Research Highlights

Just some of the fantastic research outcomes supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council (ARC).

Active on Twitter? Tag @arc_gov_au in your ARC-funded research highlights. Twitter hashtag #ARCResearchHighlight.

Image: Associate Professor Madhu Bhaskaran. Credit: RMIT University.

Sensor technology to improve safety and health in aged care

30 July 2018

Full article issued by RMIT University.

Flexible sensors developed by ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) recipient, Associate Professor Madhu Bhaskaran, and her research team based at RMIT University, will be integrated into new health monitoring technology to improve aged care, in a project supported through a $1.7 million Federal Government Cooperative Research Centre Projects grant.

Co-leader of the Functional Materials and Microsystems Research Group at RMIT, Associate Professor Bhaskaran said she was thrilled that an Australian company was leading the drive to take her team’s work from the lab out into the real world. The new technology is designed to give nurses, carers and aged care facility managers greater insight into the health and wellbeing of patients within their care.

Photo credit:

Image: Associate Professor Madhu Bhaskaran. Credit: RMIT University.

Image: Professor Lyndall Ryan. Credit: The University of Newcastle

Massacres on Australia’s colonial frontier climb to 250

27 July 2018

Full article issued by The University of Newcastle.

ARC supported researcher, Professor Lyndall Ryan, who is based at The University of Newcastle, has said that the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander massacres verified and recorded on an online digital map has risen to 240, following an influx of valuable information and evidence from regional communities around Australia.

Professor Ryan said Indigenous evidence was critically important for documenting incidents that occurred in the 20th century and some communities had instigated plans to hold events or create memorials to pay tribute to lives lost during the periods of violence.

Photo credit:

Image: Professor Lyndall Ryan. Credit: The University of Newcastle

Image: Dreaming Inside tutor and founder Aunty Barbara Nicholson reads poetry from the anthology of poems written by Junee Correctional Centre inmates at the Sydney Writers Festival. Credit: Woollongong Art Gallery.

Unique prison writing program provides voice for Indigenous men

26 July 2018

Full article issued by Griffith University.

ARC Future Fellow and Griffith Law School academic Professor Elena Marchetti is evaluating a unique creative writing prison program at Junee Correction Centre in New South Wales, which is helping Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men strengthen their connection to culture.

Established in 2011, the ‘Dreaming Inside: Voices from the Junee Correctional Centre Prisoner Writing Program’ is the only prison creative writing program that specifically targets Indigenous inmates. The program has provided Indigenous men with an opportunity to use creative writing as a form of expression and exercise a form of agency by publishing their poems and stories in books without censorship.

The project forms part of a larger ARC Future Fellowship project evaluating Indigenous-focused criminal justice programs in ways that acknowledge and privilege the position of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

Photo credit:

Dreaming Inside tutor and founder Aunty Barbara Nicholson reads poetry from the anthology of poems written by Junee Correctional Centre inmates at the Sydney Writers Festival. Credit: Woollongong Art Gallery.

Image: Laureate Professor Scott Sloan OA. Credit: The University of Newcastle.

Showcasing new advances for building Australia’s energy and transport infrastructure

26 July 2018

Media release issued by The University of Newcastle.

The ARC Centre of Excellence for Geotechnical Science and Engineering—led by 2009 ARC Australian Laureate Fellow Professor Scott Sloan AO from The University of Newcastle—is pioneering new approaches and software for designing cheaper and safer energy and transport infrastructure.

In an industry event on Monday 30 July, the Centre of Excellence showcased its achievements throughout the 2011–2017 funding period, including how research outcomes transformed industry guidelines and engineering practice. Practising engineers also participated in a series of workshops, to learn more about advanced laboratory and in situ soil testing techniques, the use of probabilistic methods in geotechnical engineering, and recent advances in rail geotechnics. Speaking at the event, ARC Chief Executive Professor Sue Thomas said the Centre of Excellence is advancing Australian research and delivering tangible outcomes for Australian industries.

Photo credit:

Image: Laureate Professor Scott Sloan OA. Credit: The University of Newcastle.

Image: an artist’s impression of the research Credit: EQUS.

First-ever quantum simulation of chemical bonds with trapped ions

25 July 2018

Full article issued by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems

An international team, including researchers at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems (EQUS), has achieved the world’s first multi-qubit demonstration of a quantum chemistry calculation performed on a system of trapped ions, one of the leading hardware platforms in the race to develop a universal quantum computer.

The researchexplores a promising pathway for developing effective ways to model chemical bonds and reactions using quantum computers. By modelling and understanding these processes using quantum computers, scientists expect to unlock lower-energy pathways for chemical reactions, allowing the design of new catalysts. This will have huge implications for industries, such as the production of fertilisers.

Photo credit:

Image: an artist’s impression of the research Credit: EQUS.

Image: the discovery could pave the way for more stable brewing processes or new malts for craft brewers. Credit: Pixabay (Public Domain).

Unwrapping the brewing secrets of barley

24 July 2018

Full article issued by The University of Adelaide.

ARC supported researchers including project leader and ARC Future Fellow Associate Professor Matthew Tucker, based at The University of Adelaide, have uncovered fundamental new information about the malting characteristics of barley grains. They say their finding of a new link between one of the key enzymes involved in malt production for brewing and a specific tissue layer within the barley grain, could pave the way to more stable brewing processes or new malts for craft brewers.

The most important malting enzymes come from a layer of tissue in the barley grain called the aleurone, a health–promoting tissue full of minerals, antioxidants and dietary fibre. The researchers showed that the more aleurone present in the barley grain, the more enzyme activity the grain produced. Barley is the second most important cereal crop for South Australia and contributes over $2.5 billion to the national economy. Much of its value comes from its use in beer and beverage production.

Photo credit:

Image: the discovery could pave the way for more stable brewing processes or new malts for craft brewers. Credit: Pixabay (Public Domain).

Image: researchers are unveiling a key text containing stories of the Manichean religion’s oral traditions. Credit: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

Lost and found literature: ARC-funded researchers translate ancient Manichean papyrus manuscript

24 July 2018

After 10 years of detailed restoration, analysis and translation by ARC-funded researchers, a key text containing stories of the Manichean religion’s oral traditions is about to be revealed for the first time since antiquity

The precious papyrus—known as the ‘Dublin Kephalaia’—was damaged by moisture and blackened by age to be almost unreadable in 2007, when the translation was begun by recipients of an ARC Discovery Projects grant to The University of Sydney, which included Professor Jason BeDuhn, an expert in comparative religions at Northern Arizona University. The translation, which will be published in four volumes, is expected to shine a new light on a vibrant society that existed at an ancient crossroads of Eastern and Western religious and philosophical thought.

Photo credit:

Image: researchers are unveiling a key text containing stories of the Manichean religion’s oral traditions. Credit: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

Image: a public showcase of the Virtual Plant Cell. Credit: The ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology.

Virtual reality makes learning about plant science fun

23 July 2018

Full article issued by The University of Western Australia.

A ground-breaking virtual reality program created by the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology(PEB) at The University of Western Australia takes students on an exciting immersive journey through the cells of plants normally too small to be seen and highlights plant research that is contributing to global food security.

The Virtual Plant Cell (VPC) was announced last week as a Western Australian Premier’s Science Awards finalist for its engagement of the community in science. The technology is being trialled with school students at Trinity College, taking the cutting-edge technology into the classroom and providing a fun, interactive educational experience.

Photo credit:

Image: a public showcase of the Virtual Plant Cell. Credit: The ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology.

Image: the arrival of the dingo has been linked to the extinction of a number of other native animals, notably the mainland population of Tasmanian Tigers. Source: Pixabay (Public Domain)

Research reveals when dingoes first arrived in Australia

20 July 2018

Full article issued by The Australian National University.

ARC-funded researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) and The University of Western Australia (UWA) have radiocarbon dated the oldest known dingo bones from Madura Cave on the Nullarbor Plain to find they are between 3,348 and 3,081 years old.

Archaeologist and ARC Australian Laureate Fellow Professor Sue O'Connor said most researchers believed dingos arrived in Australia sometime between 4,000 and 8,000 years ago or possibly even earlier. The new evidence suggests that the species arrived in Australia more recently than previously believed.

Photo credit:

Image: the arrival of the dingo has been linked to the extinction of a number of other native animals, notably the mainland population of Tasmanian Tigers. Source: Pixabay (Public Domain)

Image: galaxies located in the Pisces constellation, which covers an area about 170 times smaller than that of the full moon. Credit: R Livermore (The University of Melbourne), M Trenti (The University of Melbourne), and the BoRG team. Based on data taken

Ultra-bright early galaxies may be less common than we think

19 July 2018

Full article issued by The University of Melbourne.

Ultra-bright galaxies in the early universe may be less common than initially thought, new research conducted by ARC-funded researchers using the Hubble Space Telescope has found.

Researchers led by a University of Melbourne team and the ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions used Hubble to observe two galaxies thought to be so distant that we see them more than 13 billion years back in time when the universe was young.

The researchers have discovered that the brightest known galaxy candidate in the early universe is essentially a ‘fraud’—with profound implications for models of how galaxies formed when the universe was in its infancy.

Photo credit:

Image: galaxies located in the Pisces constellation, which covers an area about 170 times smaller than that of the full moon. Credit: R Livermore (The University of Melbourne), M Trenti (The University of Melbourne), and the BoRG team. Based on data taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

Active on Twitter? Tag @arc_gov_au in your ARC-funded research highlights. Twitter hashtag #ARCResearchHighlight.

Sensor technology to improve safety and health in aged care

Massacres on Australia’s colonial frontier climb to 250

Unique prison writing program provides voice for Indigenous men

Showcasing new advances for building Australia’s energy and transport infrastructure

First-ever quantum simulation of chemical bonds with trapped ions

Unwrapping the brewing secrets of barley

Lost and found literature: ARC-funded researchers translate ancient Manichean papyrus manuscript

Virtual reality makes learning about plant science fun

Research reveals when dingoes first arrived in Australia

Ultra-bright early galaxies may be less common than we think

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Active on Twitter? Tag @arc_gov_au in your ARC-funded research highlights. Twitter hashtag #ARCResearchHighlight.

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