Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature - David Quammen (1996)

PARTIAL SOURCES

As the years passed, my style of research evolved, and the progressively greater abundance of sources consulted for each piece, as recorded here, reflects that. One thing hasn’t changed much: I’ve always favored careful reading of the scientific literature—the journal papers scientists write for one another—over the option of simply telephoning experts and asking them to explain or comment. When I do call scientists, it’s usually to ask them: May I come to see you, watch you, talk with you within your working context? Such contacts are in many cases recounted in the texts of the pieces reprinted in this book. I’ve found that most scientists, though they have good reasons to be wary of the popular press (reasons such as chronic inaccuracy, slapdash research, oversimplification, failure to double-check facts), are quite helpful and forthcoming if you’ve done your homework (again, that means reading the literature) before you begin making demands on their time and patience.

In a very few cases, among the citations below I have shown the original date of publication (in parentheses) as well as the date of the edition I used. Those cases are books, such as Playfair’s popularization of James Hutton, for which the original date reflects a particular historical context within which the work should be understood.

Sympathy for the Devil

Bates, Marston. 1949. The Natural History of Mosquitoes. New York: Macmillan.

Gillett, J. D. 1972. The Mosquito: Its Life, Activities, and Impact on Human Affairs. New York: Doubleday.

Harrison, Gordon. 1978. Mosquitoes, Malaria and Man: A History of the Hostilities Since 1880. New York: Dutton.

Horsfall, William R. 1972. Mosquitoes: Their Bionomics and Relation to Disease. New York: Hafner.

Marinelli, Janet. 1980. “Eco-Crime on the Equator.” Environmental Action, March.

McNeill, William H. 1976. Plagues and Peoples. New York: Anchor.

Myers, Norman. 1980. Conversion of Tropical Moist Forests. Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences.

Has Success Spoiled the Crow?

Angell, Tony. 1978. Ravens, Crows, Magpies, and Jays. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

Coombs, Franklin. 1978. The Crows: A Study of the Corvids of Europe. London: B. T. Batsford.

Ficken, Millicent S. 1977. “Avian Play.” The Auk, vol. 94, July.

Goodwin, Derek. 1976. Crows of the World. Ithaca: Comstock.

Simmons, K.E.L. 1957. “A Review of the Anting-Behaviour of Passerine Birds.” British Birds, vol. 50, October.

———. 1966. “Anting and the Problem of Self-Stimulation.” Journal of Zoology, vol. 149.

Wilmore, Sylvia Bruce. 1977. Crows, Jays, Ravens and Their Relatives. London: David and Charles.

The Widow Knows

Milzer, Albert. 1934. “On the Great Abundance of the Black Widow Spider.” Science, vol. 80, November 2.

Thorop, Raymond W., and Weldon D. Woodson. 1976. The Black Widow Spider. New York: Dover.

The Troubled Gaze of the Octopus

Cousteau, Jacques-Yves, and Philippe Diolé. 1973. Octopus and Squid: The Soft Intelligence. Translated by J. F. Bernard. New York: Doubleday.

High, William L. 1976. “The Giant Pacific Octopus.” Marine Fisheries Review, vol. 38, September.

Wells, M. J. 1978. Octopus: Physiology and Behaviour of an Advanced Invertebrate. London: Chapman and Hall.

Wells, Martin. 1983. “Cephalopods Do It Differently.” New Scientist, vol. 100, November 3.

Avatars of the Soul in Malaya

Bänziger, Hans. 1968. “Preliminary Observations on a Skin-Piercing Blood-Sucking Moth (Calyptra eustrigata (Hymps.) (Lep., Noctuidae)) in Malaya.” Bulletin of Entomological Research, vol. 58.

———. 1971. “Blood-sucking Moths of Malaya.” Fauna, vol. 24.

Bänziger, H., and W. Buttiker. 1969. “Records of Eye-frequenting Lepidoptera from Man.” Journal of Medical Entomology, vol. 6, January 30.

Borror, Donald J., and Dwight M. DeLong. 1971. An Introduction to the Study of Insects. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Buttiker, W. 1959. “Blood-feeding Habits of Adult Noctuidae (Lepidoptera) in Cambodia.” Nature, vol. 184, October 10.

Sandved, Kjell B. 1976. Butterflies. Photographs by Kjell B. Sandved, text by Jo Brewer. New York: Abrams.

Smart, Paul. 1976. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Butterfly World. London: Hamlyn.

Rumors of a Snake

Heuvelmans, Bernard. 1965. On the Track of Unknown Animals. Translated and abridged by Richard Garnett. New York: Hill and Wang.

Minton, Sherman A., Jr., and Madge Rutherford Minton. 1973. Giant Reptiles. New York: Scribner’s.

Pope, Clifford H. 1962. The Giant Snakes. London: Routledge and Keegan Paul.

Wool of Bat

Allen, Glover Morrill. 1962. Bats. New York: Dover.

Barbour, Roger W., and Wayne H. Davis. 1969. Bats of America. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.

Bat Research News (originally Bat Banding News), vols. 1-16, 1960-75. Compiled by Wayne H. Davis (Department of Zoology, University of Kentucky, Lexington) from founding to April 1970 and by Robert L. Martin (Department of Biology, University of Maine, Farmington) thereafter.

Feist, Joe Michael. 1982. “Bats Away!” American Heritage, April-May.

Peterson, Russell. 1964. Silently, by Night. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Wimsatt, William A., ed. 1970. Biology of Bats, vols. 1-2. New York: Academic.

Yalden, D. W., and P. A. Morris. 1975. The Lives of Bats. New York: Quadrangle.

The Excavation of Jack Horner

Bakker, Robert T. 1972. “Anatomical and Ecological Evidence of Endothermy in Dinosaurs.” Nature, vol. 238, July 14.

———. 1975. “Dinosaur Renaissance.” Scientific American, April.

Desmond, Adrian J. 1975. The Hot-Blooded Dinosaurs. New York: Dial.

Horner, John R. 1982. “Evidence of Colonial Nesting and ‘Site Fidelity’ Among Ornithischian Dinosaurs.” Nature, vol. 297, June 24.

———. 1984. “The Nesting Behavior of Dinosaurs.” Scientific American, April.

Horner, John R., and Robert Makela. 1979. “Nest of Juveniles Provides Evidence of Family Structure Among Dinosaurs.” Nature, vol. 282, November 15.

Ostrom, John H. 1969. “Terrestrial Vertebrates as Indicators of Mesozoic Climates.” In Proceedings of the North American Paleontological Convention.

The Lives of Eugène Marais

Ardrey, Robert. 1967. African Genesis: A Personal Investigation into the Animal Origins and Nature of Man. New York: Atheneum.

Marais, Eugène. 1973. The Soul of the Ape. With an introduction by Robert Ardrey. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

———. 1973. The Soul of the White Ant. With a biographical note by his son. Translated by Winifred de Kok. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

The Man with the Metal Nose

Dreyer, J.L.E. 1890. Tycho Brahe. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black.

Koestler, Arthur. 1963. The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man’s Changing Vision of the Universe. New York: Grosset and Dunlap.

Murdin, Paul, and Leslie Murdin. 1978. The New Astronomy. New York: Crowell.

Ronan, Colin A. 1981. The Practical Astronomer. London: Roxby.

Animal Rights and Beyond

Lopez, Barry. 1983. “Renegotiating the Contracts.” Parabola, spring.

Morris, Richard Knowles, and Michael W. Fox, eds. 1978. On the Fifth Day: Animal Rights and Human Ethics. Washington, D.C.: Acropolis.

Regan, Tom. 1982. All That Dwells Therein: Animal Rights and Environmental Ethics. Berkeley: University of California Press.

———. 1983. The Case for Animal Rights. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Regan, Tom, and Peter Singer, eds. 1976. Animal Rights and Human Obligations. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.

Singer, Peter. 1975. Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for Our Treatment of Animals. New York: New York Review Books.

The Tree People

Beasley, R. S., and J. O. Klemmedson. 1973. “Recognizing Site Adversity and Drought-Sensitive Trees in Stands of Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva).” Economic Botany, vol. 27, January-March.

Currey, Donald R. 1965. “An Ancient Bristlecone Pine Stand in Eastern Nevada.” Ecology, vol. 46, early summer.

Ferguson, C. W. 1968. “Bristlecone Pine: Science and Aesthetics.” Science, vol. 159, February 23.

Fowles, John. 1979. The Tree. Photographs by Frank Horvat. Boston: Little, Brown.

LaMarche, Valmore C., Jr. 1969. “Environment in Relation to Age of Bristlecone Pines.” Ecology, vol. 50, winter 1969.

Rogers, Julia Ellen. 1922. The Tree Book. New York: Doubleday, Page.

Love’s Martyrs

Childerhose, R. J., and Marj Trim. 1979. Pacific Salmon and Steelhead Trout. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

Gadgil, Mahdav, and William H. Bossert. 1970. “Life Historical Consequences of Natural Selection.” American Naturalist, vol. 104, January-February.

Gentry, Howard Scott. 1982. Agaves of Continent North America. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Janzen, Daniel H. 1976. “Why Bamboos Wait So Long to Flower.” Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, vol. 7.

Netboy, Anthony. 1974. The Salmon: Their Fight for Survival. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Schaffer, William M. 1974. “Selection for Optimal Life Histories: The Effects of Age Structure.” Ecology, vol. 55, early spring.

Schaffer, William M., and Michael L. Rosenzweig. 1977. “Selection for Optimal Life Histories. II: Multiple Equilibria and the Evolution of Alternative Reproductive Strategies.” Ecology, vol. 58, winter.

Schaffer, William M., and M. Valentine Schaffer. 1979. “The Adaptive Significance of Variations in Reproductive Habit in the Agavaceae. II: Pollinator Foraging Behavior and Selection for Increased Reproductive Expenditure.” Ecology, vol. 60, October.

A Deathly Chill

I benefited from—in addition to the Ted Lathrop pamphlet and the Associated Press story—the help of Mark Smith, a reporter for the Tri-County Tribune of Deer Park, Washington, not far from Chattaroy. Mr. Smith shared with me his coverage of the Ram Patrol misfortune.

Is Sex Necessary?

Beatty, R. A. 1957. Parthenogenesis and Polyploidy in Mammalian Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Birky, C. William, Jr., and John J. Gilbert. 1971. “Parthenogenesis in Rotifers: The Control of Sexual and Asexual Reproduction.” American Zoologist, vol. 11.

Blackmun, Roger. 1974. Aphids. London: Ginn.

Ghiselin, Michael T. 1974. The Economy of Nature and the Evolution of Sex. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Lowe, A. D., ed. 1973. Perspectives in Aphid Biology. Auckland: The Entomological Society of New Zealand.

Suomalainen, Esko. 1961. “Significance of Parthenogenesis in the Evolution of Insects.” Annual Review of Entomology, vol. 7.

White, M.J.D. 1954. Animal Cytology and Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Desert Sanitaire

Abbey, Edward. 1977. The Journey Home: Some Words in Defense of the American West. New York: Dutton.

George, Uwe. 1977. In the Deserts of This Earth. Translated by Richard and Clara Winston. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Jaeger, Edmund C. 1957. The North American Deserts. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.

Krutch, Joseph Wood. 1980. The Voice of the Desert: A Naturalist’s Interpretation. New York: Morrow.

Petrov, M. P. 1966. The Deserts of Central Asia. Washington, D.C.: Joint Publications Research Service.

Pickwell, Gayle. 1939. Deserts. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Jeremy Bentham, the Pietà, and a Precious Few Grayling

Holton, George D. 1971. “Montana Grayling: The Lady of the Streams.” Montana Outdoors, September-October. For facts and numbers concerning the hatchery and planting program in Montana, I am also indebted to George Holton (personal communication), to a fact sheet prepared by Bill Gould, and to a typescript report on Montana grayling habitat done by Earl E. Willard and Margaret Herman for the U.S. Forest Service.

Kruse, Thomas E. 1958. “Grayling of Grebe Lake, Yellowstone National Park, Wyo.” Fishery Bulletin of the Fish and Wildlife Service, vol. 59.

Nelson, Perry H. 1954. “Life History and Management of the American Grayling (Thymallus signifier tricolor) in Montana.” Journal of Wildlife Management, vol. 18, July.

Yin and Yang in the Tularosa Basin

Allmendinger, Roger J. n.d. “Hydrologic Control over the Origin of Gypsum at Lake Lucero, White Sands National Monument, New Mexico.” Unpublished master’s thesis in the library at the headquarters of White Sands National Monument.

Emerson, Fred W. 1935. “An Ecological Reconaissance in the White Sands, New Mexico.” Ecology, vol. 16, April.

Goodchild, Peter. 1981. J. Robert Oppenheimer: Shatterer of Worlds. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Groueff, Stéphane. 1967. Manhattan Project: The Untold Story of the Making of the Atomic Bomb. Boston: Little, Brown.

Groves, Leslie R. 1975. Now It Can Be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project. New York: Da Capo.

Harrington, M. W. 1885. “Lost Rivers.” Science, vol. 6, September 25.

Reid, William H., project director. 1980. Final Report: White Sands National Monument Natural Resources and Ecosystem Analysis. El Paso: Research Report Number 12, Laboratory for Environmental Biology, University of Texas at El Paso.

Schaafsma, Polly. 1975. Rock Art in New Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

Smith, Alice Kimball, and Charles Weiner, eds. 1980. Robert Oppenheimer: Letters and Recollections. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Sutherland, Kay. n.d. “Petroglyphs at Three Rivers, New Mexico: A Partial Survey.” The Artifact (published by the El Paso Archeological Society), vol. 16.

Planet of Weeds

Aldous, Peter. 1993. “Tropical Deforestation: Not Just a Problem in Amazonia.” Science, vol. 259, March 5

Alverson, William S., Donald M. Waller, and Stephen L. Solheim. 1988. “Forests Too Deer: Edge Effects in Northern Wisconsin.” Conservation Biology, vol. 2, no. 4.

Anonymous (signed C. H.). 1974. “Scientists Talk of the Need for Conservation and an Ethic of Biotic Diversity to Slow Species Extinction.” Science, vol. 184, May 10.

Anonymous. 1990. The Economist Book of Vital World Statistics: A Complete Guide to the World in Figures. London: Hutchinson.

Athanasiou, Tom. 1996. Divided Planet: The Ecology of Rich and Poor. Boston: Little, Brown.

Babbitt, Bruce. 1998. “Kudzu, Kudzu, Kill! Kill! Kill!” Excerpt from a speech to the Science in Wildland Weed Management Symposium, April 8. Reprinted (not his choice of title, presumably) in Harper’s, July.

Barber, Benjamin R. 1996. Jihad vs. MacWorld. New York: Ballantine.

Baskin, Yvonne. 1996. “Curbing Undesirable Invaders.” BioScience, vol. 46, no. 10.

———. 1997. The Work of Nature: How the Diversity of Life Sustains Us. Washington, D.C.: Island.

Botkin, Daniel B. 1990. Discordant Harmonies: A New Ecology for the Twenty-first Century. New York: Oxford University Press.

Calvin, William H. 1998. “The Great Climate Flip-flop.” Atlantic Monthly, January.

Challoner, W. G., and A. Hallam, eds. 1989. Evolution and Extinction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Cohen, Joel E. 1995. How Many People Can the Earth Support? New York: W. W. Norton.

———. 1995. “Population Growth and Earth’s Human Carrying Capacity.” Science, vol. 269, July 21.

Committee for the Compilation of Materials on Damage Caused by the Atomic Bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 1981. Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The Physical, Medical, and Social Effects of the Atomic Bombings. Translated by Eisei Ishikawa and David L. Swain. New York: Basic.

Daily, Gretchen, ed. 1997. Nature’s Secrets: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems. Washington, D.C.: Island.

Dobson, Andrew P. 1996. Conservation and Biodiversity. New York: Scientific American Library.

Donovan, Stephen K., ed. 1989. Mass Extinctions: Processes and Evidence. New York: Columbia University Press.

Durning, Alan Thein. 1994. “The Conundrum of Consumption.” In Mazur (1994) and adapted from Durning (1992), How Much Is Enough? The Consumer Society and the Fate of the Earth, New York: W. W. Norton.

Easterbrook, Gregg. 1995. A Moment on the Earth: The Coming Age of Environmental Optimism. New York: Viking.

Ehrenfeld, David W. 1970. Biological Conservation. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Ehrlich, Paul, and Anne Ehrlich. 1981. Extinction: The Causes and Consequences of the Disappearance of Species. New York: Random House.

Ehrlich, Paul R. 1986. “Extinction: What Is Happening Now and What Needs to be Done.” In Elliott (1986).

Eldredge, Niles. 1998. Life in the Balance: Humanity and the Biodiversity Crisis. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

Elliott, David K., ed. 1986. Dynamics of Extinction. New York: Wiley.

Elton, Charles. (1958) 1977. The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants. London: Chapman and Hall.

Engelman, Robert, and Richard P. Cincotta. 1997. “Nature Displaced: Human Population Trends, Projections, and Their Meanings.” Draft of a paper presented to Nature and Human Society: The Quest for a Sustainable World, a conference held at the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C., October.

Erwin, Douglas H. 1994. “The Permo-Triassic Extinction.” Nature, vol. 367, January 20,.

Feduccia, Alan. 1996. The Origin and Evolution of Birds. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.

Flack, Stephanie, and Elaine Furlow. 1996. “America’s Least Wanted.” Nature Conservancy, November-December.

Fukuyama, Francis. 1992. The End of History and the Last Man. New York: Avon.

Goldschmidt, Tijs. 1996. Darwin’s Dreampond: Drama in Lake Victoria. Translated by Sherry Marx-Macdonald. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Goodman, Steven M., and Bruce D. Patterson, eds. 1997. Natural Change and Human Impact on Madagascar. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Greider, William. 1998. One World, Ready or Not: The Manic Logic of Global Capitalism. New York: Touchstone.

Harrison, Paul. 1992. The Third Revolution: Environment, Population and a Sustainable World. London: I. B. Tauris.

Heaney, Lawrence R., and Jacinto C. Regalado, Jr. 1998. Vanishing Treasures of the Philippine Rain Forest. Chicago: Field Museum.

Herman, Arthur. 1997. The Idea of Decline in Western History. New York: Free Press.

Homer-Dixon, Thomas F. 1993. Environmental Scarcity and Global Security. Headline Series #300. New York: Foreign Policy Association.

Horgan, John. 1997. The End of Science: Facing the Limits of Knowledge in the Twilight of the Scientific Age. New York: Broadway Books.

Jablonski, David. 1986. “Background and Mass Extinctions: The Alternation of Macroevolutionary Regimes.” Science, vol. 231, January 10.

———. 1986. “Causes and Consequences of Mass Extinctions: A Comparative Approach.” In Elliott (1986).

———. 1986. “Mass Extinctions: New Answers, New Questions.” In Kaufman and Mallory (1986).

———. 1989. “The Biology of Mass Extinction: A Paleontological View.” In Challoner and Hallam (1989).

———. 1991. “Extinctions: A Paleontological Perspective.” Science, vol. 253, August 16.

———. 1996. “Mass Exntinctions: Persistent Problems and New Directions.” In Ryder, G., D. Fastovsky, and S. Gartner, eds. The Cretaceous-Tertiary Event and Other Catastrophes in Earth History. Special Paper 307. Boulder, Colo.: Geological Society of America.

Jablonski, David, Douglas H. Ervin, and Jere H. Lipps, eds. 1996. Evolutionary Paleobiology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Jablonski, David, and David M. Raup. 1995. “Selectivity of End-Cretaceous Marine Bivalve Extinctions.” Science, vol. 268, April 21.

Kaplan, Robert D. 1994. “The Coming Anarchy.” Atlantic Monthly, February.

Kaufman, Les, and Kenneth Mallory, eds. 1986. The Last Extinction. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Keck, Andrew, Narendra P. Sharma, and Gershon Feder. 1994. “Population Growth, Shifting Cultivation, and Unsustainable Agricultural Development: A Case Study in Madagascar.” World Bank Discussion Papers No. 234. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.

Kramer, Randall, Carel van Schaik, and Julie Johnson. 1997. Last Stand: Protected Areas and the Defense of Tropical Biodiversity. New York: Oxford University Press.

Lapham, Lewis H., ed. 1997. History: The End of the World. New York: History Book Club.

Lawton, John H., and Robert M. May, eds. 1995. Extinction Rates. New York: Oxford University Press.

Leakey, Richard, and Roger Lewin. 1995. The Sixth Extinction: Patterns of Life and the Future of Humankind. New York: Doubleday.

Leslie, John. 1996. The End of the World: The Science and Ethics of Human Extinction. London: Routledge.

Lovejoy, Thomas E. 1980. “A Projection of Species Extinctions.” In The Global 2000 Report to the President. Washington, D.C.: Council on Environmental Quality.

———. 1997. “National Security, National Interest and Sustainability.” Draft of a paper presented to the Nature and Human Society symposium, Washington, D.C., October.

Mann, Charles C. 1991. “Extinction: Are Ecologists Crying Wolf?” Science, vol. 253, August 16,.

Martin, Paul S., and Richard G. Klein. 1984. Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Mazur, Laurie Ann, ed. 1994. Beyond the Numbers: A Reader on Population, Consumption, and the Environment. Washington, D.C.: Island.

McDonald, Kim A. 1997. “Scientists Refine Estimates of Number of Species and Their Rate of Extinction.” Chronicle of Higher Education, November 14.

McKibben, Bill. 1989. The End of Nature. New York: Random House.

———. 1998. “A Special Moment in History.” Atlantic Monthly, May.

McKnight, Bill N. 1993. Biological Pollution: The Control and Impact of Invasive Exotic Species. Indianapolis: Indiana Academy of Science.

McNeill, William H. 1992. The Global Condition: Conquerors, Catastrophes, and Community. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

Myers, Norman. 1976. “An Expanded Approach to the Problem of Disappearing Species.” Science, vol. 193, July 16.

———. 1979. The Sinking Ark: A New Look at the Problem of Disappearing Species. New York: Pergamon.

———. 1980. Conversion of Tropical Moist Forests. Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences.

———. 1996. Ultimate Security: The Environmental Basis of Political Stability. Washington, D.C.: Island.

Nitecki, Matthew H., ed. 1984. Extinctions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Office of Technology Assessment, U. S. Congress. 1993. Harmful Non-Indigenous Species in the United States. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Peters, Robert L., and Thomas E. Lovejoy, eds. 1992. Global Warming and Biological Diversity. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.

Pimm, Stuart, Gareth Russell, John L. Gittleman, and Thomas M. Brooks. 1995. “The Future of Biodiversity.” Science, vol. 269, July 21.

Pimm, Stuart L. 1991. The Balance of Nature?: Ecological Issues on the Conservation of Species and Communities. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Pimm Stuart L., and Thomas M. Brooks. 1997. “The Sixth Extinction: How Large, How Soon, and Where?” Draft of a paper presented to the Nature and Human Society symposium, Washington, D.C. October.

Pimm, Stuart L., and John H. Lawton. 1998. “Planning for Biodiversity.” Science, vol. 279, March 27.

Potts, Rick. 1996. Humanity’s Descent: The Consequences of Ecological Instability. New York: Morrow.

Raup, David M. 1986. The Nemesis Affair: A Story of the Death of Dinosaurs and the Ways of Science. New York: W. W. Norton.

———. 1991. Extinction: Bad Genes or Bad Luck? New York: W. W. Norton.

Sepkoski, J. John, Jr., and David M. Raup. 1986. “Periodicity in Marine Extinction Events.” In Elliott (1986).

Simberloff, Daniel. 1986. “Are We on the Verge of a Mass Extinction in Tropical Rain Forests?” In Elliott (1986).

Simon, Julian L. 1981. The Ultimate Resource. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

———. 1986. “Disappearing Species, Deforestation and Data.” New Scientist, May 19.

Simon, Julian L., and Aaron Wildavsky. 1993. “Facts, Not Species, Are Imperiled.” New York Times, May 13.

Soulé, Michael E., and M. A. Sanjayan. 1998. “Conservation Targets: Do They Help?” Science, vol. 279, March 27.

Stanley, Steven M. 1987. Extinction. New York: Scientific American Library.

Steadman, David W. 1995. “Prehistoric Extinctions of Pacific Island Birds: Biodiversity Meets Zooarchaeology.” Science, vol. 267, February 24.

Terborgh, John, and Carel van Schaik. 1997. “Minimizing Species Loss: The Imperative of Protection.” In Kramer et al. (1997).

Tudge, Colin. 1996. The Time Before History: 5 Million Years of Human Impact. New York: Scribner.

United Nations Secretariat, Population Division. 1998. World Population Projections to 2150. New York: United Nations.

Ward, Peter. 1994. The End of Evolution: A Journey in Search of Clues to the Third Mass Extinction Facing Planet Earth. New York: Bantam.

Wells, H. G. (1895) 1992. The Time Machine. New York: Tom Doherty Associates.

Western, David, and Mary C. Pearl, eds. 1989. Conservation for the Twenty-first Century. New York: Oxford University Press.

Whitmore, T. C., and J. A. Sayer. 1992. Tropical Deforestation and Species Extinction. London: Chapman and Hall.

Wilson, Edward O. 1992. The Diversity of Life. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap/Harvard University Press.

World Conservation Monitoring Center. 1990. 1990 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. Gland, Switzerland: International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

The River Jumps Over the Mountain

Auden, W. H. 1989. Selected Poems. Edited by Edward Mendelson. New York: Vintage.

Beus, Stanley S., and Michael Morales, eds. 1990. Grand Canyon Geology. New York: Oxford University Press.

Dean, Dennis R. 1992. James Hutton and the History of Geology. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.

Gould, Stephen Jay. 1987. Time’s Arrow, Time’s Cycle: Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Hamblin, W. Kenneth, and J. Keith Rigby. 1969. Guidebook to the Colorado River, Part 2: Phantom Ranch in Grand Canyon National Park to Lake Mead, Arizona-Nevada. Brigham Young University Geology Studies, vol. 16. Provo, Utah: Department of Geology, Brigham Young University.

McPhee, John. 1981. Basin and Range. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Playfair, John. (1802) 1964. Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth. Facsimile reprint, with an introduction by George W. White. New York: Dover.

Price, L. Greer. 1999. An Introduction to Grand Canyon Geology. Grand Canyon, Ariz.: Grand Canyon Association.

Stevens, Larry. 1999. The Colorado River in Grand Canyon: A Comprehensive Guide to Its Natural and Human History. Flagstaff, Ariz.: Red Lake.

Whitney, Stephen R. 1996. A Field Guide to the Grand Canyon. Seattle: Mountaineers.

The Post-Communist Wolf

Behr, Edward. 1991. Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite: The Rise and Fall of the Ceausescus. New York: Villard.

Codrescu, Andrei. 1991. The Hole in the Flag: A Romanian Exile’s Story of Return and Revolution. New York: William Morrow.

Crisan, Vasile. 1994. Jäger? Schlächter: Ceausescu. (Privately translated for me by Eduard Érsek as “Ceausescu: Hunter or Butcher?”) Mainz: Verlag Dieter Hoffmann.

Cullen, Robert. 1990. “Report from Romania.” The New Yorker, April 2.

Deletant, Dennis. 1995. Ceausescu and the Securitate: Coercion and Dissent in Romania, 1965-1989. London: Hurst.

Fischer-Gala¸ti, Stephen. 1970. Twentieth-Century Rumania. New York: Columbia University Press.

Georgescu, Vlad. 1991. The Romanians: A History. Translated by Alexandra Bley-Vroman, edited by Matei Calinescu. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.

Hale, Julian. 1971. Ceausescu’s Romania: A Political Documentary. London: George G. Harrap.

Judt, Tony. “Romania: Bottom of the Heap.” New York Review of Books, November 1.

Mech, L. David. 1981. The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Mertens, Annette, and Christoph Promberger. 2000. “Economic Aspects of Large Carnivore-Livestock Conflicts in Romania.” (Draft.)

Pacepa, Lieutenant General Ion Mihai. 1987. Red Horizons: The True Story of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescus’ [sic] Crimes, Lifestyle, and Corruption. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Gateway.

The Megatransect

Ambrose, Stephen E. 1996. Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West. New York: Touchstone.

Barnes, R.F.W., and S. A. Lahm. 1997. “An Ecological Perspective on Human Densities in the Central African Forests.” Journal of Applied Ecology, vol. 34.

Farrell, Byron. 1985. The Man Who Presumed: A Biography of Henry M. Stanley. New York: W. W. Norton.

Fay, J. Michael. 1997. “The Ecology, Social Organization, Populations, Habitat and History of the Western Lowland Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla Savage and Wyman 1847).” Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Washington University, St. Louis.

Georges, Alain-Jean, Eric M. Leroy, André A. Renaut, Carol Tevi Benissan, René J. Nabias, Minh Trinh Ngoc, Paul I. Obiang, J.P.M. Lepage, Eric J. Bertherat, David D. Bénoni, E. Jean Wickings, Jacques P. Amblard, Joseph M. Lansoud-Soukate, J. M. Milleliri, Sylvain Baize, and Marie-Claude Georges-Courbot. 1999. “Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever Outbreaks in Gabon, 1994-1997: Epidemiologic and Health Control Issues.” Journal of Infectious Diseases, vol. 1, no. 79, supplement 1.

Huijbregts, Bas. 2000. “Gorilles et Chimpanzees a Minkebe: Decimes par Ebola?” Unpublished report to the World Wildlife Fund, February 9.

Kingdon, Jonathan. 1997. The Kingdon Field Guide to African Mammals. New York: Academic.

Lahm, Sally. 1993. “Ecology and Economics of Human/Wildlife Interaction in Northeastern Gabon.” Unpublished doctoral dissertation, New York University, New York.

McLynn, Frank. 1992. Hearts of Darkness: The European Exploration of Africa. New York: Carroll and Graf.

Oslisly, Richard. 1994. “The Middle Ogooué Valley: Cultural Changes and Paleoclimatic Implications of the Last Four Millennia.” Azania, vols. 29-30: A special volume on “The Growth of Farming Communities in Africa from the Equator Southwards,” J.E.G. Sutton, ed. The British Institute in Eastern Africa.

Tutin, C.E.G., and M. Fernandez. 1984. “Nationwide Census of Gorilla (Gorillag. gorilla) and Chimpanzee (Pan t. troglodytes) Populations in Gabon.” American Journal of Primatology, vol. 6.

Vansina, Jan. 1990. Paths in the Rainforests: Toward a History of Political Tradition in Equatorial Africa. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

West, Richard. 1972. Brazza of the Congo: European Exploration and Exploitation in French Equatorial Africa. London: Jonathan Cape.

A Passion for Order

The librarians, archivists, and other officials at the Linnean Society of London—notably Gina Douglas, Lynda Brooks, and the society’s executive secretary, Adrian Thomas—were extremely hospitable to my research for this piece, offering me access to Linnaeus’s personal papers and collections. In Uppsala, Mats Block and Mikael Norrby, as well as Karin Martinsson, Carl-Olof Jacobson, and many other people, welcomed my visits to Linnaeus’s houses and my persistent questions. Peter Raven, in e-mail exchanges, also helped guide my understanding of Linnaeus’s contribution to biology.

Blackwelder, R. E., and Alan Boyden. 1952. “The Nature of Systematics.” Systematic Zoology, vol. 1, no. 1, spring 1952.

Blunt, Wilfrid. 2001. Linnaeus: The Compleat Naturalist. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

Frängsmyr, Tore, ed. 1994. Linnaeus: The Man and His Work. Canton, Mass.: Watson.

Linnaeus, Carl. (1751) 2003. Linnaeus’ Philosophia Botanica. Translated by Stephen Freer. New York: Oxford University Press.

Mayr, Ernst. 1982. The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap/Harvard University Press.

Müller-Wille, Steffan. 2006. “Linnaeus’ Herbarium Cabinet: A Piece of Furniture and Its Function.” Endeavour, vol. 30, June.

Raven, Peter H., Brent Berlin, and Dennis E. Breedlove. 1971. “The Origins of Taxonomy.” Science, vol. 174, December 17.

Raven, Peter H., Ray F. Evert, and Susan E. Eichhorn. 1992. Biology of Plants. New York: Worth.

Reeds, Karen. 2004. “When the Botanist Can’t Draw: The Case of Linnaeus.” Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, vol. 29, no. 3.

Ross, Herbert H. 1974. Biological Systematics. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley.

Stearn, W. T. 1959. “The Background of Linnaeus’s Contributions to the Nomenclature and Methods of Systematic Biology.” Systematic Zoology, vol. 8, no. 1, March.

Citizen Wiley

Thomas, Dylan. 1933. “And Death Shall Have No Dominion.” New English Weekly, March. Reprinted in his Twenty-Five Poems (1936) and in my copy of Modern American Poetry/Modern British Poetry (1958), given to me in 1966 by a friend who is also now dead but not forgotten.

Clone Your Troubles Away

Alexander, Brian. 2004. “John Sperling Wants You to Live Forever.” Wired, February.

Bawa, Kamaljit S., Shaily Menon, and Leah R. Gorman. 1997. “Cloning and Conservation of Biological Diversity: Paradox, Panacea, or Pandora’s Box?” Conservation Biology, vol. 11, no. 4, August.

Commoner, Barry. 2002. “Unraveling the DNA Myth: The Spurious Foundation of Genetic Engineering.” Harper’s, February.

Corley-Smith, Graham E., and Bruce P. Brandhorst. 1999. “Preservation of Endangered Species and Populations: A Role for Genome Banking, Somatic Cell Cloning, and Androgenesis?” Molecular Reproduction and Development, vol. 53.

Cohen, Jon. 1997. “Can Cloning Help Save Beleaguered Species?” Science, vol. 276, May 30.

Gomez, Martha, Earle Pope, Rebecca Harris, Susan Mikota, and Betsy L. Dresser. 2003. “Development of In Vitro Matured, In Vitro Fertilized Domestic Cat Embryos Following Cryopreservation, Culture and Transfer.” Theriogenology, vol. 60, issue 2, July.

Gomez, Martha C., Jill A. Jenkins, Angelica Giraldo, Rebecca F. Harris, Amy King, Betsy L. Dresser, and Charles Earle Pope. 2003. “Nuclear Transfer of Synchronized African Wild Cat Somatic Cells into Enucleated Domestic Cat Oocytes.” Biology of Reproduction, vol. 69.

Graeber, Charles. 2000. “How Much Is That Doggy In Vitro?” Wired, March.

Kraemer, Duane C., Gary T. Moore, and Martin A. Kramen. 1976. “Baboon Infant Produced by Embryo Transfer.” Science, vol. 192, June 18.

Lanza, Robert P., Jose B. Cibelli, Francisca Diaz, Carlos T. Moraes, Peter W. Farin, Charlotte E. Farin, Carolyn J. Hammer, Michael D. West, and Philip Damiani. 2000. “Cloning of an Endangered Species (Bos gaurus) Using Interspecies Nuclear Transfer.” Cloning, vol. 2, no. 2.

Lanza, Robert P., Jose B. Cibelli, David Faber, Raymond W. Sweeney, Boyd Henderson, Wendy Nevala, Michael D. West, and Peter J. Wettstein. 2001. “Cloned Cattle Can Be Healthy and Normal.” Science, vol. 294, November 30.

Lanza, Robert P., Betsy L. Dresser, and Philip Damiani. 2000. “Cloning Noah’s Ark.” Scientific American, November.

Loi, Pasqualino, Graznya Ptak, Barbara Barboni, Josef Fulka, Jr., Pietro Cappai, and Michael Clinton. 2001. “Genetic Rescue of an Endangered Mammal by Cross-Species Nuclear Transfer Using Post-Mortem Somatic Cells.” Nature Biotechnology, vol. 19, no. 10, October.

Long, C. R., S. C. Walker, R. T. Tang, and M. E. Westhusin. 2003. “New Commercial Opportunities for Advanced Reproductive Technologies in Horses, Wildlife, and Companion Animals.” Theriogenology, vol. 59.

McGrath, James, and Davor Solter. 1984. “Inability of Mouse Blastomere Nuclei Transferred into Enucleated Zygotes to Support Development In Vitro.” Science, vol. 226, December 14.

Rennie, John. 2000. “Cloning and Conservation.” Scientific American, November.

Rieseberg, Loren H., Barry Sinervo, C. Randal Linder, Mark C. Ungerer, and Dulce M. Arias. 1996. “Role of Gene Interactions in Hybrid Speciation: Evidence from Ancient and Experimental Hybrids.” Science, vol. 272, May 3.

Sandel, Michael J. 2004. “The Case Against Perfection.” Atlantic Monthly, April.

Shin, Taeyoung, Duane Kraemer, Jane Pryor, Ling Liu, James Rugila, Lisa Howe, Sandra Buck, Keith Murphy, Leslie Lyons, and Mark Westhusin. 2002. “A Cat Cloned by Nuclear Transplantation.” Nature, vol. 415, February 21.

Stone, Richard. 1999. “Cloning the Woolly Mammoth.” Discover, April.

Weidensaul, Scott. 2002. “Raising the Dead.” Audubon, May-June.

Westhusin, Mark, Katrin Hinrichs, Young-ho Choi, Taeyoung Shin, Ling Liu, and Duane Kraemer. 2003. “Cloning Companion Animals (Horses, Cats, and Dogs).” Cloning and Stem Cells, vol. 5, no. 4.

Westhusin, Mark, and Jorge Piedrahita. 2000. “Three Little Pigs Worth the Huff and Puff?” Nature Biotechnology, vol. 18, November.

Westhusin, M. E., R. C. Burghardt, J. N. Rugila, L. A. Willingham, L. Liu, T. Shin, L. M. Howe, D. C. Kraemer. 2001. “Potential for Cloning Dogs.” Journal of Reproduction and Fertility, Supplement, vol. 59.

Westhusin, M. E., C. R. Long, T. Shin, J. R. Hill, C. R. Looney, J. H. Pryor, and J. A. Piedrahita.. 2001. Theriogenology, vol. 55.

Williams, B., T. Shin, L. Liu, G. Flores-Foxworth, J. Romano, M. Westhusin, and D. Kraemer. 2002. “Interspecies Nuclear Transfer of Desert Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis mexicana).” Theriogenology, vol. 57, January 1.