KENTUCKY BUTTERFLIES

Intimidating butterflies.

Many butterfly species feature two or four conspicuously coloured eyespots on their wings; the most commonly heard explanation for these markings is that they are used to intimidate predators. However, this explanation has stood, until recently, on the flimsiest of empirical foundations. Now, Adrian Vallin and colleagues have demonstrated empirically the effectiveness of these signals in dissua...

Lung Cancer in Kentucky

ung cancer accounts for 13% of all new cancer cases — but 28% of all cancer deaths — in the United States. It ranks third in incidence, yet first in mortality. The reason for the discrepancy between the incidence and mortality rates is clear: Not only is lung cancer a common disease, it is also a severe disease with lower survival rates than other major cancers. In this issue we use data from t...

Converting the Kentucky Wilderness

The rural central Kentucky landscape today appears as open, rolling bluegrass fields, punctuated by relicts of “woodland pasture” and partitioned by stone or board fences, the latter usually painted black. Historic residences often sit back from the road at the end of a long drive, presenting a picture of placidity, prosperity and gracious living. Country roads are organic in quality, often app...

Migrating to butterflies

Many of the stories that have appeared in this column recount the way in which the timely appearance of a paper catalyzed the pursuit of a new line of research. The experience is, happily, not limited to new papers. One of the greatest pleasures in research is to discover (or more accurately, to rediscover) a gem of a paper that has been in the literature for some time but whose findings or pro...

Rural Kentucky Gains More Access.