Science: Life Among the Mud Daubers

At 65, George Daniel Shafer had had a full, busy career as professor of physiology at Stanford University. On the first morning of the college year after "Emeritus" was added to his former title, Professor Shafer, feeling lonely and at loose ends, wandered into his beehouse. There he began to watch a mud-dauber wasp as she buzzed purposefully to the window sill, stretched her forefeet out like a kitten, and took a sun bath. She seemed to know exactly what she was about. In a matter of minutes Shafer's admiration was aroused and he found a new and absorbing interest in...