Researchers’ panel: Young Scientist Awards
Borderline
At the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), an army of researchers from around the world are studying the very structure of our universe, starting from the very basic constituents of matter: the fundamental particles.
CERN has some of the largest laboratories in the world, boasting cutting-edge purpose-built instruments like particle accelerators and detectors. It therefore comes as no surprise that, when lecturers from the G. F. Abela Junior College’s Physics Department announced they were organising a visit, all the positions available were quickly snapped up.
There was a recurring theme present throughout our CERN experience: ‘borders’. During our stay, we crossed the Franco-Swiss border several times from our lodgings in France to CERN in Switzerland. Coming from a small islandstate, where any inter-country travel requires a plane or boat ticket, it was a little surreal being able to put our passports away and walk to Switzerland.
The visit helped us reflect on the boundaries we create when trying to study how nature works. We compartmentalise topics into physics, chemistry, or biology, when really these topics are all one large subject seen from different viewpoints. This was most evident in the permanent exhibitions at CERN that touched on topics including atomic structure, PET scans, and the development of computer technology at CERN. There were no borders between the different subjects we studied in different departments back at Junior College.
During this amazing week, we experienced tours of the facility using CERN’s own transport. Many of the researchers use bicycles, taking advantage of all the green areas. We saw dedicated individuals working together for the good of the world, no matter their colour or creed. They overcame yet another border: a cultural one. Their mission is simply to produce outstanding work that will help us understand the universe around us.
The trip opened our eyes in many ways. As a group, we learnt together and supported one another when needed. We shared ideas. Discussed. We were our own mini-unit. With an understanding of this dynamic and all the fields involved, some of us have even been inspired to add a new goal to our list: join the team at CERN.
Authors: Maria Victoria Vella, Josephine Vella and Karen Muscat
This visit was made possible thanks to our sponsors: Liquigas Malta Ltd, Mizzi Motors, and Buzzer Stationers & Publishers. We wish to thank our lecturers for organising the experience, namely Ms. M. Soler, Ms. A. Vella, Mr. C. Busuttil, Ms. L. Bonello, and Ms. E. Bugeja.
The floating lantern
In Japan, candle-lit lanterns are released into rivers in Toro nagashi to guide the spirits of ancestors back to the other world. The lanterns exude beautiful, orange light as they float downstream. At times they group together, creating what look like small, glowing platforms. This very image was what inspired the floating platform Dr Rebecca Dalli Gonzi is building, together with her colleagues Dr Joseph Falzon, Prof. Tonio Sant, and NAS Limited. The project is being consulted with Prof. Claire DeMarco and ALTERN Limited.
By bringing together the sea, the arts, architecture, and engineering, they are giving rise to a lightweight platform that sits on the water’s surface, providing a unique space for artistic performances, installations, and exhibitions. The lanterns’ rectangular shapes are being replaced with hexagons—a more efficient fit. Holding everything together are mounts or magnetic currents, depending on research results. The modular approach allows adjustability in shape and size, potentially seeing the platform expand beyond its current three meters, while making it easy to disassemble, respecting the environment it inhabits.
The team hopes that the platform, or lantern as it is affectionately referred to, will provide artists and practitioners with a new approach to their art that will bring joy, while also inspiring creative thinking in the construction industry.
Author: Dr Rebecca Dalli Gonzi
Playing with Fire
Climate change is a real threat. The scientific evidence is irrefutable. The problem is that countless talks and rallies calling for action have only pushed things forward at a snail’s pace. Prof. Simone Borg explains why.
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The circular economy and Malta
Our globalised economy has generated wealth and prosperity for millions of people around the world. Living standards have been raised to unprecedented levels. But this comes at a cost. The environment has suffered greatly, not only in terms of constant extraction of natural resources, but also at the hands of polluting processes and end-of-pipe waste.
Recognising that economies, and indeed our planet, have finite resources, the circular economy has become a popular concept among policymakers and stakeholders in recent years. The current linear ‘take, make, use, and throw away’ model of production entails substantial value losses and negative effects along the material chain. Because of this, we should ideally be designing and manufacturing products for continuous reuse and recycling, maximising resource efficiency, and minimising leakages and waste.
The appeal of the circular economy lies in its various environmental and economic benefits. Using secondhand materials and waste within business could cut costs, while their sale adds a potential revenue stream. The circular economy also offers new and vast business opportunities in areas such as product eco-design and product/material regeneration, all of which help create high-skilled jobs and investment in new technology.
The idea of the circular economy is particularly relevant to Malta, given its geographical circumstances, high import dependency, and lack of natural resources. Embracing the principles embodied within the circular economy concept would have an immediate positive impact on the environment while benefitting Malta’s long-term economic prospects.
However, we are still at the doorstep of circularity. Malta’s natural resource productivity fell by 7.6% between 2000 and 2015, with increased domestic material consumption outpacing economic growth. Waste management in key sectors like construction remains a major issue.
To encourage the shift from concept to the creation of circular economy business models, the University of Malta is part of the R2Pi Horizon 2020 project. Among other goals, it hopes to identify both market and policy failures that hinder the uptake of such models by business entities across Europe.
Author: Dr Jonathan Spiteri
R2Pi Horizon 2020: www.r2piproject.eu
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 730378.
In search of perfect silicon
Silicon is the go-to material for solar devices like photovoltaic panels despite its relatively low energy conversion rate of 15-22%. Researchers all over the world are analysing materials and creating new ones to find a better solution. A lucky handful are armed with a laser scattering tomograph (LST), the best instrument for the task.
An LST illuminates the sample material with an infrared laser beam, which scatters wherever it finds a defect. If there is a defect in a material’s structure, even one just a few nanometers wide, the very sensitive CCD camera at the other end of the machine will pick it up, allowing researchers to learn and adapt. It also boasts a robotic system that allows it to automatically load multiple samples at once.
The LST is very rare, but fortunately, one has found a home at the University of Malta’s (UM) Institute for Sustainable Energy (ISE), a brand new, state-of-the-art facility aimed towards finding efficient solutions for harnessing solar power to its fullest extent. ‘There are probably 10 to 12 of these worldwide,’ confirms Prof. Luciano Mule’ Stagno, Director of the Lab at the ISE. ‘Ours is one of the few in the world to be found in a university, almost certainly the only one in a university in Europe. Most of these machines are in industry settings,’ he says.
This enables the UM to conduct cutting-edge research in a field that is practically nascent, putting it at the forefront. With the LST, material engineers could unlock the secrets behind the perfect variation of defect-reduced silicon. This rise in efficiency could have a substantial impact on the worldwide sustainable energy market.
Author: Prof. Luciano Mule’ Stagno
Igniting a sun on Earth
The Sun is the most important source of energy for life on Earth. Powerful as it is, what would happen if humankind could create a miniature sun in a lab and harness its energy? This is the mission of Dr Ing. Nicholas Sammut, Dr Ing. Andrew Sammut, and Karl Buhagiar.
Harnessing the power of the sun
Malta is not a resource rich country, but in the shift towards renewable energies, our sunshine is now coveted for more than just tanning. Hans-Joachim Sonntag talks to Prof. Luciano Mulè Stagno about his experience in improving solar panel materials and building a research facility from scratch.
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Extreme heat for gears
Cars, motorcycles, machinery—gears are at the heart of them all. Dr Ing. Ann Zammit writes about challenges in producing and improving gears to make everything safer.
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The limits of noise
Of the astronomical phenomena, we can witness with our own eyes, a solar eclipse is one of the most spectacular. This phenomenon was used early in the 20th century to prove Einstein’s new theory of gravity. As light passes around a celestial object, its path is bent exactly as predicted by Einstein’s theory.
When researchers compared the amount light that was bent by large clusters of galaxies with the observed mass of the galaxies, they found that there was a discrepancy of over a factor of 1000, giving birth to the phenomenon known today as dark matter.
The distortions of galaxy shapes by large masses, provide astronomers with a tool to construct a dark matter map and its distribution in the universe we observe. Images captured using telescopes are analysed carefully to understand the distortions of galaxies due to the presence of dark matter lenses. However, in practice this is a very arduous task because telescopes suffer both from electronic noise as well as atmospheric distortions, so throughout my PhD, I investigated how the noise present in astronomical images could contribute to the distortion of galaxy images and also introduce errors in our maps of dark.
Under the supervision of Prof Kristian Zarb Adami, I applied Bayesian inference to determine the correct measurements of galaxy shapes. However, since the variations in the shape and size of galaxies due to lensing is very small, the measurement of dark matter is extremely difficult. Only novel statistical methods developed within a consistent Bayesian framework allow us to extract the maximum amount of information in such difficult scenarios.
Unfortunately, the application of the new methods in my Ph.D. have shown results that are similar to those reported by other researchers, with the techniques failing to provide the desired accuracy. Nonetheless research goes on, unravelling more mysteries and questions that still need answers.