ANU Student Research Conference (2nd : 2016 : Canberra, ACT)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/1885/107181

This collection contains the materials presented in the second ANU Student Research Conference, held in the Manning Clark Centre on 14-15 July 2016.

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  • ItemOpen Access
    The Effect of Female Social Status on Human Stature Sexual Dimorphism: Evidence of Self-Domestication?
    (The Australian National University, 2016-07-14) Gleeson, Ben
    Charles Darwin noted that domesticated mammals share multiple traits when compared to their wild ancestors. These shared characteristics are known to occur following breeding selection against aggression. Domesticated traits are also apparent in modern humans when compared to earlier Homo sapiens, which has led researchers to propose that a form of human ‘self-domestication’ has occurred. One of three hypotheses proposed to explain this process suggests that human females preferentially selected against aggressive male partners. Over time, this would lead to lower aggression, as well as other domesticated traits across our species, including reduced body size difference (dimorphism) between the sexes. In all human populations mean male stature is always greater than mean female stature, however, the relative magnitude of stature sexual dimorphism (SSD) varies. In order to test the hypothesis that self-domestication was effected through female mate choice, this study examines whether elevated female social status (hence higher female capacity to exercise mate choice) is associated with lower levels of SSD in different human populations. To do so, SSD data were compared with selected statistically-coded variables from the Ethnographic Atlas (a cross-cultural sample of 1267 societies). Linear regression models were used to assess correlations between SSD and variables associated with female social status. After controlling for world region and latitude, matrilineal property inheritance remained a significant predictor for lower SSD. This result may lend weight to the hypothesis that female mate choice was a contributory mechanism in human self-domestication, however, further empirical investigation is required.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Skeletal Evidence of Torture: How can the past help the present?
    (Australian National University, 2016-07-14) Tasker, Victoria
    Isotopes identified in various materials and substances can reveal a great amount of information about the environment, peoples, cultures, and most appropriately here, biology. This paper will use 14C isotope values in human tissue to further understand tissue turnover. Atmospheric 14C values are reflected in human tissue due to the direct influence of humans eating plants that absorb atmospheric carbon and animals that eat said plants and are then eaten by humans. Nuclear testing in the early 1960s doubled the amount of atmospheric carbon and did so until testing ceased in1963 due to the implementation of the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Atmospheric carbon has been gradually declining ever since this peak. Due to this significant rise and resulting decrease in atmospheric carbon and its parallel in human 14C values, tissues can effectively be given an age and therefore a formation date. Tissue turnover will be examined in different types of brain tissue, adipose tissue and tendon tissue. Understanding tissue turnover could lead to advances in scientific research on specific pathologies and eventually lead to their prevention. The limitations of using 14C values from the nuclear testing 14C graph have their own implications and as such, are explored thoroughly. A tangible future of this method may be uncertain but it is clear that, while still possible, it should be utilized to its full extent.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Looking East - Vincent van Gogh and Japan
    (Australian National University, 2016-07-14) You, Clive
    During the formative years of his life in Arles, France, Vincent van Gogh became deeply enamoured with the art of Japan. Although he never saw Japan for himself, in his head he imagined it as an oriental utopia. This vision, while short-lived, was crucial for the eventual flowering of his unique painting style. Therefore, it is vital for us to understand the Japanese aesthetics and philosophy hidden in his paintings. The essay commences with a discussion on the origins of van Gogh’s Japonism interests and then proceeds with an analysis of how this manifested itself in three periods of his “Japanese Era”. The first period is the learning stage for van Gogh. Visually, his paintings are close to the original pieces, but they are not simply the copies as he normally intensified the colours and created additional borders. The second period mainly features the Portrait of Père Tanguy, indicating the Japanese art in his social and spiritual life. The peak was reached around 1888, Self-portrait as bonze is the one which reflects his Japanese preference most obviously, which is further discussed in the third part. The visual analysis technique is widely utilised in this paper to conduct the research of Vincent’s paintings and select the representatives of three periods. A visual analysis addresses an artwork’s formal elements—visual attributes such as color, line, texture, and size. It may also include historical context or interpretations of meaning.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Survival of the Aggressive? Behaviour and beliefs related to male aggression: evidence of intrasexual selection in humans?
    (Australian National University, 2016-07-14) Carter (Camillerri), Tara-Lyn; Kushnick, Geoff
    Sexual selection favours traits that increase mating and, thus, reproductive success. As termed by Darwin: intersexual selection occurs between mates, i.e. a peacock’s plumage is a result of females favouring these impressive and colourful feathers. Intrasexual selection however occurs between members of the same sex over mates and results in armaments, i.e. the horns on a stag give him an advantage when fighting other males for access to females. Some scholars have suggested that if intrasexual selection is driven by contest competition, this has shaped human male aggression. If this is the case, one testable hypothesis is that beliefs and behaviour related to male aggression should be more prevalent in societies where the intensity and strength of sexual selection is higher. Measured by factors such as the presence and scope of polygyny (one male mates with multiple females), the number of same-sex competitors relative to potential mates (sex ratio), and male contribution to subsistence activities. We used data from 78 societies from the Standard Cross Cultural Sample, a widely used ethnographic data set combining years of data collection from many societies around the world. We found strong support for this hypothesis. We discuss potential alternative explanations for the relationships, ruling out some using multivariate methods to control for confounding variables such as political complexity, warfare and geographic clustering.
  • ItemOpen Access
    NGOs and the internet: an analysis of NGO web presence
    (Australian National University, 2016-07-14) Muller, Sachini
    This research analyses the websites and social media of Australian aid and development NGOs, and to what this web presence is devoted; soliciting donations, encouraging action or raising awareness of global issues. It then explores correlations between the uses for various media platforms as well as correlations between internet and non-internet characteristics of NGOs. The websites and social media pages of the largest 39 NGOs were analysed through content and regression analysis. It was found that 48% of the web presence of NGOs is devoted, on average, to soliciting donations, 9% to encouraging action and 22% to raising awareness. There are also correlations between different media platforms; NGOs who use the front page of their websites mainly for a particular purpose use social media to the same ends. Those who use the website front page to encourage action on issues also use Facebook for this reason. A key finding of this research is that particular non-internet characteristics of NGOs are associated with the way in which NGO web presence is used. One such characteristic is revenue from DFAT funding: an increased proportion of total revenue from DFAT funding does not silence NGOs on encouraging action on issues, and appears to be associated with greater awareness raising activity. This research is significant as the web presence of Australia's aid NGOs has never been analysed in a quantifiable way. This is also the first time that such data has been used to examine what non-internet characteristics influence the web presence of NGOs.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Lifecycle Assessment of a Condom
    (Australian National University, 2016-07-14) Chew, Mun Nyee
    This is a research report on the life cycle assessment of male latex condom. I present a cradle-to-grave analysis on the physical flow of resources, waste and carbon emission to and from the life cycle and its subsystem. This report begins with the history of condom, the scope of research followed by (1) the environmental impacts of forest land conversion to rubber plantations in South and Southeast Asia, (2) energy consumption, carbon emission and waste generation by rubber mills and (3) condom manufacturers and also welfare of factory workers. Life cycle assessment is the methodology used here to study all potential environmental impacts attributable to the life cycle of a condom, from acquisition of raw materials, manufacturing plant to post-use and disposal of condom. We discuss some market forces that drive the rising demand of condoms as the revenue and volume of condoms industry will experience compound annual growth rate of 9.28% and 9.07% respectively from 2015 to 2019. Although when used correctly and consistently, male condoms are estimated to be 90% effective in reducing HIV transmission and 87% as a primary means of contraception yet due to marketing and social challenges, accessibility of condoms mainly in African countries remains low. The future of the industry is studied by weighing the long term social benefits and environmental costs. Dual protection advantages of condoms seem to outweigh the environmental costs because it is also a solution to the rising world population. We conclude that perhaps in the future, the use of recoverable resources and pollution prevention technology can create a more sustainable condom industry.
  • ItemOpen Access
    The Eugenics Stigma: the role of the Genetic Counsellor in Prenatal Testing
    (Australian National University, 2016-07-14) Murdoch, Emma
    This report examines the role of genetic counsellors in discussing prenatal testing, and the affect that resulting options have on perpetuating the eugenics stigma in the field. Research was conducted through a literature review of current discussions surrounding the issue. Initial interest and a case-based foundation were gained through experience and communication with genetic counsellors working at ACT Genetics. Genetic counselling is the process of helping people understand and adapt to the medical, psychological and familial implications of genetic contributions to disease. A specific aspect of this care surrounds prenatal testing. In particular, whether it is an option, the process involved, and the subsequent decisions. When the issue of newer technologies is introduced, such as Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD), the selection of embryos based on genetic testing, the issue quickly becomes linked to eugenics practices. Prenatal testing varies in its forms as do the laws regarding PGD, but the overarching issues remain. Eugenics today is defined, medically, as the act of increasing the prevalence of desirable traits in a population, through the decreasing frequency of negative alleles at specific chromosome sites, through controlled breeding. The findings of this study are significant in highlighting the practical role of genetic counselling in helping patients understand changes of modern medical genetics. The conclusions drawn from this report determine whether PGD is recognisable as eugenics. It was also found that the role of PGD and selective implantation is complex. It may never have a simple conclusion on how it fits into current societal expectations.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Developing a Framework for the Assessment of the Australian Research System
    (Australian National University, 2016-07-14) Patajo, Albert
    The aim of this research was to develop a framework for the holistic assessment of the Australian research system. Through the identification of indicators and the presentation of data from metrics that encompassed these indicators, this research presented an accurate portrayal of the performance of the Australian research system. This research was developed in response to the Boosting the Commercial Returns from Research report that was presented by the Australian Government in 2014. The current assessment tools are fragmented and do not provide a holistic approach to the evaluation of the Australian research system. Indicators are used to provide a quantifiable analysis of the research system. The indicators used in this research project were: resourcing, quality, engagement, return on investment and responsiveness. These indicators had been identified by the Department of Education and other Government research. Research was conducted through data-mining available databases and through data request from organisations. This data was presented against the OECD average in order to determine how Australia was progressing internationally. The quality of Australian research is stronger than the OECD average, with Australian research receiving more citations per publication and publications per researcher. However, Australia should improve on resourcing its research system through an increase in investment in research to remain competitive, as well as providing incentives for industry collaboration and research commercialisation. This research made several key recommendations based on improving research evaluation frameworks and data collection. The collection of sufficiently robust data will ensure that future frameworks are able accurately assess the Australian research system.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Military Force and the Protection of Human Rights
    (Australian National University, 2016-07-14) Pujara, Avnav
    Does the international community accept that it has a right and a duty to use military force to end the most egregious violations of human rights, when no other means will work? This paper will seek to address the aforementioned question through a qualitative analysis of secondary sources such as journal articles and books, published by prominent authors in the field of International Relations. Specifically, it looks at authors conducting research on the fragmented post-Cold War world order, domestic sovereignty of States, humanitarian intervention, and the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). The historical context of this paper is based on the domestic conflicts that erupted around the world in the 1990s, characterized by the gross violation of human rights by the State itself. Prominent examples looked at include the conflicts in Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Kosovo. This paper then examines the international community’s inability to respond to these conflicts due to being locked in a debate between the principle of domestic non-interference and military intervention on humanitarian grounds. The concept of R2P was put forth to bridge the gap between this debate, allowing for military intervention under certain criteria. R2P was consequently included within certain UN Resolutions and adopted unanimously by Member States. This paper argues that whilst States accepted their moral duties by adopting resolutions on R2P, there existed immense contestation when it came to exercising their right to use military force to protect human rights – as will be demonstrated in the case of intervention in Libya in 2011.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Negotiating Terrorism: Making the Pen Mightier than the Sword
    (Australian National University, 2016-07-14) Kannan, Bhavani
    Terrorism poses one of the greatest challenges to international peace and security in the 21st century. Although a universal counter-terrorism strategy is yet to coalesce, States have shown remarkable uniformity in their individual approaches. Not only have States prioritised military responses, but they have rejected negotiations as counter-terrorism measures. Unfortunately, the continued rise and spread of terrorism indicates that the current counter-terrorism orthodoxy is ineffective. Thus, this paper argues that the dominant non-negotiation rhetoric is flawed, and hence, dismissing negotiations as a diplomatic tool is counterproductive. This thesis builds on discourse supporting negotiating with terrorists. Specifically, it aims to address the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application. Accordingly, it explores existing literature, practices, and philosophies on negotiating terrorism. Additionally, it undertakes a paired comparison through examining the case studies of the Irish Republican Army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. This paper concludes by proposing a Terrorism Negotiation Map for evaluating the likelihood of a successful negotiated outcome. Understanding the specific context in which negotiated success is likely can considerably reshape diplomatic responses to terrorism, facilitating the maintenance of international peace and security. This paper further advocates re-framing understandings of terrorism and negotiation discourses. Finally, the paper applies these findings to the on-going conflict with Islamic State. Hence, this thesis contends that terrorism negotiations are possible under much wider circumstances and criteria than currently espoused.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Building Medical Leaders
    (Australian National University, 2016-07-14) Wilder, Christopher
    Professionalism and Leadership is one of the four themes underpinning the ANU Medical School curriculum. Legal and ethical considerations are addressed before moving to professionalism in the work place and teamwork. The chance to learn the skills and attributes that underpin leadership would further equip students and aid the development of the next generation of medical leaders. The clinical environment is one that demands leadership from key individuals, yet these individuals are trained and promoted predominantly based on clinical acumen without consideration of their leadership ability, nor is there structured support for its development. The aim of this project was to build and implement a Medical Leadership Program for the ANU Medical School. The author, a student of the ANU Medical School, took part in the ANU Vice Chancellor’s Student Leadership Program. The skills developed during the Vice Chancellor’s program were applied to the process of building a Medical Leadership Program (MLP) for the ANU Medical School (ANUMS). Key stakeholder’s were engaged in the process of program design and development, and a structure and timeline for a pilot program was agreed to by all parties. Funding sources were identified and established, a candidate selection criteria and process was developed, and program promotion began. The ANUMS MLP was launched as a pilot program in March 2016. The launch of the MLP by the ANUMS seeks to build the next generation of medical leaders for the ACT. Successful transition from a pilot to an established program will be dependent on program success and support.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Click, Print, Fire: 3D Weapons and the Arms Trade Treaty
    (Australian National University, 2016-07-14) Catalán Flores, Alex
    On 3 June 2013, countries united to sign the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in an effort to combat illegal arms transfers and also regulate legal arms transfers between countries. The ATT provides an unprecedented regulatory framework which encompasses previously unregulated military materiel such as combat aircraft and battle tanks. However on 3 May 2013, exactly one month earlier, a new threat emerged when shots were fired from the world’s first entirely 3D-printed plastic polymer firearm – The Liberator. On 12 May, two Daily Mail journalists printed a copy of The Liberator and smuggled it past airport-style security. Despite this threat, 3D firearms are not mentioned in either the treaty negotiations or the final treaty text. This paper analyses whether the legal architecture provided by the ATT can address the three main challenges posed by 3D printing: firearms, components, and digital design files. This paper reviews the ATT through the lens of international disarmament law and international institutional law, analysing commentary from superior international courts and eminent legal scholars. Ultimately this paper posits that while the ATT adequately addresses 3D-printed firearms, it creates a legal void in the space of 3D-printed components and digital design files, meaning that weapons can still be transferred by sending them component by component or by sharing the original design file online. A solution is possible within the current parameters of international law, but this will depend on states’ willingness to give proactive legal powers to the ATT’s primary institutional organ – the Conference of States Parties.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Locating bike sharing stations to maximise scheme usage
    (Australian National University, 2016-07-14) Pilley, Catherine
    Facility location problems are common planning challenges frequently faced by local authorities. Such problems are particularly pertinent in relation to optimising the location of transport hubs in multi-modal urban transport systems. The topic of locating docking stations in a bike sharing scheme provided a sufficiently narrow focus to conduct a feasibility study for a facility location problem. The topic of bike sharing schemes is an interesting one, given their increasing popularity worldwide, providing a valuable link between existing public transportation stops and desired destinations. My research question involved discerning whether stations in an existing bike sharing scheme had been distributed to maximise scheme usage and whether GIS was a useful decision support tool. The goal of my research was to contribute to ongoing policy discourse about which tools are best suited to the developing, configuring and planning of a bike sharing scheme. Oxford was selected as the case study given my experiences completing an IARU Sustainability Internship at the Oxford University in 2015. Methodology involved the locations of existing bike sharing stations being compared to an optimal distribution. The optimal distribution was obtained through a location-allocation analysis, incorporating demand variables such as educational facilities, residential and commercial activity and tourist attractions. Results indicated the optimal distribution of stations was remarkably different to the existing distribution. A literature review highlighted the range of approaches which have been employed to investigate this problem, with the usefulness of a GIS approach likely to be highly context dependent.
  • ItemOpen Access
    When is it necessary to include CSR within a business's corporate strategy?
    (Australian National University, 2016-07-14) Weatherby, Rebecca
    This study provides a nuanced exploration of the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on business profitability. CSR is the level of consideration a business gives towards its social and environmental impact. We sought to determine the levels of CSR engagement that exist within different industries, and to identify contributory causes to these differences. The impetus for this study is derived from the movement away from the use of a traditional criterion (of price, quality and convenience) in product selection. Modern consumers now consider a company’s engagement with legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibilities within their decision-making process. As consumer-buying is linked to firm profitability it is important for businesses to ensure their CSR obligations are met. Our study consisted of a multi-method approach. Firstly, a scenario-based survey was undertaken. Respondents were made to choose between two products. Factors exemplar of a CSR scandal were included. The questions pertained to three overarching industries—food, clothing and technology. To test concurrent validity, results were compared to the percentage-change in revenue of three major brands before and after a CSR scandal. Each company correlated with a different industry. This was to determine if our survey was reflective of a wider phenomenon. Our findings reveal that in industries with multitudes of competitors producing substitutes CSR is important for the maintenance of profitability. Comparatively, CSR is less important in industries with higher product differentiation. Our subsidiary findings reveal that consumer attachment to a product may also offer an avenue for companies to mitigate CSR obligations.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Using Weed to Rewire the Brain
    (Australian National University, 2016-07-14) Mulvaney, Simon
    Noxious weeds represent a complex and intractable environmental problem. In addition to the significant financial cost of managing weeds, the problem is compounded by the often competing management strategies adopted by landholders, and diversity of land uses between properties. In this instance, ultimately weeds management represents a collective action problem. While there has been recognition and action around grassroots community involvement in weeds management, few authors have used Community Based Social Marketing as a tool to encourage collective action around weeds management. Community Based Social Marketing (CBSM) has been touted as an effective tool to motivate behaviour change. The purpose of this project is therefore to design and assess the suitability of a CBSM campaign to encourage collective action around managing noxious weeds in the NSW Snowy Mountains. The CBSM framework involves determining what constitutes appropriate behaviour change; identifying barriers and benefits to the existing arrangements in the Snowy Mountains and any proposed changes; implementing a pilot project; and testing the suitability of the pilot project for broader implementation across the Snowy Mountains.
  • ItemOpen Access
    More Than A Game: Sport, Legitimacy and Unrecognised States
    (Australian National University, 2016-07-14) Pender, Kieran
    This research analyses the use of sport by unrecognised states for political legitimacy purposes. These unusual territorial entities, fulfilling the empirical criteria of statehood yet lacking recognition, exist with a deficit of legitimacy. While the legitimation strategies adopted by unrecognised states have been scrutinised in several recent studies, none have fully interrogated the use of symbolic legitimacy building methods. Drawing on a developing academic understanding of the interplay between sport and politics, this research asks: why do unrecognised states participate in 'international' sporting competitions? It adopts a fieldwork-informed qualitative single case study methodology to propose a two-part explanation. Firstly, it suggests that unrecognised states use sport to legitimate themselves internally, with the hope of fostering national identity and improving national unity. Moreover, participation in such events is seen as having external legitimacy benefits: offering an avenue for outward-oriented image-building and international engagement. The importance of sport, it seems, goes far beyond the final score.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Great Expectations: The influence of prior information on hallucinations
    (Australian National University, 2016-07-14) Ozola, Paula
    This project aims to test a model of the perceptual mechanisms that underlie hallucinations. Previous research has shown that hallucinations are relatively common in the general population (approximately 6% of people experience hallucinations at least once a month (Ohayon, 2000)) and do not always signal psychopathology. Here, we propose that hallucinations arise secondary to inferential processes that are built-in to normal perception processes that ultimately facilitate computational efficiency. The inferential processes that are fundamental to human perception are robustly captured by Bayesian mathematical models, which specify that perception is the product of the quality of one’s sensory experience and one’s expectations. Importantly, these two components work in balance such that as the quality of sensory information deteriorates, expectations impact perception to a greater degree and vice a versa. Individuals that are prone to hallucinations have been shown to have brain systems that are imprecise (Winterer et al., 2006), giving rise to poor perceptual clarity and greater reliance on expectations. Collectively, these observations suggest that hallucination prone individuals may be susceptible to hallucinations because, in the context of noisy or imprecise perceptual brain systems, they rely excessively on expectations. The current study proposes to use a simple computer-based task to create false perceptions based on expectations. Given the arguments presented above, we expect that hallucination prone individuals will experience (a) more incidents of false perceptions (i.e., perceiving stimulus when one was not presented) and (b) false perceptions that reflect the experimentally induced expectations to a greater extent.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Characterisation of graphene modified carbon fibre reinforced poly-ther-ether-ketone (PEEK) substrates and examination of the mechanical enhancements
    (Australian National University, 2016-07-14) Larkin, Thomas; Compston, Paul; Notley, Shannon; Stokes-Griffin, Christopher
    Thermoplastic (TP) materials are of increasing use in high performance composite applications. When manufactured from pre-preg form into a laminate structure, these composites exhibit the properties of high-strength and high-stiffness. Further improvements in the mechanical properties of these materials is very desirable, since this could result in weight reductions and strength optimizations for products using TP composites. Graphene is a nanomaterial which is well-known for its exceptionally high strength to weight ratio and Young's Modulus. This paper will discuss the process of coating and characterising graphene coated carbon fibre-PEEK composite substrates. Additionally, the mechanical properties of graphene reinforced carbon-fibre PEEK composites manufactured using a heat press will be examined. The graphene particles were deposited from an aqueous based suspension onto the carbon fibre-PEEK pre-preg fibre tapes by way of a spray coating procedure. Typically, the tapes were plasma treated to increase the surface energy (improve wetting of the suspension) prior to deposition of the graphene. The coating was characterised using scanning probe microscopy. The enhancement of mechanical properties due to the presence of graphene on the fibre pre-preg will be discussed.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Learning Linguistics and History from Bhutanese Noun Phrases
    (Australian National University, 2016-07-14) Peck, Naomi
    Language is used universally by humans, yet each and every language differs in principled ways. The field of linguistic typology is centred on making sense of these differences, in order to form generalisations about how we use Language. One commonly-examined parameter of variation is word order. In particular, much research has been conducted on how different languages code the roles of subjects, verbs and objects at a sentence level. However, work into how languages order words at lower levels is often neglected. Noun phrases are groups of words centred on an obligatory noun which can be extended to include other types of words such as adjectives and numerals. These ‘modifiers’ will generally either precede the noun as in English and Japanese or follow it like in Indonesian and Arabic. More rarely, a language may position some modifiers before the noun, and others after it. Through data collected in a Field Methods class in 2015, I found that Bumthang, a language from central Bhutan, exhibits characteristics of this rare type with no single prevalent order. After comparing to other noun phrase structures worldwide, I discovered that Bumthang is similar to only one other language – Zhang-Zhung, an extinct language from a millennium-old Tibetan empire. This thus implies a previously unsuspected shared social and linguistic history between the two societies. The discovery of this rare structure will prove invaluable for linguistic typology and also help fill in the blanks of Himalayan and central Asian history.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Reactivity of a Terminal Methylidyne
    (Australian National University, 2016-07-14) Kong, Richard Yuze
    Can we teach a new molecule old tricks? In late 2015, Hill et al. reported the synthesis of an organometallic compound unique in its stability and bond arrangement, a terminal methylidyne complex. Up until this point, only a few examples of terminal methylidynes had been reported in the literature, which decomposed at room temperature and were only achievable in milligram quantities. With access to gram-scale quantities of compound through the Hill group synthesis, we have been afforded the opportunity to thoroughly probe their reactivity. The research I am undertaking during my Honours year involves elucidating the reactivity of this molecule by subjecting it to a range of different conditions and reagents. Beginning with results reported by Templeton et al., our first course of investigation was to deprotonate the molecule and subsequently functionalise the deprotonated molecule. Several different reagents were tried to achieve this outcome with little success, however upon treatment with an incredibly aggressive deprotonation reagent, radically unexpected reactivity emerged. Organometallic chemistry, while foreign in name, pervades almost every aspect of our lives from the catalytic converters in our cars to playing a key role in the industrial production of vinegar, plastics and fertilizer. The amazing utility of metals to catalyse a host of useful reactions has provided an impetus to investigate the mechanisms by which these reactions take place. My research thus falls within this broader narrative of contributing to the wealth of knowledge on inorganic chemistry which has proved critical to the modern world.
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