Geoscience Reports 31:4 (Spring 2001).
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EDITOR'S ANGLE

    In this column I usually highlight the main article, but in this issue it has been so excellently written by my colleague, Dr. Ben Clausen, that I felt it needed no comment.
    Instead, for those who might wonder about all the photos illustrating the research news, I would like to explain my choice. I wanted to give you a special sense of what it is like to work in the Grand Canyon, and I thought the best way would be through photos.
    Unfortunately, I have no photos of people actually working in the field. One of the Grand Canyon National Park’s research coordinators asked us to do just that, and it is my fault that there are none. The beauty of the Canyon was too overwhelming and I just couldn’t waste film on men working!
    We traveled by a 37' raft, and, for those who love to have their lives flash before their eyes as they enter the rapids in a comparatively "fragile little craft," the Colorado River is an incredibly exciting experience. We passed quiet waters with reflections of the Canyon walls all the way to the sky, but my contemplation time was cut short as I endured exhilarating moments of terror. Wildlife was abundant: bald eagles, great blue herons, many little brown birds on the water and in the bushes, bighorn sheep racing the boat, tracks and gnaw marks of beavers, lizards, fish and swarms of "no-see-ems" plus a few isolated mosquitoes. This was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience that this editor will experience only once in her lifetime. The memories are fantastic: the courtesy of our boatman, laughing at ourselves every day, the feeling of success as we packed the samples for the trip home, the prayers of gratitude for the work.