Australia Yearbook - 2001

Chapter 25—Science and innovation 877
sensitive method for chemical analysis. Atomic
absorption spectrometers are used around the
world in hospitals, factories and laboratories to
measure traces of metallic elements in an
enormous range of substances as diverse as soil,
blood, minerals, wine, and plant and animal
tissues. The development of the spectrometer
was a commercial success, with design and
manufacture in Australia for export and eventually
licence for manufacture overseas. Another
Australian instrument invention was the flame
ionisation detector for the sensitive detection of
volatile substances by gas liquid chromatography.
It was invented by Ian McWilliam at the central
research laboratory of ICI in Melbourne.
CSIRO discoveries greatly assisted the wool
industry to survive in the face of intense
competition from synthetic fibres. The most
significant was a spinning technique named
Sirospun which enabled the production of a fine
wool worsted yarn in a single stage, at a cost
saving of 40% over conventional processes.
Examples of significant high technology
inventions which were successfully
commercialised are the heart pacemaker and
defibrillator developed by Telectronics in
conjunction with research aid from CSIRO, and
the bionic ear, an implantable hearing prosthesis
conceived by Graeme Clark of the University of
Melbourne and developed in collaboration with
Cochlear. Telectronics and Cochlear were
subsidiaries of Nucleus Limited, founded in
1965 by Paul Trainor to develop, manufacture and
market innovative medical technology. The
bionic ear has captured most of the world market
for such a device, and the pacemaker has
substantial overseas markets.
A new smelting technology, Sirosmelt, that cuts
energy costs and increases metal recovery, was
devised and tested by CSIRO and further
developed by Mount Isa Mines as Isasmelt.
Among other novel Australian inventions are the
plastic banknote with a novel inbuilt security
device, the result of collaboration between the
CSIRO and the Reserve Bank, and the membrane
filtration technology of Memtec.
Australia has made a large contribution to the
advancement of knowledge proportional to its
population. Australian science over all fields
produced 2.7% of world science papers in the five
years to 1997, but it has particular strengths and
excellence in the geosciences, plant and animal
sciences, agricultural sciences, ecology and
environmental sciences. For example, over
this period Australia produced just over 5%
of world papers in the geosciences and just
under 5% in plant and animal sciences.
Although Australia produced only a little
under 2% of world papers in materials
sciences and just over 2% of those in
engineering, the Australian papers had above
average rates of citation by world researchers
in the areas (DISR 2000, pp. 55–59).
Issues for the 21st
century
Increased globalisation of trade and the
further lowering of tariff barriers will mean
greater competition for Australian industry,
but it would also provide opportunities to
expand exports of goods and services.
Science and innovation will be a crucial
element in enhancing the competitiveness of
Australian industry and improving the
nation’s economic and social prosperity.
Science and innovation also have an
important role to play in overcoming
environmental problems, such as land
degradation, marine and water pollution,
retention of biodiversity and the mitigation
of greenhouse gas emissions.
In spite of the efforts of the last decade to
broaden the base of the economy, Australia
is well below advanced industrial countries in
the production of high technology goods
and services, that constitute the fastest
growing area of world trade. Australia with its
small population cannot hope to mount an
internationally competitive science and
innovation effort in too many areas, and
urgent attention needs to be paid to
selecting priority areas for the concentration
of resources. Governments in Australia have
avoided the ‘picking of winners’ and have
preferred to leave the selection of priorities
to the market. Modern biotechnology based
on cell biology and the identification,
isolation, manipulation and transfer of genes
is predicted to be a dominant and far
reaching technology of the 21st century. The
biological science base is relatively strong in
Australia and it provides a springboard for
the creation of new industry. There are
already a few small firms in the
biotechnology area which have been spun off
from public sector research. A major
impediment to growth of new enterprises in