Robin Williams

What would we miss, practically speaking, in the science?

And yes, 18% of what we spend on space has industrial and other benefits, as Professor Brian Schmidt just indicated.

And he did see the minister who then agreed, and I quote, yes, perhaps we should do more for our astronomers.

Well, Bell, you've been to see some of those.

What did they say?

Thanks, Bill.

And as we indicated before, this astronomy is not only of massive scientific interest, it also underpins industry, from farming, fire control through to navigation.

This is the Science Show on Radio National, and so we turn to science very much linked to navigation, all in one of the best books I've read this year, with terrific stories and noble heroes.

It's called Plotting the Oceans, Stories of Powerful Maps and Their Makers, written by Professor Sarah Hamilton from the University of Wollongong.

My first question, Sarah, about your marvellous book.

It really is wonderful to read.

And I think you established fairly quickly in the beginning that you're not the sort of person who's sitting there in a remote mission control looking at screens.

Before we go to some of the stories in your book, a question about something that you write about with James Cook, who is a very wonderful navigator and so on.

When he first turned up in this district, unfortunately, the astronomer on the ship, the Endeavour, was unwell, and so they couldn't get their star bearings quite right.

And I was always puzzled, how does someone make a bit of a map, even back then, in a way that's at all accurate?

How do you get your bearings, apart from dead reckoning, looking out onto the coastline?

all eyes and all other senses working so your first story involves a 26 year old fellow called charles who going around the world galapagos and such like he was still to travel another two years and come back when he was 28 but he was trying to fathom

literally, where reefs come from.

Barrier reefs, other reefs, and so on.

Do they come up, or do they go down, or do they just sink from the surface?