b'Ted Tynes best of Exploration geophysicsFeatureExploration Geophysics (1990) 21, 219EditorialOur BulletinThis issue of Exploration Geophysics marks 21 years of publication of the Bulletin of the Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists. Ross Crain and Ken Richards were the first two Editors in the fledgling ASEG. I have the honour of being the current Editor in a now mature ASEG embracing eleven hundred members and subscribers from Australia and overseas. The passage of our first 21 years has seen the publication of over 900 geophysical and geoscientific papers, articles and notes by numerous authors in regular, special, conference and ancillary issues. I would like to pay tribute to all who have helped establish Exploration Geophysics as a respected geoscience journal. It has contributed much to educational initiatives and to the sciences and art of Australian resource exploration. Our many Authors, the former Editors (Ross Crain, Ken Richards, Laurie Drake, Ken McCracken and Ted Lilley), the Chair of the Publications Committee (Terry Crabb), Special Editors, Conference Editors, Conference Organizers, Reviewers, ASEG Executives, ASEG Members, Corporate Members, Advertisers, Sponsors, and Exploration Geophysics readers have all, by their diligence and support, promoted our journal and secured its place as an acceptable and reputable medium for geophysical science.It is timely to reflect on the aims and functions of our journal which, in serving Australian geophysics, does need to take cognisance of factors peculiar to the Australian region. I have two comments to make. Firstly, Australia is home to the third largest number of mining geophysicists in the world (after USSR and China) and this component of our membership is reflected in the strength of their contributions to Exploration Geophysics. Despite the indubitably important contribution of minerals, petroleum and groundwater to the Australian economy, geoscientists generally, and the geographically scattered geophysicists, in particular, need to be vigilant to maintain and to safeguard the vitality and future of their profession. Currently there is a low appreciation of and little interest in the earth sciences by the bulk of the Australian population who reside in what are really coastal city-states. Over 80% of the 17 million Australians live in an area of a few thousand sq km in the east, southeast and southwest parts of our 7,882,300 sq km continent. Urbanisation demands energy and does provide some opportunities for environmental geotechnical geophysics, but resource exploration is increasingly hindered by political developments pushed by pressure groups. Unfettered exploration and uncontrolled exploitation cannot be condoned; indeed, reasonable environmental practices and care of the land are embraced by the profession. Rocks are materials; furthermore they are materials that provide the very basis and framework of the environment. If exploration geophysicists are to continue with their tasks of locating, defining, enhancing and evaluating anomalies; studying and compiling the responses and properties of earth materials; and documenting the nature and fabric of earths subsurface then they need to be environmentally aware and pro-active, to address issues and to publish in Exploration Geophysics on the geophysical and professional aspects of the environment and environmental problems.Secondly, it should be realised that scientific journals have much in common generally with universitiesthey exist to preserve, impart and extend knowledge. Journals have an advantage in that they exist in and deal with the real world. Journals also promote scholarship, i.e. knowledge of the works of others, and inspire significant advances in experimentation, observation, methodology and theory. The recent effective diminution in and redistribution of funding of Australian tertiary education has unfavourable implications for Australian university geoscience departments which are relatively expensive to maintain compared to most other disciplines. Geophysics staff in these departments are small in numberisolated individuals or small groups endeavour to carry out teaching and research with inadequate or outdated resources. The overall situation is unlikely to improve in the short term. As it has done in the past the ASEG can assist with or encourage undergraduate and postgraduate training by organising specialist lecturers and short courses, videotaped instruction sessions, research funding through the ASEG Research Foundation and substantial discounts for students attending ASEG activities. In this time of rapid technological change and expansion of knowledge other initiatives are required and one of these would be to encourage the considerable number of talented professionals in the geophysics community to publish appropriate tutorial and review papers in Exploration Geophysics. Such papers would be a permanent and valuable repository of relevant knowledge and expertise for students intending to enter our profession; many of us would profit by reading such papers.Our 21st volume in 1990 is a cause for celebration. Our first quarter century of publishing activity will be attained in 1994. I trust that the ASEG will continue as a significant and dynamic scientific and professional society through the nineties and into the next century. I feel confident that Exploration Geophysics will continue to serve the ASEG well by striving for excellence in preserving, imparting and extending geophysical knowledge for the scientific and professional benefit of its membership.D.W. EmersonEditor37 PREVIEW FEBRUARY 2020'