Discovery Australian style

Discovery is a major theme in Australian culture. The unique plants and animals of this isolated continent caused a sensation in international science in the 19th century.

Australians have achieved international recognition for discoveries in scientific disciplines that range from astronomy to zoology.

Australia cooperates with other nations to extend the frontier of human knowledge, and as we enter the next century, the Tidbinbilla Deep Space Station near Canberra tracks the automated space ships that explore other planets.

Australian scientists have a distinguished record, particularly in the life sciences. Howard Florey shared a Nobel Prize in 1945 for the discovery of penicillin. Three more Australians have become Nobel Laureates for Physiology and Medicine: Sir Macfarlane Burnet (1960), Sir John Eccles (1963), and Dr. Peter Doherty (1996).

Sir John Conforth shared a Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1975 for work concerning the structure of living matter.

These examples inspire a higher proportion Australia's top students to study biological sciences than their counterparts in other OECD countries. This helps to explain the stream of technical innovations with medical applications, such as the bionic ear, which electrically reawakens the silenced hearing nerve of the profoundly deaf.

In 1997, the director of the bionic ear program, Professor Graham Clarke, announced that a 21-month-old boy had become the first baby to receive an implant.

At the Victorian Heart Foundation, Ragu Nathan and Alan Liddle of the Australian company Micro Medical have come up with a monitor that can record and then transmit the wearer's heart activity by ordinary telephone line to a doctor. Another recently announced device extends the life of heart pacemakers.

At the far edge of advanced technology, a team of scientists at the Australian Membrane and Biotechnology Research Institute have built a functioning nano-machine, a device with parts of molecular size. Initially, this technology will be used to make extremely sensitive biosensors, but is has a wide range of potential applications.

Some Australian innovations are relatively low in technology but high in humanity. The late Dr. Fred Hollows developed cheap corneal replacements to cure types of blindness common in developing countries. His work is being carried on through a foundation led by his widow.