Center: Latin American art sponsored by Eugene Garfield and the Institute for Scientific Information (Philadelphia, PA, USA). Myths of the Huichol Indians, yarn painting by Emeteria Martínez Ríos, on loan to the Denver Art Museum. The Huichols are a community of some 12,000 people scattered among the southern reaches of Mexico’s Sierra Madre Occidental. It is thought that the Huichols descend from the Toltecs and Aztecs. Tapestry-like yarn paintings are made by pressing strands of brightly-colored yarn onto sun-warmed beeswax spread on plywood panels. The tapestry reproduced here comprises several narrative scenes depicting the major deities and myths of the Huichols. The entire painting can be seen at [http://garfield.library.upenn.edu/art/bluehuichol.jpg]. (See article by E Garfield, pp 65-69, this issue.)

Background photographs : The four representatives of the main microbial groups (viruses, prokaryotes, protists, and fungi), represented on the cover of International Microbiology since 1998, belong this year to microorganisms isolated from Lake Banyoles (Girona, northeastern Spain), and related lagoons and fountains, during an extensive study of 20 years, which established the bases of several principles of the microbial ecology of freshwaters.

Upper left: Bacteriophage M6 that infect several enterobacteria, isolated from Lake Vilar (near L. Banyoles) by Ricardo Guerrero in 1970. Transmission electron micrograph by Teresa Figueras-Juher in 1976; negative-staining with uranil acetate and phosphotungstate (ca. 200,000×)

Upper right: Mixed bacterial population of Chromatiaceae (large cells) and Chlorobiaceae (small cells) from Lake Cisó (near L. Banyoles). Scanning electron micrograph by Isabel Esteve (Autonomous Univ. of Barcelona) in 1978 (ca. 14,300×)

Lower left: Prorodon sp., a ciliate isolated from Lake Cisó. Scanning electron micrograph by JI Calderon and JM Fortuño (Institute for Marine Sciences-CSIC, Barcelona). Reprinted from Pedrós-Alió C, Guerrero R (1993) Microbial diversity in Lake Cisó. In Jones JG (ed) Advances in microbial ecology, vol 13, Plenum Press, NY, pp 155-209. (ca. 4000×)

Lower right: Fungus isolated from Fuente de la Puda (near L. Banyoles), a source of highly concentrated sulfide water with dense microbial mats of sulfur chemosynthetic bacteria and cyanobacteria. Isolated and photographed (optical microscopy) by Mercedes Berlanga (Univ. of Barcelona) (ca. 7500×)