Ben Keaney is the ANU’s pollen counter. Photo: James Coleman.
Ben Keaney is possibly Canberra’s most important person during spring.
Across the city, thousands wait to see the pollen count he publishes to the Canberra Pollen website every day before deciding whether or not to set foot outside.
Every morning, the palaeo-ecologist starts his day with a walk to the top of the Science Central building at the Australian National University (ANU).
On the roof, out in the open air, is a ‘Burkard’ machine, which sucks the outside air – all particles included – through a thin slot and onto a glass slide.
Ben removes this slide at the same time each day to take it back to the lab and put it under the microscope – and literally count the number of pollen grains he sees. These figures are then published to the Canberra Pollen site, to be pounced on by the myriad hay fever and asthma sufferers across the city.
The tech has remained largely the same for decades, and is used in cities across Australia and the world, but Ben says artificial intelligence (AI) is coming for it.
In time for next season, a new automated ‘laser’ machine will be installed on the rooftop which will feed data live to the website.
But for now, we went to see how it works …
