What's New! HERDC 2012 Publications are Now Open
Be sure to enter your 2012 publications into My Research Publications.
Featuring journal articles and book releases by some of our top Griffith authors below.
Griffith's latest Science publication
An Aboriginal Australian Genome Reveals Separate Human Dispersals into Asia
by Griffith's Professor David Lambert and other international authors, Science, Vol. 334, No. 6052, pp94-98 (7 October 2011)
Professor David Lambert from the Australian Rivers Institute is a co-author of an article in a leading international journal Science.
The researchers presented an Aboriginal Australian genomic sequence obtained from a 100-year-old lock of hair donated by an Aboriginal man from southern Western Australia in the early 20th century. Researchers detected no evidence of European admixture and estimate contamination levels to be below 0.5% and show that Aboriginal Australians are descendants of an early human dispersal into eastern Asia, possibly 62,000 to 75,000 years ago. This dispersal is separate from the one that gave rise to modern Asians 25,000 to 38,000 years ago. Researchers also found evidence of gene flow between populations of the two dispersal waves prior to the divergence of Native Americans from modern Asian ancestors. The researchers' findings support the hypothesis that present-day Aboriginal Australians descend from the earliest humans to occupy Australia, likely representing one of the oldest continuous populations outside Africa.
Link to the publication (Griffith users only):
Michael Kirby: Paradoxes, Principles
by A.J Brown. Federation Press, 2011.
This biography charts Michael Kirby’s extraordinary public life from his first forays as a student politician in the early 1960s, to his appointments as foundation chairman of the Australian Law Reform Commission in 1975, President of the NSW Court of Appeal in 1984, and Justice of the High Court of Australia (1996-2009). A J Brown's research into Kirby's life has included:
- exclusive access to over 117 metres of personal and official papers, dating back to the 1940s
- interviews with more than 30 of Michael Kirby’s closest relatives and colleagues
- independent research into how falsified records came to be used in Parliament in a direct attack on a High Court judge, and
- unprecedented access to the working materials of a High Court judge, including draft judgments and papers normally shredded within judicial chambers.
Read more about the publication:
Griffith's latest Nature Medicine publication
Defying malaria: Arming T cells to halt malaria
by Griffith's Professor Michael Good and QIMR's Associate Professor Christian Engwerda, Nature Medicine, 17, 49-51 (January 2011)
Professor Michael Good from the Institute for Glycomics has co-authored a paper with Associate Professor Christian Engwerda from QIMR, in the leading international journal Nature Medicine.
Professor Michael Good's research in the Institute for Glycomics focuses on malaria. Like most organisms that have jumped from animals to humans, the parasite responsible for the most serious cases of malaria infection, Plasmodium falciparum, is a cunning evader and suppressor of host immunity, which makes vaccine development especially difficult. A thorough understanding of all potential antiparasitic immune mechanisms is therefore required to design an effective vaccine.
Link to the publication (Griffith users only):
Griffith's latest Science publication
Observing the Average Trajectories of Single Photons in a Two-Slit Interferometer
by Griffith's Sacha Kocsis and other international authors, Science, 332, 1170-1173 (3 June 2011)
Sacha Kocsis from the Centre for Quantum Dynamics is a co-author of an article in a leading international journal Science.
A consequence of the quantum mechanical uncertainty principle is that one may not discuss the path or “trajectory” that a quantum particle takes, because any measurement of position irrevocably disturbs the momentum, and vice versa. Using weak measurements, however, it is possible to operationally define a set of trajectories for an ensemble of quantum particles. The researchers sent single photons emitted by a quantum dot through a double-slit interferometer and reconstructed these trajectories by performing a weak measurement of the photon momentum, postselected according to the result of a strong measurement of photon position in a series of planes. The results provide an observationally grounded description of the propagation of subensembles of quantum particles in a two-slit interferometer.
Link to the publication (Griffith users only):
This paper verifies theory work previously published by the Centre for Quantum Dynamic's Professor Howard Wiseman. Link to Professor Wiseman's publication, Grounding Bohmian mechanics in weak values and bayesianism.
Griffith's latest Nature publication
Genetic risk and a primary role for cell-mediated immune mechanisms in multiple sclerosis
by Griffith's Professor Simon Broadley and an international consortia in Nature, 476, 214-219 (11 August 2011)
Professor Simon Broadley, Head of School, School of Medicine, is part of an international consortia who have an article in the international journal Nature.
Multiple sclerosis is a common disease of the central nervous system in which the interplay between inflammatory and neurodegenerative processes typically results in intermittent neurological disturbance followed by progressive accumulation of disability. Studies have shown that genetic factors are primarily responsible for the substantially increased frequency of the disease seen in the relatives of affected individuals, and systematic attempts to identify linkage in multiplex families have confirmed that variation within the major histocompatibility complex exerts the greatest individual effect on risk.
Link to the publication (Griffith users only):