Grahame Brown
Editor,
The Australian Gemmologist
Is gemmological
research in Australia alive and flourishing, is it moribund, or does the
truth lie somewhere in-between? As this is a topic upon which I have a
strongly held personal opinion, before I express that opinion let me
first define the subject.
The Concise Oxford
Dictionary as defines research:
Careful search or
inquiry after or for or into;
Endeavour to discover new or collate old facts etc. by scientific study
of a subject; or
A course of critical investigation.
The key words
associated with this definition are care, search/inquiry, endeavour,
science, and critical. Each word reflects the unbiased search for truth
that must underlie all research.
One has just to check
the content of the last year or two issues of the Association's
publication - The Australian Gemmologist - to see just how many papers
were contributed by Australian gemmologists. Roughly, this averages out
at one per issue. This is not too impressive for it represents less that
20 per cent of each issue. Now, go back about 20-30 years and again
check for the number of Australian authors per issue. The result may
surprise you.
Why have Australian
gemmologists apparently lost their desire to tell their colleagues what
they have discovered in the world of gemmology?
Is this because
Australian gemmologists are too busy earning a living to bother about
time consuming and often thought provoking research into gemmology.
Is this because
Australian gemmologists are too academically lazy to interest themselves
in gemmological research?
Is this because
Australian gemmologists are untrained in even the most introductory
aspects of gemmological research?
Is this because too
little emphasis is placed on research, and its relevance, in the
Association's courses of gemmological instruction?
Is this because
Australian gemmologists are no longer prepared to 'seek out the truth'
themselves and, as a consequence, are perfectly content to digest the
research published by overseas gemmologists.
Whatever the reason/s,
the basic fact remains that apart from a few Australian gemmologists,
the numbers of which you can count on one hand, the remaining thousands
apparently have little interest in finding out the 'why' of gemmology.
This is a strange attitude for what I would like to think is a
profession that spends most of its time and energy thinking, and
determining the identity of gem materials and in some circumstances
assessing their current market value.
Quality mineralogical-gemmological
research is being conducted at several Universities in Australia, but
this research is rather specialised and largely tailored to suit the
academic needs and interests of particular researchers. Unfortunately,
today, there is little academic interchange between our Association and
its membership and the many universities with Departments of Earth
Sciences throughout Australia. As this was certainly not so in the past,
perhaps the time has come for these links to be re-established.
What do the Fellow's
groups do throughout Australia? Are they functional in all Divisions, or
are they simply used as unpaid service groups for Divisions. Surely
these are the groups that should be testing unknown gemstones and gem
materials, and not just reporting their results to the Divisional
Curator of Specimens. When an unusual gemstone or gem material is
examined by a member of such a group the results should be properly
written up for the benefit of all gemmologists. This rather basic
research is a good learning experience that will further stimulate
interest in gemmological research.
How many Divisions have
ever attempted to provide a short, interesting lecture and/or
demonstration series for interested gemmologists on how to go about
conducting a simple research project?
No gemmologist will
learn the skills and disciplines necessary for research by reading
books, visiting the Internet, or by osmosis. You need to get your
'fingers dirty', take advice from an experienced researcher, make
mistakes, suffer disappointments; work hard, and eventually you will be
rewarded by achieving a result. Publishing your results, so that your
peers can read them, is the ultimate reward to yourself … and to
gemmology in general. This is the true reward that gemmological research
can offer. Ultimately Australian gemmology will benefit from your
research by absorbing both the new knowledge and respect that you will
have gained.
Gemmological research
can be fun, and it is immensely rewarding. It is indeed a pity
gemmological research in Australia has such a low priority. Unless this
trend is reversed Australian gemmology will become a user rather than a
donor discipline. In my rather biased opinion, this would be a pity.
Why not try out some of
the options offered above. You never know, but some day in the near
future I may have the pleasure of editing an all-Australian issue of
'our window to the world'.
Grahame Brown
Editor,
The Australian Gemmologist.
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