Ecos articles from March 1997

Ecos archives from March 1997

Toxic algal blooms in all the genes.
March 22, 1997... Microscopic blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, are a recurrent nuisance in our waterways, particularly during summer. They produce unsightly scums and deplete the water of oxygen, thereby killing aquatic life. More importantly, they produce...

Messenger membranes. (molecules detection)
March 22, 1997... TODAY... You turn up at the hospital with chest pain. Is it indigestion, or something more serious? An electrocardiogram yields an indefinite result. No chances are taken. Immediate therapy with substance `X' begins, at $1500 a dose....

Free flow. (Paroo River, Murray-Darling Basin, Australia)
March 22, 1997... In 1995, an advertisement in the Cunnamulla Western Sun heralded two proposals to irrigate from the Paroo River, a semi-arid waterway extending from southern Queensland to north-east of Wilcannia in New South Wales. The advertisement,...

Bay wash. (Melbourne, Australia's Port Phillip Bay)
March 22, 1997... At the entrance to Port Phillip Bay lies a menacing stretch of water known as The Rip. From Point Nepean, the western tip of Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, The Rip can be viewed in all its fury, writhing above a deep gorge in the sea floor....

Aquaculture: the blue revolution. (fish, shellfish and aquatic plant farming)
March 22, 1997... A blue revolution is sweeping Australia. From the tropical north to the temperate south, more aquatic species than ever before are spending their lives -- from egg to adult -- in ponds on the land and in coastal enclosures. The reason is...

Clean power play. (solid-oxide fuel cells)
March 22, 1997... Australia has precious few export industries in the billion-dollar league, and most trace their roots to the agricultural and mining sectors: wool, wheat, coal, gold, iron and natural gas. New billion-dollar industries have proved elusive this...

Teetering on the brink. (re-establishing endangered plants)
March 22, 1997... In 1980, a species of trigger plant nearly vanished from the face of the Earth. Just one individual of the taxon Stylidium coroniforme was known, growing on a farm at Wongan Hills, about 150 kilometres north-east of Perth. It was declared a...

Seeking small wonders. (groundwater and soil remediation research)
March 22, 1997... In 1981, when Dr Peter Franzmann tried a new technique for separating bacteria from water, he was overwhelmed with new bacteria species. Until then, his view of this microscopic world had been limited by technology. Since then, the biggest...

Reading the sands of time. (dating young sedimentary deposits)
March 22, 1997... A new technique for dating young sedimentary deposits, developed by scientists at CSIRO Land and Water, has begin to chronicle the affects on Australian landscapes of European settlement. The technique uses tiny quartz grains from river...