Staff ProfilesCLIMATE CHANGE: TREES REVEAL SECRETS OF THE PAST - DR CHRIS TURNEY Most people's interest in the weather doesn't extend much past what it will be like next weekend. University of Wollongong scientist Dr Chris Turney likes sunny Sunday afternoons as much as anybody, but he's more interested in what happened 50,000 years ago. That information, Dr Turney says, can help scientists predict climate change and what impact it might have on the modern world.
British Dr Turney is a palaeoecologist and an international authority on the study and carbon dating of ancient plants and fossils, and how they reacted to their environment. He says these ancient plants reveal important information about how the world's climate changed tens of thousands of years ago. That information can be directly applied to the modern world and our current concerns about the effect of climate change, and those concerns, he says, are more than justified. "The last Ice Age peaked 20,000 years ago and ended 11,500 years ago when the world hit the present-day climate conditions," Dr Turney says. "But at the end of the Ice Age the world suddenly became several degrees warmer in a few years. The danger of the world again shifting into a whole new climate state is that you can't go back - once it happens it is here to stay." Part of Dr Turney's current work is dating wood from kauri trees that have been unearthed in peat bogs in the northern tip of New Zealand 's North Island . Some are more than 100,000 years old. With Dr Turney determining their age back to 60,000 years using a pioneering method of carbon dating, he and New Zealand colleagues can then study the annual growth "rings" on the trees and determine what the weather was like during the life of the tree. "There's up to 2000 years of climate history captured in those rings," Dr Turney says. "These are trees that grew through the Ice Age, and they are perfectly preserved. By determining their age and looking at the size of the rings we can get a handle on what was happening at that time regarding things like temperature and precipitation. "Kauris are very climate sensitive, which makes them good trees for us to work on. We can compare that to what is happening to modern kauris. It is exciting stuff because it helps us understand what happened in the past, and puts it into context of the present and future." Linking in with past climate changes, Dr Turney is using his expertise in carbon dating to date human evolution, migration and colonisation in Australia and Southeast Asia . Most recently, Dr Turney was involved in the discovery of Flores (Indonesia) of the new pymgy-sized and ancient-looking species of human, Homo floresiensis (popularly known as 'the Hobbit'') where he led the carbon dating which gave the spectacularly young age of their existence as 13,000 years ago. "The find was totally out of left field," Dr Turney says. What was almost as spectacular was that in geological terms they were living yesterday. Dr Turney's work is being continued in Flores with the rest of the team to determine when the species arrived in Flores and whether any populations survived more recently. Dr Turney joined UOW's GeoQuest Research Centre in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences in 2004. He is working under an Australian Research Council Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship which gives him the opportunity to join a team he describes as "world-class". UNDERSTANDING INDONESIA 'S CHANGING SOCIETY
- PROFESSOR PHILIP KITLEY Democratic reform in Indonesia since the collapse of the Soeharto Government in 1998 has provided an ever-increasing range of opportunities for Indonesians to participate in shaping their country. As the Indonesian Parliament has been opened up to popular representation and participation, so has the nation's print and electronic media experienced greater freedom and increased commercialisation. This, in turn, has meant that greater global cultural influences have come into play.
Professor Philip Kitley, Head of the School of Social Science , Media and Communication at the University of Wollongong 's Faculty of Arts, is researching the effects of these influences and freedoms on Indonesian society. His research, entitled 'From Mass to Public: discourses and representation of popular sovereignty in Indonesia,' follows Professor Kitley's long-term interest in Indonesian culture after he served as Cultural Attaché to the Australian Embassy in Jakarta for a number of years in the late 1980s. "Previously Indonesian citizens were only vaguely represented (in Parliament) and not strongly involved in the political and cultural development of their nation, which largely came from the top down," Professor Kitley says. "However, since President Soeharto resigned and the reform period started there has been a growing range of opportunities for Indonesian citizens to get involved." Professor Kitley believes this new era of democratic representation and greater communication between Parliament and the people through websites and other electronic methods, as well as new freedom of information laws and greater access to a range of television influences, means Indonesians are better informed and more able to participate in nation building than in the past. "The research is looking for evidence of a shift in the role of Indonesian citizens in cultural development (as a result of these changes)," says Professor Kitley. "For example, during the 2004 elections we looked at how the campaign was conducted and how greater freedom of the print and electronic media saw a new style of campaigning, with the media much more involved than in the past." The research findings are incorporated into the Faculty's Bachelor of Communication and Media Studies and for students taking a Communications major in their BA. "We're bringing an understanding and knowledge of media in neighbouring countries as an important ingredient for students undertaking these courses. It's important for our students' understanding of Australia 's place in the world that we draw examples from the region as well as from Australia or the United States ." THE EVOLUTION OF SEX AND THE AGEING PROCESS
- MATS OLSSON Two areas in biology which have intrigued every generation from Aristotle (c. 300 BC) to modern time is the evolution of sex and ageing, probably because of their dramatic influences on human life. Still, our understanding of each of those phenomena is, superficial to say the least, and we have even less knowledge about the degree to which they may be interconnected.
Mats Olsson, Professor of Evolutionary Ecology in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Wollongong , has spent the last two decades researching evolutionary ecology and genetics, using reptilian and amphibian model systems.
"One of the most important insights from this research," says Professor Olsson, "is the value of pluralism - the gains in terms of understanding evolutionary principles from integrating biochemistry, behaviour, genetics, and population ecology." With this multidisciplinary approach, and using lizards as models, Professor Olsson is currently conducting a research program that targets the perennial questions - the evolution of sexual reproduction, in particular its potential genetic benefits; and ageing. He says that in order for evolution to direct the ageing path through an organism's life, there needs to be different inherited processes, which may be set as far back as fertilisation, for example through mate choice. "Recent work suggests that the key can be found in reproductive cell recognition at a membrane molecule level." This implies that when females mate with several males prior to ovulation, the probability of paternity may be biased towards males that will provide the 'best' genetic contribution to the female's offspring. If, indeed, there is this kind of selection 'in the wild' serving as a filter against poor genetic combinations, we need to understand if bypassing it will lead to complications in the case of assisted reproductive medicine for example," Professor Olsson says. "Research suggests that genes governing the immune system could be one of the factors influencing processes as early as fertilisation, and only the future will tell how this will affect ageing." Professor Olsson's project will, however, provide vital insights into the link between fertilisation bias, genetic quality of offspring, and the ageing process. TUNING MUSICAL APPLICATIONS FOR WIRELESS INTERNET - DR GREG SCHIEMER Tuning systems have a long history that predates the invention of Western musical notation. Much of this historical legacy gradually became inaccessible with the adoption of a single system based on 12 equal divisions of the octave. This system, however, does not support the microtonal diversity found in tuning systems used by the ancient Greeks and Persians; by classical musicians from the Middle East, India and China ; or by folk musicians from many parts of the world.
The pocket gamelan project, devised by Dr Greg Schiemer from the Faculty of Creative Arts, uses mobile phone technology to explore these tuning systems. "Today's hand-held computing devices offer the promise of new musical applications that represent a radical departure from computer music as it first developed in the 60s," he says. "I want to develop musical applications that will take advantage of this. Electronic musical instrument designers need to recognise that a performer cannot afford the time it normally takes to master an electronic instrument because the technology is likely to change. Generic hand-held instruments, like mobile phones, provide a solution to this problem. They are easy to play and quick to learn," says Dr Schiemer. "These instruments will be ideal for performances where a musician's focus is less on individual virtuosity and more on the quality of ensemble interaction. I have chosen the term 'gamelan', the name for Indonesian tuned percussion ensembles, to represent the kind of musical interaction expected." In the pocket gamelan, each member of the ensemble will create sound locally on their handset to produce a combined sound made up of dozens, possibly hundreds, of handsets. Eventually the project will accommodate another scenario where ensemble members can affect the sound on adjacent handsets, and yet another where concert-goers may be asked to turn on their mobile phones in order to contribute to the musical outcome. "The project," says Dr Schiemer, "will provide new avenues for exposing the general public to the rich legacy of global music and, with the help of the mobile phone, will allow them to perform a new music derived from that legacy." UNDERSTANDING VOLUNTEERING MOTIVATIONS IN A MULTICULTURAL COMMUNITY - A/PROF. SARA DOLNICAR Volunteer work in Australia has an estimated value of $42 billion per annum, with 4.4 million people contributing 704 million hours to the benefit of the community. However, volunteer-based organisations increasingly face recruitment problems, especially in a culturally diverse country like Australia .
Associate Professor Sara Dolnicar, from the University of Wollongong 's School of Management & Marketing is conducting a research project which aims at gaining insight into the volunteering market in a multicultural society in order to help volunteer-based organisations target different groups within the community. The project is being undertaken in co-operation with Wollongong City Bushcare, a program which commenced in 1993 with the aim of encouraging and supporting community participation in the conservation and restoration of Wollongong 's natural areas. The future success of the Bushcare program lies in the continued interest and participation of the local community and, at present, the hurdle to its growth lies in the fact that Wollongong is home to around 60 different ethnic groups. It is, therefore, an extremely heterogeneous community, reflecting a wide range of cultural and personal values. The project initially involves an extensive explorative phase in order to develop a theoretical model of what motivates volunteers. It could be, for example, that some members of the community will have a high interest in "protecting natural resources for future generations", while others may be more concerned with creating a 'familyfriendly environment'. The second phase is a large-scale survey analysing the volunteer group and potential volunteer group in the Wollongong area, identifying who the potential competitors for volunteer time are, and looking at possible avenues for increasing participation in Bushcare. "Through an improved understanding of what can motivate members of the community to participate in volunteer work, the local Bushcare unit will be given a powerful tool to communicate with its community," says Associate Professor Dolnicar. "By improving communication a higher number of volunteers could be recruited to the program, leading to measurable results for the conservation of Wollongong 's natural heritage." PIRATES BEWARE: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND ACCESS TO PLANTS, ARTWORK AND OTHER FORMS OF TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE
- PROF. CHRISTOPH ANTONS As strange as it may seem, for a short time extracts from the Indian neem tree were patented in Europe , and rice similar to Basmati is produced under the Texmati label. It's notorious cases such as these underline the importance of intellectual property rights with regard to the appropriation of traditional plant materials and their usage by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
The relationship between traditional knowledge and intellectual property rights doesn't stop with plants, however. Traditional information is very commonly in the form of a song, a story or a dance; cultural expressions encompass all manner of things from paintings and sculptures to handicrafts, calligraphies and fabrics. Professor Christoph Antons is the Professor of Comparative Law, Director of the Centre for Comparative Law and Development Studies in Asia and the Pacific; and a QEII Fellow of the Australian Research Council (ARC). He is conducting a research project focusing on traditional knowledge and intellectual property, comparing current approaches in Australia , Indonesia and the Philippines and looking at possible legal policies for the three countries. "It is pertinent in relation to cultural expressions, such as the use of Aboriginal symbols in Australia ," Professor Antons says, "and it also covers the production of cultural materials - often in the form of tourist merchandise - in other countries. For example, items which originate in northern Australia , such as didgeridoos, are reproduced in Vietnam and Indonesia . The Balinese, have a reputation for copying so-called 'native materials' from all over the world as well as other parts of Indonesia ." "What is needed," says Professor Antons, "is information about how indigenous and local communities themselves administer their traditional knowledge, which means interdisciplinary research involving law and social science." < Back to Contents | Next Article >
|
