Loner? Feral cats can be social or solitary, depending on their sources of food.
Image: Dave King Getty Images
Tax Dollars at Work
Despite Barack Obama appointing scientists to top posts, I hardly think this qualifies him personally to be named in the “Scientific American 10.” His inclusion pales beside the favor bestowed to the others on the list who have actually done some real work for science and humanity.
Catherine McBride-Bergum
Virginia, Minn.
Although your infatuation with Obama is most likely impervious to facts, I would like to point out that federal R&D spending increased 41 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars over the course of the Bush administration. Also, Bush’s spending on embryonic stem cell research, though more restricted than you may have liked, represented a rather substantial increase over the Clinton administration, during which embryo-destructive federal research funds were essentially zero. Scientific American’s praise should be reserved for those who actually perform the hard work of advancing scientific knowledge, not those who merely allocate money they did not earn to researchers they will never meet.
Greg Pitner
Austin, Tex.
Soil Welfare
David A. Vaccari’s “Phosphorus: A Looming Crisis” usefully called attention to the critical role of phosphorus as a plant and crop nutrient and to possible future scarcities and constraints. But his focus on it as a fertilizer neglected its abundance in most soils. There is usually 10, 20, sometimes even 30 times more phosphorus in the soil than the amount in “available” forms that plants can readily utilize. The large amount of unavailable phosphorus is continuously, though relatively slowly, converted into available forms through the activity of soil microorganisms, many of which are known as phosphobacteria.
Without these microorganisms, plants could not have been growing in the earth’s soils for more than 400 million years. Ironically, the use of inorganic fertilizers can suppress roots’ and microorganisms’ production of the phosphatase enzymes that are essential for making phosphorus available for plant use. This inhibition is similar to the way that adding inorganic nitrogen to the soil diminishes the production of nitrogenase by plants and microorganisms to sustain their fixation of atmospheric nitrogen, which becomes available for plant nutrition.
Heavy machinery also compacts the soil and degrades its structure, disturbing the balance of water and air in the soil that supports root growth and soil organisms; further, using mineral fertilizers as a substitute for restoration of soil organic matter diminishes the abundance and diversity of soil microorganism populations.
It is true that under a variety of conditions, applications of phosphorus fertilizer and rock phosphate in particular can be beneficial and cost-effective. But from a sustainable agriculture perspective, more attention should be paid to managing the soil biota along with crops so as to get the most benefit from the latter.
Norman T. Uphoff
Professor of Government and International Agriculture
Cornell University
Gregarious Cats
“The Taming of the Cat,” by Carlos A. Driscoll, Juliet Clutton-Brock, Andrew C. Kitchener and Stephen J. O’Brien, is largely unsubstantiated and erroneous with regard to the social behavior of domestic cats. Cats do live in groups if the opportunity is available, and each group has a female matriarch and an alpha male. Feral cats always form groups, which are referred to as colonies, and people who care for numerous cats all report this type of hierarchy. As for the cats being of no particular benefit, the authors should consider what species controls the more than 40 eggs laid by many species of snakes, not to mention rodents, whose only other predators are birds of prey and opossums.
“Gary in Tampa”
via ScientificAmerican.com
See what we're tweeting about
17 Comments
Add CommentTo include Pres. Obama in the "Scientific American 10" merely indicates the importance of politics over science...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo long as resources (for everything) are limited, you cannot separate politics from science. Science has always had a political component. Just be glad that we have a President who is more willing to encourage science. Perfect? Not by any means. But positive? Absolutely.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo long as resources (for everything) are limited, you cannot separate politics from science. Science has always had a political component. Just be glad that we have a President who is more willing to encourage science. Perfect? Not by any means. But positive? Absolutely.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhoops! Sorry to send this twice. I know better. :)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisObama, unlike our last president, actually knows science and uses it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPlus he is a Prof of Political Science and one would be hard to think of anyone better than him. After all he got a black man elected as president didn't he? Few thought that was possible 2 yrs ago.
In my family, each of my brothers or sisters is either a Ph.D. or is married to one. They are located all throughout the USA and Canada. Those who are in academia or research do support our President Obama, and I do too. I believe this reflects the opinions of the majority of our scientists and professors.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYes, I can understand your disappointment Spiff. The only list your Warlord President Bush The Butcher made it on is the top ten worst presidents list, and he made it 6th on that list, plus he was appointed president of the Axes Of Evil list. But apparently, you folks down there in Texas is still very proud of all the bad listings he made it on through the world. It will take President Obama years to undo all the destruction your president bush comitted. I am pleased that President Obama has been recognized by SciAm magazine as having a thinking scientfic mind and he is encouraging us to climb back up the ladder out of the fossil age Bush plunged us into. Job being well done President Obama.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLooks like some here are really enjoying O-Topia. For anyone who likes freedom and personal responsibility - not so much.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRemember that when the chips were down on what nearly all scientists would call a true boondogle - corn derived ethanol - Obama went where the votes are: More Ethanol! He just says what he thinks people want to hear to look smart. But he's just your garden variety politician.
Mr. JamesDavis,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am nowhere near America, but I agree with all your views.
It seems to me that Bush was a Puppet ,that had Cheney pulling the strings.
Mr. Obama actually has a brain that works.
Just one question. Why is referred to as Black, when he is half white?
I'm an Obama fan. At last some decent appointments and policies.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJamesDavis: Please do not lump all Texans into the same bin as Spiff. The former President is not a Texan as only natural born Texans are ever considered to be Texans and he was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He wasn't educated here, either, as he went to private schools in New England - Phillips Andover Academy followed by Yale. His only claim related to Texas is that he ran a few low job producing companies into the ground losing millions of dollars of his Dad's friends money in the process. All of this happened before he scored a position as Managing Partner of the Texas Rangers just before the citizens of Arlington voted to fund a new stadium for the team and escalate the value of it so that Tom Hicks could buy it and make George $16M in capital gains. This money served as the seed for his gubernatorial campaign to become one of the least powerful governors in the USA and then fail to accomplish his stated campaign goal of restructuring Texas' property tax system. From there the rest is reasonably well-known and ignominious history.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJamesDavis: Please do not lump all Texans into the same bin as Spiff. The former President is not a Texan as only natural born Texans are ever considered to be Texans and he was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He wasn't educated here, either, as he went to private schools in New England - Phillips Andover Academy followed by Yale. His only claim related to Texas is that he ran a few low job producing companies into the ground losing millions of dollars of his Dad's friends money in the process. All of this happened before he scored a position as Managing Partner of the Texas Rangers just before the citizens of Arlington voted to fund a new stadium for the team and escalate the value of it so that Tom Hicks could buy it and make George $16M in capital gains. This money served as the seed for his gubernatorial campaign to become one of the least powerful governors in the USA and then fail to accomplish his stated campaign goal of restructuring Texas' property tax system. From there the rest is reasonably well-known and ignominious history.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI like cats (& dogs & birds and rodents) and this one is just Lightly cross-eyed. or bored.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI dont think feral cats have often chances to group.
that may be because of humans. I hope and believe they
still hunt alone. The terrifying thought is of a pride stalking
a tiny all-but-extinct songbird.
How does he know and use science? I didn't think this article was really referring to "political science" -- i.e, the science of moving one'sagenda forward by being wishy washy and not making tough decisions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDear Editors,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI greatly enjoyed reading "the Taming of the Cat". However, I must admit that I was astonished by the utter witlessness of the assertion toward the end of the first paragraph: "cats contribute virtually nothing in the way of sustenance or work to human endeavor".
Indeed, without the "house cat" to control the depredations of rats and mice it is very unlikely that human agregations greater than a farming village would ever have happened. The reason for this is that the "house cat" made a vast difference in the efficiency of storing food by controling the
populations of mice and rats.
From that issue it should be obvious that the common house cat is the nessisary precondition to establishing large towns and cities and the development of industries.
An historical indication of the importance of the house cat was the old English law about killing a farmer's cat. The killer was required to pay the farmer a pile of grain high enough to completely cover the corpse of the cat hung by its
tail so that the nose touched the ground.
Yes, mankind has developed other technologies to store food in the last 2 centuries. But, without the common house cat, man never would have been able to live in large enough agrigations (towns and cities) to allow the development of
the industrial complex whose fruits we enjoy now.
Christopher E Prael
Obama is the only hope of the American people as well as for the human race. Fortuntely that he is shouldered by able and foresighted politicians and leaders like Sarkozy and a few others. Drastic changes in world policies for a better world are in sight.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJu st wanted to let you all know that some down here in Texas prefer Obama over Bush any day. I agree with James Davis' assessment of the previous president. Obama is making some good changes for our country and our world.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this