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Professor Sackett speaks with Minister Carr and U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Bleich

 Also speaking at the event were:

• Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research
• U.S. Ambassador to Australia Mr Jeffrey Bleich
• Mr. William H. Gerstenmaier, Associate Administrator for Space Operations, NASA
• Dr. Charles Elachi, Director, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• Dr Megan Clark, Chief Executive, CSIRO
• Mr Mark Paterson AO, Secretary, DIISR

Click here to download speech

L to R: Professor Penny Sackett, Dr Megan Clark, Minister Carr, U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Bleich, William Gerstenmaier, Dr. Charles Elachi

Professor Blackburn engages young students in an activity at Questacon

Each event in honour of Professor Blackburn was aimed at giving a different target audience the opportunity to interact with the Nobel Laureate in a personal way.

Starting at Questacon in the morning, we were quite fortunate to have the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd not only address the audience, but also participate in an activity conducted by the Questacon Excited Particles.  This hands on experience illustrated Professor Blackburn’s team discovery of the role of Telomerase, the enzyme responsible for maintaining the end of chromosomes to prevent them from being damaged during replication.  The ability of the Excited Particles to convey this complex science to a group of year 5 and 6 students was truly magical.

In the afternoon, we moved on to the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the ANU, where Professor Blackburn and I conducted a question and answer session with approximately 150 year 12 students.  Questions came not only from Canberra students, but from National Youth Science Forum students across Australia.  The students made the most of this once-in-a-lifetime experience; every question was thought provoking and many quite technical.  Professor Blackburn and I enjoyed ourselves so much we continued to take questions from the audience well into overtime. The response and enthusiasm was a delight to see face to face.

Footage from the question and answer session will be available on both the Chief Scientist website and facebook shortly.

Professor Elizabeth Blackburn entertains Professor Sackett and guests at the Parliament House cocktail party

Finally in the evening, my Office and I arranged for an, ‘Inspirational Women in Leadership’ cocktail party at Parliament House.  As no visit to Canberra is complete without a trip to the Hill, Parliament House provided a spectacular backdrop of views for our event.  At the party we were joined by some of Australia’s most inspirational women who represented areas as diverse as politics, defence, healthcare, scientific research, technology and NGOs.

All of the guests were in awe of Professor Blackburn and grateful for an event to explicitly encourage and nourish female leadership.

I trust that Professor Blackburn will take fond memories of Canberra back to San Francisco and that we can entice her to return in the future.  As she continues with her ground breaking work, wherever the research questions take her, I know she will continue to be an inspiration to scientists of all ages in both Australia and across the globe.

Professor Elizabeth Blackburn, Australia's first female Nobel Laureate addresses the guests at the 'Inspirational Women in Leadership' cocktail party held in her honour at Parliament House

Please check out my facebook for more photos and comments:

www.facebook.com/chiefscientist

And for more information on Professor Blackburn and her research, please visit:

http://biochemistry.ucsf.edu/labs/Blackburn

www.facebook.com/pages/ElizabethBlackburn/192511765422?ref=mf

Penny

Local Canberra students in the audience had the privilege to ask questions of both Professor Sackett and Professor Blackburn.  Recent students of the National Youth Science Forum had also sent in questions from across Australia to be asked by those in the audience.

“Both Professor Blackburn and I were asked some brilliant questions.  Many were around what inspired us as individuals to study science and what advice we can give for students, young women and young men, looking to pursue a career in science.

“The students had really done their research.  Professor Blackburn received some very complex genetics questions and I even received some on dark matter, one of my own areas of research.

“I would like to thank the National Youth Science Forum, the ACT Government and the John Curtin School of Medical Research for working with my Office in putting together this inspiring event,” Professor Sackett said.

Audio and video footage of today’s Q&A event will be available on the website shortly.

Click here to download media release

Media Contact: Rebecca Richter, Office of the Chief Scientist, 0410 029 407

“It is a great honour to have Professor Blackburn with us in Australia.  Through her work the world understands better how DNA is protected during replication, how cells age, and new paths to follow for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. 

“Professor Blackburn is an inspiration to all Australian scientists, as well as young Australians considering a science-related career,” Professor Sackett said.

Questacon’s Excited Particles will be working with the Prime Minister, Senator Carr, Professor Blackburn, Professor Sackett and local students to illustrate Professor Blackburn’s pioneering research on how genetic information is protected within cells.  

“It will be great to be able to participate in some fun activities aimed at helping all of us understand Professor Blackburn’s ground-breaking discoveries, which have opened up new areas of research on how cells grow, age and become cancerous,” Professor Sackett said.

Photo and Interview Opportunities

Date: Tuesday 16 February 2010

Time:  9:45am for 10am start

Where:  Questacon, King Edward Terrace, Canberra

Opportunities: Photo opportunities will be available during the event.  At conclusion of the event, Professor Blackburn and Professor Sackett will be available for interview and further photos

Click here to download media release

Media contact: Rebecca Richter, Office of the Chief Scientist, 0410 029 407

“The science of climate change, which aims to understand the immensely complicated interacting system we know as the ‘Earth’s climate’ is no different. 

“As Chief Scientist for Australia, I place a high premium on ensuring that the advice I give to Government and the information I supply to Australia is based on the balance of the expert, peer-reviewed scientific evidence.  

“Part of the scientific process is submitting one’s work to an independent expert in the field, called the referee, who is expected to read the manuscript critically, with an eye to spotting any possible errors in analysis or logic, any important omissions, any lack of appropriate levels of reference, any lack of clarity, any misinterpretation of the statements or work of others,” Professor Penny Sackett said.

“It is very common for a manuscript to be revised on the advice of the referee.  Once published, other scientists are free to criticise, build upon or amend the work, but modern science requires that this be done in the same manner, through work that is also submitted to expert peer review mediated by the editor of a journal. 

“While the process does not guarantee that everything that is published is correct, it does ensure that those who engage in science have all agreed to adhere to the same standards.

“One aspect of a Chief Scientist’s job is to ascertain when the knowledge that science provides is sufficiently certain to warrant action, particularly in light of the risks associated with inaction.  

“I have made clear that now is time for action on climate change.  This is because the science of the Earth’s climate has a high degree of certainty in key aspects and because the results of inaction are enormously risky.

“We know with a high degree of scientific certainty that the earth’s climate is warming at a fast rate; that the bulk of this is due to additional greenhouse gases added to the atmosphere by humans, and the effects of deforestation; and that carbon dioxide is the most important of the greenhouse gases due to the amount in which it is emitted, its ability to prevent some of earth’s heat from being discarded back into space, and the amount of time it remains in the atmosphere.

“My counterpart in the United Kingdom agrees, and with regard to taking action on climate change has posed the question, ‘Would you get on a plane that had a 10% chance of crashing?’.

“I doubt many people would.  Instead, they would take immediate action to avoid the serious risk, even if it had only a 10% chance of occurring,” Professor Sackett said.  “Yet on the key issues of climate change, the levels of certainty are closer to 90% or more, and still we are not acting with sufficient speed to reduce the risk it poses to our health, our environment and our livelihoods.

“Individual citizens need to make up their own minds about climate change, and in order to do so, they need to hear from scientists who have studied the climate and actively engage in the process of science. 

“Particularly on issues of such immense importance as climate change, it is crucial to alert citizens to the degree of certainty of the most important conclusions, the risk of inaction, and also that some areas are not as certain, and require more research. 

“These less certain areas include the break-up and movement of the great ice sheets and the effects of climate change on local (as opposed to large scale) weather patterns. 

“Better understanding of these areas of climate science will enable us to better prepare for what lies ahead.  But the high level of certainty that the climate is changing and the risk associated with doing nothing make it clear that we must grasp the means to improve our own future by acting now.

“Not all action will be taken through government policy, but governments will need to get involved and show leadership.  And it will be very important for the Australian public to disentangle discussions about the science of climate change from the political debate on policies to tackle climate change,” Professor Sackett concluded.

Click here to download media release

Media Contact: Rebecca Richter, Office of the Chief Scientist, 0410 029 407

In 1998 the world saw its hottest year on record up to that point, as measured by average global air temperatures[1]. This has led some to falsely conclude that world has stopped warming ever since.  Global warming has not stopped.  Here are the facts. 

First, climate change (including global warming) is defined as long-term changes in the average parameters of the climate, not shorter year-to-year variability.  Air temperatures were somewhat cooler in the years following the extremely hot year in 1998, largely due to a natural effect called La Niña (see breakout box). But to say that this represents a halt to global warming is like saying that just because we have a cool summer day it is not summer any more. 

Second, when averaging over the decadal time scales that scientists use to study climate change, the past decade was not only warmer than historical averages, it was the hottest on record.  In fact, 8 of the 10 hottest years on record have occurred in the decade after 1998[2].

Finally, the atmosphere (air) in which we live contains only a very small fraction of the total heat associated with the surface of the earth.  The vast majority of the heat, about 85% of it is contained in the oceans, and observations show that ocean heat content has been rising over the past decade[3]. 

[1] World Meteorological Organization (2009) WMO Statement on the status of the global climate in 2008, www.wmo.int/wcc3/documents/1039_en.pdf

[2] World Meteorological Organization (2009) WMO Statement on the status of the global climate in 2008, www.wmo.int/wcc3/documents/1039_en.pdf

[3] Levitus, Antonov and Boyer (2005), Geophysical Research Letters, Vol 32, L02604, ftp://ftp.nodc.noaa.gov/pub/data.nodc/woa/PUBLICATIONS/grlheat05.pdf