Radiation in Medicine: Balancing Benefit and Risk

What if an invisible energy could both reveal disease and help cure it? From diagnostic scans to targeted cancer therapy, radiation drives some of medicine’s most powerful tools. Understanding how this force can both benefit and harm patients is key to using it safely, responsibly, and to its greatest clinical advantage.

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Giving Plastic Waste a Second Life Through 3D Printing

Europe’s packaging industry drives 40% of plastic demand, yet Malta’s recycling rates remain alarmingly low. While 3D printing with recycled plastic offers a sustainable, low-carbon solution, repeated recycling degrades the material’s internal structure. Dr Zunaida Binti Zakaria explores this challenge through infrared thermal imaging to unlock the secrets of plastic crystallisation and bridge the gap between waste and reliable production.

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“What Would Music Look Like?” An AI-Driven Leap From Malta to Berlin

When sound becomes sight, music finds a new language. Maltese composer and producer André Tabone has turned this idea into reality with an AI-driven project that lets algorithms ‘imagine’ what music might look like. His work, developed during his studies in Berlin, blurs the line between performance, engineering, and visual art – transforming every note into motion.

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How Board Games Rediscovered Imagination, Sociality, and Play

Board games have, for a long time, been overshadowed by the rise of digital entertainment. In an age of constant feedback loops and the fraying of social connective tissue, Prof. Gordon Calleja, designer, author, and academic at UM’s Institute of Digital Games, unravels why modern board games can play an essential role in developing our imagination and strengthening social connections, in a time where such connections might be slowly fading.

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Yoga: The Bridge Between Ancient Wisdom and Modern Medicine

Long hailed as a spiritual practice, yoga is finally being recognised by scientists for its numerous benefits on our physical health. Drawing on insights from Prof. Renald Blundell, this article explores how stretching, breathwork, and meditation don’t just soothe our souls but also regulate hormones, keep our bodies in shape, and manage chronic stress.

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Culinary Medicine: A Missing Ingredient in Medical Education

For her second-year physiology research project conducted under the supervision of Chev. Prof. Renald Blundell from UM’s Department of Physiology and Biochemistry, Courtney Ekezie focused on sustainable food systems and their impact on human health. The study briefly mentioned culinary medicine – an aspect that later inspired this article for THINK.

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Postcards to the Self: Memory, Art, and the Spaces In Between

Following her studies with UM’s Faculty of Media & Knowledge Sciences, Michelle Gialanze conducted her research on the art of remembering through a physical yet still ephemeral archive – postcards. Under the supervision of Prof. Vince Briffa and Nicole Pace from the Department of Digital Arts, she presented her final research entitled: Utilising Postcards to Create an Autobiographical Artefact of Memories of an Event.

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