Lake Malawi, the third largest lake in Africa, is several million years old. Lake levels have fluctuated to a considerable extent in the late Pleistocene. Although tectonism may have influenced earlier level changes, the more recent changes have been climatically controlled. Major recessions occurred in the period before 25000 years ago and 10740 ± 130 years ago, with further large falls between 1150 and 1250 A. D. and within the period 1500-1850. The 1500-1850 lake recession-refilling cycle is documented by using a variety of techniques. Sediment cores show an erosional hiatus stretching across the southern area of Lake Malawi down to water depths of at least 121 m. Diatoms sharply decline in abundance and diversity across this break, with Melosira nyassensis dominating in the post-erosion period. During the low stage, exposed littoral sands were reworked into aeolian dune-fields along windward shorelines. Oral histories reflect a group memory of this low period, which is supported by 14 C dated archaeological finds in beach ridges surrounding the lake. Dating by 210 Pb methods show that lacustrine sedimentation had resumed by about 1860. At this time, early explorers, such as Livingstone, were reporting evidence of rising lake levels. Hydrological modelling shows that the lake-level changes indicated are possible in the timespan available. Various permutations of rainfall and timescale are discussed, e. g. a drop of 110 m over 250 years would require rainfall at 50% of modern values. The changes in lake level imply longterm changes in climate; these are highly relevant in the field of drought-risk assessment. The species flock of rocky-shore dwelling Lake Malawi cichlids known as ‘Mbuna’ contains about 200 species in Malawi’s waters. Mitochondrial DNA differentiation shows that the flock as a whole is of extremely recent origin. Almost every rocky outcrop and island has a unique Mbuna fauna, with endemic colour forms and species. As many of these islands and outcrops were dry land within the last 200-300 years, the establishment of the faunas has taken place within that time. The evolution of distinct forms in such a brief timespan is discussed in relation to current ideas on allopatric speciation. The present diversity of the Malawi cichlid-species flock, and particularly the Mbuna, may be readily explained by the rapidity with which small founder populations can diverge from the parent population, as demonstrated by the present chronological evidence on changes in lake levels and by the Mbuna distribution data. The repeated recessions and refillings of the lake have provided numerous opportunities for the establishment of different founder populations and consequently different selection pressures, leading to further bouts of speciation.

A davvine. K-. Ar dating and palaeomagnetic polarity measurements were used to study the geological hGtory of the predominantly volcanic sequences in the western part of the Kenya rift valley S of l"3O' S. The rift was initiated as a downwarp which was later infilled by melanephelinitic agglomerates and lavas (15-12Ma ago). Major faulting (12-7Ma ago) downthrew these volcanics to the E and flood trachytes (7-5 Ma ago) were erupted onto the newly-formed rift floor. Minor faulting and volcanism preceded the second period of major faulting (5-3 Ma ago). Extensive flood basalts (3-2.5 Ma ago) infilled the resulting rift structure. Later subsidiary depressions in the rift floor were infiIled by two large porphyritic trachyte flows in the N (the older one 2.1 Ma ago), by flood basalts (2.1-1.7 Ma ago) in the S and by flood trachytes (1.4-0.7 Ma ago) in the E. The palaeomagnetic polarity sequence from the rift floor lavas represents a substantial part of the Matuyama epoch. A period of major faulting (most of it post-0.6Ma ago) created much of the present rift topography and the resulting Magadi-Natron basin was later flooded by an extensive temporary lake.

The bacterial luciferase gene cassette (lux) is unique among bioluminescent bioreporter systems due to its ability to synthesize and/or scavenge all of the substrate compounds required for its production of light. As a result, the lux system has the unique ability to autonomously produce a luminescent signal, either continuously or in response to the presence of a specific trigger, across a wide array of organismal hosts. While originally employed extensively as a bacterial bioreporter system for the detection of specific chemical signals in environmental samples, the use of lux as a bioreporter technology has continuously expanded over the last 30 years to include expression in eukaryotic cells such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae and even human cell lines as well. Under these conditions, the lux system has been developed for use as a biomedical detection tool for toxicity screening and visualization of tumors in small animal models. As the technologies for lux signal detection continue to improve, it is poised to become one of the first fully implantable detection systems for intra-organismal optical detection through direct marriage to an implantable photon-detecting digital chip. This review presents the basic biochemical background that allows the lux system to continuously autobioluminesce and highlights the important milestones in the use of lux-based bioreporters as they have evolved from chemical detection platforms in prokaryotic bacteria to rodent-based tumorigenesis study targets. In addition, the future of lux imaging using integrated circuit microluminometry to image directly within a living host in real-time will be introduced and its role in the development of dose/response therapeutic systems will be highlighted.

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Lake Malawi lies in a major rift valley in Central Africa that is some 700 m deep and 550 km long. A total of 242 cores and 111 grab samples were recovered between 1984 and 1989 and form the data base for a study of diatom distribution in this lake basin. The sediments consist of homogeneous diatomites, pelagic diatomaceous muds, varved diatomite-mud couplets, turbidites, littoral sand sheets and extensive deposits of ferro-manganous nodules.Fossil diatoms show major temporal and regional contrasts between the southern, central and northern areas of the lake. A wide variety of Aulacoseira species occur in the southern lake sediments. To the north, the Nkhotakota region is generally characterised by Stephanodiscus and Aulacoseira, with occasional diatomite laminae composed of Aulacoseira or Nitzschia. The central parts of the lake show the greatest variation, with Stephanodiscus, Nitzschia and Aulacoseira all being prominent. The northern region is dominated by Aulacoseira nyassensis throughout most core sequences.Variability in these assemblages appears to be controlled by Si:P ratios, Si concentrations, turbulence and light penetration. These factors themselves are influenced by differences in the depth and duration of lake mixing due to variations in wind strength, seiches and bottom topography among different regions of the lake and from lakewide circulation patterns.