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ISSN 1329-7759 RSWA Proceedings AUGUST 2010
ATTENTION LIBRARIANS: This publication should be catalogued under "Proceedings of the Royal Society of Western Australia"
National Science Week Events for 2010
International Year of
Biodiversity
FREE - Horizon-the Planetarium family event
Biodiversity and climate change – past, present and future....
7:00 pm, Wednesday August 18th 2010
Horizon -The Planetarium, City West, Cnr Sutherland St and Railway Pde
West Perth
Introduction by WA Chief Scientist and Vice Patron of The Royal Society of WA, Professor Lyn Beazley AO
Bookings are essential
The Royal Society of Western Australia, in association with Horizon - The Planetarium, presents the Society’s event for National Science Week 2010 - "Biodiversity and climate change: past, present, and future". The series of short talks include Dr Alex Bevan on astronomy and climate; Premier’s Fellow, Professor Malcolm McCulloch on climate change and its effect on coral ecosystems; Dr Pieter Poot on floral biodiversity of south-western Australia; Dr Vic Semeniuk on past climate changes, and predicted effects on biodiversity of any future climate changes; and Planetarium Manager Carley Tillett with two Planetarium shows- Climate and Places for Life in Our Solar System, and Climate Change and “Continental Drift”. Phone Bookings: Scitech 92150740, Email bookings for RSWA members [email protected].
Please note: Join with a Friend - two for the price of one (for the first 12 months only), at all Royal Society of WA National Science Week events
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Members, guests and visitors welcome http://www.rswa.org.au
This issue of the RSWA Proceedings was edited by Margaret Brocx [email protected]_
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Address by Professor Don Bradshaw Recipient of the Medal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 2010 85 members and guests attended The Royal Society of Western Australia Annual General Meeting to hear Emeritus Professor Bradshaw deliver his Address after being awarded the Medal of the Royal Society of Western Australia. Don spoke on “Ecophysiology and conservation of wildlife in Western Australia”. Ecophysiology is the study of the relevance of physiological processes in both plants and animals to ecological constraints imposed by their environment. Don Bradshaw’s research has focused on Australian animals, specifically reptiles, amphibians, birds and marsupials, but lately, plants have become important in working with the nectarivorous Honey Possum.
The nectarivorous Honey Possum
The discipline of physiology was created by the Frenchman Claude Bernard in the 19th century and he dealt with animals only as models for the human condition. It was only in the 20th century that physiologists began to study animals in their own right, not just as proxies for humans, and the developing discipline of comparative physiology laid the grounds for the emergence of ecophysiology. Animals adapt to changes in their environment, or they perish, and we are faced with an ever-lengthening list of species that are now threatened with extinction in Australia. A long-term study of the ecophysiology of the unique suite of native animals on Barrow Island, for example, has
revealed the extent to which they are adapted to survive in difficult arid environments, but periods of stress have also been identified in some species when their ability to maintain physiological homeostasis is compromised.
Quokka drinking
Red Ornate Dragon
Our knowledge of the ecophysiology of the WA fauna is limited to only a very small number of species but, in each case, it empowers us to identify those elements of the environment that are critical for their long-term survival. The challenges brought by climate change are ones that Australia’s unique plants and animals must also face if they are to persist and its is through targeted ecophysiological studies that we will best be able to assist them in that process. The Royal Society of Western Australia acknowledges with thanks sponsorship of the Webb Lecture Theatre by the Department of Earth Sciences, The University of Western Australia.
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Highlights from the AGM
Professor Lyn Beazley AO introducing Emeritus Professor Don Bradshaw and awarding him the RSWA medal.
Rachael Loh from The University of Western Australia receives the RSWA Student Medal from Prof. Beazley
James Dornal from The University of Notre Dame receives the RSWA Student Medal from Prof. Beazley
Jessie-Leigh Brown from Curtin University of Technology receives the RSWA Student Medal from Prof. Beazley
Emily Lette from Edith Cowan University receives the RSWA Student Medal from Prof. Beazley
Bryony Palmer from Murdoch University receives the RSWA Student Medal from Prof. Beazley
Journal of the Royal Societyof Western Australia
EDITOR’S REPORT July 2010 K Meney Email address: < [email protected]> Manuscript Accepted: Mass stranding of elongate sunfish (Ranzania laevis) (Pisces: Molidae) (Pennant 1776) on the southern coast of Western Australia: Smith K A, Hammond, M & P G Close
The Joint WA Museum Royal Society of WA
Library is held at Kew St
Email: [email protected] Phone: 9212 3771 Facsimile: 9212 3882
View the joint RSWA WAM Online catalogue at:
http://library-srv.museum.wa.gov.au/menu.htm
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Royal Society of WA Regional Events 2010
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Bunbury "Biodiversity of the
Leschenault Peninsula and Inlet"
6 pm, Monday 16th August,
2nd Bunbury Sea Scouts Hall, Cobblestone Drive, Queens Gardens, Bunbury.
This Royal Society of WA National Science Week event is in association with the Leschenault Catchment Council, and the Bunbury Sea Scouts. The evening will cover aspects of vegetation biodiversity on the barrier dunes of the Leschenault Peninsula, that along the junction of the barrier with the Leschenault Inlet estuary (one of the most complex interfaces in an estuary in south-western Australia), and the biodiversity of Leschenault Inlet estuary itself. The presentation will be family-oriented. Contact is [email protected].
Karratha
"The Biodiversity of the Pilbara Region",
6:00 pm, Friday 20th August,
and 9 am Saturday 21st August
DEC offices, Karratha Industrial Estate.
Excursion from the Karratha Visitor Centre
This Royal Society of WA National Science Week event is in association with the Department of Environment & Conservation. It will cover the biodiversity of the Pilbara Region as determined by its regional geology, soils, landscape, and water, as well as small-scale features of habitats. The Saturday morning excursion, commencing at 9 am at the Karratha Visitor Centre, will examine the biodiversity developed to the coastal zone. The presentation and excursion will be family-oriented. Contact is [email protected].
Port Hedland
"Mangroves of Port Hedland”.
6:00 pm Saturday 21st August, and 9 am Sunday 22nd August
Port Hedland Civic Centre
This Royal Society National Science Week event is sponsored by and in collaboration with the Port Hedland Port Authority. There will be an illustrated talk on what mangroves are, their diversity in the Port Hedland area, how they are distributed in Port Hedland, and how they function, followed by "hands-on" activities with samples and microscopes. Sunday morning, 22nd August, will be an excursion to the mangroves of Finucane Island, where there is representation at one location of all the mangrove species in the region. A bus for the excursion leaves the Port Hedland Civic Centre at 9am.
Royal Society of WA National Science Week - Membership Offer
Join with a friend This year, the Royal Society has extended it half price Membership offer, for the first 12 months, (normally only available at the Postgraduate Symposium), to all attending RSWA-hosted National Science Week events. Membership forms can be downloaded from the Royal Society website www.rswa.org.au Benefits of Membership include 4 issues per year of the Royal Society of WA Journal, monthly Proceedings, free entry to the Christmas Function, free reprints to Manuscripts published in the Journal, and reserved places in upcoming events (see Diary of Events), 10% discount at the Murdoch University Bookshop, and 10% discount at the WA Museum Bookshop. Why not encourage a colleague or two to take advantage of this offer today!
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First Call for Abstracts and notice of the Blackwood River and Estuary - Hardy Inlet Symposium October 2011 Proposed Journal of The Royal Society of Western Australia Special Issue - Blackwood River and Estuary - Hardy Inlet: Sponsored by the Ernest Hodgkin Trust. Ernest Hodgkin’s enduring legacy of research into the evolution and functioning of estuaries, starting in the Blackwood River and Estuary - Hardy Inlet, will be celebrated in this special volume to reporting on the state of both the estuarine system that is the Blackwood-Hardy, and how the science of estuaries in our changing climate has evolved. The Blackwood volume will be in the ‘tradition’ of other Royal Society of Western Australia Special Issue: Leeuwin Current 1991 & 2009, Plant diseases 1994, Isotope Science 1996, Nature Conservation in Southern-western Australia 1997, Remote Sensing 1997, Granite Outcrops Symposia 1997 & 2000, Leschenault Inlet Estuary 2000, Fire and Wetlands of the Swan Coastal Plain 2005, and Kimberley Region Marine and Coastal Science 2011. We now seek expressions of interest from authors, both for papers, to be delivered during the main symposium, as well as a companion call for poster papers. Both will be fully peer reviewed (for instructions to authors please see www.rswa.org.au). Abstracts (100 words) should be submitted to the Editor of Journal of The Royal Society of Western Australia ([email protected]) by 30th September 2010. If accepted, to meet publication deadlines, authors will be required to submit manuscripts, to be delivered to the Editor of Journal of The Royal Society of Western Australia by December 31st 2010. Following a review period of 2-4 months, for inclusion in the Symposium, final revised manuscripts are required no later 30th June 2011. In order to have the published Special Issue available for participants at the Symposium, Abstracts can only be accepted from authors who can undertake to meet these timelines.
Notice for Abstracts and Posters Royal Society of WA 12th Annual Postgraduate Symposium Postgraduate students in agriculture, natural sciences, earth and environmental sciences, physical sciences, biology and environmental engineering are invited to present the findings of their research as an oral presentation or poster. This is a unique opportunity for students to network with fellow students from other universities and disciplines. This is a cross-campus, multi-disciplinary symposium with FREE registration that includes a BBQ lunch. When: 9:30 am to 5:00 pm Saturday 18th September 2010 Where: Robertson Lecture Theatre, Murdoch University Information for presenters: An Abstract and a brief biosketch should be emailed to the organisers (see below) by Friday 25 August 2010. FREE membership of the RSWA for one year is provided to all presenters. For further details and submission of abstracts contact Lynne Milne [email protected] mobile 0414 400 219 Philip O'Brien [email protected] URL: http://www.rswa.org.au Who should attend? Fellow students, scientists and interested members of the public are very WELCOME to attend. Registration is FREE for all attendees. Non-presenters, please RSVP to symposium organisers by 13th September your intention to attend the symposium. Half-price membership rates for the first year are offered to all new RSWA members that join on the day.
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This year's celebration will be from 14-22 August and as well as participating in The Big Sleep Survey citizen science research project you can catch our touring scientists in the National Tour or be a part of one of the 1000+ events spread across every state and territory. For more information go to http://www.scienceweek.gov.au/Pages/index.aspx
Geological Society of Australia (WA Division)
August 2010 Monthly Meeting
Date: Wednesday 4 August 2010 Time: 5.30 pm for 6.00 pm formal start (bar open upstairs before talk)
Venue: Irish Club of WA (Inc), 61 Townshend Rd, Subiaco
Speaker: Courtney Gregory (Curtin University)
Topic: “Hf Targeted, in situ U-Pb geochronolology of accessory minerals associated with IOCG deposits; an example from the Hillside Prospect, Yorke Peninsula”
This space will be updated each month in order to provide RSWA members and guests with a calendar of up-coming events which will include ordinary monthly meeting, and special events such as Public Forums, Symposia, and excursions. Watch this space!
Date Time Venue Event August 16th 6 pm Bunbury Sea Scouts
Hall National Science Week Event: Biodiversity of Leschenault Peninsula and Inlet
August 18th 7 pm Scitech, City West National Science Week Event: Biodiversity and Climate Change-Past Present and Future
August 20th 6 pm DEC Karratha National Science Week Event: Biodiversity in the Pilbara Region
August 21st 6 pm Port Hedland National Science Week Event: Mangroves of Port Hedland September 18th 9:30 am to
5:00 pm Robertson LT, Murdoch University
12th Annual Post-graduate Symposium
October 18th 7 pm Kings Park Dr Alec Coles, the new CEO of the WA Museum: A vision for the Western Australian Museum
November 15th 7 pm Kings Park Dr Phil Playford: The Devonian Reef Complexes December TBA TBA Herdsman Lake Joint RSWA/Naturalists Club Xmas Function Royal Society of Western Australia Disclaimer. -The Society works to maintain up-to-date information from reliable sources; however, no liability is accepted for any errors or omissions or the results of any actions based upon this information. Links to other websites - the RSWA does not necessarily endorse the views expressed on these websites, nor does it guarantee the accuracy or of any information presented there. It should also be noted that other sites linked from the Proceedings may use cookies that track visitors. Safety - safety is an important concern in all indoor and outdoor activities. When attending an RSWA function or excursion, the RSWA cannot anticipate the limitations of every participant or alert you to every hazard. As such, you are required to assume responsibility for own safety at all times.
RSWA Events Calendar
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Archibald Liversidge
Archibald Liversidge: Imperial Science under the Southern Cross No. of copies Price per copy TOTAL
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274 Archibald Liversidge 275
CHAPTER 9
Science and Sociability
The main corridor of the Chemistry Building
Science and Sociability
Borrowing an appealing phrase, Sir Mungo MacCallum, linguist, dedicated servant of Empire, and Sydney’s first full-time vice chancellor, once referred to the ‘practical idealism’ that sustained ‘transplanted Britons’ through personal discomfort, even
professional loss, in the service of colonial scholarship.1 It is an expression that fits many of Liversidge’s generation, and none more than himself. It exemplified a approach that adapted the ‘borrowed culture’ of Britain to the circumstances of colonial life. It contained, at base, a view of nature and society that blended individualism and cooperative enterprise. The result was not so much a coherent philosophy as an attitude of mind, a philosophy sans doctrines. Practical idealism was inspired by the bush and the outback, as much as the city.2 But in the cities, it had a particular resonance. By the late-1880’s, the city-states of Australia had become ‘moving metropoleis’, their public architecture recalling the capitals of Europe; their literature, mercurial, critical, even abrasive.3 Looking to the wealth generated by wool, wheat and minerals, the methods of science had achieved a bourgeois respectability, the worth of which, if not over-valued, was at least no longer questioned. Liversidge, who had known defeat in many forms, found himself on the threshold of success, as the University’s emphasis changed from pioneering to pragmatic. The decade was becoming, in Whitehead’s phrase, the age of the professional.4 In June 1888, Liversidge resigned from the Board of Technical Education, and in September, from the Trustees of the Technological Museum. He was happy to devolve the Museum to Joseph Maiden and Henry Smith.5 In 1889, he resigned the honorary secretaryship of the Royal Society, and although he agreed to serve as president again in 1889-90, he returned to the backbenches of the Council for the rest of the decade. While he remained a Trustee of the Australian Museum, he sought time for other things. These years would be dominated by administration, organization, and laboratory life, but also by making a home for himself, amidst the saga of university reform.
1. ANZAAS AND ALL THAT
When Liversidge returned from England in early 1888, he had before him the prospect of struggle on three fronts – technical education, the Technological Museum, and the University. The year proved a turning point in the history of intercolonial cooperation through the establishment of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science. The AAAS (later known as ANZAAS) was a monument to his genius. But the idea had not sprung fully armed from the meetings of November 1886.6 Like many manifestations of genius, it was an idea whose time had come. At that meeting, the delegates of the colonial societies had agreed to delay their deliberations until his return to Australia, in January 1888. No one questioned his right to lead; no one offered to take his place.
During his visit to England in 1887, Liversidge had seen Empire unity manifested in many ways. Celebrating Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, the Prince of Wales had opened the new Imperial Institute in South Kensington, under the direction of Liversidge’s friend, W.R. Dunstan. Its stated purpose – assisting the productive application of imperial resources – could be combined with the coordination of colonial science.7 The first Colonial Conference, held in London in 1887, fostered similar sentiments of imperial federation, directed ‘from the top’.
This superb book is published by the Royal Society of New South Wales and Sydney University Press. The normal price is $59.95 collected, or $72* posted, however this offer is a special 10% discount for members of Royal Societies in Australia. Postage can be saved by collecting your book at one of our meetings or from the office of the Society (opening times by appointment). (* postage within Australia only)
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Imperial Scien
ce un
der the Southern C
ross
Arch
ibald L
iversidge R
oy MacL
eod
ArchibaldLiversidge, frsImperial Science under the Southern Cross
Roy MacLeod
Roy MacLeod is an Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Sydney, where he writes on the social history of science, technology and medicine, and on the history of science in European imperialism and global integration. He holds degrees from Harvard, Cambridge and Bologna, and is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, the Royal Historical Society, the Australian Academy of the Humanities, and the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. He is a Corresponding Member of the International Academy of the History of Science.
THE RoyAL SoCIETy oF NEw SoUTH wALEShttp://nsw.royalsoc.org.au
9 7 8 1 9 2 0 8 9 8 8 0 9
ISBN 978-1-920898-80-9