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Contents page for Volume 150 Part 1 and Council and Office Bearers from March 2016 to March 2017
Full text linkContents page for Volume 150 Part 1, 2016 & Council and Office Bearers from March 2016 to March 201
Change in the distribution of the indigenous grass Poa litorosa on sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island following the eradication of rabbits.
Full text linkThe recent eradication of rabbits, rats and mice from Macquarie Island has resulted in unprecedented changes to the vegetation. One unforeseen outcome is the expansion in the known distribution of the indigenous grass, Poa litorosa (L.) which was known from only four restricted populations on Macquarie Island prior to 2014. An increase in abundance of P. litorosa was observed in 2014 and so we undertook surveys to document changes in the known distribution of the species and established fixed transects in the new and previously recorded populations to monitor future changes. Monitoring of an exclosure and control plot over a 24-year period gave insights into past effects of rabbit grazing on the species. Our surveys documented a dramatic increase in the known distribution of the species. Existing populations have expanded and new populations have been recorded. Monitoring of the exclosure and control plot revealed suppression of P. litorosa plants in control plots in comparison to fenced plots during peak rabbit numbers, and so we attribute the population expansion to the recent eradication of rabbits and subsequent release of grazing pressure. This research contributes to the increasing bank of knowledge of changes occurring on Macquarie Island post-eradication and highlights the importance of monitoring to detect unforeseen changes
Fe-Ti-V-(P) resources in the Upper Zone of the Bushveld Complex, South Africa
Full text linkThe Bushveld Complex in South Africa is the largest layered intrusion on Earth. Its upper part is known for huge resources of iron, titanium, vanadium and phosphorus. Associated with the layered character of the rocks, these resources are enriched at certain levels of the intrusion, which makes it important to understand the formation processes of those layers. In this paper we give an introduction and overview of recent debates and challenges
Cosmology = topology/geometry: mathematical evidence for the Holographic Principle
Full text linkIn August 2015 NORDITA (Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics) hosted a conference where Hawking strongly supported the conjectured relationship between string theory and quantum fields that was initiated with the holographic principle some 20 years ago by ’t Hooft, Maldacena, Susskind and Witten. We bring together results of several papers showing how mathematics can come to the party: the fundamentals of flat (even higher-dimensional) space can be derived very simply from topological properties on a surface. Specifically, Desargues, Pappus or other configurations do not have to be assumed a priori or as self-evident (a fundamental weakness of Hilbert’s work in 1899) to develop the foundations of geometry. Are black holes places where non-commutative (quantum) behaviour reigns while Euclidean (flat) space is where commutativity holds sway? So, we cannot hope to look inside a black hole unless we know how “deformable” topology is related to “flat” geometry
Council Meeting Minutes for the year 2016
No full textMinutes of the Council Meetings of The Royal Society of Tasmania for the year 2016.
From original documents held at The Royal Society of Tasmani
Global Perspectives, Local Knowledge : preface to proceedings
Full text linkThe 2015 biennial conference of the Australian and New Zealand Associations of Alexander von Humboldt Fellows was held in Hobart, at the University of Tasmania’s prestigious Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies
(IMAS) building — a fitting venue for the geographical reach and scientific passions of von Humboldt. We are
delighted that we are able to publish our proceedings collection for this meeting, under the auspices of the Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania — another institution whose mission also clearly resonates with Alexander von Humboldt’s
Ripples in the fabric of space-time
Full text linkEinstein’s general theory of relativity is one of the finest achievements of the human mind. It has fundamentally changed the way we think about space and time, and how these in turn interact with matter. Based on this theory Einstein made several predictions, many of which have been verified experimentally. Among the most elusive phenomena that he predicted are gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of space-time. They are disturbances in the space-time continuum which propagate with the speed of light. This contribution describes some of their properties, their sources and how it is intended to detect them
Contents page for Volume 150 Part 2 and Council and Office Bearers from March 2016 to March 2017
Full text linkContents page for Volume 150 Part 2, 2016 & Council and Office Bearers from March 2016 to March 201
The life and legacy of Thomas Midgley Jr.
Full text linkAlthough little known to the general public, Thomas Midgley Jr., an American chemist and inventor, made two inventions which had fatal impacts on the Earth’s atmosphere, namely tetraethyl lead as an additive to fuels and Freon 12 as a refrigerant
Odoardo Beccari and Enrico D’Albertis in Australia and New Zealand, 1878: botanical and zoological collections
Full text linkThough acclaimed for his scientific exploration and botanising in Borneo, New Guinea and Sumatra, Odoardo Beccari travelled briefly through Australia and New Zealand between 19 January and 5 April 1878. During this time, Beccari was in the company of navigator and ethnologist Captain Enrico Alberto D’Albertis. Although primarily a leisure tour, Beccari and D’Albertis engaged in botanical and zoological collecting when circumstances allowed. Specimens were collected in Queensland at Percy Islands and the Brisbane Botanic Garden; in New South Wales at the Blue Mountains; in Tasmania at Launceston, Corra Linn, Mount Wellington and Huon Road and in New Zealand at Bluff, Napier, Moeraki and Titirangi. Of the Australian and New Zealand specimens that have been located, the main life-form is bryophytes, with about 46 taxa of which 11 were described as new based on their collections. Only 13 herbarium specimens of vascular plants have been located and two of these were described as new taxa and represent type specimens. Of the zoological collections, about 20 ant (Formicidae) specimens were collected of which three were described as new taxa. Also collected were two specimens of earthworms (Lumbricidae), both of which were described as new, and three crustaceans (Amphipoda), two of which were described as new. This paper outlines their travel itinerary, provides a critical assessment of the collections, and examines the collaboration between Beccari and Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, Victorian Government Botanist at the time