Spring Time Down Under

A dean down under.

South Australia is a progressive state. It has a Premier who seems to be an intelligent intellectual. He heads a Labour government, which therefore has some accord with the central Commonwealth Government of Mr. Gough Whitlam. Our premier, Mr. Don Dunstan, known as "Donnie," is a lawyer who was able to devote an hour's television programme to poetry and his delight in it, and he recited it too....

Science down under

Your Grandpa Syd (who I hope won't mind my writing to you in this vein) mentioned that you were thinking about a career in Australia, now that your PhD is out of the way, so I'll give the low-down from an insider's point of view. I'll be quite frank, and what I have to tell you might bruise a few egos, so please try to keep it confidential. Of course there are good things about doing science in...

Editorial--ICOPA down under.

Light from down under.

Coral-algae symbiosis is a key feature of tropical corals and is highly dependent on the efficiency with which solar energy is attenuated by the coral. Scleractinian corals are among the most efficient light collectors in nature because of the modulation of the internal light field in the coral skeleton. Interestingly, coral skeleton particles composing the sandy bottoms in reef margins sustain...

Virus silicification under simulated hot spring conditions.

Silicification of organisms in silica-depositing environments can impact both their ecology and their presence in the fossil record. Although microbes have been silicified under laboratory and environmental conditions, viruses have not. Bacteriophage T4 was successfully silicified under laboratory conditions that closely simulated those found in silica-depositing hot springs. Virus morphology w...