SCIENCE IN THE NEWS DAILY

Father, Son Solve a High-Flying Mystery in Andes

from the Boston Globe (Registration Required)

NORWICH, Vt.—It's a surprise to learn that the white-winged Diuca finch nests directly on glacial ice in the high Andes. The first research detailing the small bird's frigid breeding habits was recently published in the Wilson Journal of Ornithology.

An even bigger surprise is the academic affiliation of one of the two authors of the scientific paper. Rather than the usual prestigious university, it's the Marion W. Cross Elementary School in this picturesque town on the Connecticut River.

Spencer P. Hardy, now 14, had yet to enter sixth grade when he joined forces with his father, Douglas R. Hardy—a climatologist with the University of Massachusetts-Amherst—to solve the mystery of bird nests on Peru's forbidding Quelccaya Ice Cap.