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5 to 1 Favourite Science Moments
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
The survey is done and the results are in. According to the Eureka Prize alumni, made up of prize winners and judges, our favourite moments in Australian science are.....
Number 5: Parkes telescope broadcasts first moon landing
The CSIRO's Parkes Radio Telescope in NSW - also known as "The Dish" - broadcast mankind's first moon landing on Monday 21 July, 1969 to six hundred million people. The telescope beamed images of Apollo 11's moon landing and man's first steps on the moon by Neil Armstrong on this day 40 years ago.
Check out the interviews with some of the people who worked that historic shift in the dish from last night's ABC TV 7.30 Report at http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/
More details available at the CSIRO's website, http://www.csiro.au/science/Apollo-11-and-Parkes-telescope.html
Number 4: Peter Doherty's Nobel Prize for cell immune research
Australian immunologist and pathologist Peter Doherty won The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1996 with his colleague, Professor Rolf Zinkernagel for discovering how virus-infected cells are recognised by the immune system. Through experiments conducted on mice, the pair changed our understanding of how human immune systems fight infections. The pair's research led to a new understanding of organ rejection after transplants, a better understanding of genetic susceptibility to disease and new approaches for vaccines.
Sweden's Nobel Assembly stated: "Zinkernagel's and Doherty's findings...demonstrated conclusively the requirement for the cellular immune system to recognise simultaneously both ‘foreign' molecules (in the present case from a virus) and self molecules (major histocompatibility antigens)
"What also became obvious was the important function of the major histocompatibility antigens (in humans, called HLA antigens) in the individual's normal immune response and not only in conjunction with transplantation."
The Nobel Prize was for work carried out when Professor Doherty was a research fellow at the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University, Canberra between 1973-75.
Find out more at http://jcsmr.anu.edu.au/about/nobelprize/doherty.php or http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1996/press.html
Number 3: Smallpox Fenner
Our third favourite moment in Australian science was when Australian virologist Professor Frank Fenner announced to the World Health Organization (WHO) that smallpox had been eradicated in 1980.
Professor Fenner made the announcement as Chairman of the Global Commission for the Certification of Smallpox Eradication. According to the WHO, until Fenner's announcement, smallpox ‘threatened 60 per cent of the world's population, killed every fourth victim, scarred or blinded most survivors, and eluded any form of treatment'. The contagious disease was eradicated through a global campaign of vaccination which was endorsed by the World health Assembly in 1980.
Read a short but sweet interview with the Emeritus Professor at: http://www.abc.net.au/dimensions/dimensions_in_time/Transcripts/s785936.htm or get the facts on smallpox at http://www.who.int/csr/disease/smallpox/en/index.html
Number 2: Marshall and Warren's discovery of Helicobacter pylori as cause for stomach ulcer
Our second favourite moment in Australian science was in 1984, when Barry Marshall and J. Robin Warren discovered that most stomach ulcers are caused by Helicobacter pylori, a bacterial infection treatable by antibiotics. When the pair made their discovery, the world believed that stress and lifestyle were the major causes of ulcers. Now H. Pylori is shown to cause more than 90 per cent of duodenal ulcers and up to 80% of gastric ulcers. After successfully culturing the bacterium for the first time, they were able to scientifically study it and prove antiobiotics were effective in treating it.
The pair won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2005 for their discovery.
For more details see http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2005/press.html
Number 1: Sir Howard Florey - Penicillin
Our favourite moment in Australian science was when Adelaide-born pathologist, Sir Howard Florey produced modern day antibiotics together with Ernst Boris Chain in 1940.
Florey was awarded The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1945 jointly with Ernst Boris Chain and Sir Alexander Fleming for "the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases".
Sir Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered penicillin in 1928 when he noticed mould that grew on a staphylococci culture was killing the cultures immediately surrounding the mould. It wasn't until 1940 that Florey and Chain isolated the mould's active ingredient that they were able to produce penicillin on an industrial scale. It was used widely by the allies in World War II, saving millions of lives.
He is regarded as one of Australia's greatest scientists and he received many awards and accolades for his work - including having his image on the $50 note for many years.
For a lovely story of Florey's work, see http://www.abc.net.au/science/slab/florey/story.htm and for the info on the Nobel Prize see http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1945/
