Dr Douglas E Mackenzie
Visiting Fellow
The Australian National University
Native Language: English
Scientific Field of Enquiry/Research: Soil composition and its influence on grape vines and wine.
Date: 6 August 2004

1. How would you describe the project/s you are currently working on to a non-scientist?
I am investigating how the chemical composition and mineral (particularly clay mineral) content of soil affects the composition of wine grapes, and thereby the quality and character of wine.

2. Where, as a scientist, do you see the creativity in your work and/or life?
In my area of research, which is quite novel, if not radical, there are strong elements of intuition and imagination, relating to how nature operates: how plants (especially grapevines) may have evolved and adapted to their environment (especially soils and the underlying rocks from which they were formed); how tiny variations in abundance of certain trace elements in the soil might somehow affect how wine smells and tastes; and so on.

3. When you embark on research, do you start with a defined goal or does the goal emerge through the process?
Some of both: I set out towards a general goal, or in a particular direction; the final goal emerges, and the direction may change, as I gather and interpret the data.

4. With regard to your research, how would you describe the processes and outcomes in terms of the concepts 'natural' and 'artificial'?
I am using 'artificial' (i.e., man-made) means to understand natural processes, always bearing in mind the general "rules" of nature that I have observed through my career (as a geologist) and see every day, all around me.

5. Where do you gain inspiration and support for your work?
Inspiration comes from my love for and understanding of nature, and of wine(!) Support comes from certain people in the wine industry who see things much the way that I do: i.e., that nature (or terroir, as the French express it) expresses itself in plants, their fruit, and things derived from their fruit, as well as in animals - and their 'products' (e.g., milk, cheese; even meat) that eat those plants.

6. How are possible applications from your research determined?
It's "early days" yet, but I foresee my research resulting in better "targeting" of wine-grape varieties to particular soil compositions, in better productivity and/or quality of grapes and wine from "targeted" vineyards, and in better management (especially 'amelioration'/modification/fertilisation) of vineyard (and other) soils. Of course, grapevines are not unique in their behaviour: other plants respond to the composition of the soil in which they grow, so I see my research as potentially having application to most, if not all, crop agriculture - especially broad-acre grain production.

7. Do you share a language with other scientists (across cultures)? If so, please describe how this language works.
Principally the use of technical and scientific terms that are common across many, if not all, languages.

8. Does your work encompass or involve a possible benefit (tangible or intangible) to society? If so, how would you describe this benefit to non-scientists?
This question is answered in my response to Question 6.

9. Would you describe your future world view as pessimistic or optimistic? Why?
Rather pessimistic. As a geologist, with a perspective of earth processes and time that sees the extreme changeability of the Earth's surface, and the very short life span of any particular condition of the surface and atmosphere of the Earth, I am deeply concerned that we have set in train a sequence of events and consequences over which we now have little or no control (i.e., greenhouse gas-induced global warming), and that this is mainly due to a combination of ignorance, greed, selfishness, and political inertia.

10. Do you believe you share this future world view with other scientists (in your field) or would you describe this view as personal?
I share this view, in a general sense (some may not be as pessimistic as I), with every geologist I know, and with quite a few people in or connected with the wine industry.