LA TROBE UNIVERSITY

APRIL 2002

GLOBALWARMING

Tiny fliesmay

hold theanswer

Bulletin

AWARDS

New centre for improved human services training 3

Mobile telephone base stations safe by current Australian standards 3

Partnership aims to boost business in Melbourne’s north 4

International education network cements La Trobe role in China 6

Aboriginal students win law scholarships 6

La Trobe helps nation-building in East Timor 7

One day in Fatulai… 7

RESEARCH IN ACTIONWhy Kiwi rocks aren’t where they are supposed to be 7

How will we adapt to global warming? 8

La Trobe opens state-of-the-art DNA research facility 9

Better crops with less backache on Lombok 10

Older people left out of euthanasia debate 11

Bullwinkel Oration: educating nurses of the future 12

Responding to changing health-care needs 12

Mothers uncomfortable breast feeding in public 13

Retrain, don’t detain asylum seekers 14

Albury-Wodonga’s first doctorates in education 14

La Trobe winner for saving water 15

Student wins tourism award 15

Peeking inside our muscles’ ‘black box’ 16

IN THIS ISSUE

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY

Bulletin

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLET IN2

The La Trobe University Bulletin is published ten times ayear by the Public Affairs Office, La Trobe University.

Articles may be reproduced with acknowledgement.Photographs can be supplied.

Enquiries and submissions to the editor, Ernest Raetz,La Trobe University, Victoria. 3086 AustraliaTel (03) 9479 2315, Fax (03) 9479 1387Email: bulletin@latrobe.edu.au

Design: Campus Graphics, (41914)La Trobe University.Printed by Vaughan Printing Pty Ltd.Website: http://www.latrobe.edu.au

Cover photo: Studying the genesof a tiny fly could help Melbournescientists to understand betterhow animals will adapt to globalwarming. See page 8.

La Trobe University Director ofInformation Technology, John Edwards,has won the highest individual honourawarded annually by the Australiantelecommunications industry.

The ‘Charles Todd Medal for Excellencein Telecommunications’ is presented bythe Australian Telecommunications UsersGroup.

John Edwards bought La TrobeUniversity’s first computer in 1967 after hewas appointed to set up and manage all ITinfrastructure at the University

Today he effectively runs an ‘MIS Top100’IT company and operates a 34Mbitmicrowave network, one of the largestnon-corporate networks in Australia.

This network reaches from Melbourne,through Bendigo, Shepparton to Albury-Wodonga and Beechworth with offshootsto Mildura and Mount Buller.

Pro Vice-Chancellor (Information Tech-nology) Professor Edgar Smith, said MrEdwards has been a ‘giant oftelecommunications management inAustralia for more than 35 years’.

‘La Trobe is proud to have the holder ofsuch a prestigious award as part of itscommunity. The results of John’s workhave extended the reach of tertiaryeducation into rural and regional Victoriawith great benefit to the whole of oursociety.’

As well as ‘father’ of IT at La Trobe, John

Edwards was a ‘midwife’ to the internet inAustralia.

In 1984 he led a consortium of five universities which proposed the development of a nationalcommunications network for Australianuniversities. This was the beginning ofAARNet – and subsequently the Internetin Australia.

Mr Edwards said La Trobe University was now a multi-location networkedorganisation with about 7,000 computerscreens online as well as hundreds ofservers.

‘Being a large metropolitan universitywith many regional campuses, La Trobehas a special responsibility to continue toprovide equality of access to educationservices, for staff and students, in rural andregional Victoria,’ he said.

‘It is communications and informationtechnology that allow access to onlinelearning facilities, to library services, toresearch and to teaching and enable ruraland regional students and staff toparticipate as equals.’

The award, sponsored by The Australiannewspaper, included a $5,000 cash prize.John Edwards will donate this to theUniversity to set up a prize for bestpractice in on-line teaching. �

See more awards, page 15.

‘La Trobe has a special responsibility to continue to provide

equality of access to education services, for staff and students, in

rural and regional Victoria.’

Educational ITpioneer honoured

A new $1.5 million professional trainingand research centre for human servicesworkers has been opened in Bendigo.

Funded jointly by La Trobe University andthe State Government, it will open itsdoors to its first intake of 500 humanservices professionals by July.

The La Trobe University Centre forProfessional Development will provide in-service training for employees of Victoria’sDepartment of Human Services as well asnon-government agencies such as church,volunteer, corporate, and community-based health and welfare organisations.

Training programs will range fromupgrading of general skills, to criticalstudies of existing professional practices.A key innovation of the centre is the use ofthe ‘reflective approach’. This is gainingpopularity as a way of integrating researchand practice skills in a process of ongoingself-evaluation.

Victorian Health Minister, John Thwaites,said the Centre would provide a ‘strongresearch capacity for social and healthservices, professional expertise andpractice in areas such as public health andwelfare.’

Launching the Centre, Bendigo East MP,Jacinta Allan, said the Centre was amilestone for Bendigo and was expected tobe paying its way by 2007.

Its first director, Jan Fook, formerlyProfessor of Social Work at DeakinUniversity, also taught at La TrobeUniversity during the early 1990s’.

She said the Centre will be the nexus ofnational and international research andtraining into professional practices in thehealth and community services sector.

‘We will foster links with community,academic and industry partners, undertakeconsultancies at home and abroad, andprovide professional and postgraduateresearch supervision.’

The Centre will also house Victoria’s firstrural academic palliative care unit. Thiswill be headed on secondment by La TrobeUniversity Professor of Palliative Care,Allan Kellehear, who will transfer part ofthe exisiting La Trobe University CityCampus Palliative Care Unit functions tothe region. The unit will act as support anda resource for clinicians in Northern andCentral Victoria.

The third foundation staff member of thecentre is Jeanne Daly, an AssociateProfessor seconded from the School ofPublic Health in the University’s Facultyof Health Sciences. �

NEWS

APRIL 2002 3

NEW CENTRE FORimproved humanservices training

Miss Allan, right, with Professor Fook.

A La Trobe University investigation ofmobile telephone base stations has shownthat their radiation emissions are muchlower than the public exposure standard.

Conducted in conjunction with theAustralian Radiation Protection andNuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA), thestudy found radiofrequency radiation frommobile phone towers was less than one percent of the public safety level set in therelevant Standards Australia InterimStandard.

Ms Monica Grollo conducted the researchfor her Master of Science (Research)degree in La Trobe’s Department ofPhysics.

The project combined the use of the mostsophisticated, state-of-the-art detection,measuring and analysing equipment. Thisinvolved monitoring emissions from 11 ofthe hundreds of typically 25 metre highmobile phone towers that dot Melbourneand the Victorian countryside.

Monitoring the ‘mobile telephone basestation communication towers’ was part ofa wider examination of radio frequencyemissions from all sources. Other sourcesmonitored included AM and FM radiostations, television stations, and pagingsystems.

Ms Grollo emphasised that her resultswere all taken from emissions monitored atground level and related only to the currentstate of knowledge of radiofrequencyradiation as outlined in the interimAustralian Standard.

Research is continuing at a number ofinstitutes into the effects of differentradiofrequency emissions on biologicaltissue. Standards Australia monitored allnew research and the Interim Standard wascurrently under review.

Ms Grollo used three methods to gatherdata. The first one was to analysetelephone traffic variation over a 24-hourperiod, produced by one base station. Aninteresting sidelight was her discovery thatthe intensity of mobile telephone traffic

Mobile telephone base stations safeby current Australian standards

Continued on page 4

La Trobe University is supporting acampaign to stimulate jobs growth andinvestment opportunities in Melbourne’snorthern suburbs.

The Melbourne’s North: The Best forBusiness campaign, launched by Ministerfor State and Regional Development, JohnBrumby, aims to help establish the regionas a premier investment location.

Highlighting the key business advantagesof Melbourne’s north, the campaign waslaunched during the Grand Prix, which MrBrumby described as one of the bestinternational business networking eventsheld in Melbourne every year.

The State Government provided a $92,500dollar-for-dollar grant for the campaign. Itis backed by northern suburb councils,tertiary education institutions, Yarra ValleyWater and Melbourne Airport.

Mr Brumby said the campaign builds onthe region’s reputation for being thepowerhouse of the State’s manufacturing

sector, which produces almost 30 per centof Victoria’s manufactured product. It isnoteworthy for the ‘outstanding model ofco-operation adopted by all stakeholders’.One of these is La Trobe University’sTechnology Enterprise Centre (TEC)which has a reputation amongst Australia’sleading scientific, IT and researchcompanies as a centre of excellence forstart-up and small mature technologydevelopers. The TEC has assisted some 38 start-up technology businesses: it is currently home for 25 businesses. Majorresearch laboratories located on the LaTrobe University Research andDevelopment Park include Rio Tinto, theEnvironmental Protection Authority andthe Walter and Eliza Hall InstituteBiotechnology Centre.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research),Professor Fred Smith, said that science,technology and informatics expertise at theUniversity also support local industrythrough consultancies whenever possible.

La Trobe Dean of Law and Management,Professor Greg O’Brien, said theUniversity provides a large output ofgraduates and a strong research base and isa keen and long-standing supporter ofregional business.

‘University staff and senior researchstudents often contribute to businessenhancement projects, from helpingcompanies upgrade e-commerce capacityto specific management skills.’ �

Further details atwww.melbournesnorth.com.au

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLET IN

NEWS

4

in Melbourne’s North

PARTNERSHIP AIMS TO BOOST BUSINESS

reached three peaks each day – atlunchtime, 5pm and 8pm.

Using a vehicle with a special roof-mounted antennae, she monitored signalsand how their intensity varied in relation totheir distance from the towers. She alsomonitored radio frequency radiation fromMount Dandenong, where most ofMelbourne’s television and FM radiostations transmit, and from AMtransmission towers at Lower Plenty.

She found that AM radio stationstransmitted the highest levels of radiofrequency emissions, but these had noeffect at Mt Dandenong. They were wellunder Standards Australia standard safetylevels, being 15.8 microwatts per square

centimetre, which is 0.8 per cent of the2000 microwatts per square centimetresafety level.

The maximum emissions from a typical 25metre high mono-pole digital mobiletelephone base station was 0.09 microwattsper square centimetre, less than one percent of the 200 microwatts per squarecentimetre Standards Australia safetylevel.

Mono-pole base stations carry up to 18antennae and distribute their signals over a360 degree radius, with signals notreaching ground level for 100 metres fromthe base of the pole. Some signals –particularly from purpose-built rural basestations – can transmit signals for up to 20km while some in the inner city transmitonly 100 metres.

‘With the information on radiation effectswe currently possess, there would appearto be no health risks from radiation fromthese sources,’ Ms Grollo said.

‘In the case of mobile phones, I need toemphasise that our research concernedonly the base stations, not the phonesthemselves.’

Ms Grollo’s research project was carriedout between 1997 and 2000.

Since mobile telephones and base stationshave only been in existence for a relativelyshort time, she said long-term studies wereneeded to determine whether thiscommunication system had any long termhuman health effects. �

Continued from page 3

Mr Brumby left and Professor O’Brien.

The International Education Network, aconsortium of leading Australianuniversities, has been established inShanghai.

The consortium comprises La TrobeUniversity, Deakin University, FlindersUniversity, Macquarie University,University of Tasmania, the NorthernMelbourne Institute of TAFE and theAustralian Centre for Languages.

La Trobe University Pro Vice-Chancellor(International), Dr David Stockley, ischairperson of the governing body. He saidIEN provides a wide range of educationalservices in China including AustralianDegree and Diploma programs.

‘We also aim to give Chinese students thechoice of studying Australian courseseither in China or Australia. IEN providespathways through English study intodiploma, undergraduate and postgraduatestudy either in China or overseas,particularly in Australia, UK, USA andCanada.’

Two IEN Institutes have already beenestablished, in co-operation withZhongshan College in Nanjing andMinjiang University in Fuzhou, initially toteach English. Others will be establishedover the next few years.

La Trobe University, a world-leader inproviding university education in China,has strong partnerships with topeducational institutions in China rangingfrom health and business to archaeologicalstudies.

In health sciences, La Trobe has links withsix of China’s top universities, includingBeijing’s Peking University, HarbinMedical University, the SichuanUniversity in Chengdu and NanjingUniversity. La Trobe carries out research tohelp teach health management policy andplanning.

The University also runs courses inbusiness studies ranging from MBAs tovocational diplomas. These are taken byaround 4,000 students in twenty-four citiesin fourteen provinces across China.

La Trobe has also formed a consortium tooffer a range of undergraduate programs inChina in areas such as Business andInformation Technology.

La Trobe University teaches a Masters ofApplied Linguistics course at Yunnan NormalUniversity and is expanding this to Shanghaiand Beijing. Its unique research program inarchaeology offers Australian students thechance to do archaeological field work inChina, as well as bringing Chinesepostgraduate students to Australia. �

NEWS

APRIL 2002 5

INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION NETWORK

cements La Trobe role in China

Two of the scholarship winners, Ms Green and Mr Eades,

flanked by La Trobe Dean ofLaw and Management,

Professor Greg O’Brien and Dr Mendelsohn, right, and

La Trobe Law lecturer, Mr Mark Harris, left.

To help more indigenous Australianstudents study law at La Trobe University,the Faculty of Law and Management hasawarded special one-year HECs exemptscholarships to five students.

The inaugural La Trobe Law scholarshipwinners are Nellie Green, Jan Muir, JasonEades, Melanie Schmidt, and NaidaJackomos. Three are studying for theirLaw degrees and two for a Bachelor ofLegal Studies degree.

Head of La Trobe Law, Dr OliverMendelsohn, said the scholarships werepart of an overall strategy to encourageAboriginal students. They recognised thespecial problems faced by Aboriginalstudents in beginning, and supportingthemselves through their studies.

‘The scholarships will help them during theirfirst year, after which they will be eligible toapply for established scholarships under theVictorian Department of Justice KooriTertiary Scholarship Program,’ DrMendelsohn said.

The long-term aim is to achieve anincrease in the numbers of Koori staffemployed in the justice system, improvetheir job qualifications, employmentopportunities and further their careerdevelopment. �

win lawscholarships

ABORIGINALSTUDENTS

La Trobe’s Dr Stockley, second from right, chairs arecent meeting of the IEN at the University’s mainMelbourne campus in Bundoora. Others, from left,are Mr Peter Eyles, Chief Executive Officer of the IEN;Mr David Zhao from China; Mr Peter Burgess,Macquarie University; Mr Murli Thadani, IENCompany Secretary; Mr Steve Scott, NorthernMelbourne Institute of TAFE; and, back to camera,Professor Dean Forbes, Flinders University.

In a sparsely furnished classroom childrenhug their one tattered exercise book.During the past two months of the ‘wet’,the isolated East Timor mountain village inwhich they live has seen 11 children dieand most of these deaths were preventable.

The first doctor to reach Fatulai after theroad reopens is Australian volunteer DrColette Livermore. She arrives by four-wheel drive vehicle, accompanied by twoLa Trobe University graduates, JoanRobinson and Penny Jope.

Dr Livermore works with swabs,stethoscope and syringes. The La Trobemedia graduates use a camera, tripod and amicrophone.

While Dr Livermore treats burns, TB andmalnutrition, Ms Robinson films One dayin Fatulai. The film reveals the round of Dr

Livermore’s medical work and the realitiesof daily life for many East Timorese,particularly their need for better healthcare and education facilities.

The film was initially made for communityand school use with the help of La TrobeUniversity’s Media Studies Program andMoreland City Council, but is also beingused to assists fund-raising for East Timorby aid organisations in Australia and in theUS.

Ms Robinson is an independent film makerand a member of the Friends of AileuCommunity Committee. She is planningother short documentaries on East Timor.

‘The relationships we established as aresult of the film have been extremelyvaluable in supporting and initiatingcommunity efforts to help the people of

East Timor, including setting up sisterschool relationships between EastTimorese and Australian schools. Kids inAileu are touched that Australiancommunities want to be friends and to helpthem rebuild.’

A journalist motivated by strong sense ofhuman rights, Ms Robinson has visitedrefugee camps on the Thai-Burma borderand written on human rights issues for TheAge newspaper and Arena magazine.

She began her media studies degree at LaTrobe in 1998. The Timor film wasplanned and shot during a whirl-wind eightweeks last April and May, her last year asa student at La Trobe, and meant workingoften until three am in the morning.

Two years ago she also won a NSWMultimedia festival award for a whimsicalshort film titled Froggie’s Gone. She saysfilm is a good vehicle for tackling humanrights and community issues: ‘it’s today’smedium, quick and easy to understand andtouches of humour can be importantelements.’ �

La Trobe University has enrolled threestudents from East Timor under a programsponsored by several Australianuniversities, the Federal Department ofEducation, Science and Training (DEST)and AusAID.

The University’s Vice-Chancellor,Professor Michael Osborne, said La Trobewill welcome the three East Timoresestudents into its Bachelor of Sciencedegree courses.

They will join a fourth Timorese studentwho was awarded a special scholarship bythe Faculty of Health Sciences last year.The program follows constitutionalconsultancy work by the University in EastTimor through its Faculty of Law andManagement.

The latest students are part of a group of 55accepted by 21 Australian universities whoare participating in the joint program withthe Australian government. Under the

scheme, universities waive their coursefees while AusAID and DEST meet livingexpenses.

‘What the students learn here willcontribute to building Asia’s newestnation,’ Professor Osborne said. ‘La Trobeis pleased to have a role in this process. Weare happy to work in this venture withpartner universities in Australia, as well aswith DEST and AusAID.

‘This is constructive co-operation betweenthe government and universities forprogress in East Timor, which will alsopromote Australian foreign policyobjectives.’

The students are Mateus Da Costa whowill study for a degree in Earth Science,and Noeno Sarmento and Decio RibeiroSarmento who are enrolled for degrees inMedical Science. They will do an intensivecourse in the University’s FoundationStudies Program, to prepare them for

successful study at the University, beforestarting their courses next year. Based onthe Bundoora campus, they will joinHealth Sciences student, Carla Chungwhose Faculty was the first at La Trobe tooffer a scholarship to an East Timoresestudent.

Ms Chung, now in her second year ofenrolment in the School of Public Health,hopes to return to East Timor to work as ahealth professional when she completesher degree.

La Trobe assistance to East Timor has alsoinvolved Associate Professor of Law andLegal Studies, Spencer Zifcak. Last yearDr Zifcak was invited to East Timor by theUnited Nations Transitional Authority tohelp train that nation’s constitutionalcommissions prior to East Timor’sConstitutional Assembly election, the firststage in developing the country’s newsystem of government. �

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLET IN

NEWS

6

LA TROBE HELPS NATION-BUILDING IN EAST TIMOR

Ms Robinson inFatulai

One day inFATULAI…

APRIL 2002 7

Something has long puzzled geophysicistsabout the theory of plate tectonics – thehypothesis that the outside edge or thecrust of the Earth is a jigsaw of movingplates.

Plate movements leave behind tell-taleevidence. For example fences and wallsbuilt across California’s famous SanAndreas Fault, the boundary between theNorth American and Pacific plates, havebeen split, offset by a metre or so.

This is the result of a few decades of platemotion on this kind of plate boundary,called a transform fault.

‘If instead of a fence, we have a body ofrock and, instead of decades, we waitmillions of years, we will see hundreds ofkilometres of offset,’ says La TrobeUniversity geophysicist, Dr BobMusgrave. ‘Evidence of this sort is aroutine part of determining world-wideplate motion.’

Yet evidence on a similar transform fault inNew Zealand is inconsistent with what wasbelieved to have been the movement of the

two major plates there. Dr Musgrave hasresolved this dilemma two decades afterthe inconsistency was first noticed. Anexpert on plate kinematics, the motion ofthe plates, he has turned the clock back 12million years and discovered the existenceof another, previously unknown transformfault that explains why rocks in NewZealand aren’t where they are supposed tobe. This also explains another geologicalconundrum, why New Zealand’sequivalent of the San Andreas Fault, theAlpine Fault, has a giant bend in themiddle.

Such additional information about theidiosyncrasies of the movement of theplates beneath their feet helps NewZealanders to a greater understanding ofthe frequent earthquakes for which theirland is famous.

A lecturer in La Trobe’s Department ofEarth Sciences, Dr Musgrave explains thatover hundreds of millions of years plateshave been moving against, underneath andinto each other, causing continental drift.

About 240 million years ago there wasonly one giant continent on earth, knownas Pangea. The tectonic plates making upPangea split apart, and kept drifting toform the world we know today – and arestill moving.

Two plates, the Pacific and Australianplates, have a boundary that runs along partof the ‘Ring of Fire’, from Indonesia toMacquarie Island, south of New Zealand.Earthquakes produced by suddenmovements between these two plates makethis one of the most seismically activeparts of the planet, and the many volcanoesof this belt are formed where one plate isforced under the other.

The boundary of the Pacific and Australianplates in New Zealand is the Alpine Fault,which runs down the western side of theSouthern Alps in the South Island.

‘We know that the eastern side of NewZealand, the Pacific Plate side, is slidingsouthwards along this fault relative to thewestern side, the Australian Plate side,’ DrMusgrave says.

‘This has been happening for millions ofyears, uplifting the Southern Alps,including the famous Mount Cook, thehighest point, in the process.

‘We can use the theory of plate tectonics totake well-known records of motionbetween Australia and Antarctica and thePacific and Antarctica to work out thehistory of motion between the Australianand Pacific plates in New Zealand for thepast 25 million years – but when we do so,we run up against a problem.

‘There is a 250 million year old featurewhich was there before the fault startedmoving that is now split into two halves oneither side of the fault, separated by about400 km.

APRIL 2002

Why Kiwi rocks aren’t wherethey are supposed to beResolving a 12 million-

year-old puzzle in global

plate tectonic theory

Dr Musgrave: Hisdiscovery has globalimplications,rescuing one of thegreat unifyingtheories of 20thcentury science froman apparent internalinconsistency.

Continued on page 10

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY

RESEARCH IN ACTION

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLET INLA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLET IN8

Studying the genes of a tiny fly could helpMelbourne scientists to understand betterhow animals will adapt to global warming.

Eastern Australia’s wide range of climates– from wet tropical through temperate tocold – enables the researchers to comparethe effect of different climates on the samespecies.

They are working with two species ofDrosophila, the vinegar fly, a threemillimetre-long creature often seenbuzzing in numbers around rotting fruit –the very creature that, if allowed intocontact with wine, can introduce thebacteria to transform it into vinegar.

The vinegar fly, known in the UK and USAas the fruit fly, is extremely appropriatebecause two species, one native and oneimported, live over the entire climate rangefrom the tip of Cape York Peninsula to thebottom of Tasmania.

Scientists worldwide have worked withDrosophila for more than a century. It iseasy to collect and keep and having only atwo-week life cycle, any evolutionarychanges can be observed.

By comparing how the insects of the samespecies have adapted to different climaticconditions, and how they might change ifre-located to a different climate, theresearchers hope to ascertain how manyspecies may change when their climatewarms or cools.

Professor Ary Hoffmann is heading a teamat La Trobe University’s Centre forEnvironment Stress and AdaptationResearch (CESAR), working withresearchers from Monash University andUniversity College London.

For two years, thousands of the nativevinegar fly, Drosophila serrata, and theimported or cosmopolitan species,Drosophila melanogaster, have beencollected from 25 places between CapeTribulation at the base of Cape YorkPeninsula and Huonville in southernTasmania.

Two La Trobe PhD students on the project,Ms Michele Schiffer and Ms AndreaMagiafoglou, collect the flies usingbuckets of rotting bananas as bait.

Hundreds of flies have been brought toMelbourne’s temperate climate where theirgenetic make up is examined and recorded.After living in this different climate forvarious periods of time, their geneticmake-up is re-examined to ascertainwhether any short-term evolutionarychanges have occurred.

Professor Hoffmann said Drosophilamelanogaster was a valuable speciesbecause its genome had been decoded.

Two years ago, researchers from theAmerican company, Celera Genomics atRockville, Md. and several academicinstitutions decoded 97 per cent of the 120million bases constituting the protein-coding segment of melanogaster’s genome.

‘This means that when an interestingdifference in the behaviour of strains ofvinegar fly is found, a gene responsible forthis difference can now be rapidlyidentified and its function will often alsobe evident,’ Professor Hoffmann said.

‘We can compare gene frequencies and thedistribution of traits from strains spanningdifferent climatic areas. When we find a

A tiny fly mayhold the answer

ADAPT TOGLOBALWARMING?

HOW WILL WE

RESEARCH IN ACTION

APRIL 2002 9

gene frequency changing, it becomes acandidate for climatic adaptation,’ he said.

Professor Hoffmann said the first twoyears of the ARC-financed project hadalready led to some interesting discoveries.Two genes had been found to be associatedwith climatic adaptation. One of thesegenes controls the resistance of vinegarflies to heat stress. Another gene wasinvolved in the time of the day when fliesare active.

‘We have also shown that surprisingchanges in characteristics are involved inclimatic adaptation. For example, we haveshown that when flies from a temperateenvironment encounter winter, they ceaseto reproduce – they stop laying eggsaltogether. However flies from the tropics,although transferred to a temperate zone,continue to produce eggs at a high rate, somuch so that when spring comes they haveonly a few eggs left.

‘On the other hand flies from a temperate

zone begin to reproduce when the weatherwarms up. We can now isolate the genesinvolved in this difference and the activitygene becomes a candidate. It is not just aquestion of surviving stressful climaticconditions, but also ensuring thatreproduction goes on when favourableconditions return.

‘In the long run, by understanding theprocesses and genes involved in climaticadaptation, we can develop ways ofensuring that organisms adapt to futureenvironmental changes – something that isextremely important in maintainingagricultural production and in conservingthreatened species in the face of globalwarming and increased urbanisation.’ �

APRIL 2002

Professor Hoffmann, left, with Ms Magiafoglou.

La Trobe University moved further to theforefront of research in the rapidly growingfield of population biology with theopening a new research facility on its mainMelbourne campus recently.

Called the Rapid DNA Assessment Facilityfor Population Biology and housed in theDepartment of Genetics, it results from a$564,000 Department of Education,Training and Youth Affairs (DETYA)grant.

DETYA’s grant was to a consortiumcomprising La Trobe, Monash andQueensland universities to establish high-throughput genetic marker capabilities toallow Australia to be competitive inmolecular population biology. Other partsof the facility are housed at MonashUniversity.

Dr Yvonne Parsons, a molecular biologistwith La Trobe’s Centre of EnvironmentalStress and Adaptation Research (CESAR)and the Department of Genetics, said DNA

markers provide innovative ways ofrapidly developing tools for identifyingboth pest and beneficial species,understanding their reproduction andability to infest new areas. Part of thiswould be to map and predict the evolutionof their pesticide resistance.

DNA markers are also essential forinnovative approaches in areas ofconservation management such asidentification of populations that aregenetically and adaptively unique andshould be targeted for conservation.

In a ceremony to mark the installation ofthe facility, La Trobe Dean of the Facultyof Science, Technology and Engineering,Professor David Finlay said futureresearch funding would go to collaborativeefforts involving combinations ofuniversities.

Professor Ary Hoffmann of CESAR saidthe University now had a major facility tocarry out rapid DNA genotyping that was

also useful to outside organisationsinvolved in conserving and managingAustralian fauna and flora.

The Li-Cor facility was manufactured inthe USA and supplied through itsAustralian agent, John Morris ScientificPty Limited. �

LA TROBE OPENS STATE- OF-THE-ART

DNA RESEARCH FACILITY

RESEARCH IN ACTION

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLET IN

A La Trobe University multi-disciplinary research team isexamining the first results ofexperimental agricultural practicesdesigned to increase cropproduction on the Indonesian islandof Lombok.

The team hopes new practices might alsoreduce the backbreaking toil required toraise food crops on parts of the island.

Working in co-operation with scientistsfrom Lombok’s University of Mataram,the La Trobe team has a $400,000 grantfrom the Australian Centre forInternational Agricultural Research for thethree-year project.

New farming methods leading to improvedagricultural productivity are vital in thispart of Indonesia, says project leader, DrBlair McKenzie, a soil scientist and seniorlecturer in La Trobe’s Department ofAgricultural Sciences.

The island already has three millionpeople, and with an increasing population,

traditional subsistence farming methodsare no longer able to produce the amountof food required.

Dr McKenzie says this presents formidableproblems, particularly in the eastern andsouthern parts of Lombok that have heavyclay soils. In addition, the nature of thelocal monsoon means farmers have alimited season for growing crops.

Farms are typically less than one hectareand are operated by a combination of wetand dry farming.

Unlike many parts of Asia, the monsoon onLombok does not last long enough forfarmers to sow rice in flooded fields. Withthe soil too hard for ploughs drawn bywater buffalo, and the plots too small formechanical ploughing to be economical,this means backbreaking work – tilling soilmanually with crowbars.

Current practice is to plant rice in dry soil,and wait for the monsoon. Crops areharvested after the monsoon, with residualwater used to plant a second crop, oftensoya beans.

The laborious hand tilling is usually doneat a time when the local food supply is atits lowest.

The La Trobe-Mataram project willcomprise field experiments in whichresearchers have established raised bedsintersected by deep furrows designed tostop the plots becoming compacted duringthe dry season and waterlogged during thewet. The furrows enable some control overthe flow of water and the preservation ofexcess water.

‘We are also carrying out complementaryexperiments designed to link our field andlaboratory experiments. Anything thatlooks promising from a lab test we willfield test, and vice versa.’

Dr McKenzie said improved agriculturaltechniques developed on Lombok haveimplications for other islands on theeastern side of the Indonesian archipelago,where there are similar soils and climate. �

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLET IN10

BETTER CROPSWITH LESSBACKACHE ONLOMBOKWorking on dry rice fields on Lombok

‘Winding back the motion between the twoplates on the Alpine Fault should bringthese two pieces together. It does – but itonly takes 12 million years of motion.What was going on before 12 million yearsago?

‘The plate tectonic prediction says that thePacific Plate should have been movingrelative to the Australian Plate prior to thistime, but there appears to be no way to fitthis in to New Zealand’s geology.

‘Some researchers have ignored thisinconsistency, while others have tried toresolve the problem by postulatingunknown plate motion in Antarctica. Thisproblem, first recognised two decades ago,

has been one of the unresolved ‘glitches’ inglobal plate tectonic theory.

‘I restored the position the two plates were12 million years ago and a previouslyunsuspected feature became evident, amajor fault, with a different position anddirection to the Alpine Fault, whichappears to have been the plate boundaryprior to 12 million years ago.

‘This allows the predicted plate motion inNew Zealand prior to this time to beaccommodated without any conflict withthe local geology, and without needing to‘hide’ plate motion in Antarctica.

‘And a bonus was an explanation for thedevelopment of major ‘bends’ in otherwise

straight transform faults, which came outof an understanding of the mechanism thatcaused the old fault to shut down, and thenew Alpine Fault to be established’.

Dr Musgrave says his discovery has globalimplications because it rescues the Theoryof Plate Tectonics – one of the greatunifying theories of 20th century science –from an apparent internal inconsistency.

‘Understanding the history of transformfault motion in New Zealand is the key tounderstanding the geology of not just NewZealand and Australia, but all of our regionfrom South-east Asia to Antarctica.’ �

Why Kiwi rocks aren’t where they are supposed to be …continued from page 7

RESEARCH IN ACTION

APRIL 2002 11

Older Australians are

anxious to play a key role in

the continuing debate on

euthanasia.

They believe parliamentarians,academics, doctors, lawyers, policyanalysts and the news media aredominating the euthanasia debate in anenvironment that discusses older peopleas an increasing burden on the Australiancommunity.

A survey of members of the NationalSeniors Association, one of the Australia’slargest organisations of people over 55has highlighted the misgivings ofAustralia’s older people that they arebeing left out of the debate.

The study, by Mr Cliff Picton of theUniversity’s School of Social Work, DrRosalie Aroni, School of Public Healthand Social Work graduate, Jessica Letch,was designed to gain a snapshot of olderpeople’s views and experiences – not tosupport any ideological position.

To many people the debate whichfollowed legislation in the NorthernTerritory, subsequently overturned by theCommonwealth, was an absolute travestybecause there was a lack of a careful,reasonable and informative debate.

Mr Picton said: ‘They felt that aconsultation process with the public wasclearly left out. There were people withaxes to grind on both sides who roderoughshod over the interests of olderpeople.’

More than 6000 members responded tothe survey with sixty per cent female.Most were in the 60-69 age group. Eightyper cent of men and fifty per cent ofwomen who responded were married.

Mr Picton said the survey was a first step.Two themes dominated the responses:lessons of life experience should beinjected into the policy-making arena byallowing real stories to be heard; and theneed for reliable information to examinethe issue of euthanasia further.

‘Tales of personal and family obligations,and how these relate to commonunderstanding of euthanasia were told.These were stories of courage and dignity,of patients with terminal illnesses and theimportance of palliative care.

‘The burden of decision making in variousfamily and community contexts wasdiscussed, and cynicism expressed overthe role of government,’ he said.

Many older people said they were keen toexamine the issue further and neededmore reliable information on euthanasia.

On the controversial issue of decision-making when a person’s life is to endthere is concern about who can and shouldmake the decision – the individual, theirfamily or partner, doctors, lawyers, boardmembers or parliamentarians.

Less than four per cent had discussed theissue with members of the medicalprofession.

Forty per cent of respondents who had nevermarried claimed religious/philosophicalinfluence, compared with 29 per cent ofmarried participants. Eighty-nine per cent ofpeople who had discussed euthanasia withmembers of the clergy believed they wereinfluenced by belief.

While newspapers, television and radiowere the main sources of informationabout the debate, ninety-three per cent ofrespondents reported that these sourceshad not influenced their views oneuthanasia.

Mr Picton said the survey indicated adesire for clear information from allsources and a need for good, validinformation. �

Older people left out ofEUTHANASIADEBATE

HEALTH SCIENCES

Mr Picton: need for more reliableinformation.

Bendigo showsthe way in

numeracyeducation La Trobe University Professor ofEducation at the Bendigo campus, PeterSullivan, recently led a group of localteachers in the first of a series of sixprofessional development televisionprograms for the Department of Education& Training.

The program, to help teachers developtheir numeracy teaching skills, wastelevised in March to schools across thestate. It involved teachers from KangarooFlat Secondary College and Maiden GullyPrimary School.

It was part of a state-wide Middle YearsNumeracy Research Project. ProfessorSullivan, well known for numeracyteaching and research, also played a keyrole in the Early Numeracy ResearchProject, as a member of the project team.

He said the televised program was a greatopportunity for Bendigo to demonstrate toschools across the State the quality ofteaching in the region.

Professor Sullivan said open-endedquestions suit classes with a range ofabilities, as students can answer questionsat their own levels. The programdemonstrated how such questions can beused, and how this approach helps studentsand teachers. �

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLET IN

HEALTH SCIENCES

12

‘My initial nursing education was to seethat everyone’s bowels were open, ourmouths were kept shut, and the work wasdone.’ Such was Ann Woodruff’sintroduction to nursing in the early 1950s.

Today, she said, well-educated and caringnurses need to contribute to decisionsmade for their patients.

Delivering the inaugural Vivian BullwinkelOration at La Trobe University recently,Ms Woodruff reflected on changes innursing education and chronic nursingshortages.

The oration was attended by an audienceof nurses, students, returned soldiers andacademics. Vivian Bullwinkel was the onlyAustralian nurse to survive a Japanesemassacre on Bangka Island in World War 2that claimed the lives of 21 of hercolleagues.

Ms Woodruff holds two degrees from LaTrobe, a Master of Education and aBachelor of Arts ( Honours) as well as aDiploma of Education, and is formerProfessor of Nursing at Victoria Universityof Technology. She also developed the firstCode of Ethics for nurses in Australia.

Ms Woodruff said Vivian Bullwinkel wastypical of nurses earlier this century. Forthem, obedience, self-deprecation andgroup cohesion was paramount.

This old nurse training system, describedas an ‘apprenticeship’, lacked the master-apprentice relationship. Young nurseslearnt largely from senior nurses who,although trained, were unqualified.

While the ability to obey without questioncan help in war, in crises or in critical care,for continuing care – which is of immenseimportance to the practice of nursing –obedience can be an obstacle to theexercise of professional judgement.

‘We need to pay attention to the ambitionsof graduate nurses, to eliminate, as far as ispossible, the notion of nursing as a totallyancillary discipline, and build up avenuesof nursing which allow the exercise ofautonomy born of expertise.’

Many reasons have been given for theshortage of nurses, and for the high drop-out rates from various programs ofpreparation for nursing practice, she said.

In Victoria in 1967 the figure was almost36 per cent. Nationally, 60 per cent ofnurses who graduated between 1957 and1966 had ceased practice by 1968 – a‘seriously high number’ even allowing forthose who had left to raise children.

After various inquiries, curriculum andentry level changes, improvements to payand working conditions in the early 1970s,the drop-out rate during training lessened.However, it transferred to the graduatesector, where the problem remains today.

Greater decision-making latitude fornurses, Ms Woodruff concluded, can helpto decrease this turnover in the profession.

Professor Alan Pearson, Head of Nursingand Midwifery, said La Trobe Universitywas honoured to join with the RoyalCollege of Nursing Australia to sponsorthe Annual Bullwinkel Oration to promote‘commitment and courage in nursing’.

‘Our origins as a School are firmly linkedto the RCNA, having evolved from theCNA’s educational activities commencedin 1952.’

Ms Margaret Watson, President, of theRCNA, said the College was delighted tocollaborate with La Trobe University incelebrating the ‘extraordinary life ofVivian Bullwinkel and the contribution shemade to nursing in Australia’. �

Responding to changing

health-careneeds Nursing at La Trobe University isresponding to rapidly changing health careneeds.

Professor Alan Pearson, Head of theSchool of Nursing and Midwifery, says afeature of La Trobe courses is theirflexibility and interdisciplinary approach.

‘The recent creation of clinical schoolsplaces much of our teaching and researchin world-class health agencies inMelbourne, and in the growing rural citiesof Albury and Wodonga.’

He said teaching is supported by a strongresearch record. Research projects includeevidence-based and advanced nursingpractice, acute care, aged care, palliativecare and rural health care under theguidance of seven professors.

La Trobe offers Australia’s first four yearundergraduate Bachelor of NursingScience degree and a variety of doubledegrees that combine studies in nursingwith fields such as midwifery, publichealth, naturopathy and mental health.There is also a traditional three yearundergraduate pass degree.

La Trobe Nursing has a centre forinternational studies, with an enrolment ofmore than 300 overseas students. It alsooffers flexible continuing and distanceeducation, in print and on-line to studentsin Australia and abroad. �

EDUCATING NURSES

of the future

First Vivian Bullwinkel

Oration

Vivian Bullwinkel

HEALTH SCIENCES

APRIL 2002 13

Most mothers are uncomfortable withbreastfeeding in public, but the longer theydo it the less it worries them.

This is one of a number of findings of asurvey by La Trobe University researchersto identify factors leading to low rates ofbreastfeeding in the municipality ofWhittlesea.

The Head of La Trobe’s School of Nursingand Midwifery, Professor Alan Pearson,and Ms Marianne Mackay, lecturer inMaternal and Child Health Nursing, led thesurvey. It sought reasons why somemothers decided before the birth of theirbabies not to breastfeed – and why otherswho initially opted to breastfeed laterswitched to formula feeding.

Ms Mackay said that the issue ofbreastfeeding in public was significantwith the majority of the more than 200women who participated in the study.

She said the issue of breasts as sexualobjects was viewed as one of the reasonsthat breastfeeding in public wasproblematic. ‘Mothers face difficultieswith breastfeeding in front of people whoare strangers, particularly men, anddifficulty around the issue of sexuality ofbreasts.

‘Basically, most participants wereuncomfortable with breastfeeding in apublic place, but those who had breastfedfor more than six months tended toindicate that this issue diminished in

importance and they became less self-conscious over time,’ she said.

‘However the survey found that mothersregarded facilities for breastfeeding asadequate within large shopping centres butinadequate in other public places likerestaurants and smaller shopping strips.’

Ms Mackay said that contradictorycommunity attitudes towards breastfeedingdid not make it easy for mothers to makedecisions about breastfeeding.

‘Family and friends counter promotion andencouragement of breastfeeding by healthprofessionals with disinterest andsometimes active discouragement.

‘The mothers generally saw mediarepresentations of breastfeeding asnegative, with representations ofbreastfeeding in public as a ‘vexed’ issue.

‘The issue of breastfeeding in public was aconcern to all women – and particularly sowith some groups. Not one Macedonianwoman surveyed would breastfeed inpublic while Vietnamese women, whileacknowledging their right to do so, wouldnever feel comfortable doing it.’

Researchers were surprised to discover that65 per cent of the surveyed women whochose not to breastfeed made the decisionprior to becoming pregnant. Mostattributed their decision to negativeexperiences with feeding previouschildren.

Other reasons cited included the belief thatbreastfeeding was uncomfortable, difficultor painful, discomfort with the prospect ofbreastfeeding in public and that formulafeeding was more convenient.

The researchers found that the majority ofmothers abandoned breastfeeding withinsix months of the birth of their child. Manybelieved their babies needed more thanbreast milk. Some said having an unsettledbaby was the reason while others weresimply more comfortable because feedingwith a bottle enabled them to know howmuch their baby was drinking.

While the study found generally highlevels of satisfaction with services andsupport related to breastfeeding, it madenine recommendations to address obstaclesto successful breastfeeding.

They included greater discussion of thesubject in new mothers’ groups, changes tothe maternal and child health initial homevisit service with visits two to four daysfollowing discharge from hospital beingrecommended, more help for mothers whohad problems with breastfeeding aprevious child, provision of more places tobreast feed in public places and furthereducation for the nurses involved. �

Family, friends –

and the media don’t help

Mothersuncomfortable breast feeding in public

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLET IN

COMMUNITY

14

Campus forums reveal the

human tragedy and moral

dimensions of refugee issues

Joyce Sadia Peter is a refugee from Sudan,now in Australia. She described her‘refugee’ camp in Africa as a place ofnightmares, where men were tortured,women raped and survival meant living ina makeshift canvas shelter, foraging forfood in the forest…

Nouria Salehi recently returned to herformer hometown in Afghanistan after 25years in Australia. She found not onebuilding left standing, no people, and couldnot locate her relatives…

The two women spoke at separate events atthe University in March, convened tosatisfy increasing community desire foraccurate information about issues relatingto refugees and asylum seekers.

Ms Sadia Peter gave her first-hand accountat an International Women’s Day forum,which also featured Melba Marginson,Chair of the Victorian Immigrant and

Refugee Women’s Coalition, a state-widepeak advocacy body of women’s groups,most of them refugees and Muslims. MsMarginson spoke on ‘The situation ofrefugees and women’s human rights.’

Dr Salehi called on Australia to retrain, notdetain, Afghani refugees at a La TrobeUniversity Politics Society Forum. Sheoutlined the almost total destruction of herex-homeland – especially medical andeducational infrastructure.

‘If the government wants to send backasylum seekers, please give them sometraining first,’ she said. In particular, therewas a needed for skilled plumbers,electricians, and, more generally, skillsassociated with deep water systems andmine clearing.

Julian Burnside, QC, one of Australia’sbest-known QCs and counsel for LibertyVictoria in the Tampa asylum seekers, toldthe forum the asylum seeker issue was amoral problem for Australia.

Driven by party politics, it has beenpresented to the Australian people as asecurity problem. Politicians, he said,

conflated problems of border control,immigration policy and refugees, focusedon the ugliest aspects of each leadingAustralia to the ‘Pacific solution’ andmandatory detention. This was a course, hewarned, which held many dangers for ademocratic society.

Citing examples of intolerable conditionsin detention camps, Mr Burnside said: ‘Wediminish ourselves by such treatment ofothers.’

The third speaker, Grant Mitchell,Convenor of the Justice for AsylumSeekers Detention Working Group, hadworked for two years for the Swedishimmigration department at a detentioncentre in Stockholm. Sweden, he said,detained asylum seekers only for shortperiods after which those who were not asecurity risk were released into thecommunity. Children can not be detainedfor more than six days in Sweden. �

A detailed report of the Politics SocietyForum will appear in the May issue of theSociety’s Forum magazine, tel: 03 94792287 to reserve a copy.

RETRAIN, DON’TDETAIN,

Ms Marginson, left, and La Trobe University Pro Vice-Chancellor, Access and Equity, Dr Kerry Ferguson, speaking with Ms Sadia Peter after the Women’s Day refugee forum.

ASYLUM SEEKERS

ALBURY-WODONGA CELEBRATES

first doctorates in educationIt was a milestone for La TrobeUniversity’s Institute for Education atAlbury-Wodonga when it awarded its firstdoctorates on that campus during a recentgraduation ceremony.

Dr John Hunter, a former science honoursgraduate, received his doctorate for probingdevelopments and innovation in the middleyears of schooling in rural Victoria. DrRosemary Kelly, with previous qualificationsin commerce and public policy, examined payequity and early childhood teachers in NSWfor her doctorate.

Dr Lorraine Ling, Director of EducationPrograms at Albury-Wodonga, said it wasten years since La Trobe set up educationcourses at the campus. This year’sceremony marked a real coming of age. Itwas a proud day for the many staff andstudents who have been associated with theInstitute, she said.

An Associate Professor, Dr Ling said LaTrobe’s State-wide Institute for Education,in the Faculty for Regional Development,offers programs in education studies onfive La Trobe regional campuses.

More than 200 graduates attended thisyear’s ceremony. They were presentedtheir awards by La Trobe Chancellor,Emeritus Professor Nancy Millis. EvanWillis, newly-appointed Professor ofSociology and Head of Humanities andSocial Sciences at Albury-Wodonga, gavethe Occasional Address. He spoke on therole of university education andimportance of regional campuses. �

AWARDS

APRIL 2002 15

La Trobe University displayed its recentaward for outstanding achievement inwater conservation – with the sprinklerson! And it was all done with a clearconscience. A key feature of waterconservation on La Trobe’s mainMelbourne campus at Bundoora is a seriesof holding ponds, lakes and waterways.

These provide a wonderful recreationallandscape and teaching resource, and alsoserve as water storages from which thecampus grounds are maintained, withoutdrawing on Melbourne’s water supply.

Accepting the award, Mr DenisStephenson, Divisional Manager ofBuildings and Grounds at La Trobe, saidthe University has been a trail-blazer inresource management since itsestablishment in the 1960s.

‘Water management techniques havealways been part of the University’s masterplan. Winning the award will spur us on toeven greater achievements in the future.’

The award is sponsored by Yarra ValleyWater, the Department of NaturalResources and Environment, and theVictorian Water Industry Association. Itrecognises innovation and achievement inwater conservation in Victorian businesses,schools, government departments andagencies.

Chief of the award judging panel. MollyHarriss Olson, said La Trobe Universitymonitored its water use through annualbenchmarking.

‘The University regularly informs andinvolves staff and students in conservationmeasures and has been an innovator inacademic, research and on-site programs.’ �

La Trobe winner for saving water

La Trobe University third year Bachelor ofBusiness (Tourism Management) student,Ms Kymberley Walta, has won a $10,000Sport and Tourism Youth Foundationaward.

Ms Walta, from Bacchus Marsh, receivedthe award for a combination of heracademic, sporting and community serviceactivities.

She was one of 20 students from aroundAustralia who received sporting andtourism awards at a ceremony at Star CityCasino on 28 March.

The Sport and Tourism Youth Foundationwas founded in 1988 to provide financialsupport to those who, through financialhardship, might not otherwise have theopportunity to pursue their goals. �

STUDENT

TOURISM AWARD

Mr Stephenson with the award on La Trobe University’s Bundoora campus.

From left, Dr Ling, Dr Hunter, Dr Kelly, and Dr Barry Brockley, Head of the School of Artsand Eucation.

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLET IN

RESEARCH

16

A Danish physiologist is capitalising on aLa Trobe University research developmentto further the worldwide quest to pin-pointthe cause of muscle fatigue.

Dr Ole Nielsen, an Associate Professor atAarhus University, Denmark, recentlyspent two months on the University’s mainMelbourne campus at Bundoora ‘lookinginside the ‘black box’ of our muscle’s T-tubules.

He was at the University on a La TrobeInstitute of Advanced Study Fellowship.

The T-tubules are a tubular network thatallows electrical signals, set up on themuscle surface in response to signalsarriving from the cental nerve system, tomove into the depth of the muscle fibres.Because of the small size of the T-tubules,very few details have been revealed aboutthe transmission of the electrical signals inthem, Dr Nielsen explained.

Scientists describe such an area as a ‘blackbox’ because of the problem ofascertaining what happens inside.

Dr Nielsen spent February and Marchworking with Professor GeorgeStephenson in the Muscle ResearchLaboratory of La Trobe’s Department ofZoology on muscle and cell physiology.

With La Trobe’s Department of Zoology,the Department of Physiology at theUniversity of Aarhus is one of a number oflaboratories world-wide seeking touncover the causes of muscle fatigue.

‘We read about the La Trobe work thateliminated the long-held theory that a build-up of lactate inside skeletal muscles causesmuscle fatigue,’ Dr Nielsen said. The LaTrobe team did this after developing atechnique to peel off the outer cellmembrane from the muscle fibre of a rat.

Professor Stephenson and the researchteam which included Dr Graham Lamb, DrGiuseppe Posterino and Mr Travis Dutkaalso showed that after the outer membranehad been peeled off, electrical signalscould still be set up in the T-tubules.

‘Our work at Aarhus complemented that atLa Trobe in that we had been examininghow the electrical signals run along themuscle surface.

‘On the surface of each muscle fibre is a“battery” that delivers the energy for theelectric signal that travels the length of themuscle so that all parts are activated tocontract. The battery is re-charged frompower generated by a sodium-potassium“pump” on the muscle’s surface,’ DrNielsen said.

‘One theory of why muscle fatigue occursis that when there is a lot of muscle activitythe re-charging system is overworked andthe supply of electricity falls.

‘Because of the anatomy of the T-tubularsystem, such problems are more likely tohappen in the T-tubules than on the surfaceof the muscles, but so far it has not beenpossible to study how powerful the batteryand the re-charging system is in the T-tubules. For that reason many investigatorsof muscle fatigue have considered the T-tubules as a black box.

‘The discovery at La Trobe of how toremove the outer membrane enabled us tolook into the T-tubules and to examine howthe electrical signals travel inside them.

‘Inside, a small protein meets them and cansense how large the electrical signal is andthat, in turn, causes the muscle to contract.

‘While La Trobe researchers found thatlactate was not a cause of muscle fatigue,at Aarhus we have shown that it can evenhave a beneficial effect by keeping the“battery” working more powerfully. Incontrast to the belief that it causes fatigue,we believe it actually helps the muscle.

‘Our next step is to examine the power ofthe re-charging system of the T-tubules andascertain whether lactic acid works to helpthe “battery” inside the T-tubules as it doeson the muscle surface. This is the mainthrust of my work with ProfessorStephenson at La Trobe and we plan tohave a paper on our work prepared in thecoming months.’

Another Danish scientist, Dr NielsOrthenblad, is also working on the projectwith Professor Stephenson and Dr Nielsen. �

Peeking inside our muscles’

‘Black Box’

La Trobe researchers recently

found that lactate was not a

cause of muscle fatigue.

International research has

taken this further, showing

lactate can even have a

beneficial effect, actually

helping the muscle perform

better.

Dr Nielsen, right, with Professor Stephenson, and Dr Orthenblad, left.