Plains' Science: Member offer

The project began in the sesquicentenary year and has just been published by the Branch in association with The Science Centre Inc.  It has received major funding from The Stout Trust, the Royal Society Te Aparangi,and the Eastern & Central Community Trust, enabling free copies to be forwarded to the region’s schools and libraries.  The volume is edited by Emeritus Professor Vince Neall from Massey University.

Plains’ Science is a series of ten local science stories per issue, of scientific discoveries, inventions or innovations that have originated from the Manawatu Plains.  Some of the ideas have become global enterprises, whilst others have changed the way we do things globally. 

Topics include:

• The geological origin of the Manawatu Gorge. 
• A history of the Perendale sheep breed. 
• The history of the development of the New Zealand Controlled Environment Centre that began life as the climate control rooms in the Plant Physiology Division of DSIR.
• The history of the development of meat-freezing technology that began at the Longburn Freezing Works, near Palmerston North.
• The discovery of grass endophytes in relation to ryegrass staggers that began at the Grasslands Division of DSIR in Palmerston North.
• Professor Bob Jolly’s research at Massey University into lysosomal storage diseases in animals tells the story of research into constipated cells.
• A review of the invention of spreadable butter by the Diary Research Institute, now Fonterra Research Centre, and the challenges faced in manufacturing the product together with the problems of marketing it overseas. 
• An account of the human condition of malignant hyperthermia and the research conducted into it by researchers at Massey University and Palmerston North Hospital. 
• Endemic plants that are specific to the coastal sand dunes of the Manawatu.
• Traces the history of varieties in the genus Camellia that have originated in the Manawatu.

Copies of Plains’ Science are available from The Science Centre Inc., P O Box 1015, Palmerston North 4440 at the discounted price of $25 (use the code word ROYSOC) plus $7 postage and packing, to members of the Royal Society Te Apārangi.