Right after I caught up with the primate-watching thread on Ecolog-l post the ESA meeting last week, I found a lovely article on fern- watching in the Aug 13 issue of the New Yorker, by Oliver Sacks. I was moved enough to write about it on my blog, and would like to share it here as the article illustrates the potential of getting people excited about documenting biodiversity, and also raises some intriguing questions about the (micro-)biogeography of ferns in Manhattan.
Read the original article by Oliver Sacks here: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2007/08/13/070813ta_talk_sacks and my commentary (embellished with a video) is here: http://reconciliationecology.blogspot.com/2007/08/joys-of-fern- watching.html If the links get broken by my mail server, you may search newyorker.com for "Oliver Sacks" to find his article, and look on the front page of my blog (url is below in my signature also) for my comments. I'd appreciate any feedback from ecologgers, especially those who might have some answers to the distributional questions. Madhu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Madhusudan Katti Assistant Professor Department of Biology, M/S SB73 California State University, Fresno 2555 E. San Ramon Ave. Fresno, CA 93740-8034 559.278.2460 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~mkatti http://reconciliationecology.blogspot.com/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. [Galileo Galilei]
