Remembering Dr. Rex Munday

Rex Munday was a scientist working for AgResearch Ltd. in New Zealand. He was a leading figure in the area of marine toxin toxicity. His passing in July 2017 marked a loss for his family, as well as for colleagues who knew him as a dedicated professional, and a lively scientist with a great sense of humor.

Graphical methods and Cold War scientific practice: the Stommel Diagram's intriguing journey from the physical to the biological environmental sciences

In the last quarter of the twentieth century, an innovative three-dimensional graphical technique was introduced into biological oceanography and ecology, where it spread rapidly. Used to improve scientists' understanding of the importance of scale within oceanic ecosystems, this influential diagram addressed biological scales from phytoplankton to fish, physical scales from diurnal tides to ocean currents, and temporal scales from hours to ice ages. Yet the Stommel Diagram (named for physical oceanographer Henry Stommel, who created it in 1963) had not been devised to aid ecological investigations. Rather, Stommel intended it to help plan large-scale research programs in physical oceanography, particularly as Cold War research funding enabled a dramatic expansion of physical oceanography in the 1960s. Marine ecologists utilized the Stommel Diagram to enhance research on biological production in ocean environments, a key concern by the 1970s amid growing alarm about overfishing and ocean pollution. Before the end of the twentieth century, the diagram had become a significant tool within the discipline of ecology. Tracing the path that Stommel's graphical techniques traveled from the physical to the biological environmental sciences reveals a great deal about practices in these distinct research communities and their relative professional and institutional standings in the Cold War era. Crucial to appreciating the course of that path is an understanding of the divergent intellectual and social contexts of the physical versus the biological environmental sciences.

The marine biologist—Bob Endean

Bob Endean was a dedicated marine biologist with an extensive knowledge of coral reef communities in the Great Barrier Reef and fauna in subtropical Queensland waters. He commenced a study of venomous and poisonous marine animals dangerous to man at a time when the field was new, employing a variety of techniques to investigate the venom apparatus, mode of delivery of venom or toxin, mode of toxic action on excitable tissues, and biochemistry of venom or toxin. Determination of the pharmacological properties of crude venom from Conus marine snails advanced characterization of conotoxins by later workers. A study of four types of nematocysts from the box-jellyfish Chironex fleckeri provided information as to their structure, function, and mechanism of discharge; myotoxins T1 and T2 were isolated from microbasic mastigophores. Endean studied poisonous stonefish (Synanceia trachynis) and, with Ann Cameron, scorpionfish (Notesthes robusta); investigations of ciguatera and of paralytic shellfish poisoning were initiated. He organized the collection of Australian frogs which led to the isolation of caerulein by Erspamer in Italy. Endean highlighted the ecological danger of the population explosion of the crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) and provided the impetus for the creation of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

Hunting poisons of the North Pacific Region

The hunting poisons of the North Pacific region are discussed. The most important one used by the Ainu was based on Aconitum species (surku or suruku): on Hokkaido, to some extent A. japonicum Thumb. but probably mainly A. yezoense Nakai and A. sachalinense Fr. Schm.; on southern Sakhalin, perhaps A. fischeri Reichb., A. maximum Pall. ex DC., and/or A. sachalinense Fr. Schm.; and on the Kuril Islands, A. maximum Pall. ex DC. Poison from the Japanese stingray Dasyatis akajei (Müller et Henle) (aikor chiep) was also much used, alone or mixed with aconite, and was believed by some Ainu to be better than aconite. Adjuvants to these poisons were numerous and varied in each locality. Daphne kamtschatica Maxim. var. yezoensis (Maxim.) Ohwi (ketuhas) was used in hunting walrus. The use of Cynanchum caudatum (Miq.) Maxim. (penup) enabled birds to be caught. Juglans ailanthifolia Carr (nesko) was a fish poison. A critical evaluation of the accounts by Krasheninnikov, Steller, Harms, and others, indicates that the inhibitants of the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Kamchadal (Itelmen), hunted with a poison derived from Aconitum maximum Pall. ex DC. This same species was almost certainly used in the Aleutian Islands and the Kodiak Island region, principally for hunting whales. There is some evidence that the inhabitants of the far north-eastern part of Siberia and of the Alaskan coasts opposite may also have used poison in hunting. The chemistry and toxicology of the poisons are briefly considered.