Magazine
September-October 1999
September-October 1999
Volume: 87 Number: 5
The Niagara Escarpment is a rocky bluff that runs for some 800 kilometers from Lake Huron in Canada, through southern Ontario and into the U.S. near Niagara Falls. Along the cliff face grow many rare plants and small trees. In "Cliffs as Natural Refuges," Douglas W. Larson, Uta Matthes and Peter E. Kelly, botanists from the University of Guelph, describe their investigation of this unique set of vegetation and recount their serendipitous discovery that many of the cedars growing on these cliffs are extraordinarily old. They also explain why such sites constitute old-growth forest refuges, which are often embedded within otherwise developed areas. (Photograph of student Cal Clark on Bear's Rump, Ontario is by Peter E. Kelly.)
In This Issue
- Art
- Astronomy
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Communications
- Computer
- Engineering
- Environment
- Ethics
- Evolution
- Mathematics
- Medicine
- Physics
- Policy
- Psychology
- Technology
Ancient DNA
George Poinar
Biology Technology
The tools of molecular biology can be used to peer into an organism's genetic future--or its distant past
Conformal Mappings
Steven Krantz
Mathematics
Imaginary numbers are not figments, complex numbers are not difficult, but with such "imaginative mathematics," one can map irregular surfaces precisely
Deconstructing the Milky Way Galaxy
Henry Freudenreich
Astronomy
Astronomers know more about distant galaxies than they do about our own Milky Way
Cliffs as Natural Refuges
Uta Matthes, Peter Kelly
Environment
Rocky precipices around the world provide a surprisingly sheltered environment for plants and animals
