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Bk Revs HR07006.Qxd CSIRO PUBLISHING www.publish.csiro.au/journals/hras Historical Records of Australian Science, 2007, 18, 137–146 Reviews Compiled by Libby Robin Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University/Centre for Historical Research, National Museum of Australia. Email: [email protected] Frank Fenner: Nature, Nurture and The title of this book may variously Chance: The Lives of Frank and Charles attract and unnerve, but it succeeds in Fenner. ANU E Press: Canberra, 2006. declaring provenance and purpose and xvii + 356 pp., illus., ISBN: 1 920942 62 tacitly admits the shortcomings. A fine 9 (Print), ISBN: 1 920942 63 7 (Online), Preface from science historian Ann Moyal $24.95 (Print). leads into Fenner’s autobiographical chronology—childhood, War, school and Modern scientific practice is increasingly university; War again; the Walter and Eliza informed by contiguous historiographical Hall and Rockefeller Institutes; and the and biographical commentary, but science setting up of the John Curtin School of communities remain generally content to Medical Research (JCSMR). Fenner then leave such matters to other specialisms. turns to academic administration, the Although this intriguing volume follows Academy of Science, post-retirement foun- suit, its author’s high eminence may invite dation Directorship of the Australian individuals from assorted fields and career National University’s Centre for Resource levels to reflect more deeply on the under- and Environmental Studies; a long and inti- pinnings of critical contexts, concerns and mate association with the global eradica- values. Best-known internationally and tion of smallpox; and return to the JCSMR nationally for outstanding contributions in as endlessly ‘Visiting’ Fellow. The narra- virology, microbiology and medicine, and tion is spiced with select bibliographies, perhaps particularly for his research into annotated interludes and encounters (fre- smallpox and myxomatosis, Frank Fenner quently seeking the ‘Chance’ factor), boxed is also warmly recognized for his involve- insertions on influential contemporaries— ment in the Australian Academy of Science the constellation includes Macfarlane and the Australian National University. Burnet, Rene Dubos, Howard Florey and Over the course of his long and admirable Francis Ratcliffe and others—and brief lists life the world has been repeatedly and pro- of friends and associates. foundly shaken. In Nature, Nurture and Frank’s wartime experiences could be Chance he recounts the backgrounds of the made to illustrate any one or all of the high achieving Fenners without seriously nominated explanatory themes. The text confronting a matrix of anxiety in which inclines towards ‘Chance’, but may under- science itself is sketched variously tri- estimate personal intuition and initiative: umphant and complicit. Ultimately, for example, a deliberate preparation in however, reliance on a curiously innocent tropical medicine led to service as a malar- style of reportage contrives reassurance: iologist in Palestine, and later on in idealism and the single-minded pursuit of Queensland and New Guinea. On the other elegant concepts may have been worth the hand, if Burnet did not actually spark the candle, after all. celebrated interest in pox viruses he © Australian Academy of Science 2007 10.1071/HR07006 0727-3061/07/010137 138 Historical Records of Australian Science, Volume 18 Number 1 appears to have focused it rather well, and mind embraced science, education and the early. Contacts with Dubos, the charis- production of a wide range of civic or ‘out- matic environmentalist, extended the reach’ writings, including books. While the author’s professional agenda. Collectively, youthful Frank enjoyed the contact fields the perspicacity and generosity of less opened up by his father’s distinguished stellar players opened doors and suggested reputation and active support for local sci- goals, ways and means. Canberra became entific fraternities, mature regard for pivotal: as foundation professor at the John Charles’ literary output argued against Curtin School of Medical Research he was exclusive investment in short scientific immediately obliged to look to its regional articles. and international presence; collaboration Debatable ‘Chance’ resurfaces, after a with neighbouring CSIRO colleagues struggle. Frank laments that, despite the stimulated the great work on rabbits; recol- accolades, his father remained chronically lections of changes in university adminis- disappointed about a failed application for tration and the early growth of the Griffith Taylor’s vacated position at Australian Academy of Science will be of Sydney University in the late 1920s. The more than local interest; in the Academy outcome, he suggests, would have been he staunchly promoted environmental different had the opportunity arisen a few issues and an overdue cultivation of years later, when Charles impressed key science history. geographers in Britain during an extended The late-career switch to the Centre for visit: ‘Chance’ denied. It is less speculative Resource and Environmental Studies is to say, firstly, that Taylor, a late entry into cast as reinforcement of an existing orien- academia (cf., in that regard only, Fenner tation—it built upon a long pursuit of Senior), had offended local and British applied biology, and of course upon the proponents of nationalist-imperialism— championship of environmentalism. notably through pugnacious press state- Sketched alternatively as a return to famil- ments on (what would now be described ial roots, it leads into the promised biogra- as) Australia’s ‘sustainability’ crisis; and, phical section and a revisiting of the book’s secondly, that university advisers in declared mission. As deeply personal as Britain, spooked by destabilizations of a the author’s earlier descriptions of a loving valued pioneering fringe and conscious of marriage, his wife’s illnesses and the tragic entailed (varied and relatively heavy) death of one of their children, in a sense it undergraduate teaching loads, probably is also a debt fondly repaid to a talented, felt better disposed towards a younger can- hardworking and arguably under-recog- didate from the heart of Empire, with nized father. It essays a special, personal proven credentials in the communication inheritance from a man who was much of an emerging academic field. closer to the family’s problematical The undoubted utility of this project German origins and far more constrained might have been increased by the provision by economic, social and academic circum- of forthright personal reflections on the stance. Charles Fenner moved painstak- lessons and legacies of modern science, but ingly through country teaching towards a that conjures a wider prospective audience Melbourne Bachelor of Science in geology than was ever envisaged or required—such in biology and eventually to a Doctor of modest restraint, at 91! Certainly it would Science at the same university, and estab- have delivered a different and more contro- lished commanding reputations in educa- versial book. As it stands, Nature, Nurture tional administration and scientific and Chance serves rather well to caution journalism in South Australia. His lively historical researchers against casual exci- Review Section 139 sions of targeted individuals from nurturing Successful at the British matriculation domestic hearths, while providing essential examinations, in 1927 Joe enrolled at and timely accompaniment to the Fenner Magdalene College, Cambridge, to study correspondence and other files in the mathematics, but the costs were too great. Basser Library Archives of the Australian Seeking a practical profession, he enrolled Academy of Science. in France to study electrical engineering J. M. Powell but failed to graduate. He returned to Tel Monash University Aviv but was soon back in France to com- Clayton, Victoria plete a diploma at the Ecole Superieure d’Electricité in Paris. Here ‘Joe underwent a metamorphosis from the intelligent, outdoor Israeli to an enculturation as a Ann Moyal: Maverick Mathematician: sophisticated and cultivated European’ The Life and Science of J. E. Moyal. ANU (p. 9). E-Press: Canberra, 2006. xiii + 162 pp., Now married to Suse, Joe returned to Tel ISBN 1 920942 58 0 (PB), 1 920942 99 0 Aviv to resume work as an electrical engi- (Online), $19.95. neer. By the end of 1937, however, he was This modest biography of a talented but ‘fed up with engineering … becoming unusual scientist is an intriguing portrait of more and more interested in science’ an important figure in the history of (p. 12), and with his growing family he Australian science. Since the book is returned to Paris to study mathematical sta- written by the wife of the subject, I shall tistics and then advanced theoretical refer to José Enriques Moyal as ‘Joe’ (by physics. At the outbreak of the Second which he became generally known) and the World War, Joe was working on gaseous author as ‘Ann’ (Moyal), a pioneer in the diffusion with the Ministère de l’Air, but he history of Australian science. was forced to flee across France and then to Joe was born in Jerusalem in 1910, England. Interviewed by C. P. Snow, he was sent to work with the De Havilland Aircraft grew up in Palestine under the Ottoman Company, where he made important contri- Empire, and became a British citizen with butions to electronic instrumentation and the new British Mandate. When he was just the mathematics of complex systems. five years old,
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