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	ECOS Issue 40

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Fire in the Centre
Harsh contrasts are the dominant feature of the central Australian landscape: freezing nights, searing days; the round mass of Ayers Rock set amid a flat red desert where the desolation of drought can be suddenly flushed away and replaced by massed blooms. The plant life with its fine, feathery foliage, built to resist drought, is soft and rounded, incongruously delicate when set against the bare and craggy ranges that cross the Centre.
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If you always caught the green light Stop. Start. Stop. Start. The bane of city driving is the frustration of intermittent travel. It leads to bad tempers, bad driving, and bad petrol economy. Download Article

Zinc deficiency and Aboriginal health You can see the kids running round tyepe-tyepe (lively or happy) and healthy. They eat bush tucker: goannas, turkey, . See, they're healthy. Download Article

The legacy of orchards Through a popular fairytale, fear of poisoned apples is instilled in most of us at an early age. In later life, many people conscientiously scrub or rinse fruit before taking a bite, to remove any chemical spray left on the surface. But, apart from its produce, can the orchard environment itself be contaminated by the pesticides used on fruit trees? Download Article

A pole preserved, a tree saved Power poles, telegraph poles, lamp posts: in profusion they decorate Australian suburbia and countryside. Count them, and you'd arrive at a number close to 7 million. Download Article

The impact of insects on forests Are our eucalypts providing fodder for large numbers of insects? Download Article

Annihilating noise with ‘anti-noise’
Noise is but pressure fluctuations propagating through the air. The air condenses and rarities in rapid alternation, and even when the fluctuations are small our ears respond with remarkable sensitivity. You can hear noise in which the pressure excesses and deficiencies are close to one-thousand-millionth of atmospheric pressure — the same pressure change you experience when your altitude alters by about a fiftieth of a millimetre!
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Tiny beads remove temporary hardness This country is rich in many resources, but water isn't one of them. If we are to have adequate supplies of good-quality water in the future, then purification of second-rate water, such as that from bores and brackish streams, will become increasingly important. Download Article

Recording insect sounds A male katydid (Salomona sp.) and an oscillograph trace of his night-time calling song. The interval between multiple bursts is about a second, and depends on the temperature. Download Article