A freeze on global decline
GEELONG inventor and founder of the Geelong Advertiser James Harrison built the first commercial ice making facility in the world at Rocky Point on the Barwon River.
Along with other refrigeration pioneers, he helped create the infrastructure of many things we now take for granted, from fresh food to airconditioning to vaccination.
However, according to Deakin University anthropologist Emma Kowal from the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, cooling has a dark side.
“In a twist of fate that James Harrison could not have predicted, cooling technologies now account for over 20 per cent of electricity usage, endangering our warm future,” she said.
Prof Kowal will explore the unintended consequences of refrigeration and freezing technology during this year’s Harrison Lecture for Innovation, held as part of Barwon Health and Deakin University Research Week 2017.
Research Week, which runs from November 13-17, showcases the research activities of Barwon Health and Deakin and includes guest lectures by prominent Geelong researchers, various presentations, and education sessions aimed at early researchers.
The 2017 Harrison Lecture, “Harrison’s Gift? Frozen Life in a Melting World”, will examine how, in an age of global warming and melting ice- caps, freezing can be a technology of deferral — putting off the extinction of species or extending human fertility — but also be delaying critical action on climate change.
A former medical doctor and public health researcher in indigenous health settings in Australia, Prof Kowal’s work focuses on two major anthropological streams: indigenous health and Australian race relations; and the social study of genomics, biomedical research, bioethics and public health, particularly in under- standing the implications of the increasing use of genetic science for indigenous health and ancestry.
The author of Trapped in the Gap: Doing Good in Indigenous Australia, Prof Kowal recently co-edited Cryopolitics: Frozen Life in a Melting World, a collection of essays from experts in anthropology, history of science, environmental humanities, and indigenous studies examining the political and cultural consequences of extending life and deferring death through freezing.
Prof Kowal co-edited the book with long-term collaborator Prof Joanna Radin, an expert in the history of science and medicine from Yale University in the US.
She said her Harrison Lecture would be a “reflective talk” on subjects raised in the book, as well her own work in this area.
The Harrison Lecture will be held at St Mary’s Library and Research Centre, 192 Myers St, Geelong, on Thursday at 5pm and will be followed by the presentation of the fifth annual Barry Jones Medal.
Awarded to the person who has done the most to promote Geelong as a place of research and innovation in the past year, the medal will be presented by the man himself, Australian Living Treasure, Barry Jones AC.
Australia’s longest serving science minister, Geelongborn Dr Jones is also a writer, lawyer, broadcaster and social activist.
As well as the Harrison Lecture and Barry Jones Medal, Research Week features a number of other highlights, including two public forums — the first on doctor-patient communication with Deakin School of Medicine’s Prof Peter Martin, and the second on childhood obesity with Prof Steve Allender from the Global Obesity Centre.
This year’s Research Week also features Inaugural Professorial Lectures from professors Felice Jacka (director, Food and Mood Centre) and Peter Vuillermin (Deakin School of Medicine) and a Barwon Health and Deakin University panel discussion on physician-assisted dying.
All events are free, but registration is essential.
To view the full calendar of events and to register, visit http://bit.ly/BDRWevents