Could Our Parliamentarians Become Interested -- Even Supportive -- of Physics? (January 20, 2005)

    This week Nature entitled its lead editorial "Einstein is Dead". While in the main it covers where physics is and will be in the coming decades, one paragraph carries its own message:

[L]isten to theoretical physicist Michael Berry of the University of Bristol, UK, launching the competition "Physics for taxi drivers" (Physics World December 2004, p. 15; http://physicsweb.org/articles/world/17/12/2 ). He recalls how a description of a CD player and a satellite navigation receiver convinced a cab driver that physics is interesting. The worry is not so much that people cannot understand the relevance of physics — and credit to the 'World Year of Physics 2005' organizers for a poster competition for 10–16-year-olds to celebrate that. The worry is that in universities, and especially in schools, there is so little emphasis and imagination, either this year or ever, in celebrating physics' relevance and, more importantly, sending the right career signals to young people.

Physics departments in all of Australia's universities are under the hammer and matters are not improving. In just over six weeks time the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies will be holding its 7^th annual Science Meets Parliament. In its description of the forthcoming event it says, "The format of Science meets Parliament has been changed with greater emphasis on the 'science'," which suggests that FASTS is not satisfied with the progress that has been made to date in getting Australia's federal parliamentarians on side and proactive with respect to getting members of the Federal Cabinet to act constructively.

So far the message has not got through to either the government or the great majority of the public that physics together with mathematics and chemistry are the foundation on which the life sciences and all aspects of engineering are based. Perhaps while the media and the federal opposition agonise over university fees and the reduction in numbers of applicants for university places, they might spare a thought for the continuing decline of support for our universities' infrastructure and staffing which will increasingly translate into a reduction in the quality of the teaching and mentoring of our undergraduate and graduate students.

That decline in support may be good politics from the ruling coalition's viewpoint, but it's a blatant false economy for the nation's long-term well-being.