Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales 2019 Volume 152 Part 2 Numbers 473 & 474 “... for the encouragement of studies and investigations in Science Art Literature and Philosophy ...” THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF NEW SOUTH WALES OFFICE BEARERS FOR 2019 Patron Her Excellency The Honourable Margaret Beazley AO QC Governor of New South Wales President Emeritus Professor Ian Sloan AO FRSN PhD (UCL) FAA Vice-Presidents Emeritus Professor D Brynn Hibbert AM FRSN PhD (Lond) CChem FRSC FRACI Mr John Hardie FRSN FHEA FGS MACE Ms Judith Wheeldon AM FRSN BS (Wis) MEd (Syd) FACE Hon. Secretary (Ed.) Emeritus Professor Robert Marks FRSN MEngSci ResCert PhD (Stan) Hon. Secretary (Gen.) Mr Bruce Ramage MRSN Hon. Treasurer Mr Richard Wilmott MRSN Hon. Librarian Dr Ragbir Bhathal FRSN PhD (UQ) FRAS FSAAS Hon. 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Editor Prof. Richard Banati FRSN MD PhD Prof. Michael Burton FRSN MA MMaths (Cantab) PhD (Edinb) FASA FAIP Dr Len Fisher OAM FRSN BA BSc(Hons) MA MSc PhD (UNSW) FRSC FRACI FInstP FLS Dr Donald Hector AM FRSN BE(Chem) PhD (Syd) FIChemE FIEAust FAICD Em. Prof. David Brynn Hibbert AM FRSN PhD (Lond) CChem FRSC FRACI Dr Michael Lake BSc (Syd) PhD (Syd) Dr Nick Lomb BSc (Syd) PhD (Syd) FASA FRSA Prof. Timothy Schmidt FRSN BSc (Syd) PhD (Cantab) Website: http://www.royalsoc.org.au The Society traces its origin to the Philosophical Society of Australasia founded in Sydney in 1821. The Society exists for “the encouragement of studies and investigations in Science Art Literature and Philosophy”: publishing results of scientific investigations in its Journal and Proceedings; conducting monthly meetings; awarding prizes and medals; and by liaising with other learned societies within Australia and internationally. Membership is open to any person whose application is acceptable to the Society. Subscriptions for the Journal are also accepted. The Society welcomes, from members and non-members, manuscripts of research and review articles in all branches of science, art, literature and philosophy for publication in the Journal and Proceedings. 2 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. 152, part 2, 2019, pp. 157–159. ISSN 0035-9173/18/020157-03 Editorial: “The Old One does not play at dice” Robert Marks Economics, University of New South Wales, Sydney E-mail: [email protected] his issue contains three submissions — David Attenborough tells us1 that when Tpapers by Rendsburg, Holman, and he was a schoolboy in the 1930s, his science Anemaat — on, respectively, a Hebrew frag- master showed them a marvellous new sub- ment found in an old book in the Fisher stance that had been invented, called plastic. Library at Sydney University and how it It was light, it was cheap, and it could be was identified, the science of red meat in used for a multitude of things. In centuries NSW, and surviving drawings made during to come, the teacher said, people would the first days of the Colony at Botany Bay. look back in the twentieth century and say As I have remarked before, the Journal is that was the plastic period! That was, Atten- not the first choice for young academics, borough says, truer than the teacher knew, and so I look for possible submissions from because, yes, it had all those advantages, but older contributors. In this issue there are two the mere fact that it was indestructible meant commissioned papers: a long one by John that it could not be thrown away. Plastics Spence FRS on the history of measuring the manufacturers advised that once it was used speed of light and where that led to in 1905 it should be thrown away. But there is no and later, and a shorter one by Rob Burford “away:” plastic is so permanent that it does FRSN on the history of plastics (aka poly- not decay or rot. Hence our growing problem mers) over the past century or so. There is a with plastic waste, on land and in the oceans. paper by Barbara Gillam FRSN, reprinted Although his paper focuses on the advances from the journal Leonardo, where it is not in polymer chemistry that have resulted in very accessible. We hope that its appearance new plastics, Burford does make some sug- here results in greater exposure. There are gestions about this issue, through changes in five PhD abstracts, including one (by Tran) our behaviour and in new chemistry. that should have appeared in the print ver- My old friend John Spence has recently sion of the June issue, but did not. Finally, published a book (2019) on the history of there is an obituary of Ann Moyal FRSN measuring the speed of light, and the con- (1926–2019), who was the first recipient of sequences for our understanding of the the Royal Society’s History and Philosophy Universe that ensued, over a hundred years of Science Medal in 2014. She was also a ago, including Einstein’s 1905 paper, and co-author of mine. I am grateful to Stuart also indirectly to quantum physics. At my Macintyre AO, a former Dean of the Faculty request, he has written a paper that sum- of Arts at the University of Melbourne, for marises his book, published here. As Spence agreeing to write the obituary. 1 A message from naturalist Sir David Attenborough: Plastic Oceans, OceanVistaFilms, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX1T79ZKJqM 157 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Marks — Editorial recounts, in 1900, despite the achievements complex numbers, were discovered by one of Newton and Maxwell and many others, man, four hundred years before quantum there were two puzzles in physics: the failure theory itself was developed. of the Michelson-Morley experiment and Ekert (2008) asks whether we have to use the black-body radiation problem. Solution Cardano’s discoveries (probability and com- of the first puzzle led to special relativity, plex numbers) to describe the world. Predic- and solution of the second led to quantum tive determinism is the view that, if at any theory, with all its weirdness. time we knew the positions and velocities I recently came across a fascinating “life” of all the particles in the universe, then, at of the Italian polymath, Jerome Cardano least in principle, we could calculate their (1501–1576), who has variously been behaviour at any other time, past or future. described as a gambler and blasphemer, This was the official dogma until quantum inventor and chancer, astrologer and astron- theory was developed a hundred years ago, omer.2 In notes he wrote in 1520 while still a which rules out sharp predictions of meas- student, much later posthumously published urement outcomes. Instead, we must use as a book, he was the first to attempt to probabilities. Moreover, causal determin- derive a law of probability applied when a die ism, in which every event is caused by, and is cast, as formulated in Cardano’s Formula. hence determined by, previous events, does This was over a hundred years before Leibnitz not always hold in a quantum world. After in 1676, and over two hundred years before some discussion of the connection between Laplace’s foundation of probability theory complex numbers and probabilities, and in 1774. As a gambler, Cardano was moti- how they unite in quantum theory, Ekert vated to understand this to win at dice. As an concludes that we cannot avoid probabil- inventor he invented the forerunner of the ity and complex numbers in describing the Cardon universal joint which facilitates the world. We cannot avoid quantum theory. transmission of torque between two shafts In a letter to Max Born4 in 1926, Ein- positioned at various angles. And, in his pio- stein said “Quantum theory yields much, neering work at solving cubic equations, he but it hardly brings us close to the Old One’s derived numbers that were multiples of the secrets. I, in any case, am convinced He does square root of minus one, at a time when not play dice with the universe.” I believe even negative numbers were suspect.3 He that Einstein could not accept the abandon- thought such entities (imaginary numbers) ment of predictive determinism that occurs were useless rubbish. It’s surprising to realise in quantum theory. He could not accept that the two basic ingredients of modern the probabilistic nature of the theory. And quantum theory, namely probability and yet quantum theory is one of the pillars of modern physics and underlies so much of 2 Brooks (2017), who expounds the non-intuitive modern technology. It works. behaviours at the quantum scale in an amusing way. 3 Ekert (2008) tells a story about a mathematician sit- ting in a café and watching an abandoned house across 4 Max Born was Dame Olivia Newton-John’s maternal the street. After a while two people enter the house and grandfather, and a pioneer of quantum theory. The a little time later three people exit.