astronomy

Ruth Bishop

Ruth Bishop is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Ruth Bishop rather than just read about it. In short: Ruth Frances Bishop (12 May 1933 – 12 May 2022) was an Australian virologist, who was a leading member of the team that discovered the human rotavirus. Biography Bishop was born in Dandenong, Victoria, and grew up in Frankston where her father was principal of Frankston High School.

Key takeaways

Ruth Bishop belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Ruth Bishop to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Ruth Bishop from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Ruth Frances Bishop (12 May 1933 – 12 May 2022) was an Australian virologist, who was a leading member of the team that discovered the human rotavirus.

Biography Bishop was born in Dandenong, Victoria, and grew up in Frankston where her father was principal of Frankston High School. Bishop obtained a BSc., majoring in microbiology, in 1954 followed by a M. Sc. in the same field in 1958 and graduated with a PhD in microbiology in 1961. In 1973, Bishop, along with Geoffrey Davidson (Royal Children's Hospital) and collaborators Ian Holmes and Brian Ruck (University of Melbourne), examined cells from the intestines of children with gastroenteritis. Intestinal biopsies were taken at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, and sent to Ian Holmes and Brian Ruck (University of Melbourne) to be examined by electron-microscopy. Under the electron microscope cells were seen to be infected with viruses, which were originally named "duovirus" because they were seen in the duodenum and had a double capsid. The name "rotavirus" was later suggested by the Irishman, Thomas Henry Flewett, because of the round, wheel-like shape of virus particles. Rotaviruses cause diarrhoea and vomiting in young children and are a leading cause of death in the developing countries. Three thousand children are now hospitalised with rotavirus every year, down from 10,000 before the vaccine was introduced in 2007. Bishop said the invention of electron microscopy helped her make the discovery. The team's discovery led to a global effort to control of rotavirus. Bishop also published theoretical works about the patterns in the epidemiology of rotavirus infection. From 1983 to 1988, Bishop was Chair of the Committee on Diarrhoeal Diseases with the World Health Organization (WHO).

Awards and honours

Bishop was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the 1996 Queen's Birthday Honours in recognition of service to medical research, particularly for her contributions to the understanding of gastroenteritis in children. In the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours she was promoted to Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for "eminent service to global child health through the development of improved vaccines for paediatric gastroenteritis, and to medical research". In 2001, she was inducted to the Victorian Honour Roll of Women. In 2011, she received the Prince Mahidol Award awarded by the Thai Royal Family for outstanding achievement in public health. Bishop was awarded the Florey Medal in 2013 for her discovery of rotavirus and subsequent work helping to develop a vaccine. The medal recognises significant achievements in biomedical research. This was the first time a woman was honoured with this award. In 2020, the Melbourne-based Bio21 building announced Ruth Bishop as the namesake of their new imaging building, the "Ruth Bishop Building", housing the University of Melbourne's Ian Holmes Imaging Centre.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ruth Bishop

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ruth Bishop claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Ruth Bishop before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Ruth Bishop ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Ruth Bishop

In research: Ruth Bishop appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Ruth Bishop in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Ruth Bishop is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1933 births, 2022 deaths, Academic staff of the University of Melbourne, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ruth Bishop outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Ruth Bishop in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Ruth Bishop means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Ruth Bishop out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ruth Bishop in simple terms?

Ruth Frances Bishop (12 May 1933 – 12 May 2022) was an Australian virologist, who was a leading member of the team that discovered the human rotavirus. Biography Bishop was born in Dandenong, Victoria, and grew up in Frankston where her father was principal of Frankston High School.

Why does Ruth Bishop matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Ruth Bishop?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Ruth Bishop.