''Australasian Science'' was a bimonthly science magazine published in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
and was the longest-running scientific publication in the country, from 1938 to 2019. It contained a mixture of news items, feature articles, and expert commentary.
History
''Australasian Science'' was Australia's longest-running scientific publication. It was first published in 1938 as ''The Australian Journal of Science'' by the Australian National Research Council, which was the forerunner of the
Australian Academy of Science
The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The academy is modelled after the Royal Soc ...
.
In 1954 the journal was transferred to ANZAAS – the ''
'', and published as ''Search''. Throughout this time the journal published the research of eminent Australian scientists, including Sir
Douglas Mawson
Sir Douglas Mawson OBE FRS FAA (5 May 1882 – 14 October 1958) was an Australian geologist, Antarctic explorer, and academic. Along with Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott, and Sir Ernest Shackleton, he was a key expedition leader duri ...
and Sir
Frank Macfarlane Burnet
Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, (3 September 1899 – 31 August 1985), usually known as Macfarlane or Mac Burnet, was an Australian virologist known for his contributions to immunology. He won a Nobel Prize in 1960 for predicting acquired immune ...
, whose groundbreaking
clonal selection
In immunology, clonal selection theory explains the functions of cells of the immune system (lymphocytes) in response to specific antigens invading the body. The concept was introduced by Australian doctor Frank Macfarlane Burnet in 1957, in an ...
theory was published in the journal in 1957.
The journal evolved considerably over the following decades, with ownership transferring from ANZAAS to Blackwell Science in the 1980s and finally to Control Publications in 1992.
In 1998 ''Search'' merged with ''Australasian Science Mag'', a quarterly
science magazine
''Science'', also widely referred to as ''Science Magazine'', is the peer-reviewed academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and one of the world's top academic journals.
It was first published in 1880, ...
published by the
University of Southern Queensland
The University of Southern Queensland (branded as UniSQ and formerly branded as USQ) is a medium-sized, regional university based in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, with three university campuses at Toowoomba, Springfield and Ipswich. It offe ...
, and the merged entity was published as simply ''Australasian Science''. Published by Control Publications and available in newsagents, it was the only magazine dedicated to Australian and New Zealand science.
''Australasian Science'' Patrons in this time were Nobel Laureate Prof
Peter C. Doherty
Peter Charles Doherty (born 15 October 1940) is an Australian immunologist and Nobel laureate. He received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 1995, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Rolf M. Zinkern ...
and ABC broadcaster
Robyn Williams.
''Issues Magazine'' (last issue 2014) merged into ''Australasian Science''.
''Australasian Science'' ceased production following publication of the July/August 2019 edition.
Description
It contained a mixture of news items, feature articles, and expert commentary.
''Australasian Science'' Prize
The ''Australasian Science'' Prize was an annual prize awarded across all disciplines of science and medicine each year for excellence in peer-reviewed research. Past winners have included:
*2007 Paul Fisher (
La Trobe University
La Trobe University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora. The university was established in 1964, becoming the third university in the state of Victoria a ...
) for discovering that an alarm protein in
slime mold
Slime mold or slime mould is an informal name given to several kinds of unrelated eukaryotic organisms with a life cycle that includes a free-living single-celled stage and the formation of spores. Spores are often produced in macroscopic mul ...
could be used to model cellular damage observed in human
mitochondrial disease
Mitochondrial disease is a group of disorders caused by mitochondrial dysfunction. Mitochondria are the organelles that generate energy for the cell and are found in every cell of the human body except red blood cells. They convert the energy of ...
s.
*2006 Alex Hamilton and the Quantum Electronic Devices Group (
University of NSW
The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...
) for developing quantum semiconductor devices that use holes instead of
electron
The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family,
and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have n ...
s.
*2005
Alexander Argyros,
Martijn van Eijkelenborg, and
Maryanne Large (
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...
)for developing polymer
optical fibre
An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means t ...
s that perform competitively with
silica
Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , most commonly found in nature as quartz and in various living organisms. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is ...
fibres.
*2004
Levon Khachigian (UNSW) for developing DNA drugs with potential in cancer treatment.
*2003
Mark Rowe (UNSW) for determining how sensations are processed and transmitted in the brains of mammals.
*2002 Mark Hindell (
University of Tasmania
The University of Tasmania (UTAS) is a public research university, primarily located in Tasmania, Australia. Founded in 1890, it is Australia's fourth oldest university. Christ College (University of Tasmania), Christ College, one of the unive ...
) for research on the behaviour of southern
elephant seal
Elephant seals are very large, oceangoing earless seals in the genus ''Mirounga''. Both species, the northern elephant seal (''M. angustirostris'') and the southern elephant seal (''M. leonina''), were hunted to the brink of extinction for oi ...
s and other marine predators.
*2001
Mandyam Srinivasan
Mandyam Veerambudi Srinivasan AM FRS, also known as "Srini", (born 1948) is an Australian bioengineer and neuroscientist who studies visual systems, particularly those of bees and birds.
A faculty member at the University of Queensland, he is ...
,
Shaowu Zhang, and
Javaan Chahl (Australian National University) for extending knowledge of the behaviour and intelligence of
bee
Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamil ...
s to
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech ...
.
*2000
Charlie Veron and
Mary Stafford-Smith (
Australian Institute of Marine Science
The Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) is a tropical marine research centre located primarily at Cape Ferguson in the locality of Cape Cleveland, City of Townsville Queensland, Australia. It is around from Townsville
Townsville ...
) for the discovery of 169 species of
coral
Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and se ...
s, and for documenting all known species.
See also
*
List of science magazines
A science magazine is a periodical publication with news, opinions and reports about science, generally written for a non-expert audience. In contrast, a periodical publication, usually including primary research and/or reviews, that is written ...
References
External links
*{{Official website, http://www.australasianscience.com.au/
1938 establishments in Australia
2019 disestablishments in Australia
Defunct magazines published in Australia
Magazines established in 1938
Magazines disestablished in 2019
Mass media in Queensland
Monthly magazines published in Australia
Science and technology magazines
University of Southern Queensland
Mass media in Victoria (Australia)