Researchers from the University of Malta are descending on the House of Representatives for the Science in the City festival. Here is a selection of their work, ranging from Malta’s first space mission to achieving earlier breast cancer diagnoses.
Every year for the past four years, dozens of cyclists have committed themselves to training for 16 weeks, cycling over 1,000km in just one, and raising a minimum of €2,400 which is donated to cancer research. These cyclists are leaving behind a legacy.\
Nearly two-thirds of the Earth is covered in water. Yet we know more about the surface of the moon and Mars than we do of our own ocean floor. Humans have an understandable fear of water and desire to remain safe on land. The oceans are formidable places requiring sophisticated equipment. Even more dangerous is exploring uncharted areas.
For a primate species clinging to a speck of dust in an incomprehensibly vast universe, curiosity has seen humans discover a great deal about how it all works. However, there are still mysteries that the cosmos is reluctant to relinquish, one of which is gravity. The most accurate theory describing gravitational attraction is general relativity, developed by Albert Einstein in 1915. Unlike Isaac Newton, Einstein did not describe gravity as a force, but rather a manifestation of the curvature of spacetime, thought of as a stretchable and squeezable fabric that is distorted by matter. However, his theory does not fully explain phenomena such as the accelerating expansion of the Universe and inconsistent orbital speeds of stars within galaxies.
Think sci-fi, think robots. Whether benevolent, benign, or bloodthirsty, these artificially-intelligent automatons have long captured our imagination. However, thanks to recent advances in mechanical and programming technology, it looks like they are set to break the bonds of fiction.Continue reading