Comments for Science aloud - April 2008 at http://www.sciencewa.net.au , comment 1 to 1 out of 1 comments http://www.sciencewa.net.au Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:10:15 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.sciencewa.net.au/technology/94/2115-science-aloud-april-2008#comment-141 During the early part of 1943, radio astronomy began to develop in Australia, principally in New South Wales and for a considerable number of years on, that is more or less where it stayed. As far as Western Australia was concerned radio astronomy research was largely left to a couple of amateur radio astronomers. When ever we questioned authorities for a reason for this lack of interest in W.A. we were told that the reasons were logistical and financial. For 60 years N.S.W. received many millions of dollars for Radio Astronomy research, on the other hand W.A received virtually nothing. The governments, in keeping with sound scientific practice, issued grants for radio astronomy research to the states, using the inverse square law. The grants monies were issued thus, " Inversely Proportional the the Square of the Distance from Canberra." With out regular commonwealth grants ( which we are entitled to) Western Australia will not move forward in this science. It must remembered, that any potential radio astronomer in W.A for many years now has invariably been forced to move to the eastern states, to further their career. Are we going to continue to repeat this? - Brian Sallur Tue, 29 Apr 2008 18:13:43 +0100