The human elements: a cultural history of Australian weather. This project will study the experience of weather in Australia from the 1880s to the 1980s. Drawing upon environmental history, history of science and cultural history, we aim to go beyond a catalogue of weather events or climatic obsessions, to explore how the meanings of weather and climate are themselves constructed through the interaction of science, nature and society. This project uses a series of case studies to explore what is ....The human elements: a cultural history of Australian weather. This project will study the experience of weather in Australia from the 1880s to the 1980s. Drawing upon environmental history, history of science and cultural history, we aim to go beyond a catalogue of weather events or climatic obsessions, to explore how the meanings of weather and climate are themselves constructed through the interaction of science, nature and society. This project uses a series of case studies to explore what is human in the elements. The outcomes will include a book, two Metarch publications, collection development and an exhibition brief for the NMA, and web-materials for both industry partners.Read moreRead less
Seeing Change: Science, Culture and Technology in the Antipodes from the age of Darwin - a multi-media research collaboration. To build a collaboration across the humanities, natural sciences, business technology and public culture sectors that will use new forms of digital and visual research to demonstrate the neglected importance of Australasia in the formation of nineteenth-century evolutionary thought and to suggest the relevance of these ideas to understanding contemporary issues of enviro ....Seeing Change: Science, Culture and Technology in the Antipodes from the age of Darwin - a multi-media research collaboration. To build a collaboration across the humanities, natural sciences, business technology and public culture sectors that will use new forms of digital and visual research to demonstrate the neglected importance of Australasia in the formation of nineteenth-century evolutionary thought and to suggest the relevance of these ideas to understanding contemporary issues of environmental sustainability and the development of frontier technologies within our society and region. Read moreRead less
How Australians have imagined the future; possibilities for an ecologically sustainable society. In a society like ours, which is subject to more or less continuous and often rapid social change, the question of how to imagine the future is of paramount importance. The study of how better and worse futures have been imagined for Australia, and how they still continue to be imagined, is therefore a central research question for the humanities in this country. More specifically, one of the key the ....How Australians have imagined the future; possibilities for an ecologically sustainable society. In a society like ours, which is subject to more or less continuous and often rapid social change, the question of how to imagine the future is of paramount importance. The study of how better and worse futures have been imagined for Australia, and how they still continue to be imagined, is therefore a central research question for the humanities in this country. More specifically, one of the key themes in our research will be the relationship between culture, ecology and utopia or dystopia. Much of our work will be quite deliberately oriented towards the future possibilities for an ecologically sustainable society.
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The culture of weeds: invasion biology, identity and aesthetics in Australia. Weeds are a significant threat to Australia’s biodiversity - but when does a plant become one? Defining plants and landscapes as weedy reflects not only ecological values, but also economics, aesthetics, and national identity. The question of how and why weeds spread reveals cultural values that inform the management of all invasive species.
Droughts and Flooding Rains: El Nino and La Nina Events in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific 1865 - 1903. Historically in Australia and Oceania, droughts and flooding rains have been considered an aberration, but understanding is now emerging that they result from El Nino and La Nina episodes and should be perceived as and planned for as irregular but natural phenomena. This study will expand our knowledge and comprehension of their influence on environments, economies, cultures and n ....Droughts and Flooding Rains: El Nino and La Nina Events in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific 1865 - 1903. Historically in Australia and Oceania, droughts and flooding rains have been considered an aberration, but understanding is now emerging that they result from El Nino and La Nina episodes and should be perceived as and planned for as irregular but natural phenomena. This study will expand our knowledge and comprehension of their influence on environments, economies, cultures and national thinking in our human and environmental history in Australia and the South Pacific, thereby facilitating more appropriate attitudes and a better capacity to plan for and live within environmental realities.Read moreRead less
Do Breast Cancer Risk Factors Differ According To Underlying Genetic Susceptibility? A Pooled Analysis Of Prospective Studies From The NCI Cancer Cohort Consortium
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$418,581.00
Summary
We propose to use data from 23 international prospective cohort studies in the Cancer Cohort Consortium organised by the US National Cancer Institute to evaluate gene environment interactions for women who are at increased genetic risk of breast cancer. Our ultimate goal is to enhance the performance of clinical prediction tools and to develop targeted evidence-based strategies to mitigate the high absolute risk of breast cancer for women at increased genetic risk of the disease.
Indigenous Weather: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander's perspectives on weather. This project aims to collect, synthesise and interpret Indigenous Australian knowledge on weather patterns, seasonal variations, environmental and climatic change. The development of an Indigenous weather knowledge data-base will be incorporated into the Bureau of Meteorology's external web page and will provide much needed infomation on Indigenous people's understanding of their enviroment.
Demanding the Impossible: Utopianism in Philosophy, Literature and Science Fiction. In a society like ours, which is subject to more or less continuous and often rapid social change, the question of how to imagine the future is of paramount importance. The study of how better and worse futures have been imagined for Australia, and how they still continue to be imagined, is therefore a central research question for the humanities in this country. More specifically, one of the key themes in our re ....Demanding the Impossible: Utopianism in Philosophy, Literature and Science Fiction. In a society like ours, which is subject to more or less continuous and often rapid social change, the question of how to imagine the future is of paramount importance. The study of how better and worse futures have been imagined for Australia, and how they still continue to be imagined, is therefore a central research question for the humanities in this country. More specifically, one of the key themes in our reseach will be the relationship between culture, ecology and utopia or dystopia. Much of our work will be quite deliberately oriented towards the future possibilities for an ecologically sustainable society.Read moreRead less
Silicosis, Knowledge and Power: Transnational Responses to an Occupational Disease, 1902 to 2005. Silicosis is a global disease which has affected the health of Australian workers and the profitability of Australian companies. Recently, major international mining houses have begun to acknowledge their wider responsibilities, and publish statements on Sustainable Mining. However, poor practices in developing countries continue to shift the costs of production onto labour, thereby under-cutting p ....Silicosis, Knowledge and Power: Transnational Responses to an Occupational Disease, 1902 to 2005. Silicosis is a global disease which has affected the health of Australian workers and the profitability of Australian companies. Recently, major international mining houses have begun to acknowledge their wider responsibilities, and publish statements on Sustainable Mining. However, poor practices in developing countries continue to shift the costs of production onto labour, thereby under-cutting producers who provide safer working environments. This project promises greater understanding of risk assessment and the processes of compensating workplace injuries. In doing so, it will contribute to the work of social movements supporting miners in their struggles for justice.Read moreRead less
Reproducibility and open science in environmental research. The goal of this project is to improve the reproducibility and transparency of environmental science. Disturbingly low levels of reproducibility have recently been uncovered in other disciplines, and there are good reasons to suspect the same conditions in environmental science. However, it has thus far been excused from evaluation because of the large spatial scales, long time horizons and dependencies among processes that prohibit dir ....Reproducibility and open science in environmental research. The goal of this project is to improve the reproducibility and transparency of environmental science. Disturbingly low levels of reproducibility have recently been uncovered in other disciplines, and there are good reasons to suspect the same conditions in environmental science. However, it has thus far been excused from evaluation because of the large spatial scales, long time horizons and dependencies among processes that prohibit direct replication of empirical field research. The project plans to assess the reproducibility of environmental research and develop systematic review methods that account for bias in published research. In this way, it seeks to contribute to the standards for statistical inference and reporting in the discipline, and facilitate a cultural shift to ‘Open Science’ to ensure a more reliable evidence base for environmental decisions. Read moreRead less