1,721,457 research outputs found
Submission to the consultation on Vision for a Science Nation from the Australian Academy of Science
No full textOverview
The Australian Academy of Science welcomes the opportunity to comment on the suite of strategies and measures outlined in the Australian Government’s Vision for a Science Nation consultation paper.
Overall, these proposals respond well to the majority of recommendations set out by the Australian Chief Scientist in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM): Australia’s Future, and have the potential to provide significant and lasting benefit to Australia through a comprehensive approach to Australian STEM over the coming decade.
This submission from the Academy provides both a high- level summary and a detailed response to the consultation questions on each of the components of the proposed strategy:
1) Australian competitiveness; 2) education and training; 3) research; and 4) international engagement. The submission makes 20 specific recommendations, four of which relate to measures proposed in the consultation document that are not recommended by the Academy, and 16 relating to additional measures that would provide additional value if included in the strategy.
Two overarching recommendations of this submission are:
1. That the final national STEM strategy must be implemented in such a way as to achieve a true whole- of-government framework and approach to STEM in Australia. The Commonwealth Science Council is the clear governing body to oversee the strategy and the myriad programs, initiatives and other strategies that will come under or otherwise relate to it; likely with a limited number of additional subordinate governance mechanisms such as a National Advisory Board for international science required. However, numerous and significant changes and transformations will be required at the point of delivery of new and existing programs to streamline processes and ensure efficient and enabling interaction with the scientists, business people, students, teachers, government representatives and members of the public who engage with them.
2. That the final national STEM strategy include clear mechanisms to increase public and private funding for STEM. Business investment in R&D in Australia sits well below the OECD average, while Commonwealth Government funding for science as a percentage of GDP has been trending down for the past thirty years, and declining in real terms from a peak of $9.8 billion in 2012. While the STEM strategy presents a significant opportunity to better coordinate and target existing resources, the long-term objectives of the strategy will not be realised or sustained without mechanisms to steadily increase public and private investment in science–particularly in basic research–over the coming years
The science of climate change: questions and answers
No full textOverview: This publication from the Australian Academy of Science aims to address confusion created by contradictory information in the public domain. It sets out to explain the current situation in climate science, including where there is consensus in the scientific community and where uncertainties exist. The document is structured around nine questions:
What is climate change?
How has climate changed?
Are human activities causing climate change?
How do we expect climate to evolve in the future?
How are extreme events changing?
How are sea levels changing?
What are the impacts of climate change?
What are the uncertainties and their implications?
What does science say about options to address climate change?
‘The science of climate change: Questions and answers’ was prepared by a working group of nine members co-chaired by Dr Ian Allison and Professor Mike Raupach FAA FTSE. The document was also reviewed by an oversight committee of eight members chaired by Professor John Zillman AO FAA FTSE. This publication is an update of the Academy’s 2010 booklet of the same name
The importance of advanced biological science to the Australian economy
No full textThe Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS) and the Australian Academy of Science (AAS) commissioned the Centre for International Economics (the CIE) to investigate and measure the importance of recent advances in the biological sciences to the Australian economy. This work followed an earlier similar report that presented results on the importance of recent advances in the physical and mathematical sciences to the Australian economy (AAS 2015). A third report (AAS 2016) synthesises these two pieces of research and presents combined results on the importance of recent advances in the physical, mathematical and biological sciences to the Australian economy
Climate change challenges to health: risks and opportunities
No full textThis report summarises the discussions and recommendations of researchers to consider climate challenges in relation to health in Australia.
Executive summary
By the end of the century, global temperatures are likely to have risen by at least 2°C compared with pre-industrial times. No nation will be immune to the resulting changes in the world’s weather patterns and as international negotiations aimed at reducing future carbon emissions continue to have limited success, it would be rash for any country to fail to plan to meet the consequent challenges to their infrastructure and citizens. For Australia, one of the most important concerns is the health of its people.
This report summarises the discussions and recommendations of a group of early- and mid-career researchers from a broad range of relevant disciplines who came together in July 2014 to consider climate challenges in relation to health in Australia. Five main impacts were considered:
Extreme weather events. These include heatwaves, droughts, storms, cyclones and floods. These will have direct impacts on lives, homes and communities, and will also place stress on the mental wellbeing of members of the community during prolonged events such as intense heatwaves.
Disease. Many diseases are likely to spread and increase in incidence as the climate warms. A growing human population with high rates of interconnectedness is also at risk from newly emergent and exotic diseases for which we have no treatment or immunity.
Food and water. Disrupted supplies of water and high temperatures will stress crops and promote algal blooms in reservoirs while rising ocean acidification will affect fisheries.
Jobs. Livelihoods—including farming, fishing and tourism—will be particularly badly affected from soaring temperatures, droughts and storms. Employment patterns will be changed and disruptions to supply chains will threaten businesses.
Security. Threatened food supply chains, changing patterns of infectious diseases, and forced migration from land rendered uninhabitable will trigger tension, unrest and violent conflict
Australian Academy of Science
No full textThis record was harvested from a previous catalogue system and will be withdrawn in 2025. Information in this record may be superseded or incomplete. Visit this record in UMA's new catalogue at: https://archives.library.unimelb.edu.au/nodes/view/435764Correspondence, Kenneth Myer Biography 1999, handwritten notes257733
Item: [2017.0015.00051] "Australian Academy of Science
Australian Academy of Science
No full textThis record was harvested from a previous catalogue system and will be withdrawn in 2025. Information in this record may be superseded or incomplete. Visit this record in UMA's new catalogue at: https://archives.library.unimelb.edu.au/nodes/view/435814Correspondence, Candidates for Election, 2008-2013257783
Item: [2017.0015.00101] "Australian Academy of Science
The importance of advanced physical, mathematical and biological sciences to the Australian economy
No full textThis report aims to aid policy making and public discussion based on rigorous estimates of the current contribution of the core sciences.
The Office of the Australian Chief Scientist commissioned the Australian Academy of Science to develop two complementary reports on the importance of recent advances in a selection of the sciences in the knowledge that the economy is not an end in itself but a means by which we realise our many goals.
The Academy contracted the Centre for International Economics to do this work. We now have, for the first time, two reports that estimate the extent to which our economy, our health and our environment are based on global advances in specific fields of knowledge over the past 20 to 30 years. While further analysis and projections may follow, the reports aid policy making and public discussion based on rigorous estimates of the current contribution of the core sciences. The contribution is substantial—and consistent with estimates for the same sciences made using different methods in other countries
Karl Glazebrook elected to Australian Academy of Science, 2017
No full textDistinguished Professor and Director of Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Professor Karl Glazebrook has been elected to the Australian Academy of Science. He was one of 21 scientists elected by their Academy peers, following a rigorous evaluation process. Professor Glazebrook is a world-leading observational astronomer whose research has led to major advances in our understanding of the evolution of galaxies and the Universe across cosmic time. Photograph appeared in Media Centre Release 'Karl Glazebrook elected to Australian Academy of Science' on 23 May 2017
Salinity and water use a national symposium on hydrology, sponsored by the Australian Academy of Science, 2 - 4 November 1971
No full textDamage to Hearing
No full textThe most frequently occurring injurious effect of noise is damage to hearing. Noise energy of grossly high intensity can cause direct physical injury to other parts of the body but such effects are rarely found because levels of sufficient magnitude and duration to directly abrase the skin surface or to cause destructive vibration of the tissues or skeletal structures are rarely encountered in our current environment. Such effects are worth mentioning, however, for they emphasize the vibratory (i.e., purely mechanical) nature of stimulation by noise. Even when sound is not experienced as a sensation of vibration it is nevertheless acting in this purely mechanical way directly on the surface of the internal ear receptor system. Vibration of air particles (which is the major environmental medium for transmission of acoustic energy from source to listener) is transformed into vibration of fluid in the inner ear, via the ear-drum and the series of bones in the middle-ear. The middle-ear system acts to facilitate transmission of energy from aerial to fluid media. Furthermore, the middle-ear muscles (particularly the stapedius muscle which acts on the innermost bone of the middle-ear chain) reflexly operate at high intensity levels to cause attenuation of vibrations to the inner ear. In man, such attenuation is almost exclusively at mid to low frequencies (Borg, 1972)
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