History Week 2008

Science House, 157 Gloucester Street

The Royal Society of New South Wales presents "Science then and now - What 100 years have done for Science"

The Royal Society returns to Science House for History Week. Come and hear the lecture, come and see this magnificent building in The Rocks.

Saturday 6 September, 2-4 pm, Science House, 157 Gloucester Street (corner of Essex and Gloucester Sts) in the city. This is a free event and bookings are not essential.

The Royal Society of NSW has been invited to participate in History Week and where better to stage an event than the heritage-listed Science House in the heritage-listed Rocks. Our former president, Professor Jak Kelly will present "Science then and now - what 100 years have done for science". Jak will both act and dress for the role when he delivers an important scientific paper exactly as it was delivered to a meeting of the Royal Society of NSW around the turn of the 20th Century. An equally eminent scientist will demonstrate the advances since that time when delivering an equivalent address on the topic. Authentic technology and equipment of the period with copies of the original paper will help to transport the audience back to those heady days when science was considered of paramount importance.

Robyn Stutchbury addresses the Blue Mountains Historical Society;
"Unearthing the Buried Treasures of the Royal Society of NSW"

Robyn Stutchbury has been invited to address the Blue Mountains Historical Society. Her address, "Unearthing the buried treasures of the Royal Society of NSW" will focus on the work we have been doing on the Society's collection as a result of two Community Heritage Grants (CHG) from the National Library of Australia. She will report on the problems of maintaining our collection and the steps we are taking to overcome these.

The assessments reported by the two professional historians engaged through the CHG funding indicate that we are the custodians of a highly significant collection both culturally and historically. We are now faced with the problems of how to carefully conserve the collection and how to make it available to researchers and the public alike.

Blue Mountains Society headquarters, "Hobby's Reach" 99 Blaxland Road, Wentworth Falls. Saturday 6 September, 10.30 - 12 noon

Global Warming & The Cosmos

Dr Graeme Pearman (left) with Dr Eigil Friis-Christensen at the Global Warming Symposium.

The Royal Society of NSW arranged for two of the world's leading climate scientists to give a presentation on whether climate change is man-made, natural or both. The presentation was made to an enthusiastic audience of some 250 people, followed by a lively Q&A session. The presenters were: Dr Graeme Pearman, former head of the CSIRO Atmospheric Division and adviser to Al Gore and to the Garnaut Climate Change Review and Dr Eigil Friis-Christensen, director of the National Space Institute (NSI) (previously the Danish National Space Centre) at the Technical University of Denmark.

Both speakers agreed that much more research is needed into the ways in which solar variation affects climate, and to investigate whether there is a link between GCRs and cloud formation which is significant in the context of climate change.

The Royal Society of NSW wishes to thank the two speakers for presenting their papers. They also wish to thank Dick Whitaker for chairing the meeting, and Frensham School for hosting the event.

Date: Saturday 5 April 2008
Time: 1.30 pm for 2.00 pm
Venue: Clubbe Hall, Frensham, Cnr of Range Rd and Waverley Pde Mittagong

Annual Dinner

The Society held a very successful Annual Dinner at the Forum Restaurant, Darlington Centre, University of Sydney on Friday 14 March 2008.

The guest of honour was Professor Marie Bashir AC CVO, Governor of NSW, who presented our Awards for 2007. She also addressed those attending and spoke about the achievements of the Society and its place in the modern world and how pleased she was to be our Patron.