In this paper, a new method for analyzing certain physical and chemical properties of liquid water near surfaces is described. "Probe" molecules are dissolved in the water system and are excited by a short laser pulse. The ability of the probe to undergo a fast nonradiative process depends on a reorientational relaxation time of the water solvent, which may become orders of magnitude slower for water near a surface. Using timeresolved methods and a sufficiently fast probe, one can observe a direct dynamic competition between diffusion of the probe and the nonradiative event. Thus, in principle, it is possible to obtain both these rates as a function of distance from a surface. The methods can be applied to a variety of surfaces. Here, they are used to investigate the small biologically relevant water pools in sodium bis(2-ethylhexy1)sulfosuccinate (AOT) reverse micelles, whose surfaces are highly hydrophilic. Perturbations on the translational velocity autocorrelation function of the probe, as measured by the diffusion fluxes, are very large, extending nearly to the center of the largest micelle studied (radius -55 A). On the other hand, perturbations on the orientation relaxation of the solvent, as measured by the probe fluorescence lifetimes, were found to extend no more than -10-15 A from the surface of any of the micelles studied.

Earlier studies of phonotaxis by female crickets describe this selective behavioural response as being important in the females' choices of conspecific males, leading to reproduction. In the present study, moderate (30+) to very large data sets of phonotactic behaviour by female Acheta domesticus L., Gryllus bimaculatus DeGeer, Gryllus pennsylvanicus Burmeister and Gryllus veletis Alexander demonstrate substantially greater plasticity in the behavioural choices, as made by females of each species, for the syllable periods (SP) of model calling songs (CS) than has been previously described. Phonotactic choices by each species range from the very selective (i.e. responding to only one or two SPs) to very unselective (i.e. responding to all SPs presented). Some females that do not respond to all SPs prefer a range that includes either the longest or shortest SP tested, which fall outside the range of SPs produced by conspecific males. Old female A. domesticus and G. pennsylvanicus are more likely to be unselective for SPs than are young females. Each species includes females that do not respond to a particular SP when responding to CSs with longer and shorter SPs. The results suggest that the plasticity of phonotactic behaviour collectively exhibited by the females of each species does not ensure that choices of a male's CS effectively focus the female's phonotactic responses on CSs that represent the conspecific male. The phonotactic behaviour collectively exhibited by females of each species does not readily fit any of the models for selective processing by central auditory neurones that have been proposed to underlie phonotactic choice.

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