UNIKEN SPRING 2016

Their WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY Clothes that think and breathe perfect

COWS WITH HINDSIGHT Body art to scare off the lions storm The research team who waited a decade to capture nature’s fury Spring 2016

Cover story 10 Primed for action From the President and Vice-Chancellor Features Welcome to the Spring 2016 7 Stan Grant’s ‘pulsating rage’ edition of UNSW magazine. 8 More female engineers 9 War, trauma and bunny ears 14 Gender equity is men’s business The vicissitudes of nature are part of and water, AIDS/HIV, post conflict Australian life, and our cover story takes trauma, migration and other fields. 16 The eyes have it us into the heart of the wild storms that In this edition I was also fascinated to lashed Australia’s east coast in June this 18 Greek odyssey learn more about the work of UNSW’s year. The connection with UNSW? Our Laboratory for Ageing Research and the 19 Wholly dooley, look what we’ve found Water Research Laboratory team, led by inaugural Australian Biology of Ageing Professor Ian Turner, swung into action Conference we hosted recently. Professor Time to call out cyber misogynists 20 to conduct the most detailed study of David Sinclair and his team, working with storm-affected coastline anywhere in Holding back the years a sister lab at Harvard Medical School, 22 the world. It’s a gripping read of force have isolated a compound found in red and fury on one hand and rapid response wine that prolongs life in worms and on the other, delivering research that will fruit flies. (Red wine lovers take heart!) help forecasters predict the damage that Arts could be caused by wild coastal weather, We’re also revisiting two challenging not only in Australia but worldwide. presentations: the call – by Professor Try wearing this Emma Johnston, our Pro Vice-Chancellor 24 I’ve recently returned from Uganda, (Research) – for all Australian universities where – as part of our Global Development to lift their game on gender equity, and Initiative – UNSW signed a Memorandum the riveting Wallace Wurth Lecture of Understanding (MOU) with Gulu Regulars University in the country’s far north, so delivered by journalist Stan Grant in July, I was intrigued to read about UNSW’s in which he called for a national truth 3 UpFront innovative work in helping African cattle and reconciliation commission into the farmers tackle the problem of predatory treatment of Australia’s Indigenous peoples. UNSW Books 26 lions. Dr Neil Jordan, from UNSW’s As spring comes, there’s a definite 27 BackStory Centre for Ecosystem Science, came up buzz around the campus, and this with the idea of painting evil eyes on issue reflects that energy as well as the the backsides of the cattle, to scare off incredible diversity of what’s happening Cover image: Grant Turner/Mediakoo. The UNSW the lions. A great example of lateral right now at UNSW. magazine is published by UNSW’s Media Office: thinking, or perhaps a case of hindsight? +61 (2) 9385 1583 or [email protected]. Issue 82. I hope you enjoy it. Editor: Michael Visontay. Editorial Advisers: Denise By the way, our joint programs with Knight and Kathy Bail. Contributors: Myles Gough, Gulu University – including training Emma Jane, Emma Johnston, Denise Knight, Tony and technical support, and student and Maniaty, John McGhee, Clare Morgan, Wilson Da staff exchanges – will extend the already Silva, Deborah Smith, Fran Strachan, Louise Williams, significant global impact of UNSW in Photography: Britta Campion, HK Colin, Beck Davis, public health care, climate science, energy Professor Ian Jacobs Krystyna Golabek, Arunas Klupsas, Zoe Mahony, Grant Turner/Mediakoo, Ben Yexley.

The magazine of the University of New South Wales UNSW magazine is the University’s flagship publication. Published quarterly, it reports on issues affecting the tertiary education sector and the latest developments in UNSW’s research and teaching. The magazine is distributed primarily to staff, students and visitors to the University.

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2 UpFront

From left, Jane McAdam, Rob Brooks and Matthew England. photo Grant Turner/Mediakoo

Experts appointed to drive Grand Challenges UNSW has announced the first three leaders of its Grand Challenges, an initiative to establish the University at the forefront of debate and policy.

cientia Professor Rob Brooks has been a time, with themes announced over the “We want UNSW to be a global point of appointed as the Grand Challenges next two years,” said Professor Brooks, an reference for those shaping policy, including SAcademic Lead, responsible for setting evolutionary biologist who heads up the governments, international organisations, the direction of UNSW’s new program Evolution and Ecology Research Centre. non-government organisations, community designed to position the University at the “We will help UNSW researchers develop leaders and industry,” Professor England said. vanguard of debate and policy formation both the skills and the platform to reach large In the area of refugees and migrants, around some of society’s biggest challenges. audiences, whether that’s through high-profile Professor McAdam is keen to engage across the Scientia Professor Matthew England will public events, debates, residencies, policy University to bring different perspectives to the oversee the Climate Change Grand Challenge groups or collaborations with other world- global debate to strengthen policy responses. and Scientia Professor Jane McAdam has been leading experts. “As well as the legal questions in regard appointed to lead Refugees and Migrants. “By building this approach into how to forced migration, how do we respond to “To launch the Grand Challenges we do business, we can foster connections the psychological challenges of displacement, initiative with three superb research leaders between disciplines and people to provide and how do we build better shelters and more and communicators in their respective fields opportunities for global thought leadership.” resilient communities, for example? And what is wonderful for UNSW,” said Professor Professor England sees his role leading about the economic benefits of migration?” Les Field, Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor. the Climate Change Grand Challenge as an said Professor McAdam, the founding director “The program is an important element of “outstanding opportunity to extend what of the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee the UNSW 2025 Strategy and will champion the I’ve been doing for years to raise the profile Law, which has quickly established itself as a critical place of universities in public engagement and public awareness of climate change and leading international research hub. “In addition to showcasing where UNSW and leading open and informed debate.” the science”. is leading the debate and policy formulation, As Academic Lead, Professor Brooks will be UNSW is home to Australia’s leading the Grand Challenges program is all about responsible for the overall program and work climate scientists and renewable energy broadening the questions we ask. We want to with the University community to generate ideas. experts. But with all faculties “having a stake build more collaborative projects to provide “We are consulting widely but the plan in climate change”, England said activities multifaceted policy responses to one of the is to work with leads and host academics to will move well beyond the science to look at most pressing issues of our time,” she said. curate a full year-round program of activities impacts and identify the best technological addressing up to six Grand Challenges at and policy solutions. – Denise Knight

3 UpFront

UNSW in Uganda collaboration President and Vice-Chancellor Ian Jacobs led a delegation from UNSW in August to launch a long-term collaboration with Gulu University, in infrastructure and communications, Uganda’s far north. The visit also saw and exchange PhD scholarships. UNSW offering support for Uganda’s Professor Jacobs said UNSW would also Impact of delayed first undergraduate optometry degree work with Gulu University to promote program at Makerere University in positive change across northern Uganda, bipolar diagnosis Kampala. Uganda is one of three target linking the university, government and zones, along with Myanmar and the business, and supporting Gulu’s aim to Crucial opportunities to manage bipolar disorder South Pacific, where UNSW aims become Uganda’s leading sustainable city. early are being lost because individuals are waiting to improve the lives of one million He observed how the best universities an average of almost six years after the onset people by 2025. did not stop at the edge of campus, but of the condition before diagnosis and treatment. Speaking at the conference ‘Gulu – moved into the surrounding society and That is the key finding of a joint UNSW and Creating Uganda’s Leading Sustainable were, in turn, influenced and shaped by Italian study published in the Canadian Journal City’, Professor Jacobs noted that the society and its needs. of Psychiatry. even though the two universities were Professor Jacobs said Uganda had separated by a vast distance they shared The meta-analysis of 9,415 patients from 27 seen much suffering since gaining a common goal – to create a better world. studies, the largest of its kind, was led by clinical independence in 1962, but it had psychiatrist and Conjoint Professor Matthew Professor Jacobs noted the proposed also displayed remarkable strength – Large from UNSW’s School of Psychiatry and collaboration with UNSW would its people had overcome enormous his colleague, Dr Giovanni de Girolamo, from see development programs for Gulu challenges to reach a point of solid the St John of God Research Centre, Italy. University academic staff, and visiting economic growth and relative stability. Many patients experience distressing and disruptive research fellowships (in both directions) symptoms for many years before receiving proper in areas of shared interest such as mental treatment for bipolar disorder, which was previously health, justice, renewable energy and UNSW’s Professor Ian Jacobs (right) and Vice known as manic depressive illness. infectious diseases. There will also be President, International Fiona Docherty at the According to Large, a psychiatrist at Prince of Wales staff training in library services, research signing of the MoU with Gulu counterparts. Hospital, the delay is often longer for young people because moodiness is sometimes mistaken by parents and doctors for the ups and downs of the teenage years, rather than being recognised as Hep C treatment breakthrough the emergence of bipolar disorder, which can be effectively treated with mood-stabilising medication. Australia is on track to eliminate hepatitis C in 10 years if record numbers of “This is a lost opportunity, because the severity people living with the virus continue to seek and receive breakthrough antiviral and frequency of episodes can be reduced with treatment, according to a new analysis. medication and other interventions,” Large said. Data from the Kirby Institute at UNSW reveals that since new-generation “While some patients, particularly those who hepatitis C cures were made available on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Schemes present with psychosis, probably do receive six months ago, 22,470 Australians have commenced treatment – a massive increase timely treatment, the diagnosis of the early on the 2,000 to 3,000 people with hepatitis C treated annually phase of bipolar disorder can be difficult. before the listing. “This is because mental health clinicians are Professor Greg Dore from the Kirby Institute said Australia sometimes unable to distinguish the depressed is leading the world in the treatment of hepatitis C. phase of bipolar disorder from other types “This is the most rapid uptake of new treatments seen of depression. anywhere in the world, thanks to the unique approach “The diagnosis of bipolar disorder can also be Australia has taken in making these medicines missed because it relies on a detailed life history and available without restriction,” Professor Dore said. corroborative information from carers and family, “This represents a huge leap forward in public health. information that takes time and care to gather.” To put this into perspective, we are on track to cure more people with hepatitis C this year than in the past 20 years photo Shutterstock of interferon-therapy.” photo Shutterstock

4 Uniken / Spring 2016

UNSW–China $100m research partnership launched

The new Torch Innovation Precinct at UNSW was officially launched UNSW President and Vice Chancellor Professor Ian Jacobs in August and promises to inject at least $100 million of new research described it as “a shared platform for the future” which would funding into Australia’s innovation system through new partnerships significantly boost Australia’s research capacity through major with Chinese companies. investments from Chinese companies. The initiative is modelled on China’s highly successful program that The first project in the Torch Precinct is a joint UNSW–Hangzhou co-locates businesses, universities and research organisations within Cable Joint Laboratory, which will develop a prototype of the dedicated science and technology parks to drive innovation. The UNSW graphene-based cable technology that overcomes electricity leakage Torch precinct is the first outside China. that plagues conventional power grids. The new technology was invented by a UNSW research team led by materials scientist Professor Sean Li. “The impact on the electricity sector, in terms of financial savings and environmental gains, would be profound,” the Director General of China’s Torch program, Zhihong Zhang, said of the potential of the new cables. The commercialisation and application of the UNSW technology could save some 275 terrawatt hours of power a year across China alone – more than Australia’s entire annual energy consumption. A 10-metre-long prototype cable will be developed in Australia before a planned scale up to industrial trials and application in China. “This is an example of great research crossing national boundaries,” said Professor Jacobs. “By accelerating our research in Sydney and scaling up by using the industrial capacity of China, then going out into the global market – this is a formidable partnership.” An initial $30 million has been committed by eight Chinese companies to support UNSW-led research in advanced materials, biotechnology, energy, and environmental engineering, with a From left, Professor Laura Poole-Warren, Professor Brian Boyle, Mr Chong Sun, further $20 million worth of contracts expected to be signed Professor Ian Jacobs, Mr Zhihong Zhang and Ms Fiona Docherty at the official in the coming months. opening of the UNSW and Hangzhou Cable Joint Laboratory.

Virtual reality lets scientists ‘walk through’ cancer cells

Virtual reality is allowing scientists to walk and Technology, Journey to the Centre of the through a breast cancer cell to observe the Cell aims to speed up the science discovery delivery of nanoparticle drugs, potentially process by improving understanding for speeding up the drug-design process. medical researchers, students and patients. Dr John McGhee, from UNSW Art & Design, It is the first time that data from an actual has used high-resolution electron-microscope cell has been used to develop an interactive data to reconstruct a human breast cancer cell in virtual reality model. three-dimensional computer graphics imagery. “To deliver a drug successfully the cell Wearing virtual reality headsets scientists can membrane needs to be penetrated,” said literally walk through the ‘landscape’ of the cell McGhee. “With this visualisation we to observe how nanoparticle drugs are absorbed. can see if the drug gets past the tough cell “It’s as if you have shrunk down to nano size, surface, or whether the body automatically to the height of 40 one-billionths of a metre stops it. These are things that could never and you are navigating the surface of the cell,” be observed in 2D.” said McGhee. “You can literally walk around “A lot of scientific data doesn’t record it and gather data.” movement so we had to make that leap for The mitochondria (orange) and endosomes (blue) inside a virtual breast cancer cell. A collaboration with the ARC Centre of the researchers through augmentation while photo John McGhee Excellence in Convergent Bio-Nano Science still keeping it scientifically accurate,” he said.

5 UpFront

Too much antipsychotic drug use in nursing homes Antipsychotic drugs are widely used in Australian nursing homes, despite minimal evidence supporting their effectiveness in managing symptoms of dementia. Studies showing the drugs increase the risk of stroke, cognitive decline and death have also been largely ignored. Now UNSW Australia-led researchers have shown their use could be drastically reduced by creating awareness about these risks and training nursing staff to use alternative approaches photo Arunas Klupsas to manage the symptoms of dementia. The results of the innovative Dementia Collaborative Research Centre project were presented by UNSW Scientia Professor Premier opens Materials Henry Brodaty at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Toronto, Canada. Science and Engineering Building The Halting Antipsychotic use in Long Term care project successfully eliminated regular antipsychotic medication from the treatment plans The new home of Australia’s leading materials of 75% of study participants after six months, science and engineering research has been following an initial reduction of antipsychotics. In the trial – which involved 140 residents across officially opened by the NSW Premier, Mike Baird. 23 NSW care facilities – de-prescribing was achieved through training long-term care facility “NSW is a world leader of innovation, The Hilmer Building is home to nurses to recognise potential causes of behavioural science and engineering and this new state a range of world-class research teams: and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) and encourage the use of non-pharmacological of the art building will be an important >> The Centre for Sustainable training ground for future leaders in these and person-centred approaches to managing Materials Research and Technology BPSD, such as environmental modifications. fields,” the Premier said of the significant (SMaRT Centre), led by ARC addition to the UNSW Kensington campus. Laureate Fellow, Scientia Professor In Australia, up to 50% of long-term nursing President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Veena Sahajwalla, works with home residents have a dementia-related illness, with many experiencing BPSD, including Ian Jacobs said the $140 million building, industry, global research partners, delusions, aggression and agitation. This poses which provides staff and students with NGOs, all levels of government and major challenges for both residents and nursing exceptional research laboratories and the community to develop solutions facility staff. flexible collaborative learning spaces, for major waste challenges. reinforces UNSW’s reputation. >> The Mark Wainwright Analytical “This amazing building has been Centre allows staff and students to photo Shutterstock designed for Australia’s highest ranked study the structure of chemical and materials science school, which sits in physical materials. the world’s top 50,” Professor Jacobs >> Research by Professor Sean Li and his said. The building’s laboratories have team into advanced multifunctional been recognised with the Educational materials has the potential to improve Architecture Award from the Australian the efficiency of power grids. Institute of Architects (NSW). >> Dr Rakesh Joshi at the School of The new facility will be known as the Materials Science and Engineering Hilmer Building, in honour of former and his colleagues at the University President and Vice-Chancellor Professor of Manchester, Dr Rahul Nair and Sir Fred Hilmer (2006–2015). Andre Geim, are conducting research Emeritus Professor Hilmer said: on graphene oxide membranes. “While I am honoured to have my >> The Michael Crouch Innovation name on such a significant building, Centre brings together students, this event is really recognition of the staff and alumni from all our efforts of a committed and effective faculties, schools and divisions, team that restored and enhanced the plus industry partners. performance and reputation of UNSW.”

6 ‘I have struggled to contain a pulsating rage’

photo Arunas Klupsas

Journalist Stan Grant has called for a national truth and reconciliation The speech Stan Grant wanted to give

commission, “a full reckoning of our “I would have appealed to the best who lay claim to the mantle nation’s past”, writes Tony Maniaty. of Australia …” “conservative” today can be so There was a speech I had planned mean spirited and have a deficit to give tonight. I wished it to be a of generosity. n the wake of the damning ABC Four Corners report on speech rational and measured. In This speech I wished to give would the incarceration of Indigenous children in the Northern this speech I would have appealed have sought amity with a tradition Territory, journalist and “proud Wiradjuri man” Stan I to the best of Australia – to what that has excluded us. In this speech Grant has called for a national truth and reconciliation Abraham Lincoln would have called I would have sought those things commission, “a full reckoning of our Nation’s past that the better angels of our nature. that can unite us, not those things may set loose the chains of history that bind this country’s In this speech I would have wished that divide. In this speech I would first and today most miserably impoverished people”. have chosen carefully my words. He also called for a treaty with Indigenous Australians to locate Indigenous people within the framework of the grand tradition In this speech I would have sought that would be similar to those in New Zealand, the less to inflame and more to comfort. United States and Canada. of liberal Western democracy. I cannot give that speech; it is best Delivering the UNSW Wallace Wurth Lecture, Grant In this speech I would have spoken saved for another day. That speech asked: “How can I stand here and speak to the idea of our of Hegel’s idea of man “not being would have come from my head but place in an indissoluble Commonwealth when this week at home in the world”. I wish to speak from my heart. Some my people have been reminded that our place is so often I would have asked how we – the of my own people have criticised me behind this nation’s bars?” first peoples of this land – could be for being too faithful to diplomacy. Before the lecture, titled From Reconciliation to at home in a world imposed upon us. They find fault in my hope or Rights: Shaping a Bigger Australia, Grant was awarded In this speech I could have touched optimism. To my critics, I give the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by UNSW on those thinkers who are the pillars Australia too much credit. Chancellor David Gonski, in recognition of his services of Western democratic ideas – In another week I might challenge to the community. I would have told of wrestling them – but not this week. Grant told a packed Clancy Auditorium he had intended with John Locke and J.S. Mill. to deliver a more careful speech, seeking less to inflame This week they are right. This How they have inspired me, yet and more to comfort, but watching the Four Corners week I have struggled to contain left me reeling from their implicit report had left him struggling to contain a “pulsating a pulsating rage. harsh judgement of the society rage”. After “seeing images of a boy in a hood strapped and culture that I am drawn from. to a chair, Aboriginal boys tear gassed, locked down For full speech go to and beaten”, he had rewritten his speech with his I would have told of feeling both newsroom.unsw.edu.au clenched fists hovering over the keyboard. drawn to the steadfastness and stoicism of conservatism yet The University has announced that it will appoint wondering how so many of those a Pro-Vice-Chancellor Indigenous.

7 STEMM

We loved the chance Women show it can be to show the world that there is engineering in Made By Me every aspect of our lives. Twin sister–DJ duo NERVO have created a video clip to help sites, as well as the song and video, which was released by Sony globally on the same day. draw more women into engineering. Wilson da Silva reports. UNSW’s Dean of Engineering, Mark Hoffman, said: “We needed to find a way ight top universities, led by UNSW, young people, particularly girls, see the to meet teenagers on home turf and surprise have launched a song and music video discipline. Although a rewarding and varied them with an insight into engineering that Eby Australian twin sister–DJ duo profession, it has for decades suffered gender would open their minds to its possibilities. NERVO to highlight engineering as an disparity and a chronic skills shortage. This is what led to the idea of producing an attractive career for young women. NERVO, the Melbourne-born electronic interactive music video, sprinkled with gems NERVO, made up of 29-year-old singer- dance music duo, pack dance floors from Ibiza of information to pique the audience’s interest songwriters and sound engineers Miriam to India and, according to Forbes magazine, in engineering.” and Olivia Nervo, launched the video clip are one of the world’s highest-earning acts Hoffman, who became Dean of Engineering for People Grinnin’ worldwide. in the male-dominated genre. Miriam and in 2015, has set a goal to raise female In the futuristic music clip, female engineers Olivia Nervo said the Made By Me project representation among students, staff and create android versions of NERVO in a high- immediately appealed to them. “When we did researchers to 30% by 2020. Currently, 23% tech lab, using glass touchscreens and a range engineering, we were the only girls in the class. of UNSW engineering students are female. of other technologies that rely on engineering. So when we were approached to get behind Australia is frantically short of engineers: for Their work highlights how engineering is this project it just made sense,” they said. more than a decade, the country has annually embedded in every facet of modern life. “We loved the chance to show the world imported more than double the number who The song and video clip are part of Made that there is engineering in every aspect of our graduate from Australian universities. By Me, a national collaboration between lives. We’re sound engineers, but our whole UNSW, the University of Wollongong, the show is only made possible through expert University of Western Australia, the University engineering, from the make up we wear, Watch the video on YouTube of Queensland, Monash University, the to the lights and the stage we perform on. tinyurl.com/zsrl2ud University of Melbourne, the Australian Engineering makes it all possible, including National University and the University of the music that we make,” the duo added. UNSW has also created a new national Adelaide, together with Engineers Australia. Made By Me includes online advertising award, the Ada Lovelace Medal for an It aims to challenge stereotypes and show across desktop and mobiles, a strong social Outstanding Woman Engineer. The inaugural how engineering is relevant to many aspects media push, a website telling the engineering medal has been awarded to Mary O’Kane, of our lives, in an effort to change the way stories behind the video and links to career the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer.

8 ResearchUniken / Spring 2016

War, trauma and bunny ears

A study of doctors on the front line of war sheds new light on the nature of post-traumatic stress disorder.

t’s long been assumed that war-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) Istems from how well a person copes psychologically with exposure to (the with rules, practices and experiences on the threat of) violence. ground that appeared contradictory to their A new study by academics in Britain They talked about the purpose and values, thus amplifying feelings and Australia finds this is only half the story. frustration of bringing of senselessness,” the study said. The study, titled Some Things Can Never be As an example, the study related a Unseen: The Role of Context in Psychological a stable, anesthetised conversation between two medics: “They Injury at War, says that the context through patient over to some talked about the frustration of bringing a which war is experienced may be equally stable, anaesthetised patient over to some important in determining how warfare can hospital only to be met hospital only to be met by an empty van, be traumatic for some and not for others. having to hand over a wired-up patient to The research focused on military doctors in by an empty van. someone with no equipment at all.” Afghanistan, and found that the “dissonance” De Rond’s field notes included incidents between what the medics experienced on of Veteran Affairs. In 2013, a former that could have come out of the TV series the ground and their values as dedicated commander of Australian forces in the Mash. “One of the theatre nurses told me professionals resulted in “senselessness, Middle East warned of a “large wave of of an experience over Easter weekend, when futility and surreality”. sadness coming our way.” a double amputee had come in … One of his “This understanding of the connection The study is based on fieldwork by de legs had come off, and (the nurse) was asked between PTSD and the context of those who Rond, who was “embedded” with a team to please take it to the mortuary (and from suffer from it could change the way mental of military surgeons at Camp Bastion in there to the incinerator). health experts analyse, prevent and manage Afghanistan for six weeks in 2011. It includes “As he crossed the ambulance bay carrying psychological injury from warfare,” said tales both harrowing and tragi-comic. a yellow (container) with the leg, he ran into Mark de Rond from the University of “The doctors I was embedded with were the Commanding Officer and a (Travel Nurse Cambridge Judge Business School, who known as Rear Located Medics, who don’t Corps) nurse walking the other way, dressed co-authored the study with Jaco Lok from have a combat role, so they have less reason to in bunny ears and carrying Easter eggs.” UNSW Business School. fear for their lives than front-line personnel,” This contrast “between the human gravity “The study highlights the urgent and serious said de Rond. of the situation on the one hand, and the casual nature of dealing with PTSD – beyond the very For example, the Camp Bastion army nature of everyday rituals and routines on the real impact on many veterans, to others who medics were particularly disturbed by rules other” can have a very disorienting effect. work in the theatre of war, such as medical of the camp’s small 50-bed field hospital that personnel,” says Lok. required the quick transfer of badly mutilated A version of this article first Between 20% and 30% of the 2.7 million children and other Afghan civilians to appeared in UNSW Business Think US troops sent to Iraq or Afghanistan between inferior local hospitals, often within 48 hours, BusinessThink.unsw.edu.au to make way for new battlefield casualties. 2001 and 2011 returned with some form of A soldier’s dissonance between expression and values. psychological injury, says the US Department “(It was) difficult for them to come to terms photo Shutterstock 9 Cover Story Primed for action

The wild storms that hammered Australia’s east coast in June demonstrated the frightening power of nature. But for a group of hardy UNSW engineers, the tempest was manna from heaven. Wilson Da Silva reports.

itchell Harley doesn’t believe in monsters. But on arriving in the office on a crisp Monday morning in May, what he saw made Mhis hair stand on end – a monster of a storm was on its way. “Just seeing the extremity of what was being predicted – waves of up to seven metres from an east to northeast direction – then I looked at the tide charts, and realised the waves were going to coincide with the highest tides of the year. I almost literally spat out my coffee,” recalls Dr Harley, senior research associate at the UNSW Water Research Laboratory (WRL). It was May 30 this year – just six days before one of the fiercest storms to hit eastern Australia in decades arrived, inundating towns, smashing buildings, sweeping away cars and infrastructure and triggering hundreds of evacuations across a 3,000 km swathe from Queensland in the north to Tasmania in the south. Harley alerted the laboratory’s director, Professor Ian Turner, whose office was a short walk away on WRL’s sprawling campus of 1950s bungalows and hangar-sized workshops in Manly Vale, on Sydney’s northern beaches. Turner looked at Harley’s data, and whistled: “This could be it.” From his briefcase, Turner took out a laminated, multi-coloured page he had carried with him for years. It was the action plan for just such an event. The US-born Turner spent his childhood summers in Cape Cod, the peninsula in Massachusetts where his father – a physicist and noted fluid dynamics specialist – went annually to work at the famed Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He learned to snorkel before he was old enough to attend school, and has been captivated by the interaction of sea and land ever since. “I loved being immersed in the water, and I was fascinated by the act of waves on the surface of the ocean being able to move sand on the seabed,” Turner says. “It left a very strong impression on me.” As director of the largest hydraulics lab in Australia, his group of 60 academics, engineers, post doctorates, technical staff and PhD students study everything from coastal engineering and the rehabilitation of estuaries and wetlands, to modelling flood behaviour and understanding groundwater quality and usage. In short, anything to do with water above, below or moving along the ground. “We had been waiting for an event of this magnitude for more than a decade,” recalls Turner of the June storm. “Now it was here, and we From left: Chris Drummond, Kristen Splinter, Mitchell Harley were ready.” and Ian Turner at Long Reef Beach. photo Grant Turner/Mediakoo

10 We had been waiting for an event of this magnitude for more than a decade. Now it was here, and we were ready.

11 Cover Story

Working with UNSW’s School of Aviation and the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, Turner had at his disposal a fleet of drones, fixed-wing planes, quadbikes, jetskis, fixed and mobile cameras, airborne LiDAR laser ranging sensors and other equipment to conduct the largest and most detailed pre- and post-storm coastline analysis anywhere in the world. Coupled with a vast bank of data collected during the past 40 years at nearby Narrabeen– Collaroy beaches – one of the world’s longest- running, beach erosion monitoring programs – coastal engineers would finally have, it was hoped, enough information to build models that could accurately predict the damage storms would do days before an event. It would also provide a crucial insight Rapid response team mobilised Harley – a leading researcher in continental into how climate change would interact with shelf dynamics and coastal modelling – had Two days later, on Wednesday, Turner made El Niño and La Niña weather cycles, and for five years studied the Adriatic coastline the decision to mobilise the team. UNSW predict coastal vulnerability from sea-level rise just south of Venice while at the University of Aviation’s Piper Seminole twin-engine and changing storm patterns in the decades Ferrara, working on a major European Union aircraft, loaded with LiDAR, hyperspectral ahead, says senior research associate Kristen project to develop early warning systems that cameras and position sensors, took off from Splinter, an engineer and modelling specialist could forecast coastal hazards from storms Bankstown Airport in Sydney’s west and at WRL who builds predictive tools. with a few days’ warning. Collaborating with began taking high-resolution scans of key researchers in Britain, Spain, Portugal, Poland, sites along a 500 km stretch of the coast Bulgaria and Italy, they used supercomputers from Sydney to Coffs Harbour. to develop a series of numerical models that Meanwhile, Harley and his team deployed tried to predict how atmospheric weather, Every five to 10 minutes, drones over Narrabeen–Collaroy, creating wave physics, tides and winds interacted. I had to take a step high-resolution 3D maps of the 3.6 km long While wave forecasts are now incredibly beach, which curves in a gentle, east-facing accurate, how all the elements interplay with back as more of the arc between the 20 m high cliffs at Narrabeen sediment, coastline and coastal sands is still beach was receding. Head in the north to rocks at a low cliff a challenge. “You have to model billions of at Collaroy Point, a region peppered with sand and sediment particles and how they I hadn’t seen anything beachfront houses and apartments. will shift,” he says. The next day, two jetskis operated by staff In 2015, Harley returned to UNSW, where he like that before. from the Office of Environment and Heritage had earlier completed his PhD, to take over the began criss-crossing the water, using echo- management of the coastal monitoring program sounders and GPS to collect detailed maps The UNSW-led rapid response team of Narrabeen–Collaroy, one of the best of the seafloor, from the high-tide shoreline was alerted, but Turner held off activating studied beaches in the world where the kind out to a continental shelf depth of 30 metres. the plan. They needed to be certain: there of high-resolution data being collected might “You need quite calm conditions to do those had been false starts before, when storms help solve the supercomputer’s difficulties. surveys,” says Harley, “so we were very looked ominous but then dissipated. Sure But for that, they needed a very big storm. fortunate that in the whole week before the enough, the following day’s forecast storm, the water was actually very still.” indicated the storm’s intensity had dropped. Nature’s fury unleashed While the rapid response team worked But over the next 24 hours, the tempest feverishly to finish its data gathering, the And here, finally, it was. That Friday night, brewing off the Queensland coast came weather in Sydney was unfailingly pleasant the downpour began and the winds tore into back with a vengeance: it was merging with – making it hard to believe an angry squall the coast, reaching up to 117 km/h on Sydney another nearby storm cell, while an intense was imminent. On the afternoon of Friday Harbour. In some areas of the city, 170 mm of high-pressure system forming over New 3 June, a UNSW wave-rider data buoy was rain fell by Sunday morning, and 500 people Zealand squeezed the storm south along anchored in 10 metres of water about 350 in Narrabeen and Lismore on the far north the eastern seaboard. Warmer conditions metres offshore, directly in front of – and coast had to be evacuated as floodwaters allowed the air to hold more moisture, while synchronised with – a cluster of time-lapse rose. Almost 90,000 homes across NSW lost abnormally high sea-surface temperatures cameras mounted on the roof of a beachfront power, and there were 5,500 calls to emergency beneath added more energy to the seething high-rise. services. As the night’s king tides combined air mass. East coast lows like these can That day, the Bureau of Meteorology with savage winds, waves of up to 12 metres in be ferocious, but they usually arrive from warned that widespread heavy rainfall, height were reported along the coast, smashing the south: this one would strike from the damaging winds and likely flash flooding cliffs once thought unreachable – even toppling northeast, hammering normally protected would soon hit – even as the sun shone and the foundations of the century-old Coogee surf northern-facing coastlines. the oceans were calm. lifesaving clubhouse on a clifftop.

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Harley visited Narrabeen–Collaroy on Saturday night, and had trouble standing against the onslaught of wind. “The waves were hitting the dunes in front of the houses, and the sand was starting to slump,” he says. “Every five to ten minutes, I had to take a step back as more of the beach was receding. I hadn’t seen anything like that before.” The storm continued unabated on Sunday, leading to an additional 500 evacuations and forecasts for another 100 mm of pounding rain. Trees fell, houses were splintered asunder and brick walls collapsed into the sea. In one stretch of Narrabeen–Collaroy, 50 m of sand disappeared beneath the waves and parts of beachfront houses and businesses fell into the surf in the onslaught from the returning king tides. At daybreak on Monday 6 June, Harley and Chris Drummond, an engineer at the lab and a certified drone pilot, reached Narrabeen–Collaroy and were surprised it was calm enough to fly sorties – as well as stunned at the extent of the damage. “It was quite surreal – the winds had completely dropped, and the sky When cars become was a magnificent blue,” Harley recalls. “Having studied that beach for 15 years, floating deathtraps and theorised about this happening, to actually see the impact in real life was quite incredible. There were still large waves, and Three men died in the June storms “What was surprising was just how a significant amount of erosion occurring, after being swept away while trying little water it took to make even a but it was calm enough to fly the drones and to drive through floodwaters, and large vehicle unstable,” says principal capture that erosion as it was happening.” there were more than 80 rescues from engineer Grantley Smith, who led the For the next few weeks, the drones, stranded cars. It’s a growing problem, research. “They became vulnerable quadbikes and jetskis measured the beaches, and one engineers at WRL turned to moving floodwaters once the depth while the equipment-laden Piper Seminole their minds to. Why was it happening reached the floor of the vehicle. Even flew surveys above the coastline. Early results more often? in low water depths and slow flow suggest this single storm stripped 65 million speeds, floodwaters had a powerful In a world first, they conducted a cubic metres of sand from beach and dunes enough force to make them float away.” along NSW’s 990 km of sandy coastline and series of experiments at the lab’s deposited it in sandbars beneath the waves. test tanks to understand the force of Part of the reason is modern cars are so That sand will gradually return, but floodwaters, using real cars instead airtight for air conditioning, they become the researchers finally have the hard data of vehicle miniatures as other groups giant air bubbles when waters rise. they need: what happened to the sand and had done, and found the answer. Another is that people underestimate when, in response to what forces – like the power of moving water. A small car like a Toyota Yaris, wind speed and direction, wave height and weighing just over one tonne, was “Even slow-moving water packs a strength. Now begins the mammoth task of moved by water only 15 centimetres powerful punch,” says Smith. “Water building an accurate coastal erosion model deep and with a flow speed of just 3.6 is heavy: each cubic metre weighs the world can rely upon, to predict damage kmh; it completely floated away in just about 1,000 kg. If a house is exposed days before a storm hits. It’s not just about to floodwaters two metres deep and protecting beaches; billions of dollars’ worth 60 cm of water. 20 m wide – travelling at a steady of infrastructure is threatened by coastal Even a 2.5 tonne Nissan Patrol 4WD 3.6 kmh – the force is equivalent to erosion, including buildings, roads, power was rendered unstable by floodwater being hit by a 40 tonne semi-trailer and water utility corridors, and sewerage 45 cm high and a similar flow speed. every 15 seconds.” lines. As sea levels rise, storm tides reach Once the water reached 95 cm, the deeper inland. Erosion models are a crucial vehicle floated like a boat, and was – Wilson da Silva line of defence against that destruction. easily pushed around by hand. By contrast, an able-bodied adult is much Grantley Smith in the Iab. more stable in flowing water. photo Grant Turner/Mediakoo Ian Turner checks a miniature camera on Perranporth beach in Cornwall, England.

13 Equity and diversity

Gender equity is men’s business Men need to stand up and help redress the gender imbalance in Australian workplaces, writes Emma Johnston.

am a professor and a newly minted pro The SAGE project involves men and Countries with greater gender parity have vice-chancellor and I have spent my women, as all gender equity programs a higher annual GDP. entire research and working life with must. Gender equity is not only a problem I A study of 50 US states and 31 European male bosses or supervisors. I have never for women, just as advances in gender countries found, on average, men are also reported to a woman. equity are not only a blessing for women. happier, they have a better quality of life, This phenomenon is particularly acute in the There are many wonderful things that spend more time with their friends and fields of science, technology, engineering, are positively correlated with increased family, and are less constrained by strict mathematics and medicine (STEMM). gender equality. Men’s psychological and gender norms. Gender equality lifts us all. physical health improves and the gender It’s why more than 30 universities, six gap in life expectancy decreases. There medical research institutions and four is less domestic violence. Enter the mainstream publicly funded research agencies have joined the Science in Australia Gender Companies with more women on their So for the good of everyone, men and Equity (SAGE) pilot project. boards have higher financial returns women must mainstream gender equity. and greater levels of innovation. This means building gender equality into

14 Uniken / Spring 2016

every practice and process so that it To make gender equity mainstream, we D for do not derail the discussion becomes the new norm. need to avoid denial by first listening and accepting, in order to enable discussion. Derailment happens when we are being Mainstreaming means shifting cultural If we are listening to a first-hand account empathetic or trying to get attention norms and baselines, accepting that of bias then we must assist the person to ourselves. We may listen to an example of gender bias exists, encouraging find appropriate professional support. bias and respond with the phrase: “Oh yes, discussions of gender inequity, speaking but you won’t believe what happened to me out against sexism and harassment, If we remain in doubt about the likelihood …” This can, inadvertently, change the topic. recognising and removing conscious and of bias, we can always look for empirical implicit bias, and weakening stereotypes. evidence of general patterns. We might If our own experience is less intense, even consider doing an analysis or and the consequences less severe, then We all have a lifetime’s worth of experiment to test for discrimination our contribution may derail and diminish experiences, but depending on our ourselves. the discussion. We need to have these background, those experiences may be discussions about the serious issues of quite different. This can become a problem harassment and bias. if one dominant group holds most of the D for diminish powerful positions. This is when we diminish the problem Rocket science Men comprise seven out of eight of by saying something like: “You’re making Australia’s current Go8 university too big a deal out of it.” If men and women are to mainstream gender vice-chancellors, 79% of our STEMM equity, our hearts must be in the right place professors, 83% of Australia’s CEOs This is a difficult one. We develop a and we must value fairness, but this will not and about 88% of our learned Australian thick skin. So it is tempting to dismiss guarantee success. We know we must work Academy of Science fellows. the worries of our juniors in whatever proactively to put systems and practices in form the hierarchy takes. place that reduce bias and promote equality These powerful people – directors, and diversity. For the most part we already professors, academy fellows – are making But people who experience inequity don’t always develop thick skins. They know what those systems and practices are. decisions and defining merit; they can They are hardly rocket science. design out gender bias if they have the can experience real-time reactions motivation to do so. Attaining that desire and under-confidence resulting from The rocket science is in learning to listen for change, in the face of resistance, a lifetime of exposure to biased to very quiet voices; it is creating spaces may require some recalibration of their evaluations and stereotypes. for those voices at work. The rocket science world view. This will be more difficult for Mainstreaming gender equity into is also recognising and addressing our people in positions of privilege for whom the culture of an organisation requires own implicit biases and our own limited discrimination is less visible. accepting the gravity of the situation as experience. We can also surround ourselves with presented, and looking for solutions to They say that travel broadens the mind, female mentors and colleagues so that we problems even if we do not suffer them. so maybe what we all need to do is leave gain ‘outsider’ perspectives. Women will our comfortable universe and step into have diverse experiences and attitudes D for do not defend a female rocket scientist’s shoes. towards the gendered workplace. If we Emma Johnston is Professor and Pro surround ourselves with women and we If we find ourselves using the phrase Vice-Chancellor (Research), UNSW. avoid the four Ds, set out below, we can “I’m sure they didn’t mean it that way” help recalibrate our world view and break then we need to stop, reflect and This opinion piece was first published down stereotypes. reconsider our perspective. in The Conversation. Again, it may take a conscious effort to photo Shutterstock D for denial accept that the inequity is real. A great example of this is the uncritical use of Denial is the outright dismissal of the the term “merit”. People believe they are existence of inequity. Denial might be more making judgements based entirely on common if you have never experienced “excellence”. But several studies show that that particular bias. For example, one men and women will judge CVs, papers, study revealed that male STEMM faculty teaching and even student essays to be members were less likely to accept superior when labelled with a male name. evidence of gender bias.

What we all need to do is leave our comfortable universe and step into a female rocket scientist’s shoes.

15 Global Impact

Rear view ... early results promising. photo Ben Yexley The eyes have it How do African farmers stop lions t can take days on safari to track the lions inside protected areas, but when Dr Neil Jordan’s team finds an adult wandering by itself attacking their cattle? Paint the cows’ Ithey act fast. backsides. Myles Gough reports on A trained veterinarian takes aim and shoots a dart into the lion’s thigh. It is loaded with an anaesthetic that will eventually put the some lateral thinking by conservation animal to sleep. When that happens, Jordan and the vet attach a GPS collar to its muscular neck. biologist Neil Jordan. This safe device, which is programmed to automatically drop off after two years, sends radio signals to a satellite. Once activated, it will give Jordan and his team real-time information about the lion’s movements on their mobile phones. Jordan has done this type of collaring many times before, but it still makes his heart race. “It’s intense,” he says. “We stick someone on the roof of the vehicle scanning for other lions. We’re not worried about the sleeping lion, but its friends. They pose a real risk.” The whole process takes about 30 minutes, and when they are done they give the lion a reverse-sedative to wake it up. “We’re very careful that we manage the animal, and we release it in as good condition as we found it,” says Jordan. “Within an hour, it’s wandering away with a new, shiny collar.”

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The tracking is one part of Jordan’s research; The power of hindsight the lions’ predatory behaviour is another. With less space set aside for conservation Jordan’s idea was hatched after two lionesses in Botswana, lions are more frequently coming were killed by farmers in a village, near where into contact with human populations, says he’d been working with the Botswana Predator Jordan. These are usually farms, expanding Conservation Trust. around the edges of the protected areas. “The lions had been hanging around The lions eat livestock, such as cattle, and the villagers felt helpless to prevent which negatively impacts the livelihood of the the attacks against their livestock,” Jordan subsistence farmers in these rural areas, he says. recalls. “I felt helpless to assist.” Without a non-lethal way to prevent these An attempt by the government’s attacks, the farmers often turn to deadly Department of Wildlife to intervene force, shooting or poisoning the lions in and relocate the lions was unsuccessful, retaliation. Jordan says this has resulted and they were eventually shot. in lion populations “draining away”. “A short time later, I was watching a lion hunt an impala,” he recalls. “Lions are Predators and protection ambush hunters, so they creep up on their prey, get close and jump on them unseen. The African lion is listed as vulnerable on But in this case, the impala noticed the lion. the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, And when the lion noticed it had been seen, with declining adult numbers currently in the it gave up on the hunt.” I was watching a lion range of 23,000 to 39,000. These are down In nature, patterns resembling eyes on from population estimates above 100,000 butterflies are known to deter hungry birds, hunt an impala. Lions are in the 1990s. he says. Similarly, in India and other parts ambush hunters ... when There are knock-on effects: poisoned of Asia, woodcutters in the forest have worn carcasses don’t just kill lions, but harm a range masks on the back of their heads to ward off the lion noticed it had of other threatened organisms, including wild man-eating tigers. been seen, it gave up dogs and vultures. Furthermore, when a lion Jordan’s idea was to “hijack this is killed, it doesn’t solve the problem. It simply mechanism” of psychological trickery. on the hunt. creates a vacant territory that another lion will By painting intimidating eyes on the move into, and the attacks will continue. backsides of cattle, Jordan hypothesised that farmers might be able to trick the lions into Last year, Jordan collaborated with “The ideal thing is to teach the lions in the BPCT and a local farmer to trial the your area not to kill livestock,” says Jordan, thinking they’d been spotted by their prey. If it was successful, it could keep all the innovative conservation approach, which who holds joint positions at UNSW’s Centre he’s dubbed “i-cow”. for Ecosystem Science and the Taronga animals safe. “We wanted a tool that could be used They painted eyes on one-third of a herd Conservation Society Australia. of 67 cattle, stamping the designs on to the He’s come up with a low-cost solution by the average subsistence farmer in Africa,” he says. “With our solution, the total annual rumps of the cows using foam cut-outs as that could, in essence, train lions to stop they moved single-file through a crush gate. hunting livestock. It’s a solution he hopes investment in paint and necessary supplies is just one-fifth the cost of one cow. Each night, when the cows return from will promote a more peaceful co-existence grazing to their protective enclosure, the between farmers, their livestock and Africa’s “Because it’s cheap, and relatively easy to do, we thought we’d give it a go.” researchers would do a head count. top carnivores. The early results from this 10-week trial were promising: three unpainted cows were killed by lions, and no painted cows were killed. “It’s encouraging, but it’s too small a sample size to say whether it was just due to chance,” he says. In mid-July, he returned to Botswana to begin a second field trial. His team, including a UNSW PhD student, painted roughly half the cattle in a herd of 60, and used 10 cattle GPS loggers, purchased through a crowd-funding platform, to monitor where and when the cows and lions were moving, and coming into contact.

Neil Jordan in Botswana. photo Ben Yexley The African lion is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. photo Krystyna Golabek

17 History Greek odyssey

The stories of Greek-Australian immigrants are in danger of being lost. Clare Morgan talks to a historian determined to preserve them.

hen Associate Professor Nicholas would continue saving to buy something else. Doumanis was told Greek They bought into the Australian dream and Wnewspapers in Australia were When they paid off they moulded it.” surviving on obituaries, it dawned on One of the project’s major aims, he says, him that the last links to this rich part of their house they would is to learn about the experience of migration Australia’s history were fast disappearing. continue saving to from the inside, to better understand what Greeks began migrating to Australia it was like to build a new life, find a niche in from the early days, with the largest wave buy something else. Australian society and to take advantage of coming after World War II. But while the They bought into the its opportunities, particularly in education history of their pre-war migration has been and business. well documented, Doumanis saw that there Australian dream and “If you are going to talk about migration was a gap in post-war history. they moulded it. you have to talk to migrants,” he says. “This history is not of much interest One thing Doumanis has already to Greeks in Greece, and Australian found is that life in Australia drove big social historians don’t really know what to make But where, asks Doumanis, is discussion changes within the Greek community. of it,” says Doumanis, from the School of about the success stories? “I don’t mean “Women go out to work, match-making Humanities & Languages in the Faculty those who came here to establish big disappears, divorce isn’t as difficult of Arts & Social Sciences. businesses, I mean ordinary people who because people can disappear into suburbia, “It’s left to us Greek-Australians to came here to find security and ended up inheritance traditions change so that things actually start to think about what our developing new lives in this country and are divided equally,” Doumanis says. history is and to take it seriously. I want setting down roots.” When they returned to visit family in to make sure [our immigrant] stories are Many of those who arrived during the Greece, these migrants didn’t realise how preserved and their history is understood.” 1950s and '60s, usually by ship and often much Australia had changed them. “You do Thanks to an agreement between UNSW with little more than a suitcase, came from become something different and I think on the and the State Library of NSW, Doumanis is small villages without cars or electricity. whole it’s quite positive. There’s something now working on a Greek-Australian history They settled into working-class suburbs and good about migration,” Doumanis says. archive that will preserve this history. began toiling in factories and shops. Within The State Library hopes this project will The archival collection will consist of a short space of time they had bought their become a template for archives of other ethnic letters, postcards, home movies and other own homes, raised their families, set up groups in Australia. But first, Doumanis needs documents curated by and held at the State businesses – the ubiquitous Greek milk bar funds to kick-start the project, particularly Library. There will also be an oral history or corner shop – and were regularly sending recording the oral histories. archive, featuring interviews with about money to their villages back home. “Each of them will be asked about their 200 people, and eventually a book and “Australia was socially difficult but they aspirations and their stories,” he says. a permanent online exhibition. found it could give them something if they “What made them come to Australia? What Much has been written about the worked hard,” Doumanis says. “A lot of them did they expect to achieve? What happened problems faced by Greeks who made would work two or three jobs in the beginning. on the first day they arrived? What was their the move here, including poverty, The abundance of gainful employment made first job? Why did they stay?” social difficulties and xenophobia. a big difference, and housing was relatively cheap. When they paid off their house they Nicholas Doumanis. photo Grant Turner/Mediakoo

18 Research

Wholly dooley, look what we’ve found A new fossil site in Queensland is home to a range of strange new species, writes Deborah Smith.

new species of extinct flesh-eating “This exciting new area – New Riversleigh He says even as it was terrorising its marsupial that terrorised Australia’s – was detected by remote sensing using prey Whollydooleya’s “own days were Adrying forests about five million years satellite data.” numbered” as the forests dried around ago has been identified from a fossil discovered With the help of ARC funding and a grant five million years ago. in remote north-western Queensland. from the National Geographic Society, Archer “While it is at least distantly related The hypercarnivore, which is thought to and his colleagues began to systematically to living and recently living carnivorous have weighed about 20 to 25 kg, is a distant explore New Riversleigh in 2013. marsupials such as devils, thylacines and and much bigger cousin of Australia’s largest The new species’ highly distinctive molar quolls, it appears to have represented a living carnivorous marsupial, the Tasmanian was one of the first fossil teeth obtained from distinctive subgroup of hypercarnivores Devil, which is about half the size. a particularly fossil-rich site in the area which that did not survive into the modern world,” Named Whollydooleya tomnpatrichorum, was discovered by team member Phil Creaser Archer says. it is the first creature to be formally identified and named Whollydooley Hill in honour “Climate change can be a merciless from a range of strange new animals whose of his partner and Riversleigh volunteer eliminator of the mightiest of mammals.” remains have been found in a fossil site Genevieve Dooley. in Queensland dubbed ‘New Riversleigh’. “New Riversleigh is producing the A description of the new marsupial, remains of a bevy of strange new small- to based on its fossil molar tooth, is published medium-sized creatures, with Whollydooleya in the Memoirs of Museum Victoria. tomnpatrichorum the first one to be described,” Twice the size of a Tasmanian Devil. says Archer. photo HK Colin/Flickr

This exciting new area was detected by remote sensing using satellite data.

“Whollydooleya tomnpatrichorum had very powerful teeth capable of killing and slicing up the largest animals of its day,” says study lead author UNSW Professor Mike Archer. The late Miocene period between about 12 and five million years ago, when Australia began to dry out and the megafauna began to evolve, is one of the most mysterious and least well-understood periods in the continent’s past. Fossils of land animals from this period are extremely rare, because of the increasing aridity. “Fortunately, in 2012, we discovered a whole new fossil field that lies beyond the internationally famous Riversleigh World Heritage Area fossil deposits in north-western Queensland,” says Archer.

19 Opinion

Time to call out cyber misogynists The long arm of the Australian law is finally extending to the cybersphere, writes Emma Jane.

our right to swing your fist ends where hurling explicit rape threats has become online my face begins”, sums up the libertarian business-as-usual for many men who dislike Yposition on where freedom of expression something a woman says, does, or looks like. should stop and regulation should start. After many years of lacklustre response, Given the growing problem of the the long arm of the Australian law is finally harassment and abuse of women online, this extending to the cybersphere. Two men have quote is in need of an update. Perhaps: “Your recently been charged with – and pleaded right to send unsolicited photos of your penis, guilty to – the superannuated-sounding ends where my social media feed begins.” charge of using a carriage service to After so many waves of feminism, it is menace, harass or cause offence. astounding that we must explain the basics One had posted graphic racist and of genital exposure etiquette to grown men. sexist comments on the Facebook page Yet the notion that one really shouldn’t share of the former senator Nova Peris, while the NSFW (not safe for work) photos of one’s other sprayed misogynist comments during private parts unless expressly invited is an the “slut shaming” of a Sydney woman over aspect of modern internet usage with which her profile on the hook-up app Tinder. many men seem to struggle. Given the libertarian claim that restricting Unsolicited penis shots are just one free speech constitutes a greater evil than online dimension of gendered cyber hate. Indeed, rape and death threats, it’s worth addressing photo Shutterstock calling women ugly, fat and slutty, then a few common myths on the subject.

MYTH 1 MYTH 2 Arresting those Misogyny online is no big deal Misogyny online is no big deal who send particularly because it affects only a few, because it involves only the abusive and threatening high-profile women. occasional nasty message. material online is not Wrong. While celebrities of all genders Wrong again. While some women are stalked censorship. It is the are certainly lightning rods for cyber hate, by lone weirdos, the internet’s preferred dodging e-bile is a daily routine for many attack modus operandi is mob-style. least the authorities “ordinary” female internet users. During the 2014 attacks on women can do. In 2015, the United Nations released a dubbed “GamerGate”, the games developer report stating that 73% of women and girls Zoe Quinn reportedly accumulated have been exposed to, or have experienced, 16 gigabytes of abuse. Earlier this year, some form of online violence, that women Jess Phillips, the British Labour MP who are 27 times more likely to be abused online helped launch a campaign against misogynist than men, and that 61% of online harassers bullying, reported receiving 600 rape threats are male. over the course of a single evening.

20 Uniken / Spring 2016

MYTH 3 They’re just a fraction of the messages In short, the claim that online speech should received by the writer Clementine Ford never be regulated simply does not wash. Misogyny online is no big who re-posted a rancid bouquet of e-bile Even John Stuart Mill – the pin-up on her blog last year. philosopher for freedom of expressionistas – deal because it just involves As with drowned lady “jokes”, the was hysterical enough to acknowledge that run-of-the-mill rudeness and normalisation of gendered cyber hate both expression should never be entirely free but misunderstood jokes. reflects and contributes to the broader curbed if it had the ability to cause others harm. pandemic of violence against women and girls. Arresting those who send particularly abusive Nope. Actually, misogyny online is: Cyber violence is a form of violence. This and credibly threatening material online is not “You sicken me u vile c---.” is because misogynist e-bile – alongside the some insidious form of Orwellian censorship. It And: “Sit on a butchers knife [sic]”. racist and homophobic versions – can cause is the least the authorities can do and anyone And: “Slut kill yourself.” its targets actual harm and not mere offence. serious about maximising speech opportunities And: “Get a knife and shove it through Increasingly, it’s also spilling offline. on the internet should hope they do it some more. your neck”. After years of online abuse, the writer Van And on that note: ovaries and out. And: “You’re a dirty waste of oxygen … Badham last year received a package at her Your a nothing [sic]. Your day is coming home depicting gang rapes and female genital Dr Emma Jane is a senior research fellow and I’ll be laughing when it does.” mutilation. This was underlined by: “the greatest at UNSW. This opinion piece was first of all threats … ‘I know where you live.’” published in the Sydney Morning Herald.

21 Research Holding back the years

Science has traditionally tried to fight disease as the key to longer life. But what if the solution is to target the body’s ageing process itself, asks Louise Williams.

t was about 400 BC when Hippocrates and isolated a compound found in red wine astutely observed that gluttony and early that has prolonged life and improved health Ideath seemed to go hand in hand. Too in animals as varied as worms, fruit flies and much food appeared to ‘extinguish’ life in mice. Lead researcher, David Sinclair – who much the same way as putting too much wood splits his time between his roles as head of on a fire smothers its flames. If obesity led to the UNSW Lab and as Professor of Genetics disease and death, he thought, then perhaps at Harvard – has long been taking the restraint was the secret to a longer life? compound himself. It would be a couple of millennia before science confirmed, in 1935, a link between Targeting ageing cells reducing calorie intake and living longer. This discovery was just the beginning. In Australian and international researchers are the 21st century, further advances have led focusing on two key processes. One promising to an extraordinary leap in life expectancy; approach is to target naturally occurring a child born in Australia today can expect ‘senescent’ cells, the label given to any type of to live at least 25 years longer than a child cell as it acquires age-related damage or loss born a century ago. Yet longer life has also of function. Our immune systems should clear The loosening of DNA unleashed a cocktail of diseases and chronic out these cells, but as we age this housekeeping conditions, attacking us in tandem, to blight function becomes less and less effective. This A second prominent research area focuses on our final years. means senescent cells accumulate rather than the anti-ageing molecules known as sirtuins, Scientists are now increasingly focusing divide, and in turn, they secrete inflammatory particularly the ‘SIRT1’ enzyme. “When we on the biology of ageing itself as the key to agents that can damage adjacent cells, causing are young, our DNA is very tightly wound warding off this multitude of illnesses. “We the kind of chronic inflammation associated and it’s the SIRT1 molecules that keep this currently study diseases in isolation, so we with age-related diseases. structure intact,” says Wu. “As we age, DNA look, for example, at cardiovascular disease, Dr Darren Baker, of the US Mayo Clinic, structure naturally loosens and can turn on cancer, diabetes, heart disease and Alzheimer’s who was in Australia for the Biology of Ageing the wrong genes, causing dysfunction that separately,” said Dr Lindsay Wu, organiser conference, and colleagues, recently published can lead to diseases like cancer.” Researchers of the recent inaugural Australian Biology of their breakthrough results in Nature. Their at UNSW are working on ways to energise Ageing Conference, hosted by UNSW. “But study demonstrated the elimination of senescent the enzyme SIRT1, which Sinclair and his they all have an underlying process of cellular cells in mice not only extended their lives but team have been working on for close to two ageing – so if we are able to treat the biological improved their general health, curiosity and decades, so it works more effectively. process of ageing, then we can have a huge energy levels, with no apparent ill effects. “We think the loosening of DNA is impact on all sorts of diseases.” “What we are thinking about is extending driving whole-of-body ageing, so if we Significant progress is being made on several healthy life, not just extending life, per se ... can boost the levels of fuel in our SIRT1 frontiers. In New York, a human drug study is we don’t want to increase people’s time in molecules to maintain our DNA in a youthful for the first time targeting ageing rather than care,” says Baker. state, we can slow down ageing,” Wu says. a specific disease. US researchers have also His Mayo Clinic group is now trying to SIRT1 is also the key to Sinclair’s landmark recently managed to kill off age-damaged cells develop components or compounds that can discoveries about resveratrol, a naturally in mice to restore vitality, body function and selectively kill senescent cells, without relying occurring compound found in red wine. extend life by up to 35%. on the genetic manipulation used in the In 2003, Sinclair first demonstrated that And at UNSW’s Laboratory for Ageing mouse study. “If you had asked me five years resveratrol made SIRT1 run faster and could Research, and its sister lab at Harvard ago, I would have said we are decades away extend the life of single organisms. In 2013, Medical School, scientists have identified from human interventions, but we are now the prestigious Science journal published his moving much faster than we anticipated.” work, proving this single anti-ageing enzyme

22 Uniken / Spring 2016

could be effectively targeted, paving the Research has consistently shown many way for the development of a new class diabetics taking metformin live longer than of anti-ageing drug that could potentially If you had asked me five non-diabetics, even if they have additional prevent some 20 diseases ranging from cancer, risk factors, like being overweight. This to type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease. years ago, I would have association is so pronounced metformin is said we are decades now being tested as an anti-ageing drug. The science of diet and exercise There are, however, simple steps everyone away from human can take right now if they want to live longer, It has also been uncovered that sirtuins (SIRT3 interventions. healthier lives, says Baker. “If you exercise a and 4) are behind the link between longevity lot you have fewer senescent cells, and if you and dietary restraint that has fascinated so have a decent diet you also see fewer of these high-carbohydrate diet is associated with a many thinkers since Hippocrates. In the 1500s, cells, so just by modifying your behaviour longer life, with nutrients ideally balanced the Venetian nobleman, Alvise Cornaro, you can influence your rate of accumulation in a ratio of about 1:10. This ratio, he said, famously refined Hippocrates’ theory and of these kinds of cells.” correlates with the traditional diet of the experimented on himself, limiting his daily “It is always better to look after yourself people of the Japanese island of Okinawa, intake of food to 12 oz (340 g) and 14 oz ... than to just wait for an anti-ageing pill.” (397 g) of wine. He reportedly lived until famous for its high number of centenarians. 100, attributing his health, vigour and Sinclair is confident human life spans of contentment to this regime. 150 years are likely in the foreseeable future; Calorie restriction and exercise are now other researchers suggest 100 will be more both known to activate sirtuins, explaining commonly attainable. Although Sinclair’s in part the protective nature of a good diet resveratrol is on the market as a supplement, and regular physical activity. However, it has not yet been formulated as an anti- scientists have also greatly refined the link ageing drug. However, the first human trials of a potential anti-ageing drug, metformin, between diet and longevity. Professor David UNSW’s Labratory for Ageing Research. Le Couteur, from the University of Sydney, are taking place in the US. Metformin is Left to right, Lindsay Wu, Myung-Jin Kang, told the recent conference that a low-protein, actually a common anti-diabetes drug that Frank Stoddart, David Sinclair, Ashley Wong, has been in use for some 60 years. Hassina Massudi. photo Britta Campion

23 Arts

Try wearing this A computerised headdress, a garment that breathes in response to air quality … Tricia Flanagan blends technology and clothing to push the envelope of everyday life, writes Fran Strachan.

The computerised headdress Blinklifier amplifies human emotions.photo Dicky Ma

24 Uniken / Spring 2016

or Tricia Flanagan the body is always costume design, pattern making, the launch political. “Wearable technology is like of a successful children’s wear label and, more Fa portable conversation starter. It’s the unusually, a qualification as an ornamental perfect space for political statements. Our blacksmith. bodies are the last bastion of privacy and After completing her Masters of Visual clothing marks the border between public Art at the Bauhaus University Weimar in and private,” she says. Germany, and a Doctorate of Philosophy Dr Flanagan comes to UNSW Art & (Public Art) at the University of Newcastle, Design from Asia where she established the Flanagan headed to Hong Kong to establish Wearables Lab at the Academy of Visual Art at the Wearables Lab. Hong Kong Baptist University – an innovative “The leap from public art to wearables transdisciplinary laboratory designed to explore didn’t seem that big to me. As a public artist the intersection between art, science and you have to define the line between what’s technology through wearable art. public and what’s private, it’s a very political Flanagan’s innovative and dramatic discussion, whereas with wearable art I get wearables explore humanistic intelligence to explore the border in between.” (HI) and cybernetics – the science of Flanagan’s work often includes communication and automatic control performative elements, visualising processes, systems in machines and living things. often involving data streamed directly from “The intelligence that arises when humans her body and environment. and computers are inextricably linked has In November she will visit Parsons School always intrigued me,” says Flanagan. of Design in New York to present Time One of her more theatrical creations, Geography, a portable knitting machine that Blinklifier, prompts both viewer, and Flanagan hacked to track her movements, wearer, to observe facial gestures as a way of communicating, something Flanagan thinks

of as under threat in our contemporary world BIOdress. photo Beck Davis of digitally augmented communication. With wearable art The computerised headdress, which was designed for Hong Kong Fashion Week, lights I get to explore the up according to the wearer’s eye movements which are captured by dramatic, metallised, border between false eyelashes and conductive eyeliner. public and private. “My aim with Blinklifier was to amplify human emotions,” says Flanagan. “We innately understand subtle eye gestures location and body temperature which were because they are part of our everyday then translated into knitted garments. communication, but in contemporary culture “It’s basically a system of clothing and communication is largely mediated through textiles production that is determined by portable digital devices.” the body’s mobility and the environmental A more overtly political statement is BIOdress, climate surrounding it.” a garment which appears to breathe (or not) in Time Geography is an extension of a response to the environment’s air quality. previous project, BODYecology, an interactive, Flanagan used thermochromic dyes to make computerised dyeing/weaving/sleeping machine Flanagan tests the heat folds that allow BIOdress the garment change colour according to the that documented Flanagan’s sleeping patterns to “breathe”.. photo Beck Davis level of air pollution, while the shoulder pleats by translating them into a woven blanket. expand and contract, replicating human lungs. “My sleeping state determined the colour of plenty of opportunities for her research to Despite the technical expertise involved a hand-spun, merino, lambswool thread that eventually flow into industry applications. in creating these garments, Flanagan’s works was constantly drawn across a portable dyeing Responsive bedwear for hospital patients almost always incorporate traditional machine. When I was sound asleep the thread that alerts nurses to health complications by crafting. Smocking, pleating, embroidery, would dive deeply into the indigo dye bath. changing colour, blankets for plane passengers dyeing and basket-weaving are all “mashed When I was lightly sleeping the wool would that reflect sleep patterns, and clothing for up” in her art, something she partly attributes only lightly skim the surface,” Flanagan says. school children that mirrors attention levels to her early career. The resulting variegated coloured thread are just some of her ideas. An accomplished fashion designer, was woven into a blanket during the day, “These are critical and speculative ideas Flanagan began work in the rag trade as a becoming a physical embodiment of the that in some cases are based on emerging or 15-year-old dispatch girl for Lisa Ho and artist’s experience of sleep. future technologies, but I definitely won’t be Table Eight in Sydney’s Surry Hills. From Energy and ideas are something Flanagan bored in my retirement. Don’t worry about there, her skills multiplied, encompassing readily admits she isn’t short of and she sees that,” she laughs.

25 UNSW Books

On Ops: Lessons Natural Hazards and Challenges for in Australasia the Australian Army Since East Timor James Goff, UNSW Science, Edited by Tom Frame, and Chris de Freitas UNSW Canberra, and UNSW tsunami Albert Palazzo expert James Goff In the 25 years since has co-edited the first the end of the Cold textbook to be written War, Australian Army personnel have been on the fire, drought, flooding rains and other deployed around the world, from Rwanda to natural phenomena that plague Australia. Cambodia, Afghanistan to Iraq. On Ops is The book, which also covers cyclones, an insightful collection of essays exploring earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, the lessons and challenges that have arisen helps redress an imbalance in the material for the Australian Army since 1999, when available to students of physical geography. its peacekeeping taskforce was deployed to East Timor. In a constructive critique of the “Many ideas about natural hazards have modern army, it addresses the issues from a been developed in Australasia, and yet they are range of perspectives – politics and policy, seldom seen in textbooks because these books strategy and tactics, intelligence and logistics, have invariably been written from a northern health care and ethics. Contributors include hemisphere perspective,” says Goff, who David Horner, John Howard, Peter Leahy hopes the book will provide examples and and an eclectic array of military historians, observations that will put “a new perspective academics, intelligence experts and former on the issue of natural hazards”. The Tim Carmody Affair: and present serving army personnel. Cambridge University Press Australia’s Greatest Judicial Crisis UNSW Press Rebecca Ananian-Welsh, Not Just for This Gabrielle Appleby, Andrew Lynch, Life: Gough Whitlam UNSW Law Doping in Sport Remembered When Tim Carmody, a former police and the Law Edited by Wendy Guest officer, was sworn in as Chief Justice of Edited by Deborah and Gary Gray Queensland in 2014, he had been Chief Healey, UNSW Law, Not Just For This Magistrate for only nine months and had and Ulrich Haas never served on the Supreme Court. It Life is a tribute to was one of the most controversial judicial This is a collection of Gough Whitlam, appointments in Australia’s history. Chaos insightful reflections by commemorating what ensued. How could someone with a experts on the interaction would have been his 100th birthday. Upon limited judicial background be appointed between theory, policy his death in October 2014, there was a to such a powerful position? and law in the context of doping in sport. national outpouring of grief and affectionate Co-editor Deborah Healey is also the remembrances across the nation. This book The Tim Carmody Affair explores his author of Sport and the Law, which has includes condolences from politicians of damaging and divisive tenure and the been continuously in print since 1989, and all political stripes, eulogies from the State judicial rebellion that followed. It also she has considerable experience as a chair Memorial Service and a broad selection of proposes ways Australia can improve the and tribunal member across a number of messages of condolence. It also includes process of judicial appointments to avoid professional and grassroots sports, including a foreword by Graham Freudenberg and a repeat of this kind of controversy. the Australian Olympic Committee. The short introductions by Laurie Oakes, Anita NewSouth 14 chapters explore everything from cannabis Heiss, Geraldine Doogue, Don Watson, testing and the implications of doping Patricia Hewitt, Nick Whitlam and Tim regulation for employment law, to whether Soutphommasane, in which they share the World Anti-Doping Code actually stories of their experiences with Whitlam. deters doping, and how commercial One of the most interests influence anti-doping regulation. NewSouth controversial judicial Bloomsbury appointments in Australia’s history.

26 BackStory Derek Williamson, Director, Museum of Human Disease

Sharing a workplace with 3,000 human tissue samples is both sorrowful and uplifting for this former zoologist, acrobat and now science educator.

I was a nerd, a geek and did well in science but I knew I wasn’t the focused, diligent type of person it takes to study medicine so I enrolled in zoology at the University of Western Australia. I spent my honours year scuba diving around the islands off Perth and studied wallabies on a desert island for 10 weeks.

As a kid I always wanted to be like Harry off the TV show Harry Butler in the Wild. He was an Australian version of David Attenborough. I never got the chance to replace either of them though, they both lived too long.

I trained in a Western Australian circus for six months. I learned trapeze, acrobatics and flame juggling. Sadly, it didn’t lead anywhere. Then I taught high school science on and off for years and travelled the world. Before I came to UNSW I worked as an educator at the Powerhouse Museum.

I’m a keen dancer but not a good one. I love ska music and good tequila, but can’t manage either after midnight these days. I was converted to both when I travelled through Mexico.

The museum can be a sorrowful place because what we display is essentially people’s last experiences, the diseases that ended their lives.

I often get asked what my ‘favourite’ specimen is. We have a seven-year-old boy’s trachea in our collection that I like talking about to high-school students. The boy died from diphtheria in the 1960s. It was the pre-vaccination era and he would have died very painfully, choking to death over a number of days. I have three kids and I’m concerned that as these diseases become less visible, parents are choosing not to vaccinate. Eventually, somewhere, some child will suffer like that little boy did.

The joy for me in this job is showcasing the geniuses we have at UNSW. We have such high-calibre researchers making incredible discoveries; bionic eyes, cochlear implants and sophisticated medical visualisations are all being developed here on campus. Being able to tell visitors to the museum about these breakthroughs is amazing, it’s a privilege.

Working here is a stark reminder of my mortality. I’m more conscious of getting exercise, I bike to work from the inner west and I’m careful about my diet, but sugar’s still my downfall. All the staff here have a pretty dark sense of humour but you need that – if you don’t have humour you’re left with hypochondria.

Last year 10,000 school students came through the museum doors and my hope is that in some way, we encouraged them to make better lifestyle decisions, to be more active. Our children’s generation is the first in the history of the modern world to have a lower life expectancy than the previous generation. I hope we can educate kids about this.

– Fran Strachan photo Grant Turner/Mediakoo

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