Australia is a country with a rich history of developing unique and creative products and services. Thousands of years ago, boomerangs and woomeras were invented for hunting by Indigenous Australians. Did you know that in the last 170 years, the following products were invented in Australia?

• Mechanical ice‐maker (1854)

• Electric drill (1889)

• Automatic Totalisator for betting on horse races (1913)

• Aspro (1915)

• Rotary clothes hoist (1911)

• The heart pacemaker (1926)

• The black box flight recorder (1950s)

• The ultrasound scanner (1961)

• Saltwater pool chlorination system (1970s)

• The cochlear implant (1979)

• The baby safety capsule (1984)

• In‐vitro fertilisation (IVF) (1984)

• Plastic bank notes (1988)

• Multi‐focal contact lenses (1992)

• The underwater computer (1993)

• Relenza (the world’s first anti‐flu drug) (1996)

• The skin polarprobe® (1998)

• Biodegradable packaging (2000)

• The cervical cancer vaccine (2006)

• Wi‐fi hotspots (2009)

One of Australia’s greatest inventions has been the cochlear implant. Australia is a mining country, and in this area, national innovations have included the first fully integrated two‐way mine emergency communication system, the first automated system for mapping the minerals in drill cores, and new methods of rehabilitation on mine sites. Australian firms develop about 60 per cent of the world’s mining software.

In medicine, perhaps one of the best known recent innovations was the breakthrough made in the treatment of ulcers by the University of Western Australia’s Barry Marshall and Robin Warren. They won a Nobel Prize for Medicine, by demonstrating that ulcers are very often caused by bacteria rather than stress, as was previously commonly believed. This is a case study in resistance to change, because they threatened the subject matter being taught in medical schools and also the profits of pharmaceutical companies. Previously, cessation of treatment would sometimes see ulcers return, meaning that sufferers might have to be on drugs for the rest of their lives. In their Nobel Prize citation, it was noted that with ‘tenacity and a prepared mind, [they] challenged prevailing dogmas’.

QUESTION

How do you think the medical profession and pharmaceutical industry would have tried to discredit the professors’ innovative theory?

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