Cover Photo, American Scientist (September-October, 2002), for an article co-authored by my colleague, Benjamin Orlove (see Orlove, B. S., John C. H. Chiang, and Mark A. Crane. "Ethnoclimatology in the Andes." American Scientist 90(5): 428-435. 2002). Other photos appear with the article.

People living on the eastern side of the Andes in Peru and Bolivia must cultivate crops under challenging high-altitude conditions. As this photograph of family plots on the flanks of the Cuyo-Cuyo Valley attests, luxuriant growth of potatoes is possible on hillside terraces, a common strategy for framing steep terrain. Indigenous farmers in this region also benefit from a clever strategy they have worked out to forecast the weather: Using naked-eye observations of stars in midwinter, they are able to predict how much rain will fall during the following summer and time their planting accordingly. In "Ethnoclimatology in the Andes" (pages 428-435), Benjamin S. Orlove, John C. H. Chiang and Mark A. Crane describe this tradition practice and explain how they uncovered its scientific basis. (Photograph courtesy of Bruce Winterhalder, University of California, Davis.)