JulySeptember 1998 Number 41http://www.science.org.au
NEWSLETTERAUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE
The Presidents of Australias two scienceand technology academies haveexpressed alarm and dismay at reporteddeclines in business spending onresearch and development.
In a joint statement in July, ProfessorBrian Anderson, President of theAcademy of Science, and Mr Tim Besley,President of the Academy ofTechnological Sciences and Engineering,said Australia is in danger of undoingthe gains of earlier years.
The Australian Bureau of Statisticsfound that, after five years of growth at13 per cent, in 199697 research spendingfell by 7 per cent. The figures showedthat research spending by business waslikely to decline by another 8 per cent in199798.
Professor Anderson and Mr Besleystated, This is a precipitous decline,simply incompatible with Australiasaspiration to be a prosperous, globallycompetitive economy. It is principally
due to the government decision toreduce the taxation concession from 150per cent to 125 per cent.
A private survey by the BusinessCouncil of Australia has predicted asteeper decline 23 per cent in researchspending by larger firms.
Both governments and companiesoverseas see the need to boostinnovation to stay prosperous and tocreate jobs. If Australia chooses tocontinue on its backward path, theconsequences are crystal clear andshould worry all Australians: lesscompetitive companies, fewer qualityjobs, higher overseas debts and reducednational security.
In a joint statement in May, the twospokesmen said they were troubled bythe low priority that leaders ofAustralian companies appeared to placeon innovation. They were responding tothe results of an international survey bythe Arthur D Little company comparing
Business innovation in declineAustralian companies policies oninnovation with those of theircounterparts overseas.
The academies, which include manyof Australias leading scientists,engineers and technologists, arecommitted to supporting thedevelopment of a culture of innovationin Australia.
We will offer our full resources togovernments to help achieve this vitalgoal, the spokesmen said. Butgovernments must hear the messagefrom this survey, and from otherevidence previously gathered. Pastpolicy settings are not working and somecurrent policy settings must bequestioned. We need to reconsider, andto act quickly, to ensure that thiscountrys prosperity is not underminedby uncompetitive companies withproducts and services the world marketno longer wants.
The Academy of Science responded tothe Federal Budget in May 1998 withproposals for creating a knowledgeeconomy in Australia.
The Academys Secretary, SciencePolicy, Professor John White, said thatthe encouraging fiscal outcome for199899 was a major opportunity forcreating a knowledge economy on asound financial base. The knowledgeeconomy would harness the talents ofthe science and technology graduates ofAustralia. It requires: vertical integration of investment,
stimulation and support programs forindustry, and of links betweenindustry and higher education
a sound higher education system
the attraction of industrial players andfinancial organisations to Australia
support for industry research whichuses the potential of Australianscience graduates.
Professor White said that there isanecdotal evidence that industrial
research is faltering following thereduction of the 150 per cent taxconcession for research and developmentto 125 per cent. The Budget papers showthat the take up of START funds hasbeen slower than expected.
He welcomed the governmentscontinued support for the CooperativeResearch Centres program. The drop infunds until 2001 may need to bereassessed in the light of the strength ofthe new proposals.
The higher education system appearshealthy, with a record number of newundergraduate places and funding of$5.5 billion for 199899. Analysis of thisfigure reveals the government saving, bycomparison with the 1997 and 1998forward estimates, about $3 billion in199899 and 19992000.
The Academy recommended thatpriority be given to reinvestment ofsome of these funds into creatingdiversity and excellence in the highereducation system.
Professor White said that the budgetof the Australian Research Council
Creating the knowledge economy
needed to be addressed since theestimates for 199899 hardly differedfrom those of 199798 and the councilfaced new challenges.
The Academys Secretary, Science Policy,Professor John White, right, and the ChiefScientist of the UK, Professor Bob May, atthe Biological Informatics conference inJuly. See story on page 2.
Australian Academy of Science Newsletter
2
Office-bearers ofthe AcademyPresident
Professor Brian Anderson
Secretary (Physical Sciences)Professor Kurt Lambeck
Secretary (Biological Sciences)Professor John Young
Secretary (Science Policy)Professor John White
Foreign SecretaryProfessor Michael Pitman
TreasurerProfessor Athel Beckwith
Telephone numbersExecutive Secretary (02) 6247 5777Publications (02) 6247 5385Awards (02) 6247 5777Finance (02) 6249 1362Fellowshipadministration (02) 6247 3966NationalCommittees (02) 6247 3966Internationalprograms (02) 6247 3966Library (02) 6247 3966Australian Foundationfor Science (02) 6247 5777Facsimile (02) 6257 4620
This newsletter is available on theAcademys Internet site,http://www.science.org.au/academy/newslett/newslett.htm.
Published by the AustralianAcademy of Science, GPO Box 783,Canberra ACT 2601.
Honorary editor: Professor NevilleFletcher FAA; production byGreen Words, Canberra. Otherassistance: members of Academycommittees and Academy staff.
Printed by Inprint, Brisbane.
The material in this newsletter iscopyright but may be reproducedwith acknowledgment. To receivea regular copy of the newsletter orto respond to material in thenewsletter, write to the ExecutiveSecretary at the Academy.
ISSN 1031-9204Print Post Approved PP 255003/00025
Forthcoming events A National Science and Industry
Forum on genetic engineering inthe food chain is being planned forOctober 1998. Contact FayeNicholas, email [email protected].
An Academy conference on envi-ronmental variation and changebeyond the instrumental recordwill be held on 7 and 8 December.Phone Professor John Chappell atANU on (02) 6279 8113.
ConferencesThe Academys web site has a conf-erence and events database that listsover 200 events occurring in Austral-ia and New Zealand between nowand 2001. Events include seminars,exhibitions, science fairs, summerschools, workshops and lectures onthe subjects of science, health,information technology, engineering,mathematics and the environment.The database, prepared by the RoyalSociety of New Zealand, is at http://www.science.org.au/conf.htm.
New topics on Nova When bugs have you on the run Getting our heads around the
brain
Fuelling the 21st century Looking for clues to our mineral
wealth.
Nova: Science in the news is athttp://www.science.org.au/nova/
The Basser LibraryAnyone wishing to use the BasserLibrary should contact the librarian,Rosanne Walker, telephone(02) 6247 3966 or [email protected].
Gifts to the AcademyIf you would like to make a gift or abequest to the Academy of Science orthe Australian Foundation forScience, please contact the ExecutiveSecretary or the Development Officer,telephone (02) 6247 5777.
In the carefully phrased world ofscience, few predictions are boldlystated. Yet in July, Professor Bob May,the Chief Scientist of the UK and aCorresponding Member of theAcademy, told those attending theconference on biological informaticsthat there will be winners and therewill be losers among nations as theworld moves into the next century.
Sir Robert said, The next centurywill be the Age of Biology, just as thisone has been an age of physics andastronomy. Specifically, those countrieswhich best learn how to correlate,analyse and communicate biologicalinformation will be in the leadingposition to achieve economic andscientific advances.
During the conference on biologicalinformatics (a contraction ofinformation and automatic), heldfrom 6 to 8 July at the Academy, 10visiting and 22 Australian scientistspresented their views of the future ofbiology as it will be affected by theinformation sciences.
The Academys Foreign Secretary,Professor Michael Pitman, noted thatthe accumulation of biological data forits own sake has become a uselessexercise. Many of the other speakers atthe conference agreed.
Professor Warren Ewens, Director ofthe program in bioinformatics at theUniversity of Pennsylvania, teachesstudents about the sorts of softwarethat are available to analyse biologicalinformation at the gene andchromosome levels.
Biology has something to learn fromastronomy. The Head of the CSIROAustralia Telescope, Dr Ray Norris,pointed out that astronomy benefitedgreatly when all astronomers,regardless of subdiscipline, adopted acommon file format for the exchange ofdigital information. There is a need forsomething similar in biology.
The conference was supported byCSIRO, the CommonwealthDepartment of Industry, Science andTourism, Environment Australia, theBritish Council and AMRAD. TheChair of the organising committee wasDr Ebbe Nielsen from the CSIRODivision of Entomology in Canberra.
Dr Nielsen said Australia has been aleader in disseminating environmentalinformation. If these skills aresupported and expanded to cover otherbiological and medical information,Australia can be an informatics winner.
More information on the conferenceis available from http://www.science.org.au/bioinfo.htm.
Biological informatics
Number 41, JulySeptember 1998
3
The Academy of Science hasrecommended that governments rolein medical research policy should notbe driven by short-term pressures butshould recognise that fundamentalresearch is the most effective researchpath for gaining health care benefits.
The recommendations were con-tained in the Academys submission tothe Federal Governments review ofhealth and medical research.
The submission stated that calls fora shift to short-term or targetedresearch should not obscure the factthat most of the major advances inhealth care in the community comefrom fundamental, investigator-drivenresearch.
The Academy observed, There hasbeen an increasing tendency forgovernments, as part of a push forshort-term medical goals, to createpriority areas for research funding, insome cases guided more by communityfashion than by expert advice. This canbe at the expense of fundamentalresearch which has been the source ofmost real advances for the communityin health care and other areas. There isa danger of seeking magic bullets.
Australias position inmedical researchThe Academy suggested that a primarygoal of the review should be to setpolicies which maintain Australiasprominence in international medicalresearch. Australia produces 2.5 percent of the worlds medical researchpublications. Four of Australias NobelPrizes were awarded to medicalresearchers (Macfarlane Burnet, JohnEccles, Howard Florey and PeterDoherty).
In the Industry Research andDevelopment Boards Scoreboard 97report on business expenditure onresearch and development a notablefeature is that 6 out of the top 10 firmsundertaking R&D in Australia are inthe biotechnology, pharmaceutical andmedical area.
Companies are willing to investheavily in R&D to be part of rapidlyexpanding industries. As Johnson &Johnson Research Pty Ltd has stated,The most important reason whyJohnson & Johnson set up a worldwideR&D centre in Australia is becauseAustralia has excellent medicalinstitutes and research centres.
The Academy believes that there is
further scope for combining Australiasresearch strength and industrialcapacity towards improving publichealth and the national economy. In theUSA and Canada, medical researchbudgets will increase rapidly over thenext five years.
Meanwhile, there is pronouncedinsecurity in the Australian universitysector. Coordination of highereducation research policy and medicalresearch policy is desirable. For thefuture funding of the National Healthand Medical Research Council, theAcademy recommends that the reviewanalyse and exemplify the value ofmedical research, both as a scholarlyenterprise and as a significant leader ofindustry and the economy.
The Academy urged the review torecommend ways to balance funding to
encourage university-based researchand postgraduate training and toprovide a more diversified fundingbasis for medical research institutes.
In considering the balance betweendifferent styles of basic medicalresearch, the Academy recommendedthat the review maintain researchstrength at individual researcher level,while supporting the formation ofconsortiums between researchers indifferent departments.
The Academy recommended that, inmaking decisions about the futureallocation of support for medicalresearch, broader community benefitsbe incorporated into the equation.
The complete submission is on theAcademys web site at http://www.science.org.au/policy/statemen/health.htm.
Fundamental research is healthiest
The bodies representing Australiasleading scientists and engineers havecriticised inadequacies in the Westcommittee report on higher education.The report, Learning for life, wasreleased in April.
In a joint response to the West reportin June, the Academy of Science andthe Academy of Technological Sciencesand Engineering supported therecommendation that wide access tohigher education be maintained, butfound the report inadequate as a guideto implement this. The Academies wereparticularly critical of funding levelsand formulas, marketplace ideologyand the lack of weight given to thecultural contribution made byuniversity life.
Funding levels per student inAustralia have been substantiallyreduced. International benchmarkingwould have revealed that Australia istrying to run a university system on amuch cheaper basis than comparablecountries.
The current formulas for fundinghave tended to make the system moreuniform. The West committee hasfailed to consider how manyinstitutions of the highest research andteaching quality can be supported.
While the report supports the needfor diversity in the system, it proposesonly student choice as the means toaddress this. In the Academies view,
this marketplace ideology is too coarseand could be destructive.
The success of the higher educationsystem in attracting fees appears tohave outweighed the culturalcontribution of university life. Thereports prevailing concept of theuniversity as an industry fails toaddress such matters as the quality ofuniversity research and teaching.
The Academies prepared the outlineof an alternative model for universityfunding, based on recent British exper-ience. Key features of the Academiesmodel are the five-yearly assessmentsof research performance, block grantsto universities for research andresearch training based on the reviews,additional infrastructure supportlinked to competitive research grants toindividuals and centres, largeequipment items funded from a centralcontestable fund, provision for fundingmajor national facilities and access tooverseas facilities, and closer couplingof the funding of research and training.
The main benefit of the modelwould be to focus resources on areas ofresearch excellence, recognising thatsome universities may have strongresearch centres in many disciplinesand others may have strengths inperhaps one or two areas.
The submission is on the Academysweb site at http://www.science.org.au/policy/statemen/west2.htm.
West report inadequate
Australian Academy of Science Newsletter
4
More mathsfor NovaThe Science and TechnologyAwareness Program of theCommonwealth Department ofIndustry, Science and Tourism hasgranted funds to the Academy todevelop several new mathematicstopics for the Nova: Science in thenews web site. Information boxesabout maths will also be added toexisting Nova topics. Included in thegrant are funds for promoting theweb site to mathematics teachers.
There are now about 30 topicsavailable on Nova, with a new topicbeing added every couple of weeksduring school terms. Each topicincludes key text, a glossary, studentactivities, further reading and linksto relevant web sites.
Four new topics are:When bugs have you on the runConsumers are demanding foodwith fewer chemical preservativesand additives. This means that goodhygiene and safe storage conditionswill have to play an even moreimportant role in preventing foodpoisoning. Topic sponsored by theCRC for International FoodManufacture and Packaging Science.
Getting our heads around the brainNeuroscience has been described asthe last great frontier of humanbiology. In fact, NASAs most recentmission, Neurolab, was devoted toinvestigations involving the nervoussystem. Australian neuroscientistsare among the leaders in brainresearch. Topic sponsored by theHoward Florey Institute ofExperimental Physiology andMedicine.Fuelling the 21st centuryFuel cells are an efficient and low-polluting way to generate power.The Australian Technology Park inSydney is about to install Australiasfirst commercial fuel cell. Topicsponsored by the CommonwealthDepartment of Industry, Science andTourism.
Looking for clues to our mineral wealthTopic sponsored by the AustralianGeodynamics CRC and theCommonwealth Department ofIndustry, Science and Tourism.
Supported by the AustralianFoundation for Science
More than 36 per cent of primaryschools in Australia have purchased allor part of the Academys science,technology and environment programfor primary schools, PrimaryInvestigations.
After a few years with PrimaryInvestigations, teachers have discoveredmore of what the program has to offerand how to make the most of it.
A teacher at Collier Primary Schoolin Perth, Tony Goss, reported,Children from lower primary grades,less orientated to weekly schedules, askseveral times a week, Are we havingscience today? Primary Investigationsworks, is adaptable, both children andteachers enjoy it, and science is onceagain a vital and viable area of learning
in all of our classrooms.The science coordinator at Como
Primary School in Perth, Penny Herne,indicated that a fantastic team ofdedicated parents has helped prepareequipment for weekly lessons.
More information about PrimaryInvestigations is available on theAcademys web site at http://www.science.org.au/pi. Sample lessons fromseven grades of Primary Investigationswill be added to the web site soon.
Meanwhile, the Kirby Foundationhas provided additional funding forstarter grants to support schools withspecial needs.
Supported by the AustralianFoundation for Science
Primary experience
Optus Visions educational channel 55has been broadcasting a number ofAcademy productions in recentmonths. Coming soon are:
Pests and peopleThe Academys May symposium onpests gained widespread coverage innews media. The proceedings of thesymposium will be shown on OptusVision channel 55 in Sydney, Melb-ourne and Brisbane. Two talks will beshown each week from 4 August to3 September 1998, first on Tuesdaysfrom 23pm, and repeated on Thurs-days from 8.309.30pm. Short versionsof the papers will be published inAustralasian Science in September.
Scientists reflect: the environmentIn interviews conducted as part of theAcademys project, Video Histories of
Australian Scientists, scientists workingin the environmental area reflect ontheir early interest in science, thepeople who influenced them and thehighlights of their careers. Theinterviews will be shown on Tuesdaysfrom 23.30pm, and repeated onThursdays from 8.3010pm. Sir OttoFrankel will be on 8 and 10 September,Professor Ralph Slatyer on 15 and 17September, Dr Doug Waterhouse on 22and 24 September, and Professor FrankFenner on 29 September and 1 October.
Foundation AGMThe annual general meeting of theAustralian Foundation for Sciencewill be held in Canberra on24 November 1998.
Academy TV
Students fromSt Vincent dePaul PrimarySchool, Aranda,Canberra, makecellophanewindows toexplore theeffect ofcombiningcolours, a lessonfrom the PrimaryInvestigationsprogram.
Number 41, JulySeptember 1998
5
Andeans,bomb tests andthe Big BangThe Academys 1998 Selby Fellow wasProfessor David Dearborn, a researchphysicist at the Lawrence LivermoreNational Laboratory in California. Hehas worked extensively innucleosynthesis, stellar evolution andastro-particle physics.
While in Australia in May, ProfessorDearborn delivered public lectures andprofessional seminars in Melbourne,Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth andHobart. Reflecting his broad range ofinterests and experience, his topicswere ancient Andean astronomy, theresponsible stewardship of nuclearstockpiles and the evolution of lightelements in the galaxy.
In his lecture on ancient Andeanastronomy, Professor Dearbornexamined new evidence that hasallowed historians and astronomers tobetter understand the nature of theIncas solar observations. The evidencehas posed as many questions as it hassolved, however. How accurate werethe observations and what did theIncas learn from them? How was thissky-watching activity integrated intothe Inca imperial system? Using acombination of ethnohistoricalaccounts, archaeological fieldwork andethnographic research, he piecedtogether the sky-watching practices ofthe Incas and showed how thesepractices contributed to organisingtheir empire.
Professor Dearborn drew upon hisexperience as a physicist and designerof nuclear devices at the LawrenceLivermore National Laboratory for hisother lecture topic, in which hedescribed the anatomy of a nuclear testand discussed what physicists try tolearn from weapons design. He arguedthat genuine weapons design is aninnovative activity, nurturing mentalagility, and asked how this innovationcan be maintained with a comprehen-sive test ban.
In his seminar on the evolution oflight elements in the galaxy, ProfessorDearborn examined the apparentoverproduction of helium-3 in stellarand galactic chemical evolutionmodels, a finding which is inconsistentwith Big Bang nucleosynthesis. Thisaffects calculations of the age anddensity of the universe.
The Academys National Committeefor Space Science has compiled itsbiennial report on space-relatedresearch in Australia, Australian SpaceResearch 19961998. The report, whichcovers the period from July 1996 toJune 1998, has been submitted to theInternational Council of ScientificUnions Committee on Space Research.
The report lists organisations activein space research and briefly describeswhat they are doing. The organisationsinclude CSIRO, universities, govern-ment bodies such as the AustralianAntarctic Division and the IonosphericPrediction Service, and companies suchas British Aerospace and DSpace. Theresearch areas encompass remotesensing of the earth, solar terrestrialphysics, upper atmospheric physics,climate and weather modelling, spaceastronomy and space communications.
The Chairman of the NationalCommittee for Space Science andeditor of the report, Professor BrianFraser, stated, A look at the contrib-utions indicates the wide range ofresearch activities underway.
Since the last report, there have beendevelopments in the Australian
National Space Program. Following aninterdepartmental review in 1995, towhich the Academy contributed, and achange of government, CSIRO wasinvited to assemble groups interestedin an Australian microsatelliteprogram. This has led to the establish-ment of the Cooperative ResearchCentre for Satellite Systems. Thecentres activities are described in thereport.
The 116-page report is available inAdobe Acrobat format from theAcademys web site at http://www.science.org.au/policy/statemen/contents.htm.
Space research list
Two Fellows of the Academy receivedhonours in the Queens BirthdayHonours List in June 1998.
Professor Antony Burgess, Director ofthe Ludwig Institute for CancerResearch in Melbourne, was made aCompanion in the General Division ofthe Order of Australia (AC). Hereceived the honour for his service toscientific research and clinicalmedicine, particularly through researchinto the early diagnosis and treatmentof cancer, and for developing structuresto link diverse research units tofacilitate the exchange of informationprotocols for the most effective meansof treating cancer.
Emeritus Professor Mollie Holman, ofMonash University, was made anOfficer in the General Division of theOrder of Australia (AO) for her serviceto scientific research, particularlyrelating to the autonomic nervoussystem and the control of smoothmuscle, and to education anduniversity administration.
Queens Birthday Honours
Austrian visitorsOn 29 April 1998, Academy officersand staff met a delegation from Austriawhich was visiting Australia to findout about the Cooperative ResearchCentres program. Austria is currentlychanging its national structure ofscience and technology and the visitorswere impressed by the Australianinitiative to link science and industrymore closely. A pilot scheme called theK plus program has started in Austria.
Other honours to FellowsProfessor Kenneth Freeman, of MountStromlo and Siding SpringObservatories at the AustralianNational University, has been elected aFellow of the Royal Society of London.
The University of Queenslandawarded an honorary doctor of sciencedegree to Dr Hal Hatch, from theCSIRO Division of Plant Industry inCanberra.
The Society for GeneralMicrobiology and Institute of Biologyin the UK have awarded the 1998Kathleen Barton Wright MemorialPrize to Professor Bruce Holloway forhis outstanding contribution toresearch in the area of microbialgenetics as applied to the genusPseudomonas in particular. ProfessorHolloway is at Monash University inMelbourne.
A Corresponding Member of theAcademy, Professor Rolf Zinkernagelfrom the University of Zurich, has beenelected a Foreign Member of the RoyalSociety of London.
Australian Academy of Science Newsletter
6
Twelve of Australias leading scientistswere honoured by election toFellowship of the Academy of Scienceat the annual general meeting of theAcademy on 30 April 1998.
Election to the Fellowshiprecognises a career that hassignificantly advanced the worldsstore of scientific knowledge. The newFellows are:
1. Professor John Andrews, 56,Research School of Biological Sciences,Australian National University.
Professor Andrews research hascombined chemistry and enzymologywith plant molecular genetics andphysiology. He is distinguished for hiscontributions to our understanding ofthe action, structure and regulation ofrubisco, the worlds most abundantprotein and enzyme, and the primarycatalyst of photosynthesis. He sharedin the discovery of the oxygenasefunction of rubisco and its role inphotorespiration. Since then he hasworked to see how molecular structureand function affect its efficiency.
2. Professor Bruce Chappell, 61,Department of Geology, AustralianNational University.
Professor Chappell has madeoutstanding contributions in two areasof geoscience: the origin of granites andthe role of these rocks in the evolutionof the earths crust, and the field oftrace element analysis by x-rayspectrometry. Early in his career herecognised that many granite magmasdo not initially separate as melts fromtheir source rocks deep in the crust butmove bodily away from those sourcesas a mixture of melt and solid residualmaterial. Consequently, when melt andsolid material separate, there arecompositional variations in the granite.So the composition of the source rocksof many granites may be inferred froma study of that compositional variation.
3. Professor Graeme Clark, 62,Professor of Otolaryngology,University of Melbourne.
For the past 30 years Professor Clarkhas devoted all his efforts todevelopment of a cochlear implantsystem which gives children who havebeen profoundly deaf since birth theability to recognise speech. His earlyresearch into the electrical transductionproperties of the cochlea established
the need for a multi-channel multi-electrode system based on analysis ofspeech signals. This system, developedin collaboration with electricalengineers and other specialists, hasbeen implanted into more than 15 000people worldwide.
4. Professor David Doddrell, 53,Professor of Magnetic Resonance,University of Queensland.
Professor Doddrell has foundinnovative and unique methods forapplying nuclear magnetic resonancespectroscopy to structuralchemistry, medical imaging andimaged directed spectroscopy. Heco-invented the elegant DEPTpulse sequence and developed theSPACE method for obtainingchemical information from livingtissue.
The latest generation of high-performance, high-speedcommercial magnetic resonanceimaging systems all use a methodinvented by Professor Doddrell.This invention shows how pureresearch can been applied tomedical diagnosis and generatesignificant financial benefits forAustralia.
5. Professor Simon Gandevia, 44,National Health and Medical ResearchCouncil Senior Principal ResearchFellow, Prince of Wales MedicalResearch Institute, Sydney.
A major theory used to be thatrespiratory muscle failure and fatiguecaused people to stop breathing;Professor Gandevias work onrespiratory muscle fatigue has shownthat these muscles fatigue only withgreat difficulty. It is probably thefailure of the chemical and neuraldrives to breathing that causerespiratory failure. ProfessorGandevias work has clearlyrevolutionised thinking on thisimportant condition.
In one experiment he and somecolleagues paralysed themselves whilestill conscious to investigate respiratorysensations when breathing wasmodified or stopped.
6. Emeritus Professor John Kerr, 64,University of Queensland.
In 1972 Professor Kerr and twocolleagues published a landmark paperon physiological cell death. They
New Fellows 1
2 3
4
5
6
Number 41, JulySeptember 1998
7
named this process apoptosis, toemphasise that it is complementary butopposite to mitosis. Professor Kerr wasthe first to work out the structuralfeatures of apoptosis, showing it to bequite distinct from necrosis, which isprovoked by tissue injury. He drewattention for the first time to the role ofcell death in normal adult mammalsand in disease.
7. Professor Gus Lehrer, 51, Head,School of Mathematics and Statistics,University of Sydney; Head, Centre forMathematics and its Applications,Australian National University.
Professor Lehrer is a mathematicianof unusually wide knowledge andinterests. His main field, technicallycalled the complex representationtheory of the finite groups of Lie type,has strong links with each of the majorareas of algebra, geometry andtopology.
8. Professor Jack Martin, 61, Professorof Medicine, and Chairman,Department of Medicine, University ofMelbourne; Director, St VincentsInstitute of Medical Research.
Professor Martin has greatlyadvanced contemporary understand-ing of calcium-regulating hormonesand the biology of bone cells. One ofhis most outstanding contributions wasthe cloning of parathyroid hormone-related protein. Professor Martinsresearch has had a major impact on ourunderstanding of bone synthesis anddisorders such as osteoporosis.
9. Professor Jeremy Mould, 48,Director, Mount Stromlo and SidingSpring Observatories, AustralianNational University.
Professor Mould is one of theworlds leading astronomers. He isdistinguished for his studies of galaxiesand the universe. He was the first toshow that the dwarf spheroidalgalaxies, which are companions to theMilky Way, had a star formationhistory extending over billions of years,in contrast to the view that thesegalaxies were pure samples of theoldest stars in the universe. Hepioneered the observational study ofvelocity deviations from smoothexpansion in the local universe. Heleads a very large international projectto measure the Hubble constant withthe Hubble Space Telescope. The
Hubble constant gives the rate ofexpansion and age of the universe.
10. Dr Roger Summons, 51, ChiefResearch Scientist, AustralianGeological Survey Organisation,Canberra.
Dr Summons is one of the leadingorganic geochemists in the world. Hehas applied innovative instrumentaltechniques to biological markeridentification and explained thesignificance of biological marker datain terms of its relevance to biologicalevolution, the behaviour of microbialecosystems and the co-evolution of thebiogeochemical cycles and the surfaceenvironment of the earth. His work hasrevealed substantial clues about theproterozoic oceans and he has madenumerous contributions tofundamental work on changes overtime in the distribution of chemicalfossils.
11. Professor Rodney Tucker, 50,Professor of Electrical Engineering andDirector, Photonics ResearchLaboratory, University of Melbourne.
Professor Tucker was a recipient ofthe 1997 Australia Prize. He has madefundamental contributions in the fieldof telecommunications over a period of25 years. He has played a leading rolein telecommunications research, bothin Australia and internationally.
He pioneered a revolutionarymicrowave circuit approach to theanalysis and design of semiconductorlasers for high-speed optical fibretelecommunications. This workovercame a critical bottleneck in thecapacity of telecommunicationssystems and led to a new generation ofbroadband networks.
12. Professor Jim Williams, 62,Professor of Physics, University ofWestern Australia.
Professor Williams is one of thepioneers of modern atomic physics. Hehas made very significant experimentalstudies of atomic structure andscattering phenomena at the mostfundamental levels. His experimentshave led to new techniques in atomicphysics and to an increasedunderstanding of the mechanisms ofvarious collision processes, indicatingthe ways in which electron correlationsdetermine atomic structure andscattering dynamics.
7 8
9
10
11 12
Australian Academy of Science Newsletter
8
Six new members were elected to theAcademys governing council at theannual general meeting in April.Information on the new President,Professor Brian Anderson, waspublished in the last newsletter. Othernew members are:
Dr Dick Manchester, Chief ResearchScientist at the CSIRO AustraliaTelescope National Facility in Sydney.
Dr Manchester is an astronomer atthe Australia Telescope, which operatesradio telescopes at Parkes, Coonabara-bran and Narrabri in New South Wales.His main research interests are pulsarsand supernova remnants, both prod-ucts of the finale of the evolution ofmassive stars a supernova explosion.Mainly using the Parkes telescope, hisgroup has found more than half of theknown pulsars and been active infollow-up studies such as precisiontiming measurements. With theantenna array at Narrabri, he iswitnessing the birth of a supernovaremnant from the supernovaSN 1987A the first time that suchobservations have been possible. He isalso involved in the upgrade of theNarrabri array for operation at milli-metre wavelengths, a major nationalresearch facilities project.
Professor Don Melrose, Professor ofPhysics (Theoretical) and Director ofthe Special Research Centre forTheoretical Astrophysics at theUniversity of Sydney.
Professor Melroses main researchinterests are in plasma astrophysics.These include the emissionmechanisms for sources of radiowaves, specifically, the solar corona,the earth and the giant planets, andpulsars; the propagation of radiowaves through ionised gases; theacceleration of fast particles in theseastrophysical sources; and thescattering of these particles by plasmawaves. He also has research interests innon-linear plasma theory, and in thesynthesis of quantum electrodynamicsand the kinetic theory of plasmas.
Professor Jack Pettigrew, Professor ofPhysiology and Director of the Vision,Touch and Hearing Research Centre atthe University of Queensland.
Professor Pettigrew is currentlyinvestigating the phenomenon ofswitching between the hemispheres inthe brains of animals and humans.Driven by a brain-stem oscillator,attention alternates back and forthbetween the different viewpoints andcognitive styles of the two hemi-spheres. He monitors the process ofswitching using binocular rivalry inhumans and a variety of recordingtechniques in animals. The interhemi-spheric switch rate is found to beslower in humans with bipolar disor-der; this provides a new insight intothe neurobiology of mood disorder.
Professor John Shine, ExecutiveDirector of the Garvan Institute ofMedical Research at St VincentsHospital in Sydney, and Professor ofMedicine and Molecular Biology at theUniversity of New South Wales.
Professor Shines current researchinterests are focused on the applicationof gene cloning approaches tounderstanding the molecular basis forthe generation of functional diversityin the nervous system. How do a fewsimple chemical signals, the neuro-transmitters and neuropeptides, elicitsuch a wide range of responsesincluding behaviour, memory, musclecoordination and hormone release?What goes wrong in disorders such asAlzheimers disease and mental illness?
Professor John Young, Professor ofPhysiology at the University of Sydneysince 1976 and currently Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Health Sciences).
Professor Young is a cell physiol-ogist especially interested in the controlof electrolyte transport across thesecretory and absorptive epithelial cellsof mammalian salivary glands. He isparticularly interested in epithelialsodium and chloride channels and themeans whereby they are regulated bychanges in the intracellularconcentrations of these ions. Hiscurrent research (in collaboration withDI Cook) focuses on the identificationof an intracellular sodium receptor andthe cascade of enzyme interactions thatleads from activation of the receptorvia a Gi protein to the down regulationof an epithelial sodium channel calledENaC.
New members ofAcademy Council
Dr Dick Manchester, a member inthe physical sciences.
Professor Don Melrose, a member inthe physical sciences.
Professor Jack Pettigrew, amember in the biological sciences.
Professor JohnShine, amember inthe biologicalsciences.
Professor John Young, Secretary(Biological Sciences).
Number 41, JulySeptember 1998
9
The 34th meeting of the GeneralAssembly of the International Councilof Scientific Unions (ICSU; WashingtonDC, September 1996) received a reportfrom an independent assessment ofICSU, chaired by Dr Roland Schmitt.That report explicitly called forsignificant changes in both the futuredirections and governance of ICSU. Insummary, the review called on ICSU tobecome: an incubator of entrepreneurial
activities and science for policy
the umbrella for concerns of policyfor science
aggressive in its outreach efficient in its governance.
In response to these challenges, andsince that meeting, the ExecutiveCommittee of ICSU has been preparingmajor revisions to the statutes andrules of procedure in full consultationwith ICSU members, both nationalmembers and unions. An extraordinarysession of the General Assembly ofICSU was held in Vienna at theAustrian Academy of Sciences on25 April 1998 to examine, modify andapprove these revisions.
The General Assembly waspreceded by a meeting of the GeneralCommittee (to provide further input tothe drafting of revisions) on 23 and24 April. I attended as Australiasrepresentative. I was given proxypower to participate and vote for theAcademy at the extraordinary meetingof the General Assembly. The followingnotes present some of the key changesthat have been made as a result of thesemeetings.
A change of nameGiven that ICSU represents membersfrom both scientific unions andnational academies, the word unionhas been removed from the new name.The acronym has been retained, givenits global visibility in the scientificcommunity, and for legal reasons. Thenew name is ICSU: The InternationalCouncil for Science.
Widening the objectives of ICSUTwo new objectives were added to theexisting objectives. These were toencourage the strengthening of humanand physical scientific resources world-wide with particular emphasis on thedeveloping world and to promote thepublic understanding of science.
Abolition of the GeneralCommittee of ICSUProbably the most significant singlechange to ICSU was the abolition of theGeneral Committee. This was regardedby the assessment as having beenduplicative and expensive.
Strengthening of the ExecutiveCommitteeThe Executive Committee has beenstrengthened by adding members andby explicitly allocating responsibilitiesto the officers of the committee. Thenew Executive Committee is nowcomposed of the officers: President,Past President/President Elect, twoVice Presidents, Secretary General andTreasurer; and ordinary members: fourfrom national committees and fourfrom unions.
Establishment of workingcommitteesTo help the Executive Committeeperform its duties, particularlyrecognising that the GeneralCommittee no longer exists, thefollowing working committees wereestablished: the Policy Committee responsible
for finance and science planning andreviews, governance, fundraising,responsibility and ethics in science
special committees such as thoseresponsible for the dissemination ofinformation, science and technologyin developing countries, and theenvironment
ad hoc committees such as theGeneral Assembly ResolutionsCommittee.
Closing personal commentsIt is worth noting that the process ofmaking these rather major changes tothe statutes of ICSU was potentiallydivisive and, given the requirement fora two-thirds majority, difficult toachieve. However, it was possible tocome to widely accepted revisions intwo days because of the verysignificant opportunities given tomembers to take part in the drafting ofthe changes over the past year or so,the open line-by-line debate that wasallowed during both the GeneralCommittee and General Assemblymeetings of the entire statutes andrules of procedures document, and theoutstanding chairing of these
discussions by Professor JCI Dooge.Perhaps my only concern lay with
the issue of the widened objectives ofICSU, in particular, with respect topublic education. It seems to me thatthere are many issues with which ICSUcould become involved. There arethose issues such as freedom in theconduct of science, responsibilities andethics in science, data availability andso on, that are sufficiently universal toscience and international by nature thatthey are very appropriately taken upby an international organisation suchas ICSU.
There are other aspects, such as theapplication of science in policyformulation (science for policy), wherethe role is less clear. The sciencecomponent of policy decisions made atinternational level, such as agreementson trade and environmental issues,might be considered as a reasonabledomain for ICSU but recognising that avery large amount of policy, even forsuch issues, is made by governmentsand companies at the national, regionalor local level.
More contentious are theappropriate bodies to play a role inconsideration of science in publiceducation. Given the highly local toregional nature of educationaldemands, needs and institutions, it is,for me at least, much more difficult tosee how ICSU can play much of a rolein this regard. This is not to say thatpublic education in science isunimportant but to make the point thatit is important for any organisation toclearly define its niche and roles withrespect to all of the players. I lookforward to a clear statement from ICSUas to what aspects of public educationit might see as part of its role.
Graeme PearmanChief, CSIRO Division of AtmosphericResearch
Major changes for ICSU
French philosopherA philosopher from the FrenchAcademy, Michel Serres, delivered apublic lecture at the Academy on5 August 1998. The lecture, which wasin French, included discussion of theethics of science. The lecture is part of aprogram of cooperation between theAustralian Academy and the FrenchAcademy of Sciences.
Australian Academy of Science Newsletter
10
GermanyEleven Australian scientists will visitGermany in 1998 under the exchangeprogram between the AustralianAcademy of Science and the DeutscheForschungsgemeinschaft.
Dr Peter Cranston, of the CSIRODivision of Entomology, will visit theZoologische Staatsammlung in Munichto study the evolution and biogeogra-phy of Australian gondwanan midges.
Dr Miklos Gulacsi, of the Austral-ian National University, visited theUniversity of Bayreuth to studypolaron formation in Kondo latticemodels.
Dr Richard Hannink, of CSIROManufacturing Science and Technol-ogy, visited the Technical UniversityHamburgh-Harburgh to examine thefeasibility of using Australian mineralresources in the manufacture ofrefractory lightweight, wear-resistantceramic-metal-aluminide compositesfor use in transport and mining.
Dr Joseph Holtum, of James CookUniversity of North Queensland,studied transporters in chloroplastmembranes of crassulacean acidmetabolism plants at the University ofOsnabrck.
Dr Yuri Kivshar, of the AustralianNational University, visited the Max-Planck-Institut fr Metallforschung atStuttgart to study non-linear modesand solitons due to parametric wavemixing.
Dr Trevor Lithgow, of La TrobeUniversity, will study the assembly oftail-anchored proteins in biologicalmembranes at the University ofFreiburg.
Dr Igor Shparlinski, of MacquarieUniversity, will visit the Department ofComputer Science at the University ofBonn to study number theoreticmethods in design and analysis ofalgorithms.
Dr Mark Smyth, of the AustinResearch Institute in Victoria, visitedthe Institute for Genetics at the Univer-sity of Cologne to study the creation ofmouse models of natural killer cellbiology.
Dr Andrew Stuchbery, of theAustralian National University, willexamine microscopic magnetic phe-nomena studied by recoil implantationat the Hahn-Meitner Institut in Berlin.
Dr Edward Szczerbicki, of theUniversity of Newcastle, visited the
Rheinisch-Westflische TechnischeNochschule in Aachen to study themodelling of information flow toenhance performance.
Dr Sergei Vladimirov, of theUniversity of Sydney, visited the MaxPlanck Institute for ExtraterrestrialPhysics in Garching to study thecollective process in dusty plasmas.
JapanSix Australian scientists will visit Japanin 1998 and 1999 under the JapanSociety for the Promotion of ScienceExchange Program.
Dr Geoffrey Baker, of CSIROEntomology in South Australia,studied the control of introducedgolden apple snails in rice ecosystemsat the Faculty of Agriculture atShizuoka University.
Professor Roger Hosking, of JamesCook University, will visit the School ofEngineering at the University ofHokkaido to examine the dynamicresponses of continuously supportedbeams and plates.
Associate Professor Mohan Singh,of the University of Melbourne, willexamine the molecular analysis ofpollen allergens at the Laboratory ofPlant Breeding in the Faculty ofAgriculture at Tohoku University.
Associate Professor MichaelSlaytor, of the University of Sydney,will visit the Centre for EcologicalResearch at Kyoto University to studycellulose digestion and symbioticassociations in termites and cock-roaches.
Dr Jiyuan Tu, from the AustralianNuclear Science and TechnologyOrganisation in New South Wales, willvisit the Institute of Space andAstronautical Science in Kanagawa tostudy high-performance computing oncomplex multiphase flows.
Dr Gordon Wilkinson, of theUniversity of South Australia, willstudy the modelling of supercriticalfluid extraction processes at theDepartment of Applied Chemistry andBiochemistry at Kumamoto University.
Six Australian scientists will visit Japanin 1998 and 1999 under the exchangewith the Science and TechnologyAgency of Japan.
Dr Igor Agranovski, of GriffithUniversity, visited the NationalInstitute of Industrial Health at
Kawasaki to study the filtration ofaerosol by bubbling through porousmedia.
Dr Ling Li, of Deakin University,investigated the beach dewateringtechnique through the comparison ofmodel predictions and field data at thePort and Harbour Research Institute atYokosuka.
Dr Yi-Bing Cheng, of MonashUniversity, will visit the NationalIndustrial Research Institute of Nagoyato study the development of self-toughened alpha-SiAION ceramics.
Dr Matthew Glanville, of Sydney,will study the utilisation of windtunnel data in the prediction of build-ing-cladding design wind loads at theBuilding Research Institute at Ibaraki.
Dr Allan Lohe, of the AustralianNational University, investigatedgenetically engineering the honeybeefor agriculture at the National Instituteof Animal Industry in Ibaraki.
Dr Dan Nicolau, of the RT Technol-ogy Development Group in Perth, willvisit the Osaka National ResearchInstitute to study the high resolutionpatterning of arrays of bioactivemolecules and cells.
Scientific exchanges
Korean polymersA joint AustraliaKorea workshop onpolymer melt was held in Seoul from5 to 10 July 1998. This was a sequel tothe highly successful workshop held in1996 (see AAS Newsletter number 35).The Australian coordinator of theworkshop was Professor David Bogerfrom the University of Melbourne.
Closing dates 1998Selby Fellowship 30 AugustGottschalk Medal 30 SeptemberPawsey Medal 30 SeptemberLyle Medal 30 SeptemberHannan Medal (applied and comp-
utational mathematics) 30 OctoberLe Fvre Prize 13 NovemberIan Wark Medal and
Lecture 13 NovemberFor further information email FayeNicholas at the Academy [email protected].
China exchange 1 OctoberGermany program 1 OctoberFor further information email ThrseLewis on [email protected].
Number 41, JulySeptember 1998
11
One of the pioneers of modernmeteorology, Dr Bill Priestley, died on18 May 1998.
Charles Henry Brian Priestley wasborn at Highgate, England, on 8 July1915. At the age of four he couldperform quite complicatedcalculations, including naming the dayof the week for any date in the 19th or20th century. He went to BeaumontHouse Preparatory School for six years,but following operations andpneumonia was taught at home by HJFlowers, a Baptist minister withscientific leanings.
While his childhood wascomfortable, his father lost money inthe Great Depression and died in 1933,leaving the family straitened. Bill wona scholarship to Mill Hill School andattended as a boarder from 1929 to1934.
In 1934 he gained two scholarshipsto Cambridge University, where hegained first class honours inmathematics in 1936 and second classhonours in economics in 1938. He wona prize for an essay on tides andrepresented St Johns College at cricketand hockey.
He joined the British Air MinistryMeteorological Office in 1939, whereSir Graham Sutton was one of his mostimportant formative influences. In 1941he went to Canada, where he carriedout research into atmosphericturbulence and its application toproblems in diffusion and evaporation.
In 1943 he returned to England towork in the newly formed Upper AirAnalysis and Forecast Section, whichwas trying to make upper atmosphereforecasts with a limited network ofsoundings. Such forecasts affectedtactics for the use of fighters andbombers in the second world war.Priestley carried out pioneering workdeveloping techniques for upper
atmosphere analysis, particularlycontour analysis. In 1945 he becamehead of the section.
In 1946 he moved to Melbourne asofficer in charge of a newmeteorological physics section ofAustralias Council for Scientific andIndustrial Research (later the CSIRO).This became the Division ofMeteorological Physics and laterAtmospheric Physics, of which he wasChief until 1971 when he becameChairman of the CSIRO EnvironmentalPhysics Research Laboratories.
In 1947 Priestley turned his attentionto the quantitative assessment ofexchanges of momentum, heat andwater vapour between latitudes. Heforesaw the expansion of this approachand its contribution to generalcirculation models of the atmosphere,which are now vital tools in weatherforecasting and the prediction ofclimate change.
His group undertook pioneeringstudies into vertical transfer processesat the interface of air and earth.
In the 1950s he wrote severalimportant papers on the dynamics ofconvection, and on air-sea interactions,and the monograph, Turbulent transportin the lower atmosphere, which became aleading international text. He wasamong the first to demonstrate theassociation between monthlyanomalies in sea-surface temperatureand changes in rainfall on adjacentcoasts and hinterlands.
He applied micrometeorology toproblems in agriculture, with researchgroups working on energy balance inplants and animals, frost preventionand microclimatic studies of plantphysiology.
Priestley was elected a Fellow of theAcademy of Science in 1954, its firstyear. He was Vice-President of theAcademy in 195960. He was elected aFellow of the Royal Society of Londonin 1967. He was appointed an Officer ofthe Order of Australia in 1976.
He was active in internationalmeteorological and scientific bodiesand served on 23 committees of theAcademy. In the 1970s he chairedAcademy committees of enquiry intothe atmospheric effects of supersonicaircraft, climate change and Frenchatomic tests.
Priestley retired from CSIRO in 1978and then spent two years as Professorof Meteorology at Monash University.
Death Bill Priestley
Bill Priestley
BiographersProfessor Harry Poulos, ProfessorRoger Tanner and Professor JohnCarter will write a biographicalmemoir on the late John Booker forpublication in Historical records ofAustralian science. Dr Barbara Briggswill write a biographical memoir onthe late Lawrie Johnson. ProfessorPauline Ladiges and Dr Donald Gaffwill write a biographical memoir onBruce Knox. Dr Jim Peacock, SirRutherford Robertson and Dr RogerCarolin will write a biographicalmemoir on the late Spencer Smith-White.
Japanese linksThe Academys International ProgramsOfficer, Thrse Lewis, visited theAcademys counterpart agencies inJapan, the Science and TechnologyAgency (which deals with nationallaboratories) and the Japan Society forthe Promotion of Science (whichrepresents universities), in June 1998.She attended the Japan Society for thePromotion of Science two-day orienta-tion program for postdoctoral fellows.
Ms Lewis also attended a meeting ofthe representatives of internationalorganisations dealing with the Scienceand Technology Agency. The meetingdiscussed science policy in Japan andproposed changes to programs.
Both organisations want moreAustralian scientists to visit Japan forperiods of up to two years. Quotas forfellowship programs will be increasedas a result. Japanese funding agenciesperceive the value to Japan of buildinginternational contacts and introducingnew people into their system.
Meanwhile, the Australianprograms officer of the Japan Societyfor the Promotion of Science, MayukoTada, is working at the Academy fornine months. While in Canberra she islearning about Australian scienceprograms, organisations and scientists.
Mayuko Tada at the Academy.
Australian Academy of Science Newsletter
12
Lively Boden conferencesThe epididymisThe epididymis is the organ whichstores and matures sperm. Its biologicalrole is to enhance a males prospects offathering offspring. This role dependson sperm storage. However, interest isnow focused on the maturing of spermin the epididymis.
The Boden Conference on theEpididymis: Cellular and MolecularAspects was held from 24 to28 February 1998 at Robertson, NSW.There were 63 participants from15 countries. The conference addressedthe epithelial functions regulating theepididymis, gene expression ofepididymal proteins and their roles inprotecting sperm and modifying theirsurface, and practical aspects includingtargeting the epididymis forcontraception, its susceptibility toenvironmental toxicants and its role ininfertility.
Australian scientists showed thatoestrogens can play an important role
in the functions of the epididymis:oestrogen therapy inhibits thereabsorbative function of the ducts thatreabsorb 95 per cent of the fluidleaving the testis. The epididymis wasalso considered as a target forimmunocontraception and a species-specific epididymal protein as a controlon populations of feral animals.
The conference was considered agreat success and several overseasscientists stayed on to collaborate withtheir Australian colleagues. Othersmade plans to return within a year forcollaborative work and graduatestudents made valuable contacts forpostdoctoral positions overseas. Aseries of international conferences onthe epididymis will be established,with another meeting in the USA in2002.
The main contributions at theconference will be published as asupplement of the Journal ofReproduction and Fertility in August1998.
Synaptic transmissionThe synapse is the place whereimpulses are transmitted from onenerve to another using electrical andchemical means.
The Boden Conference on SynapticTransmission, held at Lake Cracken-back Resort near Thredbo in NSW from24 to 27 January 1998, looked at themicrophysiology of synaptic transmiss-ion. The conference was attended by 48scientists, 19 from overseas. Youngerscientists (aged under 40) made up themajority of the participants.
The presentations focused on themolecular mechanisms of exocytosis(the expulsion of material from the in-side to the outside of a cell); the controlof transmitter release by calcium andneuromodulators; quantal mecha-nisms, transmitter uptake and secondmessengers in neurotransmission; theplasticity of synaptic transmission; andthe spread of synaptic potentials andaction potentials in neurones.
The organiser of the conference,Professor Stephen Redman from theJohn Curtin School of Medical Researchat the Australian National University,said that the mix of young and moreestablished scientists, together with thestrong overseas contingent, made theconference lively and exciting. Theyounger scientists soon overcame anytimidity they may have had to askprovocative questions.
Several collaborative activities havealready come from the conference andthe contacts and exchanges of scientificinformation will have enduring value.
The Academys Becker House, alandmark known to most Canberravisitors as the Dome, has been addedto both the national and ACT heritagelists. It was listed on the Register ofthe National Estate in February 1998and on the Interim ACT HeritageRegister in May.
Ian Potter House, which housesthe Academys administration, hasbeen on the Register of the NationalEstate since 1981.
The Academy has also received anACT heritage grant to preparenominations for the ACT HeritageObjects Register. The nominations arefor the architectural documentssubmitted in the 1956 competition todesign the Academy building,drawings and blueprints related tothe winning design by Sir RoyGrounds, and the flag flown over theSouth Magnetic Pole on Shackletons19089 Antarctic expedition.
Heritage listing for dome
Hot-air-filled wildlife inspects heritage site in Canberra. Photo: Trish Nicholls
Biodiversity talkNot counting bacteria and viruses,about 5 to 7 million kinds of plants,animals, fungi and microorganismsoccur on the earth. By some estimates,by the first quarter of the next century,more than a quarter of all species willbe extinct or on the way to extinction.
Dr Peter Raven, Director of theMissouri Botanical Garden, presented alecture entitled Biodiversity in the newmillenium: what should we do? at theAcademy in Canberra on 28 July 1998.He spoke of the need to organisecollective responses appropriate to thescale of this challenge or suffer theconsequences.
Dr Raven is a CorrespondingMember of the Academy.
