DEST Releases Terms of Reference
for National Science 'Stocktake'. (January 31, 2003)
The Minister for Education, Science
and Training, Brendan Nelson, today announced that the Prime Minister, John
Howard, has approved the
terms of reference
for
what Dr. Nelson refers to as, "a major initiative to map Australia's science and
innovation activities across the public and private sectors. The project, an
Australian first..." Australia's Chief Scientist, Robin Batterham will
chair a reference group the members of which are yet to be announced. Dr. Nelson
goes on to say the group is to advise "a Taskforce established within my
Department to coordinate the work and report by the end of this year."
While the scope of the terms of reference are broad it is not clear how much additional information will be gathered beyond that detailed in previous reports, such as the Chief Scientist's Chance for Change, or the degree of objectivity in such data gathering, particularly in the light of the Department's handling of the "Anderson Report" (see immediately below), since the reference group will act only to advise a DEST departmental taskforce. It is also noteworthy that the study "will lay the groundwork for future policy development, but it will not include consideration of policy options." In any case it will be interesting to compare the promised report (an interim report is scheduled for May and the final report in late 2003) with those published by the UK last year dealing with Britain's scientific infrastructure and personnel which pulled few punches.
‘For DEST
to [commission this report] resembles Yahweh enquiring into flood damage on Day
40’. (January 28, 2003)
This is the comment made by one anonymous academic in
response to being asked for his/her views regarding
Changes in Academic Work
,
a report requested by the Department of Education, Science and Training from
three eminent retired academics, Don Anderson, Richard Johnson and Lawrence Saha.
The 178 page report was presented to DEST in June 2002. Dr Nelson's Department
apparently determined that it would be best to release it via its web
site somewhat subterraneanly (http://www.dest.gov.au/highered/otherpub/academic_work.htm) without fanfare or a media release during the midst of the Christmas - New
Year break. It's reminiscent of Sir Humphrey burying an undesirable document in
the middle of the Right Honourable James Hacker, MP's third dispatch box.
Incidentally the full title of the report is Changes in Academic Work:
Implications for Universities of the Changing Age Distribution and Work Roles of
Academic Staff. [And see
Op-Ed II, The Change in
Academic Work Picture Book].
Why DEST decided to release the report at all is something of a mystery, though it mightn't be too far off the mark to suggest that its hand had been forced. The report observes that, "While some developments have been welcomed – for instance, greater attention to the quality of teaching, the greater access of students to university education, or the ease of modern electronic communications – the overall picture is of frustration and disillusionment, to the point where many respondents to a questionnaire said they would not recommend an academic career to anyone." and the authors conclude with,
A recent article describing the situation in the United States seems also to be describing Australia. A single paragraph sums it up:
The danger lies in the cumulative effect of the incremental changes, each one seemingly minor but collectively altering the nature of the enterprise. At some point, quantitative change yields to qualitative change. The quality of faculty life may slowly erode to the point that highly talented people are no longer attracted to the academic profession. The freedom to conduct meaningful research may be undermined by pressures to teach longer hours and more students. The constant search for new sources of revenue may irreducibly change the social role of higher-education institutions, as they become increasingly entrepreneurial enterprises. All of these changes are visible in today's colleges and universities; it remains to be seen whether their onward march will prove to be inexorable.
Breneman, David W. 2002 ‘For colleges, this is not just another recession’ Chronicle of Higher Education 14 June.
In a phrase, death of a thousand cuts – defined as "a slow death by the torture of many small wounds, none lethal in itself, but fatal in their cumulative effect." The torture was a form of execution in ancient China, reserved for the most heinous of crimes.
TFW concludes its January 28th editorial with, "There is great emphasis on the terror poised beyond our borders, little on the
decay gnawing at our quality of life through neglect of our knowledge
infrastructure. That neglect will cost our children, and theirs in turn, dearly."
Clearly it's not an isolated viewpoint. However, the admonishment by Dr Nelson to
the Members of the Australian Academy of Science last May mustn't be overlooked,
"[To] those of you who argue from the higher education sector that there is a
crisis, can I just say to you, please desist at that kind of language..." The
Minister was handed the Anderson report the following month.
Entries for the Australian
Museum's 2003 Eureka Prizes are Now Invited. (January 24, 2003)
Twenty-one
prizes worth a total of $210,000 are on offer in 4 categories -- education,
industry and innovation, research, and science communication. New prizes in 2003
are for inspiring science, for innovative grains research that improves the
environmental sustainability of growing introduced grains, and for outstanding
scientific research involving scientists in two or more disciplines. Complete
information and entry forms are obtainable from the
Eureka Prizes' website.
Australia's Bushfires Reach the
Pages of Nature. (January 22, 2003)
In
a "news feature" Carina Dennis, Nature's Australasian correspondent
reports, "researchers are desperately trying to find out more about fire's
behaviour," (Nature 16 January 2003). In talking to various researchers,
Dennis highlights the modeling work being undertaken by Monash University
mathematician Michael Reeder who told her, "Fire research needs to go from being
a descriptive to a quantitative science." The newly setup Bushfire Cooperative
Research Centre has a seven year $112 million program to determine better means
of prevention and control. But the article also underlines the current
disagreements by researchers as to the means to be adopted. Nevertheless Dennis
concludes, "But the country's fire scientists agree that the interests of city
dwellers and biodiversity alike require a much more comprehensive and
quantitative approach to studying the blazes that have shaped the Australian
landscape -- with the new cooperative research centre representing just the
start."
And although the Australian community and its representatives
call on its scientists and engineers to "do something" concomitantly the
nation's scientific infrastructure is allowed to deteriorate with our university
based enabling sciences leading the descent into the maelstrom. The illogicality
of it is nothing short of monumental.
Rebuilding and Reconstruction of
Mt. Stromlo Observatory Following the Firestorm. (January 21, 2003)
The Mt. Stromlo
astronomical observatory, 30 kilometers west of Canberra, became engulfed by a
raging bushfire on January 18th. The observatory together with the
Angelo-Australian Observatory situated at Siding Springs New South Wales forms
part of the Australian National University's Research School of Astronomy and
Astrophysics (RSAA). An
announcement by ANU stated that the fires destroyed four telescopes, the
equipment workshop, eight houses which had been occupied by staff and an
administration building. Preliminary estimates have valued the losses at more
than $20 million. ANU's Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ian Chubb was quick to
announce that, "Plans are already being put in place to rebuild at Mount Stromlo
and restore the research school to its full capacity," but the fact is that four
of Mt. Stomlo's telescopes have been reduced to junk and its library and
workshops destroyed.
Sky
and Telescope reports that, "the workshop contained a $5-million
imaging spectrograph known as NIFS. The nearly completed instrument was just
months away from being shipped to the 8-meter Gillett (Gemini North) telescope
atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii."
Depending on the vision of the RSAA, the ANU administration
and the Federal Minister for Education Science and Training, the disaster could
be transformed into a boon for Australian astronomy. The increasing light
pollution from Canberra was reducing the utility of the optical instruments, but
if now the authorities will take the opportunity to provide resources to have a
much more powerful facility rise from the ashes remains to be seen, and if they
will do so without reducing allocations elsewhere in the science budget is a
moot question.
Note: The New York Times reports,
"The first telescope was placed at Mount Stromlo in 1910. The observatory
was established in 1924 as the Commonwealth Solar Observatory. It has 60 staff
members and 20 students involved in research and teaching projects."
FASTS Lists Its 2003 Top Ten
Issues With Regard to Science and Technology. (January 20, 2003)
The Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological
Societies (FASTS) has released its 2003 issues for the year along with launching
a campaign to eradicate the use of the term "boffin" which the Macquarie
Dictionary (3rd ed) defines as "(often derogatory) ...a research
scientist"
FASTS President, Chris Fell, among other matters is "proposing a new program to
bring more science into Parliament, with scientists seconded to work for a year
with Parliamentarians on crucial issues," and went on to comment that the
Government's Innovation Statement was welcomed but, "It's time now to look at
taking the second step, to announce the second stage of a long-term project to
transform Australia into a competitive modern economy."
A complete listing of the ten top issues is available on the
FASTS
website.
2002 Nobel Laureate John Sulston
Talks About Genes, Genomes, Patenting and the Place of Public and
Private Funding in the Scheme of Things. (January 19, 2003)
Together with Sydney Brenner and Robert Horvitz, John
Sulston was awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize
for Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning genetic regulation
of organ development and programmed cell death." Sulston also became one
of the prime movers in the publicly funded human genome sequencing program and
has been an outspoken critic of what he sees as an improper attempt to obtain
proprietary rights for genomic information. To discuss his views he was invited
together with his co-author Georgina Ferry (The Common Thread: A Story of
Science, Politics, Ethics and the Human Genome) by the US National Academy
of Sciences to give "a behind-the-scenes account of this controversial story.
From the joy and exuberance of success to the stark disappointments posed by
inevitable failures, [it is] a tale of science, politics, personalities, and
ethics." To hear the forthright, highly accessible and entertaining dual act
click here
.
UK Secondary School Science
Curriculum Under Discussion. (January 16, 2003)
Last July a British governmental parliamentary committee
reported that secondary school pupils aged 14 to 16 are bored stiff by the way
science is being taught in the state secondary schools. Now Nature (Juanuary
16, 2003) reports that "the British government is considering reforms that would
see many teenagers abandon traditional school lessons in physics, chemistry and
biology in favour of studies of contemporary scientific issues." However, the
more rigorous traditional approach would by retained as supplementary courses
for those intending to study science at university. The object is to interest
the coming generation of the general public in scientific issues and allow them
to form informed opinions for example on media reportage of scientific topics.
While there is criticism from some educational groups who consider the approach
to be a further dumbing down of secondary teaching others see it as an avenue to
reawaken public interest in science. If in addition it raises the quality of
instruction for those students who are interested in perusing science at
university it would seem an approach well worth trialling.
Royal
Mint to Strike £2 Coin to Honour 50th Anniversary of the DNA Double
Helix. (January 13, 2003)
The Royal Mint is marking the anniversary of James Watson and
Francis Crick's discovery by inscribing the double-helix configuration on a new
£2 coin which will be issued throughout 2003. Well heeled molecular biologists
(and others) can opt for the gold and silver commemorative version. The
announcement made no mention as to whose DNA was being represented.
Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council Chides U.K. Chemists. (January 13, 2002)
The EPSRC council has issued a report, Chemistry at the
Centre, on the current state of British chemistry and concludes that it is
not only "relatively conservative" by international standards, it is so relative
to past achievements. George Whitesides, Harvard's Mallinckrodt Professor of
Chemistry chaired the panel which brought down the finding. Overall Whitesides'
panel concluded that the quality of British scholarship is world class, and
facilities at the top universities are of high quality, but British chemists
have yet to significantly undertake multidisciplinary research, such as
materials science and work at the chemistry-biology interface. Currently UK
chemistry is suffering a sharp decline in undergraduates majoring in chemistry
and its "stodgy" image is exacerbating the situation.
A finding of particular concern is that one reason many
British academic chemists are less concerned with innovation is that they tend
to have close ties with the mature chemical industry; the current funding system
just does not support long-term, focused programmes. The EPSRC, which funds most
public supported chemical research in British universities, will discuss the
report at an open meeting on January 27th, with the intention of
developing an action plan to update its strategy for supporting chemistry.
It might be well for Brendan Nelson, as Minister for
Education, Science and Training and his advisors to note Harvard's Mallinckrodt
Professor of Chemistry's point regarding the stultifying effect on British
academic chemistry by being overly dependent on industry resourcing.
32 U.S. Scientific Societies Urge
President Bush to Increase Research Funding in His Budget Which will be Released
on February 4th. (January 13, 2003)
The societies are worried the weak economic outlook and
possibility of war could mean a disappointing year for US science agencies. In a
letter addressed to Bush they wrote, "We strongly urge you to increase support
for science programmes," and went on to cite a string of statements from
administration officials and advisers pledging improved science funding.
However, all the indications are that next month's budget won't deliver on
these pledges. And despite President Bush signing into law on December 19th
an act authorizing a doubling of the budget for the National Science Foundation
over five years, that authorisation doesn't automatically provide funding.
Furthermore, the National Institutes of Health may get only 0.3% added to its
US$27-billion budget while laboratories in the defence department are hard
pressed to maintain their fundamental research budgets what with the massive
expenditure in deploying forces around Iraq.
"People have yet to believe that the administration is
committed to increasing science funding", Samuel Rankin, head of government
relations at the American Mathematical Society told Nature (9Jan03).
"It's sort of like 'the cheque's in the mail'."
Israeli Academics and Students
Rally to Protest Alterations of Governance at Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan.
The University's Board of Governors Voted Against the Proposed Changes.
(January 7, 2003)
The move by Bar Ilan University's government appointed
president and the chair of Bar Ilan's executive committee to change the
University's bylaws so as to greatly diminish the powers of the University's
Rector and Senate over academic decisions was defeated by the Board of
Governors. Prior to the vote a rally organised by the universities' Inter-Senate
Committee for Academic Freedom was staged outside Bar Ilan's Senate building.
Several hundred professors, graduate and undergraduate students of Bar Ilan as
well as representatives from all Israeli universities with the exception of the
TECHNION were present. Senior faculty from several of the universities spoke and
Israel's media took note.
Finland, "They Really Have
Pushed." Hans Wigzell, President of Sweden's Karolinska Institute. (January
7, 2003)
Finland - population, 5.2 million; per capita GDP,
A$46,000; R&D, 3.4% of GDP in 2000.
Australia - population, 19.5 million; per capita GDP,
A$43,000; R&D, 1.54% of GDP in 2001.
Paul Smaglik reports in Nature's December 12th supplement on
Scandinavian science and technology on the envy that Finland's progress has
generated in the rest of Scandinavia. For example many members of the faculty at
the Karolinska Institute for Medical Research in Stockholm are Finnish but the
times may be a changing. Why? A matter of resources.
The Finnish recession in the 1980s gave the government a
wakeup call. To transform the economy it began to invest heavily in science and
technology. In 1994 the budget for R&D was 2.3% of Finland's GDP in 2000 it had
risen to 3.4%.
The Karolinska's President sees Finland's approach as a
prod to rally the Swedish government to increase funding for basic rather
than applied research while in Norway Nature's Smaglik reports that many
scientists are saying privately that their government's aim to raise R&D
investment from 1.7% of GDP to 2.2% by 2005 is not sufficiently ambitious. And
Kalervo Väänänen, director of the anatomy department at the University of Turku
points out, "We are now starting to get Swedish researchers in Finland, which
was very uncommon 10 years ago."
India's Prime Minister Talks Up
Science Support. (January 5, 2003)
On Friday Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
addressed the 6000 delegates gathered for the annual meeting of the Indian
Science Congress (ISC). Some of the reforms promised the delegates: double the
country's spending on research over 5 years, improve training, and streamline
bureaucracy, a new funding mechanism for basic research that appears similar to
that of the U.S. National Science Foundation. The basis for Mr. Vajpayee's
address to the ISC is the 28 page report resulting from a 2-year dialogue
with the scientific community on how India can become a bigger presence in the
international research community. While short on detail, the report does form a
coherent basis on which to build.
The Indian Prime Minister also took the opportunity to
admonish Indian scientists to curb the large
number of advanced degrees "of indifferent quality" awarded by Indian
universities and to avoid "becoming afflicted with the [bureaucratic] culture of
our government agencies." He didn't spell out how that might be accomplished.
And he would like the Indian private sector to become more involved in R&D.
However, the honorary president of the Jawaharlal Nehru
Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bangalore, C.N.R. Rao, points out
that real change will require considerably more than a few supportive words from
the prime minister. While he welcomes any increase in spending, he
cautions that the country's notorious bureaucracy may well resist any permanent
reform effort. Nevertheless, according to V.S. Ramamurthy, the nuclear physicist
given the task to clothe the new policy, the chances of success have improved
now that "a succinct, undisputed, and generalized road map has been made
available by the government."
Science Scores Well in Tight
Japanese Budget. (January 5, 2003)
Tight budget constraints will hold total growth in Japanese
government spending to 0.7% in the financial year beginning April 1st,
but the budget approved by Cabinet on Christmas Eve includes a 3.9% rise, to
A$18.4 billion, for science. A separate appropriation for January through March
2003 will provide significant additional funds to upgrade research facilities.
It includes A$3.2 billion for upgrading university research equipment and
facilities.
Funding for peer-reviewed grants for scientific research, the
largest source of support for individual academic researchers and small groups,
will rise 3.6% to A$2.7 billion. And the publicity engendered by the award
of a share of last year's Nobel Prize in physics to Masatoshi Koshiba for his
work on neutrinos didn't hurt support for research.
Nevertheless a caveat worth heeding is quoted in the January
3rd issue of Science, "Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa
emphasizes that the government gave priority to science and technology, among
other fields, because it is expected to help revitalize the economy. Those
expectations make some researchers nervous. One institute head, who asked to
remain anonymous, says there is 'too much of an emphasis on short-term results
rather than long-term benefits.'"