The Best Australian Science Writing 2013 (38 page)

Astronomer Ken Freeman, who first came to Stromlo in 1967, remembers the Saturday of the 2003 fire as ‘stinking hot'. By that day, the fire had been burning west of Canberra for more than a week. As a volunteer firefighter, Freeman had helped to extinguish a blaze that had started in a similar spot in 1973. Thirty years later he was on the mountain, watching a new fire that, fed by powerful winds, had now crossed the Murrumbidgee and was preparing to race up the hillside. There was no plan to actively defend the observatory against a serious bushfire. The idea of doing so was too dangerous. Instead, about half an hour before the fire arrived, those on the mountain retreated.

Freeman went to defend his own home in nearby Duffy, where he'd moved when the suburb first opened. There he was soon fighting a fire coming on multiple fronts. He stayed, trying to beat it, until Duffy's water supply failed. After that, little could
be done and he drove away. His home was destroyed alongside nearly five hundred others, including that of fellow astronomer Mike Bessell. Tragically that day, four people in Canberra lost their lives.

On Mount Stromlo, the fire changed things irretrievably. Hot enough to melt the domes, its wake left a brown and black landscape of burnt pines and twisted metal; a place of warp and collapse. Much of the observatory's history was destroyed, as well as its capabilities. Two office buildings survived, so while staff were soon able to move back to the mountain (the ash in their offices included that of their curtains), there was no guarantee that the observatory would be rebuilt. On top of the physical damage was an emotional toll. Some speak of a grim and subdued atmosphere and a period of depression and stagnation. Others say it took three or four years for things to feel normal again.

Yet for all the destruction, many of the astronomers here will tell you that eventually the observatory will look gratefully at the fire and the hard decisions it forced. Rebuilding has allowed for a new focus, including the creation of an advanced instrumentation engineering centre – something that has put Stromlo at the heart of international projects such as the Giant Magellan telescope, an instrument that will use seven mirrors, each as big as the single mirrors in today's largest telescopes. Researchers from around the world now come to explore everything from galactic archaeology to the nature of black holes, and there are plans to build a discovery centre and museum with help from the Smithsonian. Thus, while the fire destroyed much of the observatory and made stark ruins of its past, it's also made for a brighter future – one that, beyond the heartache, has invigorated this place.

Lost

Looking skyward

Advisory panel

F
RANK
B
OWDEN
is Professor of Medicine at the Australian National University's medical school and an infectious diseases physician at the Canberra Hospital. His research interests include the mathematical modelling of infectious diseases, the control of sexually transmitted infection and the development of novel treatments for head lice. His book
Gone Viral: The germs that share our lives
was shortlisted for the 2012 Queensland Literary Awards.

M
ERLIN
C
ROSSLEY
is Dean of Science at the University of New South Wales. A molecular biologist by training, he has studied or worked at the universities of Sydney, Melbourne, Harvard, and Oxford, where he held a Rhodes Scholarship. He is a Trustee of the Australian Museum and a board member of the Sydney Institute of Marine Science. He continues to be an active researcher, as well as an enthusiastic teacher, and supporter of science communication.

T
ANYA
M
ONRO
is an ARC Federation Fellow, Professor of Physics, and Director of the Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS) at The University of Adelaide. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. Awards recognising Tanya include the 2012 Pawsey Medal and South Australia's Australian of the Year in 2011. Tanya has published over 500 papers and raised over $86 million for research. Her transdisciplinary research focuses on creating disruptive photonic sensing technologies.

Acknowledgments

‘The weather of who we are' by Mark Tredinnick: broadcast on
Ockham's Razor
, ABC Radio National (20 May 2012), an edited extract from
Australia's Wild Weather
by Mark Tredinnick (National Library of Australia 2011)

‘It's time to become gonads' by Becky Crew: excerpted from
Zombie Tits, Astronaut Fish and Other Weird Animals
by Becky Crew (NewSouth 2012)

‘The last laughing death' by Jo Chandler: published in
The
Global Mail
, 13 November 2012 <
www.theglobalmail.org
>

‘The perils of evolution' by Janine Burke: excerpted from
Nest:
The art of birds
by Janine Burke (Allen & Unwin 2012)

‘Darwin's modest discovery' by Damon Young: published on
The Drum,
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (May 2012)

‘Earthmasters: Playing God with the climate' by Clive Hamilton: edited extract from
Earthmasters: Playing God with the climate
by Clive Hamilton (Allen & Unwin 2013)

‘Science is more than freaks and circuses' by Paul Livingston: published on
The Drum,
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (June 2012)

‘Animals on drugs' by Rhianna Boyle: published in
The Lifted
Brow
(Issue 14, October 2012)

‘Dreamtime cave' by Elizabeth Finkel: published in
COSMOS
(Volume 44, p43–49)

‘Heart dissection' by Ian Gibbins: published in
Urban Biology
by Ian Gibbins (Friendly Street Poets/Wakefield Press 2012)

‘Reaching one thousand' by Rachel Robertson: edited extract from
Reaching One Thousand: A story of love, motherhood and autism
by Rachel Robertson (Black Inc. 2012)

‘Higgs boson' by Michael Lucy: published in
The Monthly
(August 2012)

‘Here come the übernerds: Planets, Pluto and Prague' by Fred Watson: edited extract from
Star-Craving Mad: Tales from a travelling astronomer
by Fred Watson (Allen & Unwin 2013)

‘Many-worlds quantum mechanics vs earth-based grease monkeys' by gareth roi jones: public display on RiAus building, Adelaide, South Australia

‘The vagina dialogues' by Cordelia Fine: published in
The
Monthly
(November 2012)

‘Big Data can tell by your tweets if you're a psychopath: That's only the beginning …' by Kirsten Drysdale: published in
The Global Mail
(August 2012)

‘With body in mind (after Vesalius)' by Ian Gibbins: published in
Urban Biology
by Ian Gibbins (Friendly Street Poets/ Wakefield Press 2012)

‘How a donor is done' by Kellee Slater: excerpted from
How to do a Liver Transplant: Stories from my surgical life
by Kellee Slater (NewSouth 2013)

‘Nest: The art of birds' by Janine Burke: edited extract from
Nest: The art of birds
by Janine Burke (Allen & Unwin 2012)

‘My father's body' by Francesca Rendle-Short: this version published in
Invisible Thread: 100 Years of Words
(Halstead Press 2012), based on essay in
Overland
(print issue 197
Summer 2009)

‘Sentinel chickens' by Peter Doherty: excerpted from
Sentinel
Chickens: What birds tell us about our health and the world
by Peter Doherty (MUP 2012)

‘The science of shark fishing' by Ian Gibbins: published in
Urban Biology
by Ian Gibbins (Friendly Street Poets/ Wakefield Press 2012)

‘On flatulence' by Nicholas Haslam: excerpted from
Psychology in the Bathroom
by Nicholas Haslam (Palgrave Macmillan 2012)

‘Radioactive cigarettes: X-ray inhale' by Karl Kruszelnicki: excerpted from
50 Shades of Grey Matter
by Karl Kruszelnicki (Pan Macmillan 2012)

‘Martyrs to Gondwanaland: The cost of scientific exploration' by Chris Turney: edited extract from
1912: The year the world discovered Antarctica
by Chris Turney (Text Publishing 2012)

‘Mr Jevons and his paradox' by Antony Funnell: excerpted from
The Future and #relatednonsense
(ABC Books/HarperCollins 2012)

‘Alimentary thinking' by Emma Young: published in
New Scientist
(15 December 2012) © 2012 Reed Business Information, UK. All rights reserved. Distributed by Tribune Media Services

‘The carnivore's (ongoing) dilemma' by Åsa Wahlquist: published in
The Global Mail
(August 30 2012)

‘Beyond the Shock Machine' by Gina Perry: edited extract from
Behind the Shock Machine: The untold story of the notorious Milgram psychology experiments
by Gina Perry (Scribe 2012)

‘Australia's endangered future' by Tim Flannery: edited extract from
After the Future: Australia's new extinction crisis
by Tim Flannery (Quarterly Essay, Issue 48, 2012)

‘Alive as a dodo' by Nicky Phillips: published in the
Sydney Morning Herald
(29 March 2013)

‘Probably a sacrifice' by Ian Gibbins: published in
Urban
Biology
(Friendly Street Poets/Wakefield Press 2012)

‘Fire on the mountain: A walk on Mt Stromlo' by Andrew Croome: published in
Meanjin
(Vol 1, 2013)

In 2012, NewSouth Publishing launched a new annual prize for the best short non-fiction piece on science written for a general audience. The Bragg UNSW Press Prize is named in honour of Australia's first Nobel laureates, William Henry Bragg and his son William Lawrence Bragg. The Braggs won the 1915 Nobel Prize for physics for their work on the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays. Both scientists led enormously productive lives and left a lasting legacy. William Henry Bragg was a firm believer in making science popular among young people, and his Christmas lectures for students were described as models of clarity and intellectual excitement.

The Bragg UNSW Press Prize is supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.The winner receives a prize of $7000 and two runners up each receive a prize of $1500.

Jo Chandler won the first prize in 2012. Ashley Hay and Peter McAllister received the runners-up prizes.

The shortlisted entries for the 2013 prize are included in this anthology.

The Bragg UNSW Press Prize for
Science Writing 2013 Shortlist

Jo Chandler
The last laughing death

Becky Crew
It's time to become gonads

Elizabeth Finkel
Dreamtime cave

Clive Hamilton
Earthmasters:
Playing God with the climate

Gina Perry
Beyond the shock machine

Chris Turney
Martyrs to Gondwanaland:
The cost of scientific exploration

Fred Watson
Here come the übernerds:
Planets, Pluto and Prague

Winners announced on 29 October 2013 at newsouthpublishing.com/scienceprize

* * * * *

Judges of the Bragg UNSW Press Prize 2013

Professor Frank Bowden

Professor Merlin Crossley

Professor Tanya Monro

Natasha Mitchell and Jane McCredie, editors of
The Best Australian Science Writing 2013