Excerpts from IFS and Bits Newsletter of the Institute of Fundamental Sciences
			Newsletter No 34     20 February 2001 Edited by: Terri M Palmer Index Messages from the Head of Institute Songs of Praise Best Wishes, Phil Geometric Integration Workshop at La Trobe University Engineering Services Workshop Emeritus Professor Robert Brooks Congratulations Padma Shona's Summer Vacation Welcome's and Farewell's Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Honolulu Thanks This Month's Puzzles   MESSAGES FROM THE HEAD OF INSTITUTE Senior Tutor Appointments in Electronics Part of our plans for 2001 was the appointment of a 0.75 FTSE Senior Tutor in Electronics. I am pleased to say that we have made two appointments - Moi Tin Chew and Malcolm Bowling. Each has been appointed on a 0.5 FTSE basis. Moi Tin will be jointly funded by IFS and I2S&T. We are delighted by the appointment of both of these members of staff and by the increasingly close links we are establishing with Bob Hodgson and his staff in the area of electronics teaching. Our numbers in electronics have tripled this year and the extra staffing will be crucial to the continued high level of teaching that we provide in these programmes. Again, welcome Malcolm and Moi Tin. We really are delighted to have you back in IFS. Discipline Leader of Physics Staff will be aware that the number of staff in the Physics Discipline is now at such a level that it is difficult to maintain a full teaching programme. Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately), there is no 700-level teaching this year and so teaching loads will remain at their usual high but perhaps acceptable level. In contrast, 2002 will see a massive increase in teaching loads (when 700-level teaching is resumed) unless the staffing situation can be improved. Since I, as HoI, must take a major degree of responsibility for the difficult situation in which we find ourselves I have decided to take on the role of Discipline Leader in Physics for part or all of this year. There are a number of reasons for this decision, which has not been taken lightly. I understand the concern that chemists and mathematicians might have under the circumstances, but this is definitely a short-term measure. I will be trying to highlight the crucial issues facing physics (and the Institute) and doing everything I can to increase the staffing to a sustainable level. I believed that this would be too much to expect of anyone else. Just prior to Christmas we convened three special meetings to discuss the future of Physics and to draw up a blueprint for future development. This has been forwarded to the PVC for consideration. In summary, the issues faced by Physics are large ones, but ones that can be overcome. I already have some ideas on one approach but it's a little too early at this stage to discuss this in any detail. I wish to express my appreciation to Neil Pinder for undertaking the role of Discipline Leader over the past year or so and for the many contributions that he has made over that period. No one can pretend that the job is an easy one but he has strived at all times to improve the lot of the physicist within the Institute. Thank you Neil. Wedding Bells Good news, good news!! Two members of staff have recently got married. o Grant and Sue Platt on 20 January o Mark and Gillian Hunter on 17 February I am sure that all of you will join with me in wishing them well for their future lives together. Marriage is a wonderful institution but it does have its challenges from time-to-time. We are sure nontheless that both couples will overcome any obstacle placed in their path and will have a very happy life together. Congratulations again to both couples. John Ayers: Intellectual Property Agreement Everyone will know that John has achieved enormous success in his area of resin chemistry. The University has recently signed an important intellectual property License agreement that will see his processes used further in the Dairy Industry. While it is too early to put an exact figure on the income that this will derive for John, the University and the Institute there is little doubt that it will be highly significant for all concerned. Success such as this represents a tremendous effort by John and his team over the course of many years and I know that you are as delighted as I am by these latest developments. Once again, we have an example of basic research that has led to a commercial product worth millions of dollars in export earnings for New Zealand. Congratulations John. We really are extremely proud of you. Welcome Home Mike Hendy Mike and Beth Hendy have just returned from their 10 months in Germany. From all accounts they have had a very successful time and Mike has developed a number of important contacts in the area of bioinformatics. Mike is returning in his new capacity as Discipline Leader in Mathematics and will be moving shortly into Robert McKibbin's old office. This is a good opportunity to thank Gillian Thornley and Mike Carter for covering the period between Robert's departure and Mike's arrival. Many thanks to both of you for your efforts in keeping maths ticking over during this period. Robert Brooks Staff were greatly saddened by the recent passing of Robert Brooks. As a scientist he contributed enormously to the world literature, and in his field he had few peers. Indeed, his talents were recognised by the Royal Society of New Zealand when he was awarded Fellowship some years back. Robert's contribution to Massey University has probably been without parallel. He contributed at a very high level over almost forty years and the recognition that he gained for his work contributed significantly to the development of science in general and chemistry in particular at this university. As a person Robert always proved extraordinarily helpful to his many postgraduate students and, indeed, he has set many young people on their career path. As a raconteur and wit Robert kept us entertained and he will be sorely missed by his many friends and colleagues in this Institute. A more formal tribute to Robert has been included in this edition in IFS & Bits. MacDiarmid Visit It is hoped that Professor Allan MacDiarmid, recent Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, will visit the Institute on Tuesday 3 July. Current ideas suggest that he may give the College of Sciences a special address that afternoon and that the local branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand will host him for an evening talk at the Science Centre. I would emphasise that this programme is not yet confirmed but I have high hopes that it will eventuate along the lines suggested. It would certainly be a great honour to have him visit us again and it would, I am sure, prove to be one of the highlights of 2001. Phil Etheridge As you will know Phil recently left IFS and joined I2S&T. We wish him well in his new venture and we are confident that he will rise to the new challenges. On behalf of the Institute I wish to express my appreciation to Phil for his fine work in the area of software support. We will certainly miss his contributions but he will not be that far away from us should any emergency arise. In the short term we will be covering Phil's duties in other ways and information on this has been provided to the Mathematics Discipline by Bob O'Driscoll. Catch-Up Courses The Catch-Up Courses in Calculus, Chemistry and Physics went off extremely well again this year, thanks to the hard work put in by our Tutors - Josine van Melsem, Christine Burr and Jennie McKelvie - and by the Course Administrator, Tracey Royds. The Demonstrators - Karen Lyons, Ben Parkinson and Adrian Kitson - also played a key role in the success of these courses. Many thanks to everyone for another successful venture that will result in a welcome injection of monies into our Graduate Research Fund. David Parry Songs of Praise On Saturday, 2 December 2000 a performance of the Bach B minor Mass was presented at the Regent Theatre by the combined forces of the Manawatu Choral Society, the Renaissance Singers, and the Manawatu Symphonia all under the direction of Graham Parsons. The music critic of the Evening Standard and the audience were fulsome in their praises for what was an excellent interpretation of this difficult choral work. The Institute was well represented on the Regent stage by, in order of decreasing frequency, Jennie McKelvie (soprano), Robert McKibbin (tenor), and myself (bass). There were also several institute members in the audience, some of whom even managed to get the starting time correct. Those unlucky people who missed the B minor mass have the opportunity to attend the next performance of the Choral Society on 5 May 2001 and listen in wonder to the sublime Motzart Requiem and the operatic Rossini Stabat Mater. Roger Reeves is so determined to attend that he has delayed his trip to France until the date after the performance. Ken Jolley Best Wishes, Phil Phil Etheridge left IFS on 26 January this year to take up a position in the Institute of Information Sciences & Technology on the Turitea Campus. He joined the School of Mathematical & Information Sciences (SMIS) at Massey University in 1992 as part of the computing support team, continued into the ensuing Faculty of Information & Mathematical Sciences (FIMS) and, upon the formation of the College of Sciences at the end of 1997, transferred to the Institute of Fundamental Sciences (IFS) where he was the scientific software support person within Specialist Services. Phil had a particular responsibility supporting computers and computing in Mathematics, but about half of his work in IFS was devoted more widely to the Institute as a whole - it is safe to say that his job brought him into contact with almost everybody in IFS in one way or another. Many staff appreciated Phil's assistance on individual Macs or PCs, particularly with the use of Latex, Matlab or Maple software. He spent considerable amounts of time on the maintenance and upgrading of network facilities and on giving useful advice to users. When a troubleshooter was needed, Phil was the man to whom we looked in the first instance. Phil was attentive to professional development. Within the administration of IFS, he served on the Computer & Equipment Committee. At University level, he became considerably involved on the local branch committee of the AUS. Another item among Phil's contributions may be remembered by coffee drinkers as his "legacy" to IFS, that is, his determined drive for decent coffee. His push for, and his readiness to oversee the use of, good coffee-making machines is certainly appreciated. Phil was socially energetic, being a regular supporter of IFS functions, and his exploits on a mountain bike left one breathless at the thought! For all the contributions he has made to the life of the Institute, for his collegiality and friendship, we thank Phil most warmly and extend best wishes to him in his new position. A morning tea function for Phil was held on 25 January 2001. Dean Halford GEOMETRIC INTEGRATION WORKSHOP AT LA TROBE UNIVERSITY 10-16 DECEMBER 2000 As many of you know, the small hours are a buzz of activity down at the Palmerston North International Airport. The cursive neon sign might be more suitable for Miami Beach and I don't think the climate has ever fooled me, but at least you can be guaranteed to run into someone you know. On this occasion four mathematicians (Robert McLachlan, Matt Perlmutter, Seung-Hee Joo, and Brett Ryland) off to a conference met all the McKibbins and Ganesalingams seeing their daughters off to Melbourne. Our meeting, the "ANU Symposium on Geometric Integration", aka "Nerd Camp", was a great success. The secret seems to be to organize it yourself just the way you like it, and invite all your friends. To try and stop everyone spending too much time enjoying Melbourne, mainly Matt, we ate dinner at the La Trobe College and had a few talks afterwards, with the afternoons off for "discussions". I recommend these ANU Symposia as a good way of getting conference funding. If you have an Australian colleague, the ANU will give you A$7500 for a conference held in Canberra, or A$5000 for one elsewhere in Australia. (We thought $2500 was a small price to pay to swap Lake Burley-Griffin for Brunswick Street.) In this "Geometric Integration" game, really a branch of computational physics, we try to design numerical methods that preserve any or all underlying geometric structure of the equations, such as symmetries, or the space they live in, such as a Lie group. Most of the 35 participants were on the numerical analysis side, but to stop us getting carried away, there were applications people in molecular dynamics, celestial mechanics, accelerator physics, and commercial software. Since numerics people are looking for new areas to develop, and funding agencies love the applications, this apple cart looks set to run for a few more years at least. The conference dinner was a rustic barbecue in the 100 ha wilderness area at La Trobe University. (The wine cost far, far more than the barbecue, which is surely how things should be.) Before leaving I had watched "Dead Ringers" on video (identical twin gynaecologists). Arriving in Melbourne, my friend Robyn told me about taking her ute to identical twin mechanics. I was therefore slightly disconcerted by the sight of identical twin ZZ-top-lookalike barbecuers at the dinner. Perhaps, with the increase in world population, same-job identical triplets can't be far away? Afterwards, the rangers took us flashlighting. Our group saw brush-tailed possums, bats, and boxing kangaroos. Matt's group saw a big ant. Another highlight was a trip to the south coast, walking along a beautifully wild and undeveloped landscape, followed by the penguin parade. Some of the penguins looked suspiciously alike to me. Robert McLachlan ENGINEERING SERVICES WORKSHOP On 26 February 2001 Steve Denby will be leaving the Institute for three months to commence special training with the New Zealand army, for a possible deployment to East Timor, leaving early in May for six months. Steve will be with the New Zealand Battalion group number 4, Field Engineering Troop, which specialise in water supply and purification, road repair, building repair and maintenance. At this stage the Government is still to confirm that Battalion number 4 will deployed but that training must continue. As the New Zealand Army are encouraging Territorial Force soldiers to participate in duty overseas, Steve has taken up this opportunity. I am sure we all wish him well. Barry Evans Emeritus Professor Robert Brooks It is with great sadness that we record the death of Robert Brooks on Tuesday 23 January 2001. Robert was a member of the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department for many years. He was a distinguished international scholar and an eccentric in the grand style. The stories he related in the tea room are the stuff of legend, and those of us who were fortunate enough to hear them need only certain key words to initiate bouts of laughter. The following are tributes to Robert the scientist, Robert the friend and Robert the man of action. Unfortunately, they only scratch the surface of his extraordinary and colourful life. Indeed, it would require a literary work of many (unexpurgated) volumes to do justice to Robert's life and achievements. Born in Bristol, England, in 1926, Robert Brooks received his school education in Sheffield before returning to Bristol to take employment during World War II. He was called into the British Army late in the war, and saw postwar service in East Africa and the Middle East. Back in the UK, he entered the University of Bristol, from which he graduated in Chemistry in 1952. After experience as an industrial chemist in the zinc smelting and printing industries, Robert travelled to South Africa, where he carried out his PhD studies with the noted geochemist Louis Ahrens, working on ion-exchange separations and emission spectrographic analysis. This early work in analytical chemistry became the basis of his future career in both teaching and research. Leaving what he foresaw as certain turmoil in South Africa in 1960, Robert took a lectureship in Chemistry at Massey, where he was based for the remainder of his career. His international contributions to science were recognised at Massey by the award of a DSc in 1977 and a personal chair in Geochemistry in 1987. He was elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1996. Although Robert formally retired from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in 1991, this was a retirement in name only. As Professor Emeritus and Honorary Research Fellow in what evolved into Soil and Earth Sciences in the Institute of Natural Resources, he continued the pursuit of his research interests for another nine years. Through the 1960s Robert developed his interests in elemental analysis, particularly by atomic spectroscopic methods, and was always searching for ways of applying his analytical knowledge to practical problems in many fields - archaeology, mineral exploration, environmental pollution, and the uptake of trace elements by plants and animals. (His 1965 paper with M.G. Rumsby on metal accumulation in shellfish organs subsequently became a Current Contents "Citation Classic".) Over many years Robert and his students and colleagues worked on the relationship between elemental concentrations in soils and the plants they supported, initially with a particular interest in the possibility of using plant analysis in prospecting for, and delineating, mineral deposits. In the late 1960s, a visit to Dun Mountain, one of New Zealand's best-known serpentine soil sites, kindled an enthusiasm for the study of serpentine floras. Shortly afterwards, in the course of a biogeochemical survey of nickel prospects in Western Australia, extremely high nickel accumulation by Hybanthus floribundus was discovered; such behaviour was previously known only in three species of Alyssum. The interest in nickel accumulation was reinforced by a chance meeting with Dr Tanguy Jaffré, working with ORSTOM in New Caledonia, which led to a long period of collaborative work on many aspects of the island's serpentine endemic flora. For almost 30 years Robert Brooks, Roger Reeves and their students and collaborators have carried out a large amount of analytical work on soils and plants from both serpentine and other metalliferous areas in many parts of the world. A notable feature of the work was the use of herbarium specimens, as well as samples collected directly from the field. The work carried out at Massey has been responsible for establishing about 85% of the world's 330 known nickel hyperaccumulating species, and most of the smaller numbers of instances of accumulation of copper and cobalt. It was particularly gratifying to Robert that in the last few years there has been an upsurge of interest in the potential for using metal-tolerant plants in general, and metal hyperaccumulators in particular, to help in solving various kinds of metal-contamination problems arising from industries such as mining and smelting. In recent times, special interest from the news media followed his work on encouraging plants growing on areas of goldmine tailings to increase their minute uptake of gold through chemical modification of the soil. At the time of his death, Robert was on the point of being awarded a research grant by the National Geographic Society (USA) for studies of the flora of the copper- and gold-bearing areas over a range of altitudes from 1700-5000 m on Puncak Jaya in West Irian. Roger Reeves has now been asked by the research director of the Society to become Principal Investigator of the project, to ensure that it goes ahead. Robert's analytical talents were also used to investigate geological and cosmological problems, as shown by his publications on trace elements (especially noble metals) in iron meteorites and in clay samples from Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary sites, where the presence of a thin layer of extraterrestrial material can be inferred from the unusually high noble-metal content. Robert's fluency in languages (French, German and Russian, in particular), and his correspondence with a wide circle of scientists, helped him to develop research interests that took him to many parts of the world (Australia, New Caledonia, Sri Lanka, Canada, USA, Brazil and other parts of South America, Zaïre, China, USSR, and several countries in Europe). He was supervisor or co-supervisor of the work of about 45 research students. Together with his many New Zealand and overseas collaborators, Robert produced an impressive list of about 300 publications, including ten books. His 1987 book 'Serpentine and its Vegetation' is now the standard starting point for all who wish to enter this field of research. His books are testimony to the enormous amount of work that Robert did in collating, reading, interpreting and summarizing the literature in a variety of fields, and the scientific world is greatly indebted to him for turning his energies and talents in this direction. (Sadly, his autobiography will never appear alongside the rest of his books - it could have become a best seller, and would have more than matched everything written by David Niven, Peter Ustinov, Bill Bryson et al.) All those who worked with Robert remember him for his ceaseless energy, his ability to turn ideas into work accomplished, his fund of anecdotes, his uncanny knack of encountering (and generating) problems while travelling or in the field, the speed with which solutions to the problems were found, and the delight with which he told and retold his adventures. A rare quality was the special pleasure he reserved for the recounting of experiences where he was the victim of his own impulsiveness. In all of these ways Robert Brooks was a most stimulating friend and colleague who will live on through many memories and stories, and through a remarkable legacy of discovery and published work. Roger Reeves and Ken Jolley Pool with Robert Most Fridays for several years I would get a phone-call from Robert - "Ah, Kitters. Miy igrayem na poolye?" [Russian for "Are we playing pool?] - and at half past four we would meet at Wharerata for a quick knock and a drink (for Robert, never anything but orange juice) before he would buzz off on his moped ("Mustn't keep Swhombo waiting."). He would always graciously enquire about the latest news of his erstwhile colleagues in Chemistry ("Who's shagging whom? Eh, eh?") and stories and jokes would flow freely (even very occasionally new ones), all of them achieving a score on a Politically Correct scale from nought to ten of about - well, nought, actually. A poor shot was a "girly shot"; the black ball was addressed as "you bleck borstard" (in a South African accent). Latterly Robert welcomed my son Adrian to our pool sessions ("I've been playing this game since your ass was no bigger than a shirt-button, Chummy") and the fact that they got on so well together (with an age disparity of about 56) speaks volumes for Robert's eternally boyish sense of humour and gung-ho attitude to life. Ade could be forgiven for thinking that the rules of pool make it mandatory to shout "Oh, f**k a duck!" after every missed ball, and when he himself missed the pocket he was regularly castigated with "I hope your aim is a bit better on your wedding night, Mush". For a man of such boundless cerebral talents, Robert was extraordinarily fond of the unsophisticated pastime of pool, and for someone his age and with sight in only one eye he did in fact become quite accomplished at it. I shall miss our games. I visited Robert in hospital and told him that the Staff Club had recently got rid of the pool table, trying to make a joke of it ("Bad news for you, Brooks - this'll finish you off, you old git, no point in getting better now"). I'd like to think of him on Fridays in the future giving the Archangel a call - "Ah, Gabers, are we playing with our balls today? Eh, eh?". Trevor Kitson Robert's Approach to Problem Solving The following story, written by Robert's daughter Susannah, was related by Ken Jolley during Robert's eulogy. It is a wonderful illustration of the way in which Robert went about "getting things done". Now is the time to tell of the swimming pool. Upon Father's impending retirement, he decided a fitting initial project would be to fill in the swimming pool that he now seldom used. Firstly he asked all and sundry to bring around their garden and building waste to dump into the pool. This, however, barely covered the bottom. Following a trademark brainwave, Father decided to fill the pool with trade-in refrigerators and washing machines from Leader and Watt (who were more than happy to oblige). The initial rubble, however was not a suitable foundation for white goods so Father, who enjoyed a good fire, decided to "burn the rubbish down". After dousing the bottom of the pool with petrol, Father, an avid anti-smoker, found he had no matches. A journey to the Blue Moon dairy was required. Upon returning (say 20 minutes later), the petrol had vaporised nicely covering all the plant and industrial waste. Father, the acclaimed chemist, struck a match and threw it into the pool. The resulting explosion took out the upstairs windows in our house, our neighbour's house and part of the leg of the young Chinese student who had come to assist. Father, hoping to conceal the calamity from his beloved Swhombo, acted fast. The glaziers were called, the neighbours appeased and the student rushed off to Accident and Emergency before Mother returned from the hairdresser's. Perhaps the great man of science is fallible after all. Ken Jolley Congratulations Padma Congratulations to Padma Senarath who successfully completed her MSc last year with the thesis "Fundamentals of Riemannian Geometry and its Evolution" (supervisor Gillian Thornley). Padma is now provisionally enrolled in a PhD programme and we are glad to have her continuing as a Graduate Assistant in Mathematics. Gillian Thornley SHONA'S SUMMER VACATION During the Summer I spent eight weeks at the University of Sydney, under a Vacation Research Scholarship, doing research on Coxeter Groups and topics related to them with Assoc. Prof. Bob Howlett as my supervisor. We investigated whether the symmetric bilinear form of a graph had a non-zero radical or the contrary. From this valuable experience, I also picked up some tips on the important technique of writing reports in a textbook manner. I am honoured to have met other mathematicians in a well-known Australian University. Besides this, it was a great pleasure to experience the multi-cultural and active lifestyle of Sydney, which made a big impression on me. I hope to pursue further research in this fascinating area in the near future. Shona Yu, Millennium List Student 2000 WELCOME'S AND FAREWELL'S WELCOME TO WILL BARKER Dr. Will Barker has recently joined Carol Taylor's research group in the new laboratory in Tower A. Will completed a BSc in Chemistry (USA) at Leicester University. As the name of the degree suggests, he spent a year in the USA at Colorado State University where he took a combination of final year degree and postgraduate courses and then stayed on to teach summer school. From 1997-2000 he was enrolled in the PhD programme at Leicester University. He worked with Dr. Paul Jenkins, developing new techniques for the annulation of carbohydrates and investigating chiral catalysis in photochemical ring closure. At Massey, Will's research is concerned with the development of novel cell adhesion molecule antagonists as potential anti-inflammatory agents. His position is funded by the HRC and is part of a collaborative venture between Carol Taylor and Associate-Professor Geoffrey Krissansen of the Department of Molecular Medicine at the University of Auckland. Carol Taylor WELCOME BACK MALCOLM BOWLING Malcolm has returned to Massey to take up a half-time Senior Tutor position teaching Electronics. He was previously the Director of the Certech Learning Centre until it was disestablished. In this position and in his help with Physics and Electronics teaching he was well-known for his commitment to student learning. We are pleased to have him back. Rod Lambert WELCOME BACK TONI, FAREWELL PRU A big welcome back also to Toni Wilson who returned on 5 February 2001 after six months Parental Leave. In turn we would like to say farewell to Pru Pim who was Secretary to Paul Callaghan during Toni's absence. We wish Pru well in her future endeavours. Terri Palmer NEW GRADUATE STUDENTS The Institute would like to welcome the following new graduate students in chemistry 700-level classes: Amy Ballantyne, Jamine Jury, Kurt McBeth, Alexandra Park, Patricia Shields, Amy Watson and Grant Fabish. We would also like to wish them all the best for their studies. Andrew Brodie LOS ANGELES, LAS VEGAS AND HONOLULU Jon and I spent the last two weeks of January in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Honolulu. We spent most of our time in Los Angeles doing all the typical tourist things, such as Disneyland, Universal Studios, Los Angeles downtown tour including the Chinese Theatre and Santa Monica and of course shopping!! We also managed to take a bus trip down to San Diego Zoo. We had heaps of fun at Disneyland, where we met up with Jon's brother and his partner, Vicki, who were on their way home after spending 2 1/2 years in England and touring around various places doing their OE. We managed to pick one of the wettest days, however, and were very lucky to be one of many to get totally drenched on several of the rides. The best ride had to be "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" - where you had the terrible feeling you were going to get trampled by a huge boulder. At Universal Studios it did not have to be raining for you to get drenched. I definitely recommend the "Jurassic Park" ride where you will not only get slightly wet, you will get absolutely saturated. The plastic bag coats that they sell for US 75c are a must and even then you are very lucky if you do not get soaked. From Los Angeles we went onto Las Vegas which is an amazing city. Slot machines and game tables wherever you turn - even in the airport terminal. Our Hotel was full of them and it had its own Wedding Chapel and roller coaster (inside). While in Las Vegas we were meant to have an air and ground tour of the Grand Canyon. However, it was too icy for the plane to land at the southern end of the canyon. We were lucky enough though to have a 1 1/2 hour scenic tour instead. Let us just say that the scenery was awesome but small planes in motion are not my specialty - I was sick twice! I do not regret going up though and I recommend the flight to anyone as the view was magnificent. Jon bought a T-shirt saying "I flew the Canyon" - I think I should have got one saying "I spewed the Canyon"! Hawaii was great and we managed to do a bit more shopping and a lot of relaxing. We also did a tour of Pearl Harbour and Honolulu. The Pearl Harbour tour was very moving and interesting. They showed you a movie of the bombing and you were then ferried out to the site of the memorial of the USS Arizona. When we got into Auckland we were pleased to be back in New Zealand after many tiring flights (plus I managed to get a cold - flying and colds definitely do not mix). However, our experiences had not finished there. The gorgeous black Labrador that was walking around, aka the drug dog, decided we had drugs in one of our bags and it jumped up on me - very scary! So we had to have our bag searched. We did not realise but usually they search all your bags - we had four big bags and two little bags (all that shopping!!) so thought we were going to be there forever. The Customs Officer, however, found nothing in the first bag and decided that we were not the drug carrying type so let us go without doing the rest. Now that was not a great experience. It is very nerve racking wondering if someone has planted drugs on you without you knowing! Terri Palmer Thanks On behalf of the Publicity Committee I would like to thank Brian Ford for his suggestion that an acknowledgement of the careers of the scientists that the Marsden and Aston Lecture Theatre are named after should be made in the foyers to the theatres. Brian proposed that more than just the photos of the two men should be used and that addition information about the careers of these early New Zealand Scientists should also be included. The Publicity Committee willingly took up Brian's proposal and the results can now be seen outside the theatres. Thank you Brian for your creative suggestion. Paul Buckley Convenor Publicity Committee   This Month's Puzzles Puzzle No. 1 In the closing days of World War II, your enemy is hiding in a line of n foxholes. You can shoot at any of the holes, which either kills him (if he was in that hole) or prompts him to move to an adjacent hole. Give a strategy which guarantees a hit after a minimum number of shots. (Example: for 3 holes, fire twice at the central hole.) Robert McLachlan Puzzle No. 2 Start with the number of the month that you were born. Multiply that by 4 Add 13 Multiply by 25 Subtract 200 Add the day of the month you were born. (1-31) Multiply by 2 Subtract 40 Multiply by 50 Add the last two digits of the year you were born. Subtract 10,500 If you did it right, the number you come up with should be your entire birth date (m/d/y)!