Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, Vol
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Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales 2020 Volume 153 Part 2 Numbers 479 & 480 “... for the encouragement of studies and investigations in Science Art Literature and Philosophy ...” THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF NEW SOUTH WALES OFFICE BEARERS FOR 2020 Patron Her Excellency The Honourable Margaret Beazley AO QC Governor of New South Wales President Em. Professor Ian Sloan AO FRSN PhD (UCL) FAA Vice-Presidents Em. Professor D Brynn Hibbert AM FRSN PhD (Lond) CCheM FRSC FRACI Dr Susan Pond AM FRSN DSc (UQ) FRACP FTSE FAHMS FAICD Ms Judith Wheeldon AM FRSN BS (Wis) MEd (Syd) FACE Hon. Secretary (Ed.) Em. Professor Robert Marks FRSN MEngSci PhD (Stan) FRSA Hon. Secretary(Gen) Mr Bruce RaMage MRSN Hon. Treasurer Mr Richard WilMott MRSN Hon. Librarian Mr John Hardie FRSN FHEA FGS MACE Hon. WebMaster Em. Professor Lindsay Botten FRSN PhD (Tas) FOSA FAIP FAusMS Councillors Mr Ian Bryce MRSN Em. Professor Robert Clancy AM FRSN PhD (Mon) FRACP FRCPSC The Honorable Virginia Judge FRSN Mr Stuart Midgley MRSN Em. Professor Bruce Milthorpe FRSN BA PhD (ANU) Grad Dip Ed Ms Nyrie PalMer MRSN Em Professor Christina Slade FRSN BA PhD (ANU) Grad Dip Ed Adjunct Professor Robert Whittaker AM FRSN FAIB Hunter Branch Secretary Em. Professor Eugenie Lumbers AM DistFRSN MBBS MD DSci Southern Highlands Branch Rep. Ms Anne Wood FRSN Executive Office The Association Specialists EDITORIAL BOARD Em. Prof. Robert Marks FRSN FRSA MEngSci ResCert MS PhD (Stan) – Hon. Editor Prof. Richard Banati FRSN MD PhD Prof. Michael Burton FRSN MA MMaths (Cantab) PhD (Edinb) FASA FAIP Dr. Jessica Milner Davis FRSN PhD (UNSW) Dr Len Fisher OAM FRSN BA BSc(Hns) MA MSc PhD (UNSW) FRSC FRACI FInstP FLS Dr Donald Hector AM FRSN BE(CheM) PhD (Syd) FICheME FIEAust FAICD Em. Prof. David Brynn Hibbert AM FRSN PhD (Lond) CCheM FRSC FRACI Dr Nick LoMb BSc (Syd) PhD (Syd) FASA FRSA Prof. TiMothy Schmidt FRSN BSc (Syd) PhD (Cantab) Website: http://www.royalsoc.org.au The Society traces its origin to the Philosophical Society of Australasia founded in Sydney in 1821. The Society exists for “the encouragement of studies and investigations in Science Art Literature and Philosophy”: publishing results of scientific investigations in its Journal and Proceedings; conducting Monthly Meetings; awarding prizes and Medals; and by liaising with other learned societies within Australia and internationally. MeMbership is open to any person whose application is acceptable to the Society. Subscriptions for the Journal are also accepted. The Society welcoMes, froM Members and non- members, manuscripts of research and review articles in all branches of science, art, literature and philosophy for publication in the Journal and Proceedings. 2 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. 153, part 2, 2020, pp. 135–137. ISSN 0035-9173/20/020135-03 Editorial: A new era in vaccinology? Robert Marks Economics, University of New South Wales, Sydney Email: [email protected] 020 — a year like few others in the Journal’s epidemics and other contagions that have 154-year history. One noteworthy event occurred recently.2 2has been the development of several vaccines The revolutionary mRNA vaccines devel- effective against COVID-19 in an impossibly oped in breathtaking time for inoculating short time — twelve months after the virus against COVID-19, despite the lack of pre- was first isolated. vious vaccines against other respiratory What are the scientific highlights of the diseases, such as the common cold, got me year? These focus on the pandemic. The thinking. The vaccines prime the immune development of novel messenger ribonucleic system to recognise the alien virus and acid (mRNA) vaccines, in which the shape attack it. Recently, new treatments against of the virus is the focus for vaccine elements various cancers have enlisted the immune that stimulate the body’s immune system to system to attack cancer cells and tumours, attack the virus is a revolution and welcome increasingly successfully. My question: could in terms of the speed of development.1 The we use mRNA vaccines in the fight against extremely low temperatures now necessary cancer? (Pardi et al. 2018) Let’s hope so.3 to transport the first two mRNA vaccines will, no doubt, be moderated with future 2 Indeed, Edward Holmes FRSN, one of the first research. And it is likely that we will need scientists, with his Chinese colleagues, to map the future vaccines to combat future viral epi- genotype of SARS-CoV-2, the COVID-19 coronavirus, demics and pandemics, as our numbers on and publish the structure on January 11, 2020, on the open access Virology website, within a week of its Earth continue to grow and opportunities identification, makes the same warning. I have asked for zoonotic viruses to spread from their Professor Holmes to write a memoir note, when he host animals to human beings also grow, as has time, of the discovery a year ago. See Wu et al. (2020) and Zhang and Holmes (2020). I look forward we spread into new ecosystems. I believe it to publishing it. (I have also invited John O’Sullivan, is a mistake to think of the pandemic as a head of the CSIRO astrophysics team that invented once-in-a-hundred-years event, just because WiFi in 1996, to write a piece on the discovery of that ubiquitous technology, which I will also publish, if the last serious pandemic was a century ago. he writes it.) We have been lucky with the various flu 3 Z. R. C. Marks, Ph.D., M.B.B.S. tells me that, despite a large field of research looking at mRNA targeting of cancer directly, fine-tuning the immune response is tricky, whereas specific, targeted approaches seem to hold the most promise, such as CAR-T cells: host immune cells engineered to fight specific tumour cells. BioNTech, joint developer with Pfizer of the first vac- 1 The Economist reckons that these vaccines “may cine, is exploring the use of mRNA in treatments for turn out to be the technology-in-use with the greatest malignant melanoma and prostate, head-and-neck economic impact over a single year ever seen.” and breast cancers. 135 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Marks — Editorial: A new era in vaccinology? The bushfires of last summer, a phenom- Cook in Yorkshire. The MS describes the enon described as the onset of the “pyro- local fauna and flora, with illustrations.5 cene” by Stephen Pyne in the June issue, A second commissioned paper, by Steven have resulted in a wider awakening of the Patterson, outlines the fascinating history progress of global warming, and the need of the development through the centuries for a federal energy policy worthy of the of blue pigments. It turns out that chem- name. There is now widespread agreement ists can still not design or even predict the in Australia that ageing coal-fired electricity colour of a new compound (that is, colour generators will be phased out, but the issue is an emergent property), and blue pigments of how to transition to renewable energy is have been rare in the wild.6 We publish an not resolved, while reducing greenhouse-gas obituary of Richard Stanton DistFRSN emissions. This issue of the Journal intro- (1926–2020). duces a new section, Counterpoint, in which As with past issues, I thank Jason conflicting views are presented: Alan Finkel, Antony — editor of the Society’s Bulle- the then Chief Scientist, has the view that tin — for his efforts in polishing the appear- gas turbine plants should ease the transi- ance of the Journal. I also thank Dr Mike tion to renewables;4 this is supported (by Richards and Don Hector FRSN for their himself, Richard Bolt of Swinburne UT, and assistance with this editorial. Peter Rez of Arizona State), while the oppo- A note: in 1968, the Society published site side is taken (by 25 scientists, includ- a volume celebrating the centenary of the ing three FRSNs, by a past Chief Scientist, Royal Charter in 1867: A Century of Scientific Penny Sackett, and by Andrew Blackers of Progress: The centenary volume of the Royal ANU). Read their contributions and decide. Society of New South Wales — a history of In the year of the COVID-19 plague, other several aspects of Australian scientific develop- advances fade into the background, but this ment, with particular reference to New South issue contains some interesting papers, as Wales (Sydney, Royal Society of NSW, 1968). well as 19 abstracts of recent doctoral theses This is now available on-line at the Journal in N.S.W. and the A.C.T. In a submitted archive. paper, Forbes et al. report on research into The 2020 Archibald Ollé Prize for the differences between recreational fishing in best paper in the Journal was awarded to manmade reservoirs and riverine fisheries. the late Ann Moyal FRSN (1926–2019), for In a requested contribution, marking the her paper, “P. A. M. Dirac and the maver- success of the new Hunter Valley Branch, ick mathematician” (Moyal 2017), report- Kenneth Dutton FRSN describes the Skot- ing war-time correspondence between towe manuscript, compiled by an early com- mandant of the Newcastle penal settlement, 5 I thank Jessica Milner Davis FRSN for assisting in whose father had mentored the young James the birth of this paper. 6 I thank Pamela Griffith FRSN for assisting in the birth of this paper. Wendy Sharpe FRSN tells me she 4 The International Energy Agency states: “solar PV uses “Ultramarine Blue, Cobalt Blue and sometimes is consistently cheaper than new coal- or gas-fired Prussian and Cerulean Blue.” Ben Quilty FRSN tells power plants in most countries, and solar projects me that his favourite blue is Ultramarine Blue; he now offer some of the lowest-cost electricity ever seen” adds that “the base colour for the entire Australian (IEA 2020).