggs.

This brooding female belongs to the

scolopendrid family— most

common

in

the

Tropics but also found in parts of the United States. Scolopendrids

have more than

twenty pairs of legs and are usually two to

what appears to be

four inches long. Here,

the centipede's head

is really

her hind end:

she has tucked her head beneath the clutch

make

to

it less

vulnerable to enemies.

Centipedes' modified front legs are

poison claws, which they use to inject a highly toxic venom. While the small U.S. species prey on worms, insects, and slugs, their foot-long tropical cousins feed on

small lizards or mice and can deliver a gainful sting to humans.

1

Scolopendrids reproduce without

copulating. The male weaves a silken

the ground, and in

it

he deposits a

web on

tiny,

lemon-shaped spermatophore, or sealed packet of sperm. The female picks up the

packet and places

weeks

later,

curls herself

it

inside her body. Several

she lays twenty or so eggs and

around them. Fasting for two

months, she cares for them intensively and _(

_

r

_

.

_i

.

.

I

r*

I

<-

r

.

i

i

i

the eggs to keep them moist and even coats

them with

a fungicidal

chemical that she

secretes from a gland in her head. Without

these ministrations, the eggs would become infected with fungi and die.

Richard Milner

90

NATURAL HISTORY 5/01

ENDPAPER squeezed into seconds

photography tendrils

of a

—

the same kind of compressed-time

makes clouds boU across the sky and the growing vine snake around the treUis. Accelerthat

ated or not, the

movement of the

little

beast looked wOlfijl,

no mere amoebic sHthering or crawHng about, but a deHcate, precise, silvery motion invested with intelligence. The star of the film made by Diane Hof&nan-Kim, a cell biologist then at Harvard was no mollusk but the amoeba-Hke growth cone at the tip of an axon, a slender fiber that extends from a nerve cell this one isolated from

—

—

—

The

the spinal cord of a chick embryo. dia,

Hofirnan-Kim

cell

membrane

me, dynamic

told

"feet"

were filopoof the

Httle extensions

from the growth cone, the growing axon, which the cell uses to sniff

thrusting out

leading edge of a

out connections with other nerve

cells.

Hofrinan-Kim was studying the way

find one an-

cells

other to create the netted wiring of the brain, not just during embryonic development but learns

the

cell that steer

where

nee, finding himself bleeding profusely after a bad

die naturalist Loren Eiseley apologized to his

fall,

doomed blood

"Oh,

cells:

sony" The

don't go. I'm

words were spoken to no one, he wrote, but addressed to all the "crawHng, hving, independent" entities that had been

and now, through

part of him,

were dying

beached

like

I'm not sure individual

with

a

cells,

wit and

cule of

HjO

I

when

my

as creatures

wisdom ot their own. Just as a single molemake water, a single cell from the brain

doesn't

its

the cell Hnks

petri dish contains

up with

no thought;

irdUions of others in an

electrochemical network does thought emerge.

on the

Still,

Eiseley was

One

afternoon not long ago,

looked for

all

I

little

Then

watched

a film

twitching

new Umb poked

searcliing

Hke

But nor

all

scale

the small

a

one

as it

real. It

made

out in

large

new

foot.

This thin,

a different direction, again

appeared in the

a

body

the tentative axon to

quarry, telling

its

it

hook up

finds exactly the right cell to

Somehow

itself altered

by

again and again, the

its

Hnk

with, a

the cell initiates the connection

accomplishment.

If a skiU

is

used

hardens; if it's used only once, the

filopodia soon shrink back, triggering a change in the brain cell, a

thinning of the grip that

may

explain forgetting.

was fascinated by the disembodied

I

seemed

to act as

its

own

complexity, a single

and the

teins

creature.

cell

On the

said to

is

occupy

of biological

a spot

roughly

the microcosmic world of genes and pro-

visible v/orld

of the organism.

My

cells

have subsumed their individual identity by joining

community, but each contains a similar,

which

cell itself

scale

stiU

has

if simpler,

may

a larger

independent existence and

its

version of the mystery hidden

my head. Each is an immensely competent being, holding my whole genome, capable of subtle movement, rhythm, in

talk,

adept

sufficiently fuU

at

sucking energy out of

of zip

—doubHng and

bhng to make the world a fecund place. Who's to say that each does not enjoy

its

own

life,

redou-

Hfe?

Jennifer Ackermau's

Chance

History of Heredity flin.

ii'ill

Her prei'ious book

is

in the

House of Fate:

be published in June by

A

Natural

Houghton Mif-

Notes From the Shore (Viking Pen-

guin, 1995). film.

Neither time

was time-lapse video microscopy, with beneath

is

the

as

di-

tongue or antenna.

was not

was

of what

the Uttle creature slowly pulled back the foot, a

and

it

formed.

—when

slender toot, as if to test the possibility of moving in rection.

is

and

squid thrusting forward a

paused for a moment, and sprouted

link

through Hfe

all

interested in the molecules outside

tunnels through tissues, in this direction or

as it

and sophisticated

right track.

the world like a

go

midway between

such compassion for

could think of them

I

care,

on the hot pavement."

summon

could

not sure

of a mouse shding over only

fish

"foUy and lack of

his

to

Once

that.

I

new skills. She was

high-power

lens,

and hours

Cliaiice in the House of Fate by Jennifer Ackerman. Copyright © 2001 by Jennifer Ackerman. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

From

Museum Friends Support Science Education AND Increase Their Retirement Income coking back on his career as an executive

Simon and

at

Schuster, Jason Berger says,

"One of my proudest achievements was the

distribution of Little

Golden

Books to supermarkets and pharmacies across the country, w/here

they found their

way

into the

of millions of young children otherwise might have had

exposure to children's

hands

who

little

literature."

Several years ago, their wish to

support science education prompted Jason and his wife Susanna to include the American Natural History last year,

Museum

in their wills.

of

Then,

they discovered charitable

annuities.

gift

A gift annuity is a way to the Museum and provide a

support lifetime

annuity to one or two people aged

When

55 or older. is

Here are sample rates and benefits for one person with a $io,ooo

appreciated stock

Ace

Rate

Income Tax Deduction

Annuity Payment

7.0%

$3-721

$700

Annuity

used to fund the plan, there can be

gift:

substantial capital gains tax savings.

65

According to Susanna, "Because

70

7-5%

$4,080

$750

75

8.2%

$4,460

$820

80

9.2%

$4,884

$920

85

10.5%

i—P$5.334

$1,050

90

12.0%

$5,807

$1,200

we can this

is

now

give

an

and

ideal

part of the

seum

have

to

like gift

receive

way for

in

gift

Income for

life,

us to provide

we want the Mu-

the future. In fact,

annuities so much,

we plan

we to

imm^

do one every year!"

Please send information on:

For more information, please call (800) 453-5734

or reply by mail

O Gifts that provide lifetime income.

to:

Office of Planned Giving, American

QAbequesttothe Museum

Museum of Natural

O

History,

York,

New York

mywill.

have already included a provision

for THE

Central Park West at 79TH Street,

New

I

in

Museum

in

American

Museums Natural History

my estate plans.

10024-5192

Name: Address;

Home:

Telephone

My

Office:

(our) birth date(s):

Your reply

is

confidential and implies no obligation.

05/01

American Museum

Explore THE WORLD

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2001

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m JUNE

ON A

2001

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..-j;

JUNE

8

-"'Jt^^'

iMK.'

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KK

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Yangtze River, and Shanghai

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JULY7-

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200

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AUGUST

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the Yanial

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OCTOBER

r

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/

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|g

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1,

j

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200

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From London

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Khartoum SEPTEMBER

17,2001

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OCTOBER

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OCTOBER 22 - NOVEMBER 10, 2001

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-30, 2001

Jewels of the Adriatic Sea: Sicily to Venice Aboard the Sea Cloud

OCTOBER 22 - NOVEMBER

10,

Lost Cities by Private

Jet: Petra,

Muscat, Lhasa, Kathmandu, Vientiane, Luang Prabang,

$32,950

6

-20, 2001

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Bhutan & Northern India: Aboard the Royal Orient 8

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2001

•

OCTOBER

Iran: Persian Treasures

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Featuring the Pushkar

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Cambodia, Malaysia, and Indonesia Aboard

Angkor, Ulaanbaatar, and

OCTOBER -23, 2001

4

Great Treasures of Southeast

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2001

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1

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Treasures

28 -

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Visit

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i f 5f-^^"'^T^pJ:\^^^-sj»<^-*^^

I

vs'

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HfP

"?>!'

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>(*"

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"ie

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:

So t^ovi're Jt
tkc grdle^ (filvMOH. We're ^oiwg

o^^ be(t to

ceLtcW it

Irish castles aren't just for looking.

You can and

For a

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Many are

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