Science, July 27, 2001

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For the past 2 years, marine scientists have been engaged in a remarkable new experiment in the Red Sea. While tensions in the Middle East have escalated in the wake of renewed clashes between Israelis and Palestinians, researchers from Israel and Jordan have embarked on a long-term collaborative effort to monitor coral reefs that straddle the border between their two countries.

The Red Sea Marine Peace Park aims to protect a unique but imperiled ecosystem at the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba. Home to 140 species of stony corals and nearly 1000 species of fish, the gulf’s magnificent coral reefs are a marine biologist’s delight.

Continue reading “The Partitioning of the Red Sea” →

Science, July 20, 2001

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Buried in the ocean floor are more than 10 trillion tons of methane—twice the amount of all known coal, oil, and other fossil fuels. Methane (CH₄) is also 25 times more potent, molecule for molecule, as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide is. That means that the ocean’s hidden methane reservoirs could play havoc with the world’s climate if they were to escape to the atmosphere. Yet most of the methane that does rise toward the surface of the ocean floor vanishes before it even reaches the water. On page 484 of this issue, a team of researchers provides the clinching evidence for where all that methane goes: It is devoured by vast hordes of mud-dwelling microbes that microbiologists once said couldn’t exist.

Continue reading “‘Inconceivable’ Bugs Eat Methane on the Ocean Floor” →

Scientific American, June 2001

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Not long ago my friend George, who recently celebrated his second birthday, put some of his vocabulary on display for me. “Tee-wex,” he said, and roared. “Tiesay-watops,” he said, and roared again. “Apatosaw-us.” Roar number three. It is a remarkable thing that children today can speak Latin, but more remarkable still that the only Latin words they speak are the names of dinosaurs. I have yet to hear George or any other child say “Hallucigenia,” or “Ambulocetus,” or “Acanthostega”—although they were as remarkable as any velociraptor.

Dinosaurs have such a powerful grip on the public consciousness that it is easy to forget just how recently humans became aware of them. A two-year-old boy today may be able to rattle off three dinosaur names, but in 1824 there was only one dinosaur to be named, period. The word “dinosaur” didn’t even exist until 1842. Those confused early years, when the world was baffled by the discovery of absurdly enormous reptiles, represent one of the most fascinating stories in the history of science.

Continue reading “Dinos and Darwin” →

The New York Times, May 27, 2001

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Science, May 11, 2001

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Wendy Gibson is a paleontologist without fossils. A microbiologist at the University of Bristol, U.K., Gibson studies trypanosomes, single-celled parasites that cause sleeping sickness and related diseases. Although trypanosomes infect millions of people and countless mammals, they are as evanescent as they are common. No fossil of a trypanosome exists, and, as Gibson notes, “we can’t replay history.” Nevertheless, she and her colleagues have been able to reconstruct the past 100 million years of trypanosome evolution, as continents have split them apart and their hosts have evolved into new forms, including humans.

Continue reading “Genetic Trees Reveal Disease Origins” →