Editors’ page

In this issue we have two historical articles, biographical memoirs of two deceased fellows of the Australian Academy of Science, and a suite of book reviews commissioned and edited for us by Martin Bush.

The first historical article is the last of a series about the relationship between CSIRO and industry, examining the organisation’s structure and policies over almost a century, and bringing the story up to 2010. The authors are all former employees of the organisation who have deep understandings of what happened, and why. Under CSIRO’s read and publish agreements with authors’ institutions, it is published as open access, meaning that it is accessible without charge to readers who do not have a subscription to the journal. The second article uses a biographical lens to examine the intersection of Western science, and commerce in the collecting and naming of the Albany Blackbutt, Eucalyptus staeri. The author argues that this process provides an opportunity to reconsider the long-established Western hegemonial stronghold on nomenclature, and reflect on what it might mean to Indigenise and decolonise herbarium specimens.

The scientists whose lives and work are described in the biographical memoirs could not be more different, but their scientific achievements were distinctly Australian. Roy Woodall was an exploration geologist who worked for Western Mining Corporation, leading teams of specialists who found orebodies that yielded metals such as aluminium, gold, copper and uranium. The richest and deepest, and therefore the most challenging was at Olympic Dam in South Australia. George Rogers, however, in contrast to Woodall’s hard rocks, worked on softer materials like wool and feathers, and was a specialist in the biosynthesis of hair keratin proteins. This was a field in which Australian scientists made unique contributions, and also one that saw great advances in electron microscopy and molecular genetics that Rogers mastered and used in his long career.

The book reviews bring to the attention of our readers a number of books that, although dealing with specialised subjects, are nonetheless accessible to a broad readership. It is interesting to note that a number of the authors and reviewers have published with us in Historical Records of Australian Science, and that one book—Eclipse Chasers—is especially topical, given the solar eclipse visible from parts of Australia earlier this year. It includes a ‘where and when’ guide to four more eclipses over the next fifteen years.

We alert readers to a special issue of the journal planned for July 2024 that will contain articles about the history of Australasian plant pathology, a scientific discipline that has been of vital importance in combatting disease in Australian and New Zealand agriculture, and the pastoral industry, and has informed quarantine practices. The issue will be sponsored by the Australasian Plant Pathology Society (APPS) with specialist historical contributions by members.