Domest¿cated 7, 000 years ago from a Mexican grass, corn sus-tained pre-Columbian civiliza-tions, from Aztec to Zuni. Today corn products include toothpaste, fireworks, and garbage bags.

Time and again, cyclones hurl wind and water at the densely packed Asian nation, with tragic loss of life. Yet monsoon floods bring silt, a key to growing rice in one of earth's largest deltas.