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Charles Darwin, Joseph Banks, Thomas Knight and Wheat Rust: Discovery, Adventure and ‘Getting Our Message Out’

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Charles Darwin, Joseph Banks, Thomas Knight and Wheat Rust: Discovery, Adventure and ‘Getting Our Message Out’ CSIRO PUBLISHING Keynote Paper www.publish.csiro.au/journals/app Australasian Plant Pathology, 2010, 39,1–22 Shield the Young Harvest from Devouring Blight – Charles Darwin, Joseph Banks, Thomas Knight and wheat rust: discovery, adventure and ‘Getting Our Message Out’ G. I. Johnson Horticulture 4 Development, PO Box 412, Jamison, ACT 2614, Australia. Email: [email protected] The Australasian Plant Pathology Society’s 21st President’s Address. Abstract. 1969: the year of the first moon landing (20 July), the Woodstock Festival in upstate New York (15–18 August), and, (coinciding with the last day of Woodstock!), the beginning of the Australasian Plant Pathology Society [first annual general meeting at the 41st Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science meeting, Adelaide (18 August) (Purss 1994)]. All had a lengthy gestation and challenges along the way. All have changed the world! In the 17th President’s Address to the Australasian Plant Pathology Society, David Guest (2001), noted: ‘I became a plant pathologist because the mechanisms organisms use to communicate fascinate me’. Well, I became a plant pathologist because I am a gardener at heart. But I have learned along the way that communication is a critical issue – not only the communication among and between microorganisms and plants, but also that between plant pathologists, farmers, politicians and communities. And, communication that is timely, inspiring and, (preferably) accurate, often yields the most favourable outcomes. In this paper, I will explore some of the early communication relating to plant disease, particularly wheat rusts. I refer to Erasmus and Charles Darwin, Joseph Banks, Thomas Knight, and some pioneering Australian researchers, and the roles of conferences, publications and newspapers, to highlight how ‘getting our message out’ was as important in the 19th and early 20th centuries as it is now. And, finally, I will consider how a scientific society in the 21st century still has relevance and the potential to change the world. Additional keywords: AAAS, BAAS, Charles Haly, Daniel McAlpine, Joseph Bancroft, Pan-Pacific, Puccinia. Information and accuracy ‘quality’ and the citation frequency of publications from fi ‘ ’ While planning and discovery through scientific research, and the scienti c research, can then form a key part of assessing discussion and communication of results, require integrity, research performance and achievement (ERA 2009). precision, and appropriate peer review to validate the accuracy of claims and recommendations (Holland et al. 2005; Dixon Assembling and sourcing knowledge 2007; Government Office for Science 2007), the attention to and sociological dimensions ‘truth’ in the wider community can vary. Two-hundred years In defining the economic, biosecurity and developmental ago, progress in the development of ‘scientific method’ was elements of plant pathology problems, in addition to the rudimentary, and the accounts of plant disease and their technical background, efficient and accurate assessments of control were sometimes ‘hopefully accurate’, but more often current knowledge and the sociological dimensions are biased, fearful and misleading. Regardless of their reliability, the essential. This helps ‘define the case’. It can help justify or early publishing efforts did give farmers, the clergy, and win approval and funds for necessary research and sovereigns and governments, some basis for decision-making, development. It helps define issues that might affect progress and they helped chart the forward path of science. in achieving uptake, and allows better focus on the intervention Progress in research in the 21st century capitalises on sourcing points, so less time is spent ‘reinventing the wheel’, and more the knowledge and opinions of others, and what is already known, time and resources are available for the research and extension to explain the background and clarify the next steps for solving a that is required for the problem to be solved. problem. Scientific publication, and the dissemination of research While internet-based search engines help in this process, they findings at conferences, via the media, and the Worldwide Web, are still underpinned by the abstracting services of international ensures that progress is clearly recorded, and future needs and information repositories related to crop protection, such directions delineated. This enables more efficient use of current as publisher databases, and the ‘Review of Plant Pathology’ of resources, and greater synergy of effort, to ‘climb higher by CAB International (CABI 2009a). And, pathogen- or disease- standing on the shoulders of giants’. And, the ranking of the specific information sourcing can also capitalise on the collated Ó Australasian Plant Pathology Society 2010 10.1071/AP09068 0815-3191/10/010001 2 Australasian Plant Pathology G. I. Johnson information on pathogens or diseases as contained in the CABI proportion of citations of papers published in the present or ‘Crop ProtectionCompendium’ (CABI 2009b)and review papers previous decade. about specific pathogens or issues. To ensure the veracity of claims of new findings, and to Use of such sources of information leaves more time and adequately survey earlier work for the existing references and resources for subsequent research and development efforts. knowledge base of a problem, publishing scientists need Pearce and Monck (2006) estimated that use of CABI access to both recent and earlier publications. Therefore, Abstracts provided annual median time savings among the investment in information dissemination and publication Australian scientific community of between 3 and 5 days per (peer review, conferences, journals, books), and in information user, and represented a national saving of between AUS$470 000 access (literature reviews, libraries and information specialists, and AUS$790 000 per year. They further suggest that use of the abstracting services, compendia, reviews, online access) are CABI Compendia (crop protection, etc.) resulted in annual both important. median time savings of between 37 and 54 days per user, Compared with today, two centuries ago, information that representing a national saving of between AUS$940 000 and was used for deciding how a plant disease might be controlled AUS$1.38 million per year. These demonstrate the economic was much lessaccurate and reliable(even the ideaof ‘disease’ was benefits of easily accessing knowledge, and inter alia of ensuring unclear). Information was difficult to access, and there were an ongoing supply of new and current information. But, which large gaps between ‘facts’. Credit is shared among curious knowledge is most valuable – recent or older information? And, (independently wealthy) individuals and influential what benefits accrue from the investment by scientific societies in powerbrokers, the development of printing and microscopy, peer review, publication and conferences, to ensure the ongoing the emergence of scientific societies, coffee houses, market supply of accurate and reliable knowledge for future users? days, sheep shearings and other informal forums, during the An insight into the use that plant pathologists make of the ‘Age of Enlightenment’ (Gascoigne 1994; Goddard 2000), for information obtained in literature reviews and the scientific supporting the emergence of many fields of science, the literature was provided by Parbery (2008). In tallying the dates development of the ‘scientific method’, and the reporting and of the ~700 references cited in the papers published respectively dissemination of knowledge. These underpinned and depended in the journals, ‘Transactions of the British Mycological Society’ on the development of strategies for influencing ‘Sovereigns (TBMS) from 1968 and preceding decades, and a selection of half and Governments’, to gradually enable resources, professional of the issues of ‘Mycological Research’, and half the issues of personnel and facilities to be devoted to what emerged in the late ‘Australasian Plant Pathology’ (APP), from 2008, Parbery (2008) 19th century as agricultural and botanical research. found: The power of the individual * ~48 and 45% of cited references, respectively, had been published in the same decade (1960s cf. 2000s), Erasmus Darwin – an inspiration * ~35 and 32% of cited references, respectively, had been At this conference, we are celebrating the 40th anniversary of our published in the preceding decade (1950s–1990s), Society. But we are also fulfilling the primary rationale for a plant * aboutone-fifth of the cited references in bothdatasets (1968 and pathology conference – to review and report, to stimulate and to 2008) dated from the rest of the century back to 1900, and defend plant pathology knowledge, practice and directions, * only ~4 and 2% of cited references, respectively, were from the to consult and extend professional links with colleagues, and 19th century. to honour and applaud achievements by our peers. 2009 is also the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin (1809–1882), While the Parbery (2008) assessment was restricted to three whose theory of natural selection influenced plant pathology and journals (the article content mix of TBMS from 1968 was other fields of science so much. So, it is appropriate to reflect on considered to roughly equate to the mycological papers of half fl ‘ ’ his work, and also the in uence of his late grandfather, Erasmus the yearly issues of Mycological Research and half the applied Darwin (1731–1802), [and here,
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