Value Of Biophysics

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32394, 5 September 1970, Page 19

Value Of Biophysics

New Zealand depended for 85 per cent of its export income from what it grew, and yet there was no formal teaching of biophysics in New Zealand, Dr M. C. Probine, director of the physics and engineering laboratory of the D.S.I.R. in Wellington, said in Christchurch this week.

Dr Probine, who delivered the Chaikin lecture to the Canterbury branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand on Wednesday evening, said this was very strange as biophysics could be of great benefit to agriculture, animal husbandry and forestry. A biophysicist was directly concerned In biological research, viewing the problem through physical spectacles and investigating it by physical ideas and methods. Some of the work at present being done by his laboratory in this field included investigations on the structure of heart muscle in co-operation I with the Medical School at Dunedin, studies of the properties of protein foam in relation to bloat in cattle, the molecular structure of wood fibre in relation to its strength and suitability to pulping, and studies of the blood flow in pregnant w’omen of the envelope surrounding the unborn foetus. "Understanding the processes of the living cell is vital to the understanding of such things as the cancer problem. It is in spheres such as this that biophysics comes into its own,” he said. The electron microscope which provided a picture by scanning with electrons and X-ray crystallography were valuable tools the biophysicist had to investigate such problems, and to establish the control of single molecules which could determine the exact properties of the living cell. “This is the type of work done by Professor M. F. H. Wilkins, who was a New Zealander working in London when he won the Nobel Prize for unravelling the structure of the molecule which determines the genetic code or, in other wprds, the one molecule which determines the transfer from generation to generation of the traits characteris-

tic of a given cell,” he said. The application of biophysics in his laboratory had already shown valuable indirect consequences not specifically aimed for in the work, Dr Probine said. An example of this was the development of a method of removing soluble protein from waste water from freezing works. The method had come to light as a by-product of another experiment and a pilot plant was now being built in the North Island to put into commercial practice what had been done in the laboratory, he said.