{"id":1922,"date":"2022-04-28T15:50:14","date_gmt":"2022-04-29T01:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/halsteadpress.com.au\/site\/?p=1922"},"modified":"2022-05-21T03:25:31","modified_gmt":"2022-05-21T13:25:31","slug":"the-roots-of-australian-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/halsteadpress.com.au\/site\/the-roots-of-australian-science\/","title":{"rendered":"The Roots of Australian Science"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Not everyone remembers that for generation after generation Australia was one of the world\u2019s richest seedbeds of science\u2014far out of proportion to its modest population. More often these days we hear lamentations about underperformance from critics blaming current conditions for the decline of Australian science.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

While commentators on current conditions lament the decline of Australian science, Professor Robert Clancy takes a more positive approach. Plotting achievement from the times of Captain Cook to the 20th century, he asks what enabled the dramatic success of science with an Australian origin or focus\u2014on both global and domestic stages.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Oliphant\u2019s Homopolar Generator, Australian National University (1953)<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Clancy looks at individual scientists, from the days of Captain Cook to the middle decades of last century: an exciting time when all sorts of people became scientists, and progress came thick and fast. He argues that Australia was an experiment of \u201cthe Enlightenment\u201d, the movement sweeping Europe when Britain set its sights on Australia.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Replete with gorgeous, rarely-published colour illustrations, Clancy’s book demonstrates that Enlightenment conditions stimulated Australia\u2019s world-changing breakthroughs in Medicine, Astronomy, Agriculture, Physics and many other fields. In the wake of the pandemic he invites today\u2019s community to find inspiration there for a brighter future.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Robert Clancy has included everything, both pure and applied sciences, with chapters on the natural sciences, agricultural science, anthropology, chemistry, biomedical science, geology, surveying, astronomy, physics and engineering<\/em>.
– Historical Records of Australian Science<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The publication quality of this hard cover book is top-notch, with each discipline illustrated with artistic works, documents, maps, portraits, photographs of objects, an excellent bibliography arranged by discipline, and an index.<\/em>
– The Globe<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Robert Clancy presents a challenge to tomorrow\u2019s scientists: what worked? How can scientists, indeed everyone, contribute to a scientific revival? This book encourages its readers to once again dare to be a scientist.<\/em>
– History Magazine<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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