Michael Raupach (1950–2015)

Editorial: Australian Chemistry under the Spotlight

Application of logic models in a large scientific research program

Seeing red: a modified RUBY reporter assay for visualizing inplanta protein-protein interactions.

This article describes three case studies of the commercialisation of early-stage technologies involving Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO); extended-wear contact lenses, biostable biocompatible polymers for medical implant devices, and biodegradable biocompatible polymers for medical implant devices. The case studies extend the portfolio of detailed, highly contextualised studies of innovation in the Australian context. They also provide a window into CSIRO, commercialisation pathways and the national system of innovation in Australia. In particular, they highlight the paradox of public science and global business in the Australian context. The paradox is that global business depends upon public science for innovation more than ever, but makes it increasingly difficult for countries to capture the benefits of public science. It adds major complexity to the successful realisation of a more commercial approach by Australia’s public research organisations such as CSIRO, and the capture of benefits from the national system of innovation.

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is the Australian national science agency and is the single largest multidisciplinary scientific research enterprise in Australia. Through partnerships and other collaborative efforts, CSIRO seeks to resolve challenges and create solutions to scientific project management. The author shares initiatives occurring at CSIRO, such as building a digital library, the use of electronic laboratory (e-lab) notebooks, and establishing links to materials. Of primary interest is the development of a digital workbench for scientists. Opportunities for enhancing and streamlining scientific processes and for sharing projects are limited only by one's imagination.

The objective of this study was to assess the impact of climate change on intercrops of maize and improved pigeonpea varieties developed. Future climate data for Katumani were downscaled from the National Meteorological Research Centre (CNRM) and Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) climate models using the Statistical Downscaling Model (SDSM) version 4.2. Both models predicted that Katumani will be warmer by 2°C and wetter by 11% by 2100. Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) model version 7.3 was used to assess the impact of both increase in temperature and rainfall on maize and pigeonpea yield in Katumani. Maize crop will increase by 141–-150% and 10–-23 % in 2050 and 2100, respectively. Intercropping maize with pigeonpea will give mixed maize yield results. Pigeonpea yields will decline by 10–20 and 4–9% by 2100 under CSIRO and CNRM models, respectively. Intercropping short and medium duration pigeonpea varieties with maize will reduce pigeonpea yields by 60–80 and 70–90% under the CSIRO and CNRM model, respectively. There is a need to develop heat and waterlogging-tolerant pigeonpea varieties to help farmers adapt to climate change and to protect the huge pigeonpea export market currently enjoyed by Kenya.

This paper addresses the manner in which the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) transferred its technology to Australian industry during the period 1949 to 1979. The analysis is framed within the changing economic and political scene in Australia and the changing expectations for public research organisations such as CSIRO. During the 1950s and 1960s CSIRO gave little direct attention to the processes of technology transfer but instead, following the prevailing wisdom, focused on high quality science and relied on existing extension services and patenting to capture the benefits from its research. This ‘science-push’ approach proved successful for Australia’s rural industries but, with a few exceptions, less so for the country’s secondary industries. By the early 1970s CSIRO faced pressures for change, induced by a tougher economic climate and changing views on the role of public research institutions. A shift toward greater customer relevance in its research would also need to be matched by new thinking about technology transfer.

The CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) and the Queensland Government have jointly established the Australian e-Health Research Centre (AEHRC) with the aim of developing innovative information and communication technologies (ICT) for a sustainable health care system. The AEHRC, as part of the CSIRO ICT Centre, has access to new technologies in information processing, wireless and networking technologies, and autonomous systems. The AEHRC's 50 researchers, software engineers and PhD students, in partnership with the CSIRO and clinicians, are developing and applying new technologies for improving patients' experience, building a more rewarding workplace for the health workforce, and improving the efficiency of delivering health care. The capabilities of the AEHRC fall into four broad areas: smart methods for using medical data; advanced medical imaging technologies; new models for clinical and health care interventions; and tools for medical skills development. Since its founding in 2004, new technology from the AEHRC has been adopted within Queensland (eg, a mobile phone-based cardiac rehabilitation program), around Australia (eg, medical imaging technologies) and internationally (eg, our clinical terminology tools).

This article describes a new TREC Enterprise Track search test collection -- CERC. The collection is designed to represent some real-world search activity within the enterprise, using as a specific example the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). It has a deep crawl of CSIRO's public-facing information, that is very similar to the crawl of a real-world search service provided by CSIRO. The search tasks are based on the activities of CSIRO Science Communicators, who are CSIRO employees that deal with public-facing information. Topics and judgments are tied to the Science Communicators in various ways, for example by involving them in the topic development process. The overall approach is to enhance the validity of the test collection as a model of enterprise search, by tying it to real-world examples.

Paleomagnetic and rock magnetic research in Australia has for some time been among the best in the world, mainly through the work of groups at the Australian National University (ANU), the Bureau of Mineral Resources (BMR) and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). Environmental magnetism is a relatively new field, but one that is developing rapidly in Australia, as elsewhere. This report outlines both past and present research and suggests some future directions.Environmental magnetism in the Australian region began as an adjunct to paleomagnetic studies of lake sediments in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG) [Thompson and Oldfield, 1978; Oldfield et al, 1980] and in Western Victoria [Barton and Polach, 1980]. In both cases, magnetic susceptibility and some remanence measurements were used for core correlation.

One of the key issues in Australia for sustainable management of the coastal zone is that the science of climate change has not been widely used by decision-makers to inform coastal governance. There exist opportunities to enhance the dialogue between knowledge-makers and decision-makers, and universities have a key role to play in researching and fostering better linkages. At the heart of these linkages lies the principle of more informed engagement between historically disparate groups. In Australia, the new ‘Flagship’ research programme, funded by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), emphasizes their partnering with universities in a more systematic and collaborative manner than previously achieved in such research projects. In order to address sustainability in general and coastal adaptation to climate change in particular, interdisciplinary learning needs to occur between the social and natural sciences; also, transdisciplinary understanding of that interaction needs to be fully developed. New methods of communicative engagement such as computer visualizations and animations, together with deliberative techniques, can help policy-makers and planners reach a better understanding of the significance of the science of climate change impacts on the coast. Deeper engagement across historically disparate groups can lead to the development of epistemological and methodological synergies between social and natural scientists, adaptive learning, reflexive governance, and greater analytical and deliberative understanding among scientists, policymakers and the wider public. This understanding can lead in turn to enhance coastal governance for climate adaptation on the coast.

Charles Henry Brian Priestley was born and educated in England. After completing the Mathematical Tripos at the University of Cambridge, he joined the Meteorological Office in 1939. For the next seven years he was engaged mostly in wartime work, including a two-year spell in Canada (1941–43) and three years with the Meteorological Office upper-air unit at Dunstable, UK (1943–46). In 1946, aged 31 years, he took up an Australian appointment with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (later to become the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO)) to establish and develop a group to undertake research in meteorological physics. Thereafter he was based in Melbourne, Australia, with his career in the CSIRO extending to 1977. Priestley’s own early research focused on large-scale atmospheric systems, including substantial work on global-scale transport, and later on small-scale atmospheric convection and heat transfer, in which he established some significant results. He had a leading role in the development of the atmospheric sciences in Australia, and was strongly involved in international meteorology.

<p>Based on Free Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment (FACE) and other raised-CO<sub>2</sub> experiments (eCO<sub>2</sub>), new hypotheses have been proposed to explain how the magnitude of the CO<sub>2</sub> fertilization effect on biomass and biomass production depends primarily on soil nitrogen and phosphorus availability [1,2]. To test whether these hypotheses and measurements from eCO<sub>2</sub> could explain the land carbon sink as independently determined from data and models, we combined a CO<sub>2</sub> response curve for biomass production with a simple two-box model of biomass and soil to simulate the evolution of the land carbon sink during the past century. Results were compared to Dynamic Global Vegetation Model (DGVM) results, as reported by the Global Carbon Project, and to results from inversion studies based on atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> measurements. The interannual variability of the modelled land sink was realistic, dominated by the temperature dependence of heterotrophic respiration, and similar to DGVMs results. However, the magnitude of the derived land sink based on eCO<sub>2</sub> results was smaller, and its geographical distribution was different to DGVMs average. Sensitivity tests showed that these findings were robust to reasonable variations of parameter values. The smaller sink is due to the smaller amount of vegetation biomass increment documented by eCO<sub>2</sub> experiments in comparison with the mean predictions of DGVMs. A land sink closer to the observed one could be produced, however, when incorporating the hypothesis that nutrient-stressed plants export “excess” carbon (generated by increased photosynthesis, but unable to be used for growth) to the soil and that only a fraction of this excess carbon returns to the atmosphere.  This hypothesis requires further exploration but hints at a reconciliation between DGVMs that explain the land carbon sink without nutrient limitations, with experimental findings of (sometimes severe) restrictions on CO<sub>2</sub> fertilization due to nutrient stress.</p><p>[1] Terrer et al. 2016, Science, doi.org/10.1126/science.aaf4610</p><p>[2] Terrer et al. 2019, Nature Climate Change, doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0545-2</p>

Dominic Louis Serventy was born on 28 March 1904 at Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, and died in Perth on 8 August 1988. He joined the AOU as a Corresponding Fellow in 1949 and became an Honorary Fellow in 1970. Dom, Australia's best-known ornithologist during his active years, left behind a legacy of brilliant achievement. Dom graduated B.Sc. with First Class Honours in Zoology from the University of Western Australia in 1931. A prestigious Science Research Scholarship enabled him to enroll at Cambridge, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in 1933. On his return to Perth, Dom lectured in zoology for three years at the University of Western Australia. In 1937 he joined the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Division of Fisheries, where he worked on mackerel and tuna biology at Sydney before returning to Perth in 1951 to become the western head of the newly formed Wildlife Survey Section of CSIRO. Then began Dom's long study of the Shorttailed Shearwater (Puffinus tenuirostris), which earned him increasing international acclaim. For the next 20 years, he made trips each November-December and January-March to Flinders Island in Bass Strait. He banded thousands of birds in perhaps the greatest study yet made on a procellariiform. Results included all aspects of reproduction, behavior, feeding, migration, population dynamics, and especially longevity. He also determined what proportion of each year's crop of young could be safely harvested for the economically important Bass Strait muttonbird industry. After World War II, Dom with brother Vincent and sister Lucy revived the Western Australian Naturalists' Club. Under his 33 years of editorship, The Western Australian Naturalist became the leading journal of its type. His publications numbered in the hundreds and included Birds of Western Australia (with Whittell) and The Handbook of Australian Seabirds (with Vincent Serventy and John Warham). Dom is survived by three sons. His wife Gertrude died in 1977. We are all sad losers by his passing. More detailed tributes appeared in The Emu (April 1989, pages 183-184) and Western Australian Naturalist (January 1989, pages 201225).

High speed and long range wireless backhauls are cost-effective alternatives to fibre networks and becoming more and more attractive as the demand for broadband wireless services grows rapidly in recent years. However, current commercially available wireless backhaul systems neither provide sufficiently high speed nor meet the requirements to achieve both high speed and long range at the same time with sufficiently low latency for targeted applications. Traditional microwave systems can achieve long transmission range, but the data rates are limited to a few hundred Mega bits per second only. Multi-Gigabit wireless communications can be achieved using millimetre-wave (mm-wave) frequency bands, especially the E-bands, but the practical transmission range is still a major weakness. In this paper, the state-of-the-art microwave and mm-wave technologies developed at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) are introduced to demonstrate CSIRO's technology leadership in multi-Gigabit wireless communications research and development. The technology trends in multi-Gigabit wireless communications are also discussed and various recently developed microwave and mm-wave systems are compared. It is hoped that this paper will stimulate further research interest and industry development.