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As the number of livestock increased in the years following English colonisation of Australia in 1788, the need for nutritious fodder, including lucerne (Medicago sativa), grew. One of the first diseases found on lucerne was a leaf spot which was collected in 1879 by George Bancroft, a physician and naturalist, in a suburb of Brisbane. The Queensland Government Botanist Frederick Manson Bailey sent a specimen to the prominent English mycologists Miles Joseph Berkeley and Christopher Edmund Broome who in 1883 formally described and named the fungus Sphaerella destructiva. That fungus is now known as Pseudopeziza medicaginis , the causal agent of common leaf spot of lucerne. It was one of over 300 fungi that were included in a 1880 paper co-written by the Reverend Julian Tenison-Woods and Frederick Bailey. At that time almost all of these fungi which had been collected in Australia were identified by overseas mycologists, particularly Berkeley and Broome. It can be argued that their 1880 paper was the first significant one published in Australia which focussed on fungi. Just a decade or so later Australian scientists, in particular Daniel McAlpine, were describing new fungal taxa on their own. Among the fungi recorded in a paper published in the 1880 Proceedings of the Linnaean Society of New South Wales was Sphaerella destructiva , now Pseudopeziza medicaginis , the cause of common leaf spot of lucerne. The paper, co-authored by the naturalist Reverend Julian Tenison-Woods and the Queensland Government Botanist Frederick Manson Bailey was the first known comprehensive list of Australian fungi published by Australian residents. It is a milestone in the evolution of mycology and plant pathology studies in Australia. Photograph by H. H. Baily. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discovery of tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) was an important finding in Australian science, involving a self-educated field naturalist and a small team of plant pathologists who had to work in relative academic isolation and with inadequate glasshouse facilities. After its discovery in Melbourne in 1915, TSWV rapidly spread throughout Australia and by 1929, it posed an existential threat to the tomato industry. To address this problem, a joint project between the Waite Agricultural Research Institute and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research was initiated in 1926. This collaboration, led by University of Adelaide plant pathologist Geoffrey Samuel, was initially turbulent but ultimately highly productive. Within an eight-year period, significant advances were made in understanding the aetiology of the disease, particularly by establishing that it was caused by a thrips-transmitted virus. Aspects of the epidemiology and control of the virus were also elucidated such as investigating alternative hosts of the virus. This research was made possible through substantial improvements in mechanical inoculation techniques. Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) is one of the most economically important viruses in the world. Before it became a global problem, it devastated tomato crops in Australia. This paper describes how TSWV was identified and biologically characterised by Australian scientists at a time when few techniques existed to detect the virus. It is a remarkable story of human endeavour by a small team of people working in academic isolation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Millennia of evolutionary ecology have seen Australia become one of the driest and flattest continents on Earth—and in the process, home to more than 700 species of Eucalyptus. Colonial scientists named them using a binomial system, thereby overwriting local vernaculars that had persisted for tens of thousands of years. This paper traces the man commemorated in the Albany Blackbutt, Eucalyptus staeri , a tree unique to the Great Southern region of Western Australia, traditionally the land of the Menang Noongar people. Using a biographical lens, the paper examines the intersection of Western science and commerce in plant collection and naming, and the ways in which these processes exclude or discount Indigenous knowledge. The paper argues that a more holistic and inclusive historical interpretation of herbarium specimens of E. staeri is achieved by correcting and re-analysing information about the German settler after whom it is named, John Staer, while at the same time acknowledging the Noongar people's deep knowledge (kartijin) of plants that has been passed down over many thousands of years. Australia is home to more than 700 species of Eucalyptus, named by Colonial scientists with a binomial system that displaced local Aboriginal vernaculars. Using a biographical lens, this paper traces the man commemorated in the Albany Blackbutt, Eucalyptus staeri , a tree unique to the Great Southern region of Western Australia, traditionally the land of the Menang Noongar people. In doing so, it suggests corrections and additions to public documents that speak to a need to Indigenise and decolonise written sources in herbaria the world over. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A chance discovery early in 1980 led to a body of work on a virus and a rare species that lasted until the end of the decade. The discovery and characterisation of turnip yellow mosaic virus (TYMV-Cd) infecting one-fifth of the fragmented population of Cardamine robusta at Mt Kosciuszko, New South Wales, revealed a puzzle that remains unresolved. There is no clear explanation as to why there is a population of TYMV here in the Southern Hemisphere whose sequence has only diverged from Northern Hemisphere TYMV by a few percent. Adding to the mystery is the fact that TYMV-Cd only infects one of the rarest and geographically most restricted species in Australia, while it is surrounded by potential hosts known to be infected in the Northern Hemisphere. This article reviews research published on TYMV at Mt Kosciuszko during the 1980s and 1990s. While human agency cannot be ruled out, indications are that TYMV established without human intervention. The work is set in a historical context and highlights some of the changes around how plant virology is done. A chance discovery in alpine Australia in 1980 led to the discovery of a virus in a remote and rare species of plant. The virus has clear connections with a virus in the Northern Hemisphere. The way we study plant virology has changed over the intervening years but the mystery as to how the virus got there remains. Photograph by: PL Guy 2004. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scott Sloan (1954–2019) was a leader of academic engineering in Australia and beyond, as evidenced by his numerous professional accolades and important research achievements, which have had significant impact on his chosen profession of geotechnical engineering. Educated in Australia and the United Kingdom, he returned to Australia in 1984 and developed a large and active research group at the University of Newcastle, and tackled a wide range of important problems in civil and mining engineering. These include the development of computational methods to predict the mechanical behaviour of soil and rock masses, and his pioneering methods to predict the collapse states of structures made of, on, and in, earth materials, allowing engineers to design cheaper and safer civil infrastructure around the globe. Sloan established long-standing international collaborations and was awarded many honours for his research achievements. He was also a keen and skilful fisherman and a more than competent blues guitar player. Scott William Sloan, AO, FAA, FTSE, FREng, FRS, was a distinguished Australian geotechnical engineer, who pioneered many advances in computational methods that are now used routinely to design structures constructed in and of earth materials. This paper describes his career development and his numerous research achievements, as well as his role in mentoring other engineers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ralph Tate (1840-1901), the foundation Professor of Natural Science at the University of Adelaide, proved to be a remarkable scientist and naturalist with outstanding achievements in several fields. Tate was selected for the Chair in Adelaide, despite having no previous university experience, mainly on the recommendation of T. H. Huxley. This paper examines Tate's background in some detail and establishes that, in fact, as a respected geologist and palaeontologist with interests in conchology and botany, he was particularly well qualified to fill the post. He had had years of teaching practice, a long list of research publications and even experience in exploring new territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article summarises the careers of ten women who have made an amazing contribution to our knowledge of Australian coral reefs and their management, and how this contribution has been used by the Great Barrier Reef Committee (subsequently the Australian Coral Reef Society) to conserve and manage our reefs—an ongoing process in the face of climate change. This paper highlights the critical role that women have played in Australian coral reef science over the last 90 years, through documenting the biodiversity, ecology and functioning of coral reefs. The scientific contributions of ten outstanding women are summarised, along with how they broke down barriers by working on oceanographic vessels and undertaking research in remote areas, while also using their expertise to advocate for the management and conservation of Australia's diverse coral reefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An Adelaide-born pharmacist, Oswald B. Lower, is a neglected figure in the pantheon of early Australian amateur entomologists. Specialising in Lepidoptera, he worked mainly around Adelaide and Broken Hill where he discovered hundreds of new species, especially in the semi-arid zone of southern Australia. Lower named almost 1000 valid new species between 1892 and 1923 based upon his own material and specimens sourced from contacts in other parts of Australia. His legacy of 40 000 specimens, assembled between the 1880s and early 1920s, forms the nucleus of the outstanding Lepidoptera collection at the South Australian Museum. Many are sourced from locations now lost or degraded and the collection will be an invaluable tool in the emerging challenge of habitat restoration in Australia. Insects are a major component of Australia's biodiversity. The early discovery and description of this fauna was largely contributed by talented entomologists. From the late 1880s, Broken Hill pharmacist Oswald Bertram Lower revealed the extraordinary moth fauna of the mallee and arid zone especially. A summary and context for his pioneering work is now available here. The ecological restoration of these habitats will increasingly draw on Lower's historical collection and insights. HR22015_TOC.jpg [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early 1850s, Victoria's newly appointed Government Botanist, Ferdinand Mueller, undertook three remarkable journeys of botanical exploration in the alpine region in the colony's north-east. There has been considerable uncertainty about the route that he followed, especially on his third expedition between November 1854 and March 1855. This paper offers a reconsideration of Mueller's travels in the mountains that takes account of his reports and correspondence, published and unpublished, and also the topography of the region. The conclusions reached have implications for the interpretation of Mueller's collection records from these expeditions. The paper also discusses Mueller's attempt to fix names on various geographical features in the area and suggests why this was unsuccessful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dermot Casey (1897-1977) is known in Australian archaeology, if he is remembered at all, for being someone who assisted the premier prehistorian of Australia, JohnMulvaney, in his excavations of the late 1950s and 1960s and whose collaborationMulvaney greatly valued. But when Casey began his collaboration with Mulvaney he was already 58 years old and had had a continuing and significant archaeological career, involving work in England and South Asia withMortimerWheeler, as well as in Australia. He had been a key figure both before and after World War 2 in the development of Australian archaeology. His role is virtually unknown, however, not least because he was a man of independent means who did not need to work for a living. His selflessness was partly because that privilege gave him a keen sense of service to society, seen in both world wars and in his archaeological practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biochemistry was an early concern of physiologists and agricultural scientists in the universities of Australia. Much more is known and recorded about such early biochemists as Osborne, Robertson and Young than about Arthur Rothera, whose contribution from 1906 to 1915 is the principal focus of this paper. Rothera was the first lecturer in biochemistry in Australia, the author of a number of significant papers and, through his ketone test, is still influential in diagnosis of diabetes today. At his death, he left biochemistry at Melbourne in new laboratories, and several students able to take his place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The geographic area covered by this bibliography includes material relating to the history of science in Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and other islands of the Pacific Ocean near Australia, and Antarctica. Publications included were mostly published in 2011. The subject coverage includes works on the history of the natural sciences (mathematics, physical sciences, earth sciences and biological sciences), some of the applied sciences (including medical and health sciences, agriculture, engineering and technology) and human sciences. Biographical material relating to these sciences is also of interest. In compiling this bibliography, over 150 journals have been scanned for relevant articles, books and book reviews on subjects covered. As well, journals that had yielded relevant articles in previous years were scanned as likely sources of papers for inclusion. The libraries of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne and the University of Melbourne were useful sources of relevant material, as were the catalogs of the National Library of Australia and the National Library of New Zealand Te Papa Matauranga O Aotearoa. Thanks are due to those people who sent items or information about items published in 2011 for inclusion in the bibliography, particularly individual authors who provided details of their work. In particular, thanks are extended to Professor Rod Home who continues to alert the compiler to citations of relevant material. The staff of eScholarship Research Centre at the University of Melbourne, especially Helen Morgan and Ailie Smith, were once again of great assistance in producing this bibliography. Readers are invited to continue to send information on the publication of books, journal articles, conference papers, reports, Master's and PhD theses and reviews on the subject published during 2012 for inclusion in future bibliographies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spencer Smith-White's research group at the University of Sydney was for many years the foremost laboratory studying the cytology, cytogenetics and cytoevolution of the Australian flora. He pioneered this field with his chromosomal studies on major Australian families, such as the Rutaceae, Myrtaceae, Proteaceae and Epacridaceae. His cytogenetic analyses underpinned his discussions of the origins and distribution of the major elements of the Australian flora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CSIRO's research in the arid zone was initiated after World War 2 when a strong push to develop the sparsely populated and isolated region of northern Australia was promoted as being in the national interest. This impetus had social and political origins but implementation depended on scientific insights into regional 'potential', which was couched at the time in terms of agronomic and pastoral use. Ray Perry was a key figure in early land resource surveys of the region and later a key motivator for, and supporter of, research in the arid and semi-arid rangelands of Australia. His commitment was fundamental to the establishment of CSIRO's Central Australian Laboratory. Pastoral land use and improving the land for that purpose were the primary concerns when CSIRO's presence in Alice Springs was established in 1953. From an initial focus on 'making the desert bloom', in particular making the vast spinifex grasslands more 'useful', the focus of research shifted to maintaining the productivity of country preferred by cattle and establishing methods for monitoring its health. It was not until the 1970s that Aboriginal and conservation land management appeared in the laboratory's research agenda, somewhat intermittently, in response to important social and political changes in the wider Australian community. When CSIRO's Arid Zone Unit was established in Alice Springs in 1953, the social and political imperative was to develop Australia's north and, more specifically, to make the vast interior more productive for pastoral and agronomic purposes. The research that followed showed the unreality of that goal and the need to nurture the land that cattle preferred to graze. Not until the 1970s were other values for land, such as Aboriginal and conservation uses, considered to be subjects for research, stimulated by social and political change in the wider Australian community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has long been held that the general population of the British colony of New South Wales before the 1820s was neither exposed to nor interested in science, and that there was little home-grown science in Sydney at this time. This prevailing view, however, is based on a definition of science as institutionalized knowledge producer. In this paper I examine the Sydney colony between 1788 and 1821 through the lens of recent historiographical developments that have redefined science as a form of communicative action, and that incorporate the study of popular discourse centrally within histories of science. Under this approach, an examination of Sydney's mass media and popular culture reveals a widespread, rich and invested fascination with science among the colony's general population, and active contributions to public science discourse by ordinary colony residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

History is replete with debates between health professionals with concerns about practices and products and others who either challenge scientific evidence or believe that the greatest public good is achieved through maintenance of the status quo. This paper provides a 1950s socio-scientific perspective on a recurring problem for health professionals. It analyses dentists' promotion of oral health by discouraging sugar consumption and the sugar industry's defence of its staple product. Despite scientific evidence in support of its case, the dental profession lacked influence with government and large sections of the Australian community. The division of powers within the Australian Constitution, together with the cause, nature and ubiquity of caries and Australians' tolerance of the disease, were relevant to the outcome. In contrast, the sugar industry was a powerful force. Sugar was a pillar of the Australian and Queensland economies. The industry contributed to the history of Queensland and to Queenslanders' collective psyche, and enjoyed access to centralized authority in decision-making. The timing of the debate was also relevant. Under Prime Minister Robert Menzies, the Australian Government was more concerned with promoting industry and initiative than oral health. This was a one-sided contest. Patterns of food consumption evolve from interactions between availability, culture and choice. Food and associated etiquettes provide far more than health, nutrients and enjoyment. They contribute to economic and social development, national and regional identity and the incidence of disease. The growing, milling and processing of sugarcane and the incorporation of sugar into the Australian diet is a case study that illuminates the interface between health professionals, corporations, society and the state. Today, for a variety of reasons, health professionals recommend limits for daily intake of sugar. Calls for dietary reform are not new and invariably arouse opposition. The issue came to the fore between 1945 and 1960, when dentists contended that the consumption of sugar either caused or contributed to a major health problem, namely dental caries (tooth decay). Representatives of the sugar industry defended their staple product against these claims, which emerged at a critical time for the industry. With hindsight, these exchanges can be seen as a precursor to more diverse and recurring debates relating to contemporary health campaigns. This paper documents and analyses the contemporaneous scientific and socio-political backgrounds underpinning these engagements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the past of desert landscapes has been interpreted since European explorers and scientists first encountered them. It charts the research that created the conceptual space within which archaeologists and Quaternarists now work. Studies from the 1840s-1960s created the notion of a 'Great Australian Arid Period'. The 1960s studies of Lake Mungo and the Willandra Lakes by Jim Bowler revealed the cyclical nature of palaeolakes, that changed with climate changes in the Pleistocene, and the complexity of desert pasts. SLEADS and other researchers in the 1980s used thermoluminescence techniques that showed further complexities in desert lands beyond the Willandra particularly through new studies in the Strzelecki and Simpson Dunefields, Lake Eyre, Lake Woods and Lake Gregory. Australian deserts are varied and have very different histories. Far from 'timeless lands', they have carried detailed information about long-term climate changes on continental scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professor James Henry ('Jim') Michael 1920-2001 was elected to the Australian Academy of Science in 1973. Born in Port Augusta, Jim saw active service during the Second World War. Returning to Adelaide, he completed a PhD in pure mathematics and began a distinguished career as an international expert in mathematical analysis. As well as being a mathematician, Jim was a keen golfer and shooter. Jim is remembered as a quiet, gentle man of few words but great integrity. A devoted family man, he is survived by his wife Pat, his daughter Mary Jane, his son Philip and his two grandchildren Ian and Tim Michael. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the expectation in nineteenth-century botany that the plants of one country were most similar to those of adjacent countries, by the middle of the century it was accepted that there was a connexion between flora of northern Australia and 'India'. The pattern and reasons for plant distribution around the world were studied in the emerging science of phytogeography, but this paper suggests that the strength of the Indo-Australian connexion was influenced by species limits in the established science of phytography or descriptive botany. This paper also shows that while the botany of Australia and 'India' was predominantly studied in European nations, Ferdinand Mueller used resources obtained from Joseph Hooker in Great Britain, and Friedrich Miquel in the Netherlands to add new details to the distribution pattern of 'Indian' plants in northern Australia. Although Mueller was unwilling to reflect on these findings himself, they seemed to challenge attempts to introduce evolutionary and geological explanations into phytogeography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over fifty years ago, the new Department of Geophysics of the Australian National University in Canberra pursued research in paleomagnetism which was to be fundamental to the major developments in Earth Sciences now known as the plate tectonics revolution. In the setting of some then unexplained phenomena such as reversely magnetized rocks, and slightly in advance of fundamental developments in the dating of rocks using radioactive decay schemes of naturally-occurring isotopes, a team led by Edward Irving obtained data for the Australian continent which, accepted and combined with data from Europe and North America, demanded that major continents of the globe had moved relative to each other over geological time. Generally these facts are recognised in histories of science, however such histories usually do not record the local Australian National University setting, which it is intended to describe in this paper. Essential for the paleomagnetic work was the skilled support of a wide range of Australian geologists, who guided collection strategy and supplied oriented samples that had been collected continent-wide. It may also be little appreciated that the first paleomagnetic measurements at the Australian National University were carried out by J. C. Jaeger on samples of Tasmanian dolerite, following work on the same rock by P. M. S. Blackett's group in England. Because these cores were vertical and the magnetization in them approximately vertical, that they were not oriented with regard to horizontal direction was unimportant. Their vertical magnetization gave a forerunner of the continental-drift result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores Australia’s responses to questions about ‘the environment’, particularly in the period from the 1960s–80s, showing how they were informed in varying amounts by international science, by the emerging aesthetics of the idea of the environment and by social movements, including one later known as environmentalism. The rise of ‘integrated science’, particularly Big Science and international collaborations in science, modelling and the information technology revolution all shaped the interdisciplinary expertise that frames the environment still. It is, however, very rare to find an individual like Max Day, whose biography enables a re-examination of the way thinking about the environment shaped strategic national thinking, public science and popular concerns including national parks management across the second half of the twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

James W. Lance was a clinical neurologist who created the first university-based department of neurology in Australia. He championed academic enquiry and the scientific basis of clinical practice, and his research had two major themes, motor control and headache. After his doctoral studies on the pyramidal tract of the cat, he became a pioneer of the new field of motor control studied in human subjects, making seminal contributions on the control of muscle tone, reflexes and movement in healthy subjects and the pathophysiology of movement disorders in patients. At the same time he developed a clinical research program into the mechanisms and management of headache, in particular migraine. These studies evolved into parallel experiments in human subjects, cats and monkeys, probing the control of the cerebral circulation and the mechanisms underlying craniofacial pain, for which he received international acclaim in both fields. He received international and Australian honours and was the first practising clinician to be elected a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. He is rightfully credited with leading the development of academic neurology in Australia and overseas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many of Ralph Tate's achievements as the University of Adelaide's foundation Professor of Natural Science are well known. The focus here is on the quite remarkable, but almost forgotten, natural history museum that he built at the University and that after his death was named the Tate Museum. The paper outlines and explains the difficulties that Tate encountered in establishing the museum, the strictly geological focus of his successors and the gradual dispersal of Tate's main collections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1922 there was a total solar eclipse with the central track traversing the Australian continent from Western Australia, through South Australia and across Queensland. Local and overseas astronomers mounted major observing campaigns to verify the amount of gravitational light bending predicted by the Theory of General Relativity. This paper looks at how the media reported the results from previous expeditions in 1919, which were conducted by the British, and the necessity for the 1922 measurements in Australia. It was this latter local eclipse that was the impetus for Australian correspondents to report on General Relativity. In general, the Australian newspapers chronicled informatively and accurately, they provided a good coverage of the eclipse parties and stressed the significance of the 1922 investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Science and Industry Endowment Fund (SIEF) was established in 1926 by the passage in the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia of the Science and Industry Endowment Act at the same time as the Science and Industry Research Act established the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. The SIEF played a major role in funding the training of Australian research workers from 1926 to 1950 and funded much of the research carried out in Australian universities in the pre-war period. This paper documents the activities of the SIEF from its inception in 1926 until inflation eroded the value of the Fund in the 1970s. The Fund was later reinvigorated by the injection of $150 million by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation between 2009 and 2010. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the past fifty years, Sandringham Station has provided a major focus for scientific work in southwestern Queensland, an arid region that includes the Simpson Desert and the Channel Country (together 'Desert Channels'). This paper explores the role of place, chance and private enterprise in supporting science in this region. Unlike other parts of inland Australia, where government initiatives were prominent, science in Queensland's arid country was privately supported, and research there had an ecological or eco-physiological rather than an economic focus. It began later than elsewhere (1960s), and its scientific questions were different from those framed in research stations set up to address agricultural and pastoral imperatives. The location of Sandringham on the ecological edge between the ephemeral wetlands of the anastomosing channels and the dune country of the Simpson Desert created an ecotonal area that was rich in animals adapted to living in Australian desert country, and a particular opportunity to observe their adaptations to the boom-and-bust ecological conditions. The role of local observers, particularly station managers and naturalists, has been critical in studying the often cryptic animals of the region, and the ongoing support of the station itself was essential to investigations that were mostly on private leasehold lands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Supplementary Material of this issue, I give a bibliography of books and pamphlets in, or related to, mathematics in Australia, to 1960. It is as complete as possible, except for those omissions (notably, school books after 1900) that are described fully in the text. In particular, all higher degree theses in mathematics awarded by an Australian university (to 1960) are listed. This article describes the background to the compilation of the bibliography and observations drawn from it (and expanded upon) which relate to the history of Australian mathematics. In some respects, this article and its Supplementary Material may be considered to be an addendum to my book Counting Australia In: the People, Organisations and Institutions of Australian Mathematics (2006) published by Halstead Press, Sydney, for the Australian Mathematical Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sir Rupert Horace Myers (1921–2019) was born in Melbourne and educated at Melbourne Boys High School and the University of Melbourne, where he was awarded a PhD degree in 1948 for research on the production of rare metals from Australian ores. As part of an Australian delegation, he worked at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell in the United Kingdom on production of uranium and plutonium metals. He returned to Australia in 1952 as foundation professor of metallurgy at the still very young University of New South Wales, where he later became vice-chancellor, serving from 1969 to 1981 before entering a long and fruitful retirement. Knighted in 1981, he was a model of scientific and academic leadership in Australia. Metallurgist Rupert Horace Myers (1921–2019) was awarded Australia's first 'science' PhD degree in 1948. After working at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell in the United Kingdom, he made his career at the University of New South Wales, where he was vice-chancellor from 1969 to 1981. Knighted in 1981, he was a model of scientific and academic leadership in Australia. Photograph provided by the Australian Academy of Science (photographer unknown). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scope of the Bibliography comprises material on the history of the natural sciences (mathematics, physical sciences, earth sciences and biological sciences), some of the applied sciences (including medical and health sciences, agriculture, manufacturing and engineering) and human sciences (psychology, anthropology and sociology). Biographical material on practitioners in these sciences is also of interest. Geographically, apart from Australia, the coverage includes New Zealand, New Guinea and other islands of the Pacific Ocean near Australia, and Antarctica. In compiling this bibliography, sources that proved valuable in the compilation of previous bibliographies were used to search for citations of articles, books and book reviews on subjects covered. This includes over 200 journals that have yielded relevant articles in previous years. Library catalogues, particularly those of the National Libraries of Australia and New Zealand and the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, were useful sources of relevant material. Thanks are due to those people who sent items or information about items published in 2012 for inclusion in the bibliography, particularly Professor Rod Home who continues to provide citations on relevant subjects. Thanks are also due to the staff of the eScholarship Research Centre at the University of Melbourne, especially Helen Morgan and Ailie Smith, who provide valuable assistance in the entering of data. Readers are invited to continue to send information on the publication of books, journal articles, conference papers, reports, Master's and PhD theses and reviews on the subject published covered by the Bibliography for inclusion in future issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1860 and 1870 Professor Frederick McCoy synthesized a distinct theory that guided the Acclimatisation Society of Victoria's zoological importation program. He assembled this theory via drawing upon European authorities and his own personal observations of Victorian zoology and palaeontology in order both to systemize acclimatization and to discredit Darwinism within the colony. These points will be demonstrated by investigating how McCoy formed his theory and how the Acclimatisation Society of Victoria used the theory to guide their importation program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hans Buchdahl, who died in Adelaide on 7 January 2010 at the age of 90, contributed extensively to three fields of theoretical physics: geometric optics, general relativity and thermodynamics. His early work on optical aberration coefficients was motivated by a wartime need; through this work he rejuvenated a field that had been moribund for close to a century. The methods he developed underlie some of the modern analytic and numerical approaches to the design of optical instruments. He contributed to the general theory of relativity during what was known as its 'Golden Age', and he made pedagogic contributions to the discipline of thermodynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Items cited in this bibliography relate to the history of science in Australia and its neighbours New Zealand, New Guinea and other islands of the Pacific Ocean near Australia, and Antarctica. Publications include material on the history of the natural sciences (mathematics, physical sciences, earth sciences, and biological sciences), some of the applied sciences (including medical and health sciences, agriculture, and engineering), and human sciences (psychology, anthropology, and sociology). Also of interest is biographical material on people active in these sciences. Sources used in compiling this bibliography include an extensive list of journals and databases that have yielded relevant citations in the past. These have been particularly useful in locating epublications. In particular, the libraries of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne and the University of Melbourne were useful sources of material, as were the catalogues of the National Library of Australia and the National Library of New Zealand Te Papa Matauranga O Aotearoa. Assistance has been received from a number of people who sent items or information for inclusion in the bibliography. In particular, Professor Rod Home has diligently forwarded citations. Staff of the eScholarship Research Centre at the University of Melbourne, especially Helen Morgan and Ailie Smith, were of great assistance in the preparation of this bibliography. Thanks are also due to those individuals who alerted the compiler to relevant information. Readers may have access to information about relevant books, journal articles, conference papers, reports, Master's and PhD theses, and reviews published in 2011. They are encouraged to send such information to the compiler at the above email address for inclusion in future bibliographies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A national research approach to the 'grasshopper problem' began following a plague of the Australian plague locust (Chortoicetes terminifera Walker) in inland south-eastern Australia in the 1930s. After the plague of the 1950s, the role of arid inland areas as a source of migrations into agricultural areas received greater attention. In the 1960s and 1970s, international collaborative experimental research with the CSIRO advanced the knowledge of locust lifecycles and population ecology. Studies of nocturnal mass migration on upper-level winds brought a new understanding of Australian locust population dynamics. This paper traces Australian research into locust ecology within the contexts of locust infestations and government responses to them. Investigations on Australian locusts reflected many contemporary ideas and methods in entomological research and contributed to the development of international ecological theory during the twentieth century. International locust research based on the phase change and outbreak area model of Uvarov particularly influenced work carried out in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geoff Sharman was one of the most important figures in the post-war renaissance of research into the indigenous mammals of Australia. He discovered the remarkable phenomenon of delayed development, or embryonic diapause, in kangaroos. He pioneered marsupial cytogenetics, making seminal contributions to chromosome evolution, sex determination, and X chromosome dosage compensation in female marsupials. He inspired a whole generation of younger biologists to make the investigation of Australian mammals the primary objective of their professional careers. Fifty years before he began there had been a brief but highly fruitful period of investigation into the native fauna based at the University of Sydney Medical School.1 When the four pioneers departed to Chairs in Britain and Fellowship of the Royal Society, further research in the field languished until the 1950s. Sharman's research built on that pioneering work, particularly of J. P. Hill and his associates on the reproductive anatomy and development of marsupials, and then extended it into the new field of cytogenetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thorburn Brailsford Robertson (1884-1930) was educated in Adelaide and held appointments at the University of California, Berkeley (where he completed his PhD in 1907), and the University of Toronto before taking up his appointment at Adelaide in 1919 as Australia's first Professor of Biochemistry. In his research on the biochemical basis of growth and senescence he discovered in pituitary tissue a growth factor he called Tethelin. He made important contributions to the fabric and collegiality of the University of Adelaide. Amongst his many scientific contributions he was the first person outside Canada to prepare insulin, a project taken up by the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories. In 1927 he became the first Chief of the Division of Animal Nutrition in the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, for whom he investigated sheep nutrition and wool growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facing a choice between postgraduate study and the world of work, Roy Woodall took the advice of his research supervisor at the University of California, Berkeley, to return to Australia and find ore deposits. He spent almost all his working life with Western Mining Corporation where, from 1967 to 2001, he was successively Chief Geologist, Exploration Manager, and Director of Exploration. From humble beginnings he formed and led the team that became Australia's greatest discoverer of ore deposits, including Olympic Dam, while he was recognised internationally as an icon in the mineral exploration world. Roy Woodall spent almost all his working life with Western Mining Corporation where, from 1967 to 2001, he was successively Chief Geologist, Exporation Manager, and Director of Exploration. From humble beginnings he formed and led the team that became Australia's greatest discoverers of ore deposits, including Olympic Dam, while he was recognised internationally as an icon in the mineral exploration world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the 100-year anniversary of the Australian Coral Reef Society (ACRS), previously known as the Great Barrier Reef Committee (GBRC), we provide an overview of ACRS activities throughout its history, with a detailed account of key milestones in the last 40 years. We outline how the ACRS as promoted the protection and conservation of reefs, through expert advice, reviews, and submissions to enquiries. Examples are provided under the following themes: ACRS consultancy on zoning the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) Marine Park, marine protected area design, water quality on the GBR, port expansions along the Queensland coastline and environmental reform for the offshore oil and gas industry. We illustrate how scientists over recent decades have worked to better understand and encourage policy responses to the impacts of climate change on Australia's coral reefs. For a hundred years, the GBRC-ACRS has provided an avenue for Australian coral reef scientists, managers and conservationists to influence reef governance through policy. While these unique avenues for delivering timely and targeted expertise have helped to reduce proximate threats to reefs at local scales, their outcome in relation to climate change, arguably the largest threat to Australia's coral reefs, remains to be seen. We review ACRS activities under the following themes: consulting on the Capricorn Bunker Group to zone the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, marine protected area design, water quality on the GBR, Queensland port expansions, environmental reform for the offshore oil and gas industry and the impacts of climate change on Australian reefs. We outline how the ACRS has promoted the exchange of scientific information to protect and conserve Australian reefs for a 100 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stephen Angyal was born in Budapest, Hungary, on 21 November 1914 and died in Sydney on 14 May 2012. He had a distinguished career as an organic chemist as a lecturer in chemistry at Sydney University (1946-52), as an associate professor in organic chemistry at the New South Wales University of Technology (1953-9), and as Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of New South Wales (1960-79) where he served as Head of School (1968-70) and Dean of the Faculty of Science (1970-9). He was internationally recognized for his contributions in the fields of inositol and carbohydrate chemistry, being appointed as the Haworth Memorial Lecturer of the Chemical Society, London, in 1980 and as the recipient of the Claude S. Hudson Award of the American Chemical Society in 1987. He was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 1962 and as an External Member of the Hungarian Academy of Science in 1990 and his contributions to science in Australia were acknowledged in the award of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1977. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific societies provide an important forum for scientists to meet and exchange ideas. In the early days of European settlement in Australia the few people interested in the sciences joined together to form societies that embraced all their individual disciplines. From 1888 the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science with its different sections allowed a growing number of astronomers to share meetings only with researchers in the closely allied fields of mathematics and physics. Eventually, all three of these groups formed their own societies with the Astronomical Society of Australia (ASA) being the last in 1966. Archival records are used to illustrate how the formation of these came about and to identify the people involved. The makeup of Australian astronomy at that period and some of its research fields are looked at, as well as the debates and discussions in the Society's first year while its future structure and role were established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Howard Knox Worner was a renowned figure in Australian applied science and engineering. His successful career can be credited to his strong intellect, leadership and charisma. Coming from a humble farming background, he achieved a brilliant academic career in metallurgy and materials at the University of Melbourne. From the position of Dean of Engineering he moved into industry as Director of Research with BHP where his leadership led to significant improvements in conventional steel production and where he conceived his concept of continuous steelmaking. This was not put into practice but after moving to CRA he applied his concept to continuous copper production where it has largely been accepted around the world. Later he was a high-level adviser to Government on energy research and development, particularly the economic utilization of brown coal for liquid and gaseous fuels. In his 'retirement' he became deeply involved at the University of Wollongong in the application of microwaves to mineral processing and waste treatment. He died on 17 November 2006, aged 93. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ren Potts was an Australian applied mathematician whose early work in statistical mechanics later became influential: the 'Potts Model' became his most cited work. As Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Adelaide for thirty years, he built up an excellent Department of Mathematics and had a major influence on the development of Applied Mathematics in Australia. His work in transportation science and operations research is well known. Ren Potts was a gifted teacher and an inspiring research leader. He was an early advocate of close co-operation between academia and industry, was an early adopter of computing for research and teaching, and was a pioneer in forging new links between Australian universities and the South-East Asian region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ilse Rosenthal-Schneider (1891–1990), a refugee immigrant to Australia in 1938, was a student of Nobel Prize-winning physicists, Einstein, Planck, and von Laue. She combined a background in physics, especially relativity theory, with a philosophical focus on the nature and possibilities of knowledge. As well as working at the University of Sydney to teach science students how to recognise philosophical issues in their subjects, she drove a major outreach programme to regional towns in New South Wales, where she was fêted by her audiences as a highly accomplished science communicator. Her best-known book, published in 1980, examined her interactions with Einstein, Planck, and von Laue by expanding on how all of them understood the relationship between science and philosophy. Rosenthal-Schneider never achieved a great deal of recognition, due in part to the limited opportunities for women of her era, but also due to her insistence on bridging disciplines and engaging in a scientific and philosophical dialogue beyond academia. We will show how Rosenthal-Schneider explored the borderlands of science and philosophy throughout her life, as she argued for the relevance of philosophical questions to practising scientists and non-academic publics in Australia. Ilse Rosenthal-Schneider (1891–1990), a refugee immigrant to Australia in 1938, was a student of Nobel Prize-winning physicists, Einstein, Planck, and von Laue. She combined a background in physics with a philosophical focus. Her intellectual life was spent in the borderlands between science and philosophy, but also science and society, as she engaged in public outreach with considerable success in the regional towns of NSW. Credit: Wayne State University Press (out of copyright). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ross Henry Day was an Australian experimental psychologist well known for his research on visual illusions and for his critical role in the establishment of experimental psychology in Australia. This role began with his creation of Australia's first department of experimental psychology at Monash University in 1965. He also played a leading role in the formation of the Australian Psychological Society in 1966, and in the introduction to Australia of the study of human factors in engineering and ergonomics. He was the first psychologist to be elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. Ross Henry Day was an experimental psychologist well known for his research on visual illusions and for his critical role in the establishment of experimental psychology in Australia. He created Australia's first department of experimental psychology at Monash University in 1965, played a leading role in the formation of the Australian Psychological Society in 1966, and took a leading role in the study of human factors in engineering and ergonomics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hans Freeman was born in Germany and arrived in Australia with his parents in 1938. A brilliant student at the University of Sydney, he spent a seminal year at the California Institute of Technology before joining the staff at Sydney and initiating research on bioinorganic chemistry, studying metal ion complexes of compounds of biological significance such as amino acids, peptides and proteins. In his use of X-ray crystallography he was a pioneer in Australia, constructing his first crystallographic apparatus and mastering the necessary computing, at first by hand but soon with electronic computers. The culmination of his work with a series of collaborators was the structure of the blue, copper-containing metalloprotein, plastocyanin. Freeman also employed another advanced technique—X-ray spectroscopy and the study of X-ray absorption fine structure. He was a leading figure in Australia and internationally, and played an important role in gaining access for Australian scientists to international facilities such as synchrotron radiation sources at the dawning of the era of 'Big Science'. Hans Charles Freeman was a pioneer in crystallography in Australia, establishing his own lab, undertaking many of the first structural determinations of metal complexes and leading the team that determined the first metallo-protein structure in Australia. He also pioneered the use of X-ray spectroscopic techniques, strongly supporting others to make use of these techniques, activities that culminated in the building of Australian synchrotron facilities in Tsukuba and Clayton. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The post-war era of the 1940s is known for the birth of global governance, a time when Western nations united in efforts to reconstruct the war-torn world and reflected on the role of science in society. History and philosophy of science (HPS) was one of the early projects that emerged out of the war years. Diana (Ding) Dyason who headed the first HPS department in the southern hemisphere is honoured by this annual lecture, the text of which constitutes this article. Thomas Kuhn's influential lecture in Oxford in 1961 inspired her work on the history of scientific entanglement with social concerns, and the directions of HPS at the University of Melbourne. Post-war reconstruction was both a local and a national project for every nation, very much in the air in the 1940s, and influential until the 1970s. The Australasian Association of Scientific Workers (AASW) brought together scientists too old to serve, or, in reserved occupations, to undertake their own 'war effort' on the question of: 'What comes next?' AASW held a planning conference in Sydney in 1944 to 'formulate a policy on the organisation of science necessary to meet the demands of post-war Australia'. They set out to consider the role of the 'the scientific method' in the welfare of society. In particular, they recognised their existing international scientific networks and connections could become valuable for post-war collaborations between different sciences and different nations of benefit to Australia and the world. The idea of 'the environment' was one of many that emerged internationally in these 'world-minded' times, an idea that focused on the management of nature for the benefit of people using the scientific method. National Parks were a crucial discussion point, bringing together amateur naturalists and professional environmental managers of all sorts in discussions about landscape planning along with international comparative work on reserving places for wild animals and plants. This Dyason Lecture explores the emergence of 'integrated science', of science in the service of society, that later included natural resource management, big science, environmental science, earth systems science and climate science. It begins with the tragedy of the 'dirty thirties', when soil was in the air, and the scientific response to concerns about feeding the world. Originally presented on 25 November 2021 at the University of Melbourne as a keynote of the Australasian Association for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science. The lecture explores the history of interdisciplinary knowledge and integrated science, by pairing the post-war stories of history and philosophy of science (HPS) (the traditional focus of the Dyason Lecture) with a history of soil conservation as an integrating environmental science, in Australia and globally, from the war years until the Anthropocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

John Thomas Jutson (1874-1959) spent most of his life as a practising solicitor in Melbourne. He studied the Victorian coast as a hobby in his later years, though he became known for his work on the Sydney shoreline and the proposal that different processes have simultaneously generated platforms at various levels. Between 1911 and 1918, however, Jutson had been employed as a field geologist by the Geological Survey of Western Australia. Drawing on the work of colleagues as well as his own brief field experiences, he produced an explanatory account of the Western Australian landscape that was published in 1914 and reprinted in revised form in 1934 and 1950. In his synthesis he discussed hitherto neglected arid zone landforms and processes. He presented evidence and argument pointing to the plateau and high plain that occupies so much of the interior of the State being a two-stage development. He attributed it to what would later be called etching, resulting in double planation at a regional scale. His innovative interpretations brought Jutson international recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theory of a nineteen-year climate cycle put forward by acclaimed New South Wales Government Astronomer Henry Chamberlain Russell is arguably one of his least successful contributions to science. Yet his ability to draw global connections made Russell a pioneer in the field of climate science- one whose innovative thinking helped prepare the way for much later achievements in the field of seasonal prediction. While controversial, Russell's theory sparked intense interest in meteorology and climate cycles and, at a time when extreme weather events were putting pressure on agriculture and pastoralism in New South Wales, it addressed the question of whether the Australian climate was undergoing permanent change. An historical understanding of ideas about climate cycles illuminates current debates on how to address the problems associated with anthropogenic climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graeme Reade Anthony Ellis (universally known as 'Bill') was a pioneer in the area of low-frequency radio observations. By exploiting Hobart's geomagnetic latitude and the lack of background radio noise there, he was able to make major discoveries at these low frequencies (principally in the frequency range 1-10 MHz).Among the questions he pursued were the propagation/dispersion/reflection of radio waves in the ionosphere and the detection of radio emissions from the Sun, the galactic disk and Jupiter. He built innovative radio receivers and de-dispersers to gain information about the radio sources, for example about the Sun via aurorae and about the influence of Io on the Jovian emissions. It is thanks to Ellis' practical research investigations and clever experimental methods that radio astronomy at the University of Tasmania is today firmly established and internationally recognized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harry Wallace was born in Lancashire, England on 12 September 1924 and died at Murray Bridge, South Australia on 26 July 2011. He had a distinguished career, as a scientist at the University of Cambridge, Rothamsted Experimental Station and CSIRO's Division of Horticulture, and as Professor of Plant Pathology at the University of Adelaide. He was internationally recognised for his pioneering work on the movement of nematodes and for his work on the interactions between nematodes, the environment and the plant. He made a major contribution to Australian agriculture by providing a blueprint for research needed to understand cereal cyst nematode, which was a major pest that significantly reduced yield. The blueprint led to efficient methods of disease control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]