[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-150026-en":3,"doc-seo-150026-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":88},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":4,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":11,"language":21,"language_code":22,"site_id":23,"html_lang":22,"table_of_contents":24,"faqs":25,"seo_title":26,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},150026,8796095462418,"Noah","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/80000253c1241d02b47?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1778826106357471780",2,"Literature","Substantia 4-5 - Goodnight and Goodluck - The End of a Building at the Australian National University","A reflective editorial records the demolition of the former Applied Maths Building at the Australian National University, emphasizing what the building enabled for decades of interdisciplinary research and collaboration. It traces the site’s transformation from the Department of Geophysics and Geochemistry to the Research School of Earth Sciences, then to Applied Mathematics, highlighting landmark scientific contributions and international impact. The editorial frames the loss as a symbolic act, questions the priorities behind campus decisions, and argues that the research legacy should endure beyond the physical structure.","Firenze University Press [www.fupress.com/substantia](www.fupress.com/substantia)  \nEditorial  \nGoodnight and Goodluck1 :  \nThe End ofa Building atthe Australian National University 2  \nMay 31 marked the end of the old Applied Maths Building at ANU.  \nWe moved into it in 1971, 47 years ago. For about twenty years before that it had already been home to the famous Department of Geophysics and Geochemistry. Before the war, when both Lake Burley Griffin and ANU were dreams, there were nurses quarters close by and the old hospital. This building has been a center of research for 70 years: there from the very beginning of ANU. With a magnificent view over the Lake and the Brindabella mountains, the building occupied a prime site on campus, where the Freeway crosses the creek. Before that the Ngunawal peoples who owned this country forever caught fish where the Molonglo river turned and passed by Black Mountain. There was no asbestos. The building worked very effectively for collaboration between scientists. It had been declared a major heritage site twice. No building will replace it for the foreseeable future. Academics will just have to double and triple up.  \nIts demolition is a significant, symbolic act of barbarism.  \nAs Henry Lawson suggested: “Something ought tobe said. We should have a party or something”.  \nThere are some lines from Hamlet that are apt.  \n“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below; Words without thoughts never to heaven go”.  \nThoughts, not words. That’s the thing .  \nApart from lamenting the good old days, as one does, why on earth could it matter - for the future of universities?  \nFirst of all remember that in those early times the ANU was an Institute of Advanced Studies, a place of cutting edge research, a place in which undergraduate teaching was a diversion from the main game, and not allowed.  \nAnd research was done in this building of a quality no one imagined.  \nIt was first the ANU Dept. of Geophysics and Geochemistry founded by the eminent applied mathemati-  \ncian, John Jaeger. Later it became the Research School of Earth Sciences, one of the leading Schools in its disciplines in the world. For nearly twenty years they did their work here.  \nTed Ringwood’s high pressure laboratory was the Tower block in the center.  \nFrom that work Ted invented Synroc, a new way of disposing of nuclear waste.  \nThen there was Bill Compston who developed mass spectrometry that began in Western Australia and measured the age of the Earth. Then Merv Patterson was there. And Ross Taylor, known for his analysis of rocks that came back from the moon, and for work on the origin of planets. Paleomagnetism research was so important for Carey’s theory of continental drift. It was still heretical even in the early 1960s.  \nTed’s idea was to put the nuclear waste back into synthetic rocks which resembled those that the uranium originally came from. The competitive technology was to put it inside solid glass and bury it in the ocean. Ted missed out because the competition was owned by Rockwell International which is an organization that makes hydrogen bombs and whose CEO was a friend of President Reagan. Reagan and the Head of Rockwell had adjoining ranches in California. Rockwell pushed glass disposal. Glass won but to no good purpose because thesea water cracked the glass. If Ted had won, the world would have been a better place.  \nAfter Earth Sciences moved, our Department of Applied Mathematics came in. It made a lot of remarkable contributions in the Natural Sciences over the years. And a lot of applied experimental and development work was done over and above only mathematics. We were scientists and engineers who worked in the enabling disciplines, physical, colloid and surface chemistry that underlie all of biology and chemical engineering.  \nFor example the Department’s laboratories did the first measurements on molecular forces, something Isaac Newton tried to do in the 1600s and failed. It did  \nSubstantia. An In","cbCaifkQ2HBwVYp4","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaifkQ2HBwVYp4","pdf",172492,1,"English","en",105,"# Editorial\n## Goodnight and Goodluck: The end of the Applied Maths Building\n## Research legacy across geosciences and applied mathematics\n## Demolition, heritage, and the future of universities","[{\"question\":\"What event is discussed in the editorial?\",\"answer\":\"The editorial discusses the end and demolition of the old Applied Maths Building at the Australian National University and the move into the building in the early 1970s.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the editorial describe the building’s historical research role?\",\"answer\":\"It presents the building as a long-standing research center, linking major work in geosciences and applied mathematics, including influential laboratory achievements and international collaborations.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the editorial criticize the demolition decision?\",\"answer\":\"It calls the demolition a significant, symbolic act, questioning why a functioning heritage-like research space is removed while funding is being cut and plans for replacement are delayed.\"}]","Substantia 4-5 - 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