australian academy of science newsletter · marine science and the australian geological survey...

January–April 1999 Number 43www.science.org.au

NEWSLETTERAUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE

21st century scienceThe President of the Academy, ProfessorBrian Anderson, outlined his vision forscience in the 21st Century in a speech atthe UNESCO: Asia-Pacific ScienceConference on 2 December 1998.

He concentrated on two main issues:the information revolution and thebiological revolution.

He said the information revolution ischallenging society even more rapidlythan either the agricultural revolution orthe industrial revolution. It relies onthree enabling technologies: electronics,communications and computing.

In electronics, we have seen and willsee ever greater packing densities onintegrated circuit chips. ProfessorAnderson expects a need for advances incircuits with self-testing and limitedrepair capability, and circuits withdecreasing power consumption. Hepredicted that we will see operation athigher and higher speeds andfrequencies.

Communications has similarly seenmany changes, moving from Morsecode, to telephones and optical fibres.One-way radio has become television,colour television, satellite television, andsoon, Professor Anderson imagines, two-way video capabilities in our homes.

There has been an explosion ofwireless and mobile telecommunicationsand what Anderson termed ‘the almost-miracle of Iridium’ which allows you tomake a telephone call from anywhere onthe planet.

In the computing area ProfessorAnderson noted that ‘the storage and thespeed of personal computers haschanged by a factor of a thousand’ overthe past decade and a half. Computershave gone from manipulating purelynumeric data to alphabetic and numericdata; they are able to produce informa-tion from that data to offer computergames, spreadsheets and word process-ing. However, Professor Anderson findsa lack of human-friendly interfaces. Hesaid ‘there is a long way to go’ beforecomputers are able to translate lan-guages, to respond to spoken com-mands, and to accurately take dictation.

Professor Anderson commented on

the social repercussions of theinformation revolution. Jobs areinevitably lost in some areas and gainedin others, leaving society with the task ofeasing the transition for those whobecome displaced. There is also thethreat of dominant companies such asMicrosoft, and concerns about privacy

and the big brother state. ProfessorAnderson said, ‘But by the same token,a big brother state, particularly atotalitarian regime, ought to feel verythreatened by the universality of the fax,and email, which allow the challengingof propaganda, and the free expressionof those news items and ideas that theregime might wish to repress.’

Professor Anderson discussed thesecond great revolution, the biologicalrevolution, more briefly, as it does notbelong to his particular field of study.He observed that genetic engineeringhas been around for at least 20 years, andhas mostly been used in agriculture. He

spoke of the possible advantages ofhuman genetic engineering, such as thepossibility of paraplegics walking, andsense-deficient people recovering theirmissing sense.

The final topic he covered in relationto the biological revolution was thepublic worry of a killer disease outbreak

or public health accidents such as madcow disease.

‘The information revolution andthe biological revolution are tworepresentatives, albeit very largeones, of the way science impactsand challenges peoples lives,’ he said.‘An imperative for all nations is toprepare the future citizens of thosenations so that they can reactintelligently to these challenges.’ He thencalled for our schools to produce citizenswho are scientifically literate.

The full transcript of this speech isavailable at www.science.org.au/policy/statemen/unesco.htm.

Professor Brian Anderson

Australian Academy of Science Newsletter

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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

Email [email protected]

This newsletter is available on theAcademy’s web site,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 & Images, Canberra.Other assistance: members ofAcademy committees andAcademy 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• Gene technology and food, National

Science and Industry Forum, 31March 1999, see page 7.

• Sunken treasure? Australian coastsand oceans, Academy of Sciencesymposium, 30 April 1999, seethis page.

• Visions of Future Landscapes,Fenner Conference on theEnvironment, 2 to 5 May 1999,see page 5.

ConferencesThe Academy’s web site has aconference and events database thatlists events occurring in Australiaand New Zealand between now and2001. Events include seminars,exhibitions, science fairs, summerschools, workshops and lectures onthe subjects of science, health,information technology,engineering, mathematics and theenvironment. The database,prepared by the Royal Society ofNew Zealand, is atwww.science.org.au/conf.htm.

New topics on Nova• Monitoring the white death – soil

salinity• Cleaner production – a solution to

pollution

• Measurement in sport – the longand the short of it

• The ups and downs of Australianair traffic control

Nova: Science in the news is atwww.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 ora bequest to the Academy of Scienceor the Australian Foundation forScience, please contact the ExecutiveSecretary or the Development Officer,telephone (02)␣ 6247␣ 5777.

Sunken treasure?Australian coasts and oceansThe 1999 Academy of Science symposium

9am, 30 April 1999

Becker House, Canberra

Open to the public, $50 including lunch

At a time when oceans policy is high on the Federal Government’s agenda, theAcademy of Science is holding a symposium on the marine science that isessential to the implementation of that policy.

Over the last two years the government has been formulating policy to guidethe responsible and sustainable use and protection of Australian marine territory.It has also been preparing a marine science and technology plan to help applyknowledge of the ocean for the national benefit.

The symposium will review the current scientific challenges and the practicalneeds of management, conservation and efficient use of the sea. Speakers from theCSIRO, universities, the Bureau of Meteorology, the Australian Institute ofMarine Science and the Australian Geological Survey Organisation will look athow the planet is plumbed, ocean monitoring, coastal ecology and human impact,the Great Barrier Reef, fisheries, minerals and biologically active compounds inthe sea.

The convenor of the symposium is the Senior Science Adviser to the Bureau ofMeteorology, Dr Angus McEwan.

For more information visit the Academy’s web site at www.science.org.au/academy/agm.htm.

Number 43, January–April 1999

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On 19 January 1999, a meeting onhigher education issues in the UK andAustralia was held at the Academy.

The meeting included ProfessorBrian Fender, the Chief Executive of theUK Higher Education FundingCouncil, representatives from thelearned academies, the AustralianResearch Council, the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee, theDepartment of Industry, Science andResources, the Department ofEducation, Training and Youth Affairs,and the office of the Minister forIndustry, Science and Resources.

Professor Fender commented on thescience budget in the UK, which hasincreased from £1338␣ million in1998–99 to £1657.6␣ million in 2001–02.This reflects the recognition by thegovernment of the need to increasefunds for basic research, particularly inthe life sciences.

In the broader area of highereducation he outlined the currentsystem in the UK, particularly thechallenges faced by both the UK andAustralia in the allocation of fundingbetween research and teaching in anexpanded tertiary sector. In the UK thenumbers of students studying hasincreased dramatically to the currentlevel of 1.76␣ million.

Professor John White, Secretary

(Science Policy) of the Academy, askedProfessor Fender to comment on thedual system for higher educationfunding in the UK and the merits of theResearch Assessment Exercise, on waysto foster greater diversity in theresearch system and on how toencourage collaboration with industry.

There has been considerable interestin Australia in the ResearchAssessment Exercise, which provides aformula for research funding accordingto five grades based on a system ofpeer review. Professor Fender thoughtthat overall the system worked well

Meeting on higher educationand encouraged diversity within thesystem. He added that if there wasgoing to be a fundamental change inthe way research is funded, theresearch community would need a longtime to accommodate it.

He commented that the cost ofadministration was very low (0.3 percent) and this included the travel costsof expert committees. However, thepercentage cost would most likely behigher in Australia, because the totalfunds available would be less but thecost of administering the schemewould be similar.

Participants in the Academy meeting with the Chief Executive of the UK HigherEducation Funding Council, Professor Brian Fender, centre.

Three Fellows received Australia DayHonours in January 1999.

Professor Suzanne Cory, Director ofthe Walter and Eliza Hall Institute ofMedical Research in Melbourne, wasawarded a Companion in the GeneralDivision (AC), for her services toscience and the community. ProfessorCory is a leader in the field ofbiomedical research, committed toadvancement in the understanding ofthe molecular basis of cancer. She isalso an advocate of improved scienceeducation in schools and universities.

Professor David Burke, Professor ofNeurology at the University of NewSouth Wales, was awarded an Officerin the General Division (AO), for hisservices to science, medicine and the

community. His field of study isneurophysiology, with a particularfocus on research and education. Hiscontributions to the community havecome through medical charities andother lay organisations.

Emeritus Professor Bob Crompton,from the Research School of PhysicalSciences and Engineering at theAustralian National University, wasawarded a Member in the GeneralDivision (AM), for his services toscience and the community. He wasrecognised for his efforts in the field ofphysics education and research,particularly in his work for theAustralian Science Olympiads. Hiscontributions to the community havebeen mostly associated with theNational Brain Injury Foundation.

Australia Day Honours

Professor Suzanne Cory


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An Academy report on internationalscientific networks has found that thereare many obstacles for youngAustralian researchers seekingoverseas experience. This contrastswith the substantial investment madeby the European Union in the mobilityof young scientists.

Since its formation in 1954, theAcademy of Science has had a strongcommitment to international activities.These include its exchange programswhich enable Australian scientists toundertake collaborative research inoverseas laboratories, links with otherscience academies and participation inthe many bodies of the InternationalCouncil for Science.

In 1997 the Academy of Science andthe Academy of Technological Sciencesand Engineering prepared a paper,International science and technology: itsvalue to Australia and the role of theAcademies. This paper explored viewsabout international cooperation andpointed out that Australian scientistshave always been outward looking.

In 1998 the Academy commissioned

International networksneed support

a study of the opportunities availablefor early career researchers to obtainoverseas training and careerdevelopment. This study, initiated byDr Keith Boardman and carried out byDr Fiona Wood from the University ofNew England, will be released inMarch.

Information was sought on thesupport provided for establishedresearchers to maintain overseasnetworks. The study investigated thetype and level of support provided byAustralian universities for visits byoverseas scientists wanting tocollaborate on research. A further areaof inquiry concerned the numbers ofoverseas postgraduate studentsundertaking training in Australia.

The report addressed the topic ofinternational networks and Australia’scompetitiveness in science andtechnology, mapping out thecomplexities entailed in the issue ofscientific links.

The study recommended thatpolicies intended to make Australianscience more international be

benchmarked against other countries’policies, that a national strategy beadopted for securing electronicversions of major scientific journalsand databases, that an overseaspostdoctoral fellowship scheme beestablished, that overseas researchfunding opportunities be listed in acentral database, that more informationbe gathered on PhD graduateemployment, and that postgraduatestudents be funded to attend at leastone international conference duringtheir training.

The recent Health and MedicalStrategic Review also stressed thebenefits of overseas study forpostdoctoral researchers. Thesebenefits include the development ofideas, networks and collaborations,and exposure to other systems. Thisview is strongly supported by theAcademy.

The Academy welcomes commentsand additional information on theissue. A copy of the report will beposted on the Academy’s web site inMarch.

The Kanagawa Museum of NaturalHistory Awards fund research on thePrecambrian history of life in WesternAustralia or the modern microbialecosystem in Hamelin Pool, Shark Bay.Five Kanagawa Museum awards weremade in 1998.

Dr Brenton Knott, from theDepartment of Zoology at theUniversity of Western Australia, hasbeen funded for research intometazoan–microbialite interactions atfive sites in Western Australia.

Professor David Patterson, from theSchool of Biological Sciences at theUniversity of Sydney, will beundertaking research intoextremophilic micro-organisms forShark Bay and their contribution toearly cell evolution.

Dr Murray Batchelor, from theDepartment of Mathematics at the

Australian National University, willbegin researching a mathematicalapproach to stromatolitemorphogenesis and its significance forunderstanding the evolution ofproterozoic environments.

Dr Brett Neilan, from the School ofMicrobiology and Immunology at theUniversity of New South Wales, willstudy stromatolite morphogenesis as afunction of microbial diversity andecology at Hamelin Pool.

Professor Heinrich Zankl, from theUniversity of Marburg in Germany, hasbeen funded to study the importance ofin situ precipitation and carbonateaccumulation in the stromatolites atHamelin Pool.

Supported by the AustralianFoundation for Science

Kanagawa Awards Frew FellowvisitsThe 1998 Frew Fellowship wasawarded to Professor Carl Wieman,Professor of Physics at the Universityof Colorado. The Fellowship wasestablished by the Academy to enabledistinguished overseas scientists toparticipate in the AustralianSpectroscopy Conferences and to visitscience centres around Australia.

Professor Wieman, with EricCornell, was the first to achieve Bose–Einstein condensation in a dilute gas.His general area of study is laserspectroscopy and he is a Fellow of theUS National Academy of Sciences.Professor Wieman visited Brisbane,Canberra, Melbourne and NewZealand on his lecture tour.


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On 24 November 1998, the AustralianFoundation for Science held its annualgeneral meeting. The Chairman of theFoundation, Mr John Ralph, launchedtwo projects which will make theresources of the Academy’s AdolphBasser Library more accessible to thecommunity.

The first project relates to thecataloguing of the library’s collectionof␣ books. The result of this project isthat much more efficient browsing andretrieval of information is possible.Academy staff can now search thecollection using the computers on theirdesks, and they are able to answerpublic enquiries about items in thecollection. The support of ProfessorFrank Fenner in this project has beeninvaluable and the Academy and theFoundation thank him for his help.

The second project is funded by theACT Heritage Grants Program whichhas given the Academy $7000 topreserve the architectural drawings,sketches, blueprints and photographsrelated to the design and constructionof Becker House (the Dome), and toundertake the necessary research tonominate the Dome for the ACTHeritage Places Register.

The ACT Heritage Grants Programsupplied the Academy with a further$2500 to nominate the architecturaldocuments to the Heritage Objects

Register. The Academy has alsonominated the flag, raised over theSouth Magnetic Pole on the 1908–09Shackleton Antarctic expedition, as aheritage object.

The Academy has been fortunate toreceive an ACT Heritage Grant of$5000 to record video interviews withpeople involved with the constructionof the Dome. The National Library ofAustralia, through a CommunityHeritage Grant, is providing $3000 topreserve additional architecturaldocuments and the Australian HeritageCommission is providing $24 000 todevelop a cultural management planfor the Dome. As mentioned in the lastnewsletter, the Centenary of Federation

Ralph launches library projectsCultural and Heritage Projects hasagreed to contribute $525␣ 000 torenovate and refurbish the Dome. TheAcademy will be seeking corporatefunding for events in 2001.

Mr Ralph said, ‘These grants haveenabled many valuable projects to beundertaken.’ The Academy and theFoundation are very pleased that theDome and its history are to bepreserved in this way. Moreinformation about the Dome and itsconstruction is on the Academy’s website at www.science.org.au/construc.htm.


The Population and Environment Research Fund was launched by the formerChief Scientist of Australia, Professor Ralph Slatyer, in November 1998.

The fund will support research into how the size, lifestyle and othercharacteristics of Australia’s population are likely to affect the environment, notonly the land and landscape but other aspects such as health. An interdisciplinarycommittee will be established to decide on priorities for the fund, and theAcademy will ensure that there is objectivity, rigour and balance in any researchthat is supported.

More than $12 000 has been donated to the fund to date, a total which isexpected to rise to $150 000 after a combined donation and bequest have beenmade. The target for the fund is $1 000 000.

‘The Academy’s environmental activities started a few years after the Academywas founded in 1954, and have continued ever since,’ Professor Slatyer said. ‘Theresearch fund represents a departure from the normal range of Academy activitiesbut a very welcome one.’ He looked forward to the advances that will result fromthe research supported by the fund.

Supported by the Australian Foundation for Science

Fund for research intopopulation and theenvironment launched

Mr John Ralph addressing the annual general meeting of the Australian Foundationfor Science.

FuturelandscapesThe Academy’s next FennerConference on the Environment will becalled Visions of Future Landscapes andwill be held at the National ConventionCentre in Canberra from 2 to 5 May1999. The conference is being organisedby the Commonwealth Bureau of RuralSciences and aims to stimulate newways of looking at land use inAustralia.

The program will encouragedialogue between the scientific, artistic,commercial and government sectors.Participants will consider whethercurrent policies are likely to produceeconomically and environmentallysustainable landscapes that areculturally desired. The results will bedelivered to relevant government andindustry bodies.


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Wark Medaland LectureThe Academy’s Ian William Warkmedal and lecture are awardedbiennially to a scientist eminent fortheir contribution to the prosperityof Australia where such prosperityis attained through the advance ofscientific knowledge or itsapplication. The purpose is to focusattention on applications ofscientific discoveries that havebenefited the community.

The 1998 medallist is ProfessorThomas Healy, Professor of PhysicalChemistry and Director of theAdvanced Mineral Products SpecialResearch Centre at the University ofMelbourne.

Professor Healy, 61, has madeextensive contributions to thescience and technology of mineralprocessing. He has been responsiblefor managing a major researchgroup in colloid and interfacescience and technology that hasbuilt up a position of internationalstanding. His fundamental work inpolymer and surfactant adsorptionand on the stability of colloidaldispersions is applied daily in thecontrol of flotation and flocculationof mineral pulps and in thesuccessful management of tailingsand waste materials.

During two years at theUniversity of California at Berkeley,he published, with Hogg andFuerstenau, the now famous HHFtheory of the mutual coagulation ofcolloidal dispersions. In 1972 hepublished a classic paper on theJames–Healy model of hydrolysablemetal ion adsorption. He haspublished approximately 200papers in major journals, co-founding the journal Colloids andSurfaces and serving on the editorialboards of all major colloid andinterface science journals. He hasadvised major resource andchemical companies around theworld. He was elected a Fellow ofthe Academy in 1983.

The lecture will be delivered andthe medal presented at a dinnerlater in the year.

Ms Jane Medhurst, from theCooperative Research Centre forSustainable Production Forestry inHobart, and Terry Walsh, from theSchool of Botany at the University ofMelbourne, both won grants from theMaxwell Ralph Jacobs fund in 1999.

One grant will allow Ms Medhurstto travel to a conference on canopydynamics and forest managementwhich is to be held in Estonia, Finlandand Sweden in August.

Ms Medhurst will present a paper atthe conference on the thinningresponse in Eucalyptus nitens. In thispaper she aims to establish patterns ofheight and diameter growth ofEucalyptus nitens , following thinning atdifferent plantation ages. She willprovide a detailed description of the

Maxwell Jacobs grants

Le Fèvre PrizeThe RJW Le Fèvre Memorial Prize wasinaugurated in 1989 by the Academy torecognise the achievements of youngresearchers in chemistry.

This year the prize was awarded toDr Sean Smith, Senior Lecturer in theDepartment of Chemistry at theUniversity of Queensland. Dr Smithhas gained an excellent internationalreputation for his work in the field oftheoretical chemical kinetics andreaction dynamics.

He has made leading contributionsto both applied statistical theories andfundamental quantum dynamicalmethods for simulating chemicalreactions in great detail. His ideas ledto a breakthrough in theimplementation of accurate statisticaltheories for the calculation of ratecoefficients of barrierless associationreactions. He has also developed thefirst and only rigorous quantumdynamical algorithm for treating thesereactions. This led to the resolution ofdifferences over the chemical kineticsof a process for removing nitrogenoxides from combustion emissions.

He has published 31 articles inleading international journals,including six solo papers, a highlyregarded textbook (Theory ofUnimolecular and RecombinationReactions, with RG Gilbert) and areview chapter in the definitiveEncyclopedia of Computational Chemistry.

impact of thinning on canopydevelopment and will measure theduration of the thinning response interms of changes in crown size andactivity. Her goal is to developappropriate thinning regimes whichmaximise growth and commercialreturns.

Mr Walsh seeks to establish theeffectiveness of using growth stagemapping as a surrogate for age. To dothis he will establish the range of ageswhich can be associated with particulargrowth stages of stems and stands inthe mountain ash forests of Victoria’sCentral Highlands. He aims to definethe extent to which the growth stage ofthe overstorey can be used to predictunderstorey floristic composition andother ecological attributes.

King MedalProfessor Richard Stanton is theHaddon Forrester King medallist for1998. The biennial award recognisesthe scientific contributions of HaddonForrester King. The award is made fororiginal and sustained contributions tothe earth sciences of particularrelevance to the discovery andexploitation of minerals andhydrocarbons.

Professor Stanton, from theUniversity of New England, isdistinguished for his pioneering workon ore deposits of volcanic affiliation.His early and abiding interest has beenthe origin of volcanic massive sulphidedeposits and their relationship to theevolution of island arc volcanic rocks.

He studied at the University ofSydney and worked for a time as anexploration geologist with Broken HillSouth Ltd. He has worked in oreprovinces in many parts of the world,most notably Canada and the south-west Pacific.

Professor Stanton wrote the widelyused textbook, Ore Petrology, and Oreelements in arc lavas. Through his texts,publications and teaching, he hascontributed to the education andtraining of a generation of geologists.

The Haddon Forrester King medalwas presented at a dinner at theAcademy in Canberra on 26 February1999.


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PrimaryInvestigationsThe Academy’s science, technologyand environment program for primaryschools, Primary Investigations,continues its advance into schoolsaround the country. Over one-third ofschools have purchased the program.The highest take-up rate is in WesternAustralia, where 87 per cent of schoolsuse the program. Two-thirds of ACTschools and half of Queensland schoolshave Primary Investigations.

The Primary Investigations homepage is at www.science.org.au/pi.


An Australia–Japan workshop onmarine science was held in Hobart,Townsville and Canberra in November1998. The workshop was organised bythe Academy and the Japan Society forthe Promotion of Science.

In Hobart the group looked atSouthern Ocean ecosystems. Theytoured the CSIRO Marine Laboratoriesand had a meeting with the Chief ofthe laboratories, Dr Nan Bray. Then theAustralian scientists made a number ofpresentations: on the remote sensing ofocean colour and sea ice, on chemistryusing the mass spectrometer, on ships,moorings and electronics, and onAustralian programs in physicaloceanography, glaciology andbiogeochemistry. There was discussionof collaboration with Japanesescientists in the Indian Ocean. ThenJapanese oceanographers gavepresentations on physical and chemicaloceanography.

In North Queensland the Australianand Japanese scientists looked atcoastal oceanography, coral reefecosystems and palaeoclimatic change.They visited coral reefs near Cairnsbefore going to the Australian Instituteof Marine Science in Townsville. Therethe scientists made presentations onresearch projects of mutual interest toboth sides. The next day the Japanesescientists visited James CookUniversity, the Cooperative ResearchCentre for the Great Barrier Reef andthe Great Barrier Reef Aquarium.

Both groups met in Canberra at theend of the workshop to discuss futurecollaboration and report writing.Participants felt the workshop helpedbuild links between the scientists fromboth countries, as well as allowing timeto enjoy the ocean environments.

Marine science workshops

Japanese and Australian participants in the marine science workshop in Townsville,above, and Canberra, below.

Chemistry ChairThe Academy’s National Committeefor Chemistry has a new Chair,Professor David Black, the pastPresident of the Royal AustralianChemical Institute. The committee hasbeen examining ways to encouragegreater participation in theInternational Union of Pure andApplied Chemistry by youngerAustralian scientists.

The union is changing its way ofoperating and will concentrate onfunding special projects rather thandirecting its funding towards a largenumber of commissions. The NationalCommittee supports this change.Details are available at www.iupac.org.

National Science andIndustry Forum

Gene technologyand food31 March 1999

Maritime MuseumSydney

For further information email FayeNicholas at [email protected].


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The Academy’s informative web site,Nova: Science in the news, has beenrecognised as one of the world’s bestscience sites. The most used searchoperation on the World Wide Web,Yahoo!, has recommended Nova as oneof 24 sites in its category Science –News and Media.

A survey of users has shown thatabout half are teachers, 16 per centuniversities and other education, 7 percent students and 5 per cent from thenews media. About 21 per cent arefrom countries other than Australia.

There are 36 topics available onNova (www.science.org.au/nova).New␣ topics are:

Monitoring the white death –soil salinityScientists at CSIRO Mathematical andInformation Sciences recently tested anew remote sensing technique tomonitor the extent of dryland salinity.The results were very encouraging,with one salt-affected site beingmapped remotely at an accuracy ofalmost 100 per cent. This topicdiscusses which regions are mostaffected by dryland salinity, the causesand prevention of salinisation, andmapping and predicting wheresalinisation will next occur. Topicsponsored by the Land Monitor Project.

Cleaner production –a solution to pollutionCleaner production has been definedby the United Nations EnvironmentProgramme as ‘the continuousapplication of an integratedenvironmental strategy to processes,products and services to increase

ConferencesMicrobiology in AugustThe Australian Society forMicrobiology and the AustralianAcademy of Science are hosts of aseries of major conferences to be heldin Sydney in August 1999 under theauspices of the International Union ofMicrobiological Societies. Theconferences are the 11th InternationalCongress of Virology (9 to 13 August),the 9th International Congress ofMycology and the 9th InternationalCongress of Bacteriology and AppliedMicrobiology (both 16 to 20 August).Scientists from around the world willgather at Darling Harbour to reflect onthe achievements in microbiology thiscentury and to look forward to thegreat scientific challenges, especiallyemerging diseases, of the next century.

For more information visit thecongress web site atwww.tourhosts.com.au/iums ortelephone (02)␣ 9262␣ 2277.

Chemistry in 2001The International Union of Pure andApplied Chemistry will hold itsgeneral assembly and congress inBrisbane in July 2001. Themes for thecongress include materials chemistryfor the future, chemistry by computer,chemistry in medicine and biology,environmental chemistry and thegreening of industry, and modernsynthetic chemistry. Nobel laureateswill make presentations at the congressand in other capitals. There will bespecial activities to appeal to youngerscientists and students.

For more information contact thePresident of the Royal AustralianChemical Institute, Professor GraemeGeorge, email [email protected].

Maths in 2003Australian and New Zealand Industrialand Applied Mathematics has beenappointed to host the 5th InternationalCongress on Industrial and AppliedMathematics. The congress, which isheld every four years, will be inSydney from 7 to 11 July 2003. The 1999congress in Edinburgh is expected toattract 2500 participants.

For more information visit thecongress web site atwww.austms.org.au/iciam2003 ortelephone (02)␣ 9241␣ 1478.

Nova wins global recognitionefficiency and reduce risks to humansand the environment’. In the past,companies have focused on treatingwaste, rather than reducing it.

The concept of cleaner productionplaces emphasis on waste minimisationand offers both increased profits andan enhanced environmental image.Topic sponsored by the EnvironmentProtection Authority, Victoria.

Measurement in sport –the long and the short of itWhen the Olympic Games kick off inSydney in September 2000, there willbe many measures of success. Behindthe scenes, a wide range of scientificand technological wizardry will beemployed to ensure that thosemeasures are as accurate as possible.Topic sponsored by the NationalStandards Commission.

The ups and downs of Australianair traffic controlFor the last 50 years, the movement ofan aircraft has been tracked largely byair traffic controllers using little morethan pencil, paper and, in a few smallareas of the continent, radar. Theintroduction of the AustralianAdvanced Air Traffic System brings themanagement of Australian skies intothe computer age. Topic sponsored byAirservices Australia.

All the new topics are alsosponsored by the CommonwealthDepartment of Industry, Science andResources.


On 10 December 1998, the Academy ofScience, the National EnvironmentalHealth Forum and the AustralianFoundation for Science presented apublic lecture by Professor IainPurchase entitled Do environmentalchemicals disrupt sex hormones?Separating fact from fiction.

Professor Purchase, aninternationally renowned Britishtoxicologist, addressed claims thatcertain chemicals, to which we areexposed on a daily basis, may bedisrupting our hormonal systems.Among these claims are that somesynthetic chemicals are causing

No proof against chemicalsdecreased sperm counts and testicularabnormalities in males, and increasedrisks of breast and testicular cancer.

Professor Purchase said that there isno conclusive proof for a connectionbetween environmental exposure tooestrogen-like chemicals and humanhealth effects. He stressed the need tobe objective about the effects of thesesuspect chemicals if a balanced view isto be reached on the availableevidence.



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Ten Australian scientists will travel toJapan in 1999 and 2000 under theexchange program between theAcademy and the Japan Society for thePromotion of Science.

Professor Graeme Dandy, of theUniversity of Adelaide, will travel tothe Water Resources Research Centre atKyoto University to study thedevelopment of comprehensivedecision support systems for theoperation and planning of watersupply systems.

Dr Ling Guan, from the Universityof Sydney, will visit the Department ofComputational Intelligence andSystems Science at the Tokyo Instituteof Technology to study computationalintelligence and applications inmultimedia processing.

Dr Andreas Houben, of theUniversity of Adelaide, will travel tothe Joetsu Educational University toresearch the isolation of chromosome-specific DNA.

Associate Professor Jerzy Kulski,from the University of WesternAustralia, will be hosted by the Schoolof Medicine at Tokai University, where

he will study evolution and genomicorganisation of the MHC.

Dr Serdar Kuyucak, from theDepartment of Theoretical Physics atthe Australian National University, willtravel to the Department of Physics atTohoku University to research octupoleexcitations in nuclear structure andreactions.

Dr Victor Streltsov, from theUniversity of Western Australia, willvisit the Materials and StructuresLaboratory at the Tokyo Institute ofTechnology to use x-ray diffractiontechniques to study structure andelectron density in ferroelectricmaterials.

Dr Serguei Vladimirov, of theUniversity of Sydney, will visit theDepartment of Energy, Engineeringand Science at Nagoya University tostudy collective interactions of particlesand waves in plasmas containinghighly charged impurities.

Associate Professor ColinWoodroffe, from the University ofWollongong, will be hosted by theDepartment of Geography at NagoyaUniversity where he will undertake

Exchanges with Japanresearch into the geomorphology ofdelta and reef coasts in the westernPacific.

Dr Dimitri Ionov, from the Schoolof Earth Sciences at MacquarieUniversity, will visit the Department ofEarth and Planetary Material Sciencesat Hokkaido University to study theevolution of the mantle at activecontinental margins.

Dr Andrew Moorhouse, from theUniversity of New South Wales, willtravel to Kyushu University where hewill work in the Department ofPhysiology to study the effects of painneuropeptides on inhibitory synaptictransmission in rat spinal cord.

There is also one recipient of aJapanese Government Research Awardfor Foreign Specialists. Dr GraemeAllinson, from the School of Ecologyand Environment at Deakin University,will be hosted by the RegionalEnvironment Division at the NationalInstitute of Environmental Studies inIbaraki. During his three-month visit,Dr Allinson will monitor heavy metaltransport in soil.

New link with Malaysian scienceThe President of the Academy of Sciences, Malaysia, Professor Omar,centre, with the President of the Australian Academy of TechnologicalSciences and Engineering, Mr Tim Besley, left, and the President of theAustralian Academy of Science, Professor Brian Anderson, at thesigning of a memorandum of understanding between the threeAcademies in Perth on 23 November 1998.

Following the signing of the memorandum, arrangements weremade for a joint Australian-Malaysian workshop on science andtechnology policy. The workshop, to be held in Canberra on 22 and23␣ March, is being organised by the two Australian Academies.

Chance tocollaborate withEuropeanscientistsFollowing the recent conclusion ofnegotiations between Australia and theEuropean Commission on broadeningthe scope of the Australia-EuropeanUnion Agreement on Scientific andTechnical Cooperation, Australianresearchers and industry consortiumhave an opportunity to participate inthe European Union’s Fifth FrameworkProgram.

The program will focus on quality oflife and management of livingresources, user-friendly informationsociety, competitive and sustainablegrowth, and preserving the ecosystem.

For further information on thisprogram please contact Mr Peter deSouza, Department of Industry, Scienceand Resources, telephone(02)␣ 6213␣ 6381, [email protected].


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Sir Ian McLennanThe former Chairman of BHP, Sir IanMcLennan, died on 27 October 1998.

Ian McLennan was born in 1909 inStawell, Victoria, from where he movedwith his family to Foster and then toShepparton. He attended SheppartonHigh School and then went to ScotchCollege in Melbourne in 1925. Hestudied mathematics and physics as hishonours subjects at Scotch College andwas equal dux in 1927. He wasawarded a Senior GovernmentScholarship to attend MelbourneUniversity and to reside at OrmondCollege. He completed his degree ofBachelor of Electrical Engineering in1931.

As he could not find satisfactorywork immediately, he remained atMelbourne University doing furtherstudy until 1933 when he joined theBroken Hill Proprietary CompanyLimited at Whyalla. This marked thebeginning of over 45 years service withthe company during which he waspromoted many times until finallyretiring as the Chairman of the Boardin 1977.

His influence and accomplishmentswhile he was with BHP have beendescribed as astounding. Sir Ianpromoted the exploration program thatled to BHP discovering petroleum inBass Strait, a resource which onceyielded more profits than steel. He also

led the company’s diversification ofproducts, away from steel.

Sir Ian noticed that BHP wasseriously lacking the scientific andtechnological support necessary forsuccess on the global market. He wassubstantially responsible for thedevelopment of an independentresearch division within BHP; thisexercised a major role in thedevelopment of ferrous metallurgy inAustralia. The research groups have

greatly improved efficiency andproductivity in all facets of cokemaking, iron making and steelproduction.

In 1977 he became the Chairman ofthe ANZ Bank and then, in 1980, theChairman of Elders, where he helpedassemble a corporate giant. Due to SirIan’s excellent management skills hejoined many company boards.

Sir Ian received three honorarydegrees from Australian universitiesand was invested as a KnightCommander of the British Empire ‘forservices to industry’, and a KnightCommander of the Order of St Michaeland St George ‘for services to youth,community and industry’.

He was elected as a Fellow of theAcademy by special election in 1980and supported the Academy for manyyears, chairing the symposium whichfounded the National Science andIndustry Forum in 1964. He was theFoundation President of the AustralianAcademy of Technological Sciencesand Engineering. He maintained greatinterest in the CSIRO and served as amember of the CSIRO AdvisoryCouncil for several years. He helpeddevelop the Ian Clunies Ross MemorialFoundation which provides officespace at low rental facilities for themeetings and activities of scientificsocieties.

Honours toFellowsProfessor Graeme Clark, from theUniversity of Melbourne, andDr␣ Douglas Waterhouse, formerly ofthe CSIRO Division of Entomology,have been elected to the AustralianAcademy of Technological Sciencesand Engineering.

Professor Peter Doherty, of St Jude’sChildren’s Research Hospital,Memphis, has been elected to theUS␣ National Academy of Sciences.

He will deliver the Royal Society ofLondon’s Leeuwenhoek Lecture, on thesubject of killer T cells and virusinfections, on 17␣ March 1999.

Sir Ian McLennan

The Academy has received a grant of$50 000 from the National Council forthe Centenary of Federation’s Historyand Education Program to fund aproject called 100 Years of AustralianScience. This project will extend theAcademy’s Video Histories of AustralianScientists program, which was initiatedin conjunction with Dr Max Blythe ofthe Royal College of Physicians andOxford Brookes University VTRArchive in Great Britain.

The Video Histories program wasestablished in 1993 to record interviewswith outstanding Australian scientistsfor this and future generations. Thesepersonal stories provide an informalcounterbalance to their formal scientificpublications.

New Centenary of FederationScience Project

For the 100 Years of Australian Scienceproject, additional interviews will beconducted, then transcribed, editedand made available on the Internet.The interviews will be shown duringthe Australian Science Festival in May2001. They will also be available forpurchase from the Academy or for loanfrom Cinemedia. The list of scientistsinterviewed is on the Academy’s website at www.science.org.au/educatio/vhas.htm.



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Sir Otto Frankel, former Chief of theCSIRO Division of Plant Industry, diedon 21 November 1998. He was 98.

The son of a Jewish barrister, OttoFrankel was born on 4 November 1900in Vienna. He had a classical education,learning more Greek and Latin thanscience. Having not fought in the war,he was refused entry to university, sohe studied the curriculum from outsidethe system and eventually gainedformal credit for his study. Hesubsequently studied at universities inMunich, Vienna and Giessen and inBerlin gained his doctorate for a studyof genetic linkage.

He initially worked as a plantbreeder for a private estate nearVienna, then travelled briefly toPalestine with a team to set up a plantand animal breeding operation. Hethen spent a short time breeding plantsat Cambridge before going to NewZealand’s Department of Scientific andIndustrial Research, in 1928, as a plantbreeder at its new Wheat ResearchInstitute near Christchurch.

He bred a number of highlysuccessful wheat varieties andperformed research in cytogeneticswhich led to his election to Fellowshipof the Royal Society of London in 1953.His contributions to cytogenicsincluded studies of New Zealandplants, especially Hebe, and on the

mechanics and physiological behaviourof the chromosomes of plants.

However, in 1951, just after beingpromoted to Director of the DSIR CropResearch Division, Frankel left NewZealand to work in Canberra. IanClunies Ross, then Chairman of CSIRO,had chosen him to become the newChief for the run-down Division ofPlant Industry. Frankel was appointedto revitalise the division and, soonafter, it became Australia’s leadingplant biology research institution. In an

obituary in The Australian, two CSIROcolleagues of Sir Otto, Dr Lloyd Evansand Dr John Philip, wrote ‘Frankel wasa convinced exponent of Rivett’sprinciple of research management: findthe best person to head up the taskthen give him the maximum freedomand help to get on with it’. He waselected a Fellow of the Academy ofScience in 1954.

Frankel became a member of theCSIRO executive in 1962. He retired in1966 and was knighted in that year. Hereturned to Plant Industry as anhonorary research fellow. He continuedhis research well after his officialretirement and began to take a seriousinterest in the conservation of thebotanical gene pool. He was acampaigner for biodiversity and wroteand edited a number of books on thesubject. He sought to convince peopleof the necessity of conserving the entiregene pool, not only selected species.

Sir Otto enjoyed many non-scientificpursuits: trout fishing, skiing, garden-ing and architecture. He and his secondwife, Margaret Anderson, built a housein Christchurch which appeared in twoarchitectural books. Sir Roy Grounds,the architect of the Academy’s Dome,designed the Frankels’ third house inCampbell, ACT. Its garden is amanifestation of Sir Otto’s botanicskills and love of gardening.

Biographical memoirsA number of biographers have beenappointed to write memoirs of formerFellows for publication in HistoricalRecords of Australian Science. Dr RISommerville and Professor ChrisBryant will write about Professor WP(Buddy) Rogers, Dr Peter Hannafordwill write about Sir Alan Walsh,Professor Frank Fenner and ProfessorStuart Harris will write about Dr HC(Nugget) Coombs, and Dr Lloyd Evanswill write about Sir Otto Frankel.

where island arc structures have beenwelded onto the ancient core of thecontinent. Professor Kennett said thesesimilarities have generated strong linksbetween Australia and Japan in theearth sciences and he detailed diverseAustralia–Japan collaborations.

Dr Osamu Takikawa, a visitingfellow at the University of Wollongong,told the audience how Australia andJapan have combined forces to combatcataract, the main cause of blindness inthe world. Scientists at the Universityof Wollongong have recentlydiscovered that an unstable metaboliteof trytophan could be implicated inlens coloration, the predominantfeature of the disease. The key enzymeused to produce the metabolite, IDO,was discovered in Japan and has beenstudied extensively by Japanesescientists, including Dr Takikawa.Japan and Australia are now working

together to develop an inhibitorspecific for IDO to help delay, or evenprevent, the onset of this disablingdisease.

The final speaker, Dr AlexanderZelinsky, from the Australian NationalUniversity, discussed human-friendlyrobots. He defined a ‘robot’ as anindependent, self-sustainingmechanism equipped with autonomyand its own energy sources.Dr␣ Zelinsky believes human-friendlyrobots will be the next frontier inscience and technology and hepresented recent results in this area.

A closing speech was given by theVice-President of the Academy ofTechnological Sciences andEngineering, Mr Martin Thomas.

Earlier in the day, seven formerfellows of the Science and TechnologyAgency postdoctoral fellowship andshort-term program discussed the

Japan reception continued from page 12program with staff of the agency and ofthe Japan International Science andTechnology Exchange Centre. Theformer fellows gave presentations ontheir experiences in Japan, what theyliked about the program and whatcould be improved.

Sir Otto Frankel

Sir Otto Frankel in 1956


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A reception was held at Becker Houseon Friday 13 November 1998 torecognise, strengthen and celebrate thelinks between Australian and Japanesescientists. It was organised by theAustralian Academy of Science and theAustralian Academy of TechnologicalSciences and Engineering, as a part ofthe 10th anniversary celebrations of theNational Science and TechnologyCentre. It was supported by the JapanScience and Technology Agency.

The reception was an opportunity toadvertise the important scientificexchanges between Australia andJapan. The majority of the Academy’sprograms with Japan are fully fundedby the Japanese government. TheAcademy also administers an exchangeprogram of its own which enables eightAustralian scientists to visit Japanannually, and eight Japanese scientiststo visit Australia each year. SixJapanese-funded programs areadministered by the Academy, fourwith the Japan Science and TechnologyAgency, and two with the Japan Societyfor the Promotion of Science.

The audience of scientists, diplomatsand others was welcomed by ProfessorBrian Anderson, the President of theAcademy of Science. A speech by theJapanese Ambassador, Mr Takahashi,followed. Mr Takahashi highlighted thepositive and rewarding relationship

between Australian and Japanesescientists and said that ‘a certainsignificance and priority has beengiven to the effective networking of thetwo countries’ scientists and engineers,through the researchers’ exchange anddissemination of information’. Heconcluded with the hope that thereception would provide ‘a keyoccasion for both Australian andJapanese scientists to realise thesignificance of bilateral collaborationand to strengthen their research links’.

A short speech by the Director ofQuestacon, Dr Mike Gore, precededseven Australian and Japanesescientists who spoke on a variety ofsubjects, outlining the benefits of theirinternational alliances.

Dr Keith Boardman, a former headof CSIRO, gave a speech on the plantsciences, which detailed the valuablelinks between Australian and Japanesescientists. This association has beenparticularly useful in the field of plantproduction, especially in reference tophotosynthesis.

Professor Ikuzo Tanaka, theChancellor of Musashi Gakuen, gavean outline of science in Japan. ProfessorTanaka is a renowned chemist, aformer president of the Tokyo Instituteof Technology and a member of theJapanese Council for Science andTechnology.

The Academy’s Secretary (SciencePolicy), Professor John White, talkedabout small science at big sciencefacilities. He noted the large numbersof scientists who use big sciencefacilities for little science experimentsand how this is more cost-effectivethan performing little scienceexperiments at lower poweredfacilities. He addressed the need toprovide cutting edge infrastructure forthe broad scientific community.

Dr Kiyofumi Matsuda, a Japanesescientist currently visiting theDepartment of Physical Optics at theUniversity of Sydney, described hisexperience of research co-operationwith Australia in the field of opticalmeasurements. Dr Matsuda hasworked in Australia on two occasionsand collaborated on many researchprojects with Australian scientistswhile living in Japan. Dr Matsudarecently received an award for workdone in Sydney.

From the ANU, Professor BrianKennett spoke about ‘Young Islands –Old Continent: Earth science linksbetween Japan and Australia’. Thecreation of the Japanese islands by thecontinuing subduction of thePhilippine and Pacific plates provides amodel for the margin of the Australiancontinent from 300 million years ago,

Reception celebrates links with Japan

continued on page 11

Participants in the Australia–Japan science reception.

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