Belinda Smith

Oh, for sure.

I mean, a line that gets trotted out often is Australian scientists and researchers and engineers punch above their weight.

Yeah.

But they've done so much with so little, and there's only so long that a system under strain can operate before it collapses.

What's your outlook for the future?

If you were told every five years you had to apply for your job and you had a 9% success rate of holding onto your job, would you be in that position?

Would you take that job?

I also asked the Minister about an issue that we've been following on the Science Show for a couple of weeks, the government's recent decision not to pursue full membership of the European Southern Observatory.

This would have given Australian astronomers access to top-of-the-line optical telescopes in Chile, including the Extremely Large Telescope, which is on track to start observing the universe in 2030.

What sort of future opportunities are we talking here, specifically for optical telescopes?

Well, we have some domestic capability opportunities

And I guess that would be the Anglo-Australian telescope at Coonabarabran.

Will you commit to ongoing funding of that facility?

So, Robin, you've seen, I counted, 28 science ministers during the 50-ish years of the science show.

Given this relatively high turnover of science ministers, is this one reason why we don't really see much progress in terms of things like increasing success rates for research funding?

And you're listening to The Science Show on ABC Radio National.

I remember when I was in high school, my physics teacher was also my rowing teacher.

And so he used to combine the two in classes.

It was really cool.

Now, before we go, we were saddened by the news that zoologist and author Desmond Morris passed away in April, aged 98.