Australia trains some of the world’s leading researchers, but sometimes their work isn’t always celebrated in the mainstream news.
From time to time, the ResearchMaster blog highlights interesting research going on around the country. Here are 7 papers published this year that caught our collective eye and which mark interesting Australian research projects.
Quantum technology continues in Australia
2026 is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. This is an area in which Australian researchers are making tremendous strides. The ARC tells us that “ideas [are] increasingly moving out of the lab and becoming a reality.”
One of those ideas is energy storage, and in March this year, CSIRO released the news that researchers had developed a proof-of-concept quantum battery and discovered that quantum batteries charge faster the larger they get — completely backwards when compared with regular batteries.
Did you know? Where you live can affect your risk of cognitive conditions
With aging populations, the risk of age-related cognitive decline can become more serious. Dementia is now the leading cause of death in Australia, and Australian researchers have been hard at work uncovering new associations between where and how you live, and what your risks of conditions like dementia might be.
Researchers at the Australian Catholic University investigated the value of walkable cities in shielding inhabitants from the risks of cognitive conditions. They determined that navigating intersections on foot required the use of spatial reasoning skills, which may be a protective factor. Meanwhile, Curtin researchers discovered that risk factors for dementia can be dependent on which country you live in — that’s useful information for delivering global recommendations with nuance.
New dual use technologies
The commercialisation gap for research emerging from Australia is famous, and fell under particular scrutiny after the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a sharp, sudden contraction in other revenue streams.
Researchers at the recently-launched Adelaide University have published a paper relating to their first successful test of a new type of atomic clock. Atomic clocks are highly precise, but not usually portable or capable of operation in especially harsh environments. The design presented by the researchers in question was recently trialled upon a vessel of the Royal Australian Navy, and the university is touting it as the “next-generation” of such devices.
If further testing is successful, the design will enjoy a wide array of applications, including in defence and commercial deployments.
The natural world
Australia enjoys a diverse environment that is distinct from all others on earth. Researchers at Australian institutions have continued our long tradition of investigating the world around us throughout 2026.
Geoscience research from the University of Sydney has added more evidence to support the theory that the earliest complex life forms, living more than 1.5 billion years ago, still relied upon oxygen, despite its relative scarcity in the environment at that time.
Meanwhile, Curtin researchers led a study off the coast of Western Australia to survey submarine canyons. They tracked the genetic material shed by marine life in seawater to determine what creatures visit the area, and report finding evidence of “a large number of species that don’t neatly match anything currently recorded.”
Social media use among Australians
Social media forms part of the inescapable landscape of our modern world, and our understanding of how to extract its benefits while reducing its risks is still evolving.
Researchers at the Digital Media Research Centre at the Queensland University of Technology have conducted in-depth interviews with seventy Australians to arrive at a new understanding of how Australians really use social media platforms. They contend that “Australians’ social media use is far more private, varied, and personalised than thought.”
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