For the general reader and listener one of the most valuable avenues of information across our continent is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Radio National which covers areas of interest across the spectrum from the arts, politics, the sciences, the humanities and so much in between. This national investment in public education, knowledge and understanding of the complexities of life was first established in 1932. Through its programs, with access to material down-loaded or recorded through the Internet, all Australians from young to old, everywhere, can have access to ideas, thoughts, feeling which cross-over disciplines. There is understanding that we do not live separate lives unaffected by what is going on around us. The presenters and contributors know they need to be clear enough, without oversimplification, for the listener to gain information and follow up ideas that interest them wherever they may lead.

 

For Challenging the Divide a number of the following programmes, mentioned in the text and listed in the references and further reading, helped to advance my research into and understanding of the connections being made between the arts and the sciences. For example, on ‘The Music Show’ a Professor of Composition valued science in music. ‘Poetica’ in National Science Week, may be influential. It was through ‘Poetica’ that I discovered the existence of Laureate Professor Roald Hoffmann, a quantum chemist Nobel prize winner and I heard part of his poem about Fritz Haber on that program.

 Through ‘Background Briefing’ I discovered Natalie Angier, the American science journalist writing for young people, who was recently awarded the Lewis Thomas Award, established by Rockefeller University, for the literary quality of her writing.She was concerned by the lack of integration of the sciences into the lives of people.

 Through ‘The Science Show’ and ‘Ockham’s Razor’ I heard stories that encouraged me to go further. That was how I discovered Miriam Rothschild, a zoologist who loved the arts, poetry, the visual arts as well as the science to which she had committed her life.  ‘Ockham’s Razor’ brought the Australian educational consultant, Dr Valerie Yule, to my notice. Natasha Mitchell in ‘All in the Mind’ interviewed a scientist and poet who is a contributor to Challenging the Divide. ‘The Book Show’ brings us authors from so many genres. Through ‘The Book Show’ I discovered Richard Holmes, bought and read The Age of Wonder.

Through Radio National I heard the voice of Iggy McGovern, the Associate Professor of Physics at Trinity College, Dublin. He was talking to lecturers and students at Latrobe University about the connections he saw between science and poetry. Both required passionate engagement. A scientist, he was the recipient of the McCrae Literary Award and the Hennessy Literary Award for poetry. As a result, I would buy his collection of poems King of Suburbia, Dedalus Press, Dublin 2005.

 Radio National is constantly bringing information up to date. Programs with different focuses have taken me beyond Australian shores. That is important since so much more of an interdisciplinary nature appears to be happening north of the equator.

 Broadcasting without advertisements has a real advantage. A listener is free to imagine and think about what might be behind the words without any interruption. One listens to the voices. There is no commercial intrusion. Broadcasting cannot fix  images, chosen to make us accept this or that position, on our eyes and in our minds. Visuals, videos, films,, televised documentaries like, for example, ‘Crude’ – the story of oil - have their place but public broadcasting has this particular advantage.

 After listening to Sir Ken Robinson on Radio National, an English consultant about education, now living in USA, I decided to buy the book, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything by Ken  Robinson with Lou Aronica, published by Penguin Books 2009. He sees our Western system of schooling as making our lives, as we age, ‘linear and unidirectional’. [Chapter Nine, Is it too late ? p 203] In her contribution about 'Slim Moulds', Dr Susannah Eliott picks up the importance of the passion we might have for area of study that captures our minds and hearts.

 The website will add references to cross-curricular, interdisciplinary approaches in particular programs from the ABC’s Radio National. For example, a new program ‘Rear vision’ is making Australian listeners more aware of the history behind different developments, for example the story behind the problems in the global fishing industries. 'Future Tense' now encourages listeners to look to future possibilities and consider their impact.

 

The references and further reading section of Challenging the Divide provides even more avenues than are given here.

 Peter C. Doherty, A Light History of Hot Air, Melbourne University Press, 2007

 Tim Flannery, The Weather Makers: The history and future impact of climate change, Text Publishing, Melbourne, Australia, 2005

 Peter Macinnis, Rockets: Sulfur, Sputnik and Scramjets, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, Australia, 2003

 Margaret Wertheim, Pythagoras’ Trousers: God, Physics, and the Gender Wars, Fourth Estate, London, 1997

 Robyn Williams, Future Perfect. What next? And other impossible questions, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest Australia, 2007

 Although not mentioned in Challenging the Divide, the poet, Mark O’Connor, has been a poet in residence in science departments and has provided material for ABC Science Shows.

 On its website the Ultimo Science Festival in Sydney does not yet appear to offer poetry and science.

The latest Cosmos: The Science of Everything  February/March 2010  www.cosmosmagazine.com  contains an article on 'Symbiosis' by Kerensa McElroy, providing evidence of how much in nature, and we are  integral part of nature, supports one another, demonstrating the necessity for cooperation for survival.