2000 FACTS

Monkey-Darwin Cartoon by Faustin by Paul D. Stewart | Science Photo Library It is not a recent idea that living beings resemble one another. Not all do so in the same way or for the same reasons, but there is a certain family resemblance that had already attracted attention in antiquity. To formulate the foundations of so much similarity with any precision required not one but many ideas about the dynamics of the transformation of living beings to come together. The ideas inherited from classical antiquity concerning biological kinship should be left aside as evolutionary interpretations, since they had little continuity with modern thought. A more decisive moment came in eighteenth-century France, where a remarkable mixture of natural history, philosophy, geology, and speculation prepared the ground for nineteenth-century evolutionary theories. German Naturphilosophie also contributed indirectly. Its advocates often searched for an underlying plan behind the en...

Liber Ethicorum des Henricus de Alemannia (de Voltolina, 1350s) Perhaps humanity’s most fundamental invention was the realization that collaboration improves our chances of survival in almost any circumstance. Working together alone, however, would hardly qualify as a remarkable invention. What is far more distinctive is our capacity to cooperate in the transmission of knowledge and the encouragement of learning . We are often surprised both by the speed with which an individual can learn and by the ability of students eventually to surpass their teachers. Yet the principle behind this process is ancient: the accumulation of knowledge produces more knowledge . The civilizations traditionally counted among the oldest—the Chinese civilization of East Asia, Mesopotamia in the Fertile Crescent, and ancient Egypt along the Nile—already possessed social organizations that encouraged learning in fields such as basic arithmetic, astronomy, and medicine. Influential groups, frequent...

Bat Houses Different bat box models. “n” and “o” models were found to be the coolest of all. “f” and “j” models, made of 2F and black board, respectively, registered the highest number of overheatings (temps above 40ºC every 60 mins). Schwegler 1FS Nest Box for colonies of bats | Oryx Some bat house boxes (like the one shown in the picture above) are made up of a specialized mixture of wood shavings (75%), lime, cement, and other additives that make it possible to create box models in every conceivable shape. Bats may be among the most misunderstood animals that visit our yards. They are not blind, they do not deliberately fly into people’s hair, and the overwhelming majority have no interest in humans. What they are is remarkable: bats are the only mammals capable of true, powered flight. In the United States, most species feed on insects, and their nightly activity contributes to healthy forests, we...

Field Notes | American Birding Association Many of you may feel that you cannot possibly do everything described so far—or, at the very least, that you cannot do it all at once. Begin with a few manageable projects, such as installing a properly designed nest box for chickadees or bluebirds, putting up a well-sited bat house, or maintaining a couple of clean bird feeders. Once these features are being used successfully, you can gradually expand your efforts. The next step might be replacing part of your lawn with native plants or creating a small, shallow wildlife pond. Eventually, however, you may want to go even further and begin studying what actually happens in your yard. Keeping careful records of the wildlife that visits your property—and examining the information you collect—can be surprisingly rewarding. After all, few professional researchers will spend more time observing your particular patch of habitat than you c...