DECEMBER 2014 • ISSUE 11
ISSN 2306-0735
I D E A S
•
M A LTA
•
R E S E A RC H
•
P E O P L E
•
U N I V E R S I TY
DIGITAL
EDITION
PLAS Units commencing in February 2015
LAS
LAS
LAS
LAS
LAS
LAS
LAS
LAS
LAS
LAS
LAS
LAS
LAS
LAS
LAS
LAS
LAS
LAS
LAS
LAS
1015 A Taste of Spain and Latin America
1017 Physical Geography of the Maltese Islands
1018 Reaching for the Stars: Astronomy and the Universe
1019 Plants: Their Role in Life on Earth
1020 Gardens at Risk: Fighting Plant Pests and Diseases
1021 Understanding Economics
1022 Il-Malti tul iż-Żmien
1023 Marketing: The Art and Science of Customer Retention
1024 Adventures in Philosophy
1025 Mediterranean Food Culture
1026 Couple Relationships in Contemporary Society
2007 Sanskrit Culture: The Roots of Indo-European Civilizations
2008 Crime Narratives in English Literature and Culture
2009 Gods, Heroes and Monsters: Classical Myths
2011 Psychology of Adjustment: Negotiating the Challenges of Life
2012 Mapping the Crime Scene: Issues in Criminal Justice
2013 The Constitution of Malta
2020 Ideas and Business Venturing
2024 The Decorative Arts in Malta
2025 Medicine, Society and the Arts
How to apply
Online applications for PLAS Units commencing in February 2015 are now
being received through the Centre’s website. The application deadline is
Friday 16 January. A late application fee applies. For further information
and Unit descriptions visit our website.
What PLAS offers
• A cross-disciplinary
programme that enables
students to study at their
own pace by applying for
any and as many Units as
they wish.
• An excellent opportunity
for personal growth and
professional development.
• The opportunity to
accumulate ECTS credits
from PLAS Units or
previously uncompleted
courses to achieve a
Certificate, a Diploma,
a Higher Diploma and a
Bachelor’s degree in Liberal
Studies, without any limits
of time.
• Units consist of weekly
evening lectures, normally
spread over 14 weeks.
CONTENTS
ISSUE 11 2 0 1 4
DECEMBER
9
Identity: Malta
M
alta has named villages, rocks, and streets after
St Paul. The story goes that St Paul was shipwrecked
on the north of Malta on his way towards execution in
Rome. Recent research is shedding light on the truth behind the mythology that could change the nation’s perspective on
one of its most beloved heroes. Elaine Gerada Gatt examines (pg. 28).
Apart from saints, Malta also holds wine close to heart. With
evidence that Malta exported wine back in the Phoenician and
Punic times, the Islands have a long love affair with the beverage. Apart from culture, wine is also a research topic bringing in
engineers, oenologists, doctors, chemists, and others together to
study, test, and innovate. They are burning wine waste to make
electricity, using carbon dioxide from fermentation to grow algae
for food, and bringing ancient wines back to life (pg. 20).
Shaking up the islands some more are earthquakes. Malta lies
close to active fault lines, exhibit A: Etna, exhibit B: Hellenic Arc
(some 500 km away). Local seismologists tell THINK about
the threats to local buildings and what should be done (pg. 33).
Another danger to buildings is erosion. Research in stone restoration and conservation is trying to come up with better ways to
keep buildings together (pg. 40).
On gender, Liża Mallia is talking about how society culturally
divides men and women; Another opinion piece (pg. 5) discussing the need for policies to re-energise our depleted, contaminated oceans, and a student article mapping the marine pollution around Malta (pg. 8). On a more light-hearted note, we at
THINK finally found an excuse to express some geek genes
and found some great research on Star Trek by cardiac paediatrician Prof. Victor Grech (pg. 15).
A Staff Contribution Scheme is being launched at the University
of Malta. This is an opportunity for staff to donate part of their
monthly salary towards research and show just how important
research is to Malta.
OPINION
Haven’t We Had Enough
of Gender Stereotypes?
Men are from Mars and
Women are from Venus...
20
FEATURE
Science for Maltese Wine
History, fuel, war, culture,
green energy: wine has it all
28
COVER STORY
The mystery of
St Paul’s shipwreck
Surely on St Paul's Island. Or not?
33
FEATURE
Rocking the Islands
Malta: earthquake zone?
Edward Duca
EDITOR
edward.duca@um.edu.mt
@DwardD
CONTENTS
ISSUE 11 2 0 1 4
CONTRIBUTORS
DECEMBER
STUDENT ARTICLES
ALUMNI ARTICLES
Sabrina Bilocca
Josianne Cassar
Nicolette Formosa
Jana Galea
Ariana Gatt
Luana Micallef
OPINION ARTICLES
Angie Bartolo
Liża Mallia
FEATURE ARTICLES
Dr Matthew Agius
Dr Roger Aquilina
Prof. Everaldo Attard
Ing. Redeemer Axisa
Ing. Vincenzo D'Alberti
Dr Sebastiano D'Amico
Jessica Edwards
Daniela Farrugia
Anna Fava
Dr Pauline Galea
Dr Timmy Gambin
Mark Gatt
Elaine Gerada Gatt
Prof. Robert Ghirlando
Prof. Victor Grech
Dr Jean-Pierre Magro
Marija Grech Muscat
Ing. Davide Pieroban
Inol. Mario Ragusa
Mr Kevin Schembri
Prof. Emmanuel Sinagra
Dr Daniel Vella
8
OPINION
Oceans Re-energised
Angie Bartolo talks about
reinjecting life into the
Mediterranean
FUN ARTICLES
Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone
Matthew Cesareo
David Chircop
Dr Jean-Paul De Lucca
Dr Edward Duca
Alexander Hili
Costantino Oliva
Noel Tanti
COMIC STRIP
Dr Ġorġ Mallia
15
PHOTOGRAPHY
Dr Edward Duca
Jean Claude Vancell
FEATURE
Science Fiction:
Mythology of the
Future
Star Trek researched!
ILLUSTRATIONS
Marisabelle Grech
Sonya Hallett
Jean Claude Vancell
WEBSITE
Dr Edward Duca
Jean Claude Vancell
THINK is a quarterly research magazine published by the Communications &
Alumni Relations Office at the University of Malta
46
ALUMNI
Alumni talk
Fruit fly research, understanding
Alzheimer's and learning to
succeed by failing
51
FUN
Horns
Horror film review starring Daniel
Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame
To subscribe to our blog log into www.um.edu.mt/think/subscribe and fill in your
details.
For advertising opportunities, please call +2340 3475 or get in touch by email on
think@um.edu.mt
Are you a student, staff, or researcher at the University of Malta? Would you like to
contribute to THINK magazine? If interested, please get in touch to discuss your
article on think@um.edu.mt or call +356 2340 3451
56
CULTURE GENES
Meme
CONTENTS
COVER
STUDENTS
Students' thinking
The cover of this issue is inspired
by Shepard Fairey's work on the
Barack Obama 'Hope' poster used in
the American presidential electoral
campaign. The cover illustration
depicts Melchiorre Cafà's wooden
statue of St Paul (found at the
Collegiate Parish Church of St Paul's
Shipwreck carved in 1657) and is the
work of in-house designer
Jean Claude Vancell.
4
About education, marine pollution,
gesture control, and hip implants
FEATURE
10
Storytelling 2.0
Narratives in a connected world
THINK
I D E A S
•
M A LTA
•
R E S E A RC H
•
P E O P L E
•
U N I V E R S I TY
DECEMBER 2014 - ISSUE 11
EDITORIAL
Edward Duca EDITOR
DESIGN
Jean Claude Vancell
FEATURE
COPY-EDITING
40
Immortalising Heritage
Keeping it together using chemicals
Patricia Camilleri, Daphne Pia Deguara
PRINTING
Print It Printing Services, Malta
ISSN 2306-0735
Copyright © University of Malta, 2014
The right of the University of Malta to be identified as Publisher of this
work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright Act, 2001.
CULTURE
48
A Relationship of Cultures
Let's get talking at the 'Dialogue
in the Med' conference
University of Malta, Msida, Malta
Tel: (356) 2340 2340
Fax: (356) 2340 2342
www.um.edu.mt
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the
purpose of research and review, no part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for
external websites referred to in this magazine are correct and active at the
time of going to press. However the publisher has no responsibility for the
websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the
content is or will remain appropriate.
FUN
The Must-have 2014
Tech Christmas List
53
FIND US ONLINE
Open your stockings and your wallet
RESEARCH
Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have
been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to include
any necessary credits in any subsequent issues.
55
Let us set a precedent
The Staff Contribution Scheme
that the Rector, Editor, and plenty
more have pledged to support
www.um.edu.mt/think
www.facebook.com/ThinkUoM
www.twitter.com/thinkuom
www.youtube.com/user/ThinkUni
www.issuu.com/thinkuni
3
Student
students’
THINKing
Translating Education
LANGUAGE, translation, and
education: three hot topics on the Maltese Islands.
Malta invests heavily in education
with a big chunk of its budget, strength,
and efforts invested to elevate standards. Malta is also largely bilingual. This
is even reflected in Malta’s constitution
which places both Maltese and English
as official languages. Yet, deciding on
which language to use to teach children
is a thorn in the side of Maltese educational institutions. A viable bilingual
policy is still needed.
The European Union places great
importance on national languages. This
policy elevates the importance of all EU
languages no matter the country’s size.
The EU releases its documents in each
language—a boon for Maltese translation studies. However, there is a clear
lacuna in terminology and glossaries for
education documents.
4
Jana Galea (supervised by Prof. Anthony Aquilina) translated an international publication on education into
Maltese and compiled an accompanying
glossary of educational terms. Translators have to adopt the role of terminologists (professionals who research and
locate information or past publications
to ensure accuracy and consistency in the
usage of terms) when working with specialised terminology, a time consuming
activity due to the lack of standardised
terms. A glossary of educational terms
facilitates translation by providing an
easy-to-access reference tool that ensures
consistent terminology in translations.
The research tries to show that Maltese and English should not be seen as
rivals constantly trying to outdo each
other. The Maltese language is part of
the country’s unique identity, its most
democratic tool, and an official EU
language. It is strong and continuous-
Jana Galea
ly growing, as Prof. Manwel Mifsud
stated ‘Ilsien żgħir imma sħiħ, ilsien
Semitiku imma Ewropew, ħaj u dinamiku’ (A small but complete language,
a Semitic language but European, alive
and dynamic). Then there is the English language which is Malta’s main linguistic link to the rest of the world and
the carrier of scientific, technological,
and informational developments—both
languages enrich the Maltese Islands.
•
This research was performed as part of
a Master of Arts in Translation at the
Faculty of Arts, University of Malta. It is
partially funded by STEPS (the Strategic
Educational Pathways Scholarship—
Malta). This scholarship is part-financed
by the European Union—European
Social Fund (ESF) under Operational
Programme II—Cohesion Policy 2007–
2013, ‘Empowering People for More Jobs
and a Better Quality of Life’.
THINK Student
Pollution around
Malta's Sea
MARINE LITTERING is a
global concern and every single year
tons of litter end up in the ocean all
around the globe. It has become such
a problem that the waste has amalgamated into huge ‘islands’ floating in the
world’s oceans. These islands have numerous repercussions, from damaging
the environment and biodiversity, to
the harming the economy and health.
To be able to reduce this damage its extent needs to be known.
In an attempt to understand the degree of marine pollution around Malta,
Nicolette Formosa (supervised by Dr
Kenneth Scerri) modelled oxygen levels in the nearby seas. The data set was
gathered by an autonomous underwater robot funded by NORUS (a North
American and Norwegian educational
program). The data includes the position of the glider and the oxygen concentration at a specific time. Low oxygen concentrations are usually due to
high amounts of algae and bacteria in
the seas—important indicators of poor
water quality and marine pollution.
Scientists usually need a complete
picture of the environment to understand and predict the spread of pollutants. This data is usually tagged to
Nicolette Formosa
An autonomous underwater
vehicle capturing pollution
data values
location but not to time, which is problematic. Take an oil spill. A modeller
would need to know the currents, location of the oil spill, extent, rate of expansion, and when this happened (temporal information) to obtain a better
forecast. The inclusion of such temporal
information when modelling how pollutants disperse in water gives a better
prediction and a deeper understanding.
Formosa’s research could predict the
concentration of oxygen at a specific location and time, giving a far better prediction, 27% more than any competing
standard method. This model can help
identify which areas of the seas around
Malta are under most environmental
pressures allowing the authorities to target their pollution mitigation strategies.
Formosa’s method is not limited to
marine pollution. Her techniques could
be used to predict the growth of cancerous cells to envision more accurate
outcomes for patients, or the spread of
a virus, or even how house prices will
change.
•
This research was carried out by Nicolette
Formosa a Master student in the Faculty
of Engineering. It was partially funded by
STEPS (the Strategic Educational Pathways Scholarship—Malta). This scholarship is part-financed by the European
Union—European Social Fund (ESF)
under Operational Programme II—Cohesion Policy 2007–2013, ‘Empowering
People for More Jobs and a Better Quality
of Life’.
5
Photo by John Vonderlin on Flickr
Student
Controlling television
with a gesture
ADVANCEMENTS in IT have
made it possible to integrate computer systems into everyday life.
However, cumbersome traditional
devices like keyboards, mice, or the
TV remote control, are inconvenient
and unnatural to use. Hand gestures
are a natural means of communication amongst humans. They are used
to show feelings, emphasise points,
and express thoughts and emotions.
The use of hand gestures for humans to interact with computers
should come as second nature to us.
Using this approach, Sabrina Bilocca (supervised by Prof. Adrian Muscat) developed a computer vision system which automatically recognises
simple human hand gestures to control a TV. Bilocca’s research involved
the recognition of isolated gestures as
well as multiple gestures in continuous sequences. The greatest challenge
was to recognise gestures in a series,
since another procedure was needed
to spot the key hand gestures while
6
discarding unrelated movements between the key gestures.
The system was developed on a real-life dataset of isolated and a chain
of hand gestures. The video samples
were pre-processed using two algorithms (computer programmes that
do a specific task, like separate the
hand from the background) called
‘hand segmentation’ and ‘feature extraction’. The resulting images were
input into a machine learning technique for training and testing that
allows the computer to learn how to
identify the hand gestures in a better
way. Bilocca used the Hidden Markov Model as a machine learning. To
efficiently spot and recognise key gestures in continuous sequences, Bilocca proposed and implemented an
orientation backtracking technique.
Using these techniques she achieved
a 100% recognition rate for isolated
gestures and an 87.8% recognition
rate for gestures in a sequence. This
compares with existing state-of-the-
Sabrina Bilocca
art techniques.
The project could be further developed as a real-time application to recognise hand gestures as they happen,
which would help assist people with
disability and the elderly. The skills
Bilocca learnt in this project help her
in her current position as a network
engineer.
•
This research was performed as part
of a Master of Science in Information and Communication Technology
(Telecommunications) at the Faculty
of Information and Communication
Technology, University of Malta. . It
was partially funded by STEPS (the
Strategic Educational Pathways Scholarship—Malta). This scholarship was
part-financed by the European Union—European Social Fund (ESF)
under Operational Programme II—
Cohesion Policy 2007–2013, ‘Empowering People for More Jobs and a Better
Quality of Life’.
THINK Student
Read my hips, for longer
BY 2050 in Malta, the female 85+
age group will be the largest proportion
of the population. The population is
ageing because of increasing longevity.
As the body ages, joints and bones become weaker, therefore they need more
surgical procedures to replace worn out
joints. The problem is that hip replacements themselves also wear out.
Metal-on-metal hip replacements suffer from wear and corrosion. This leads
to high failure rates and rejection of the
implant. These failures cause undue suffering to the patient and a bigger strain
on the national budget because of lost
workdays and greater surgery costs. Josianne Cassar (supervised by Dr Joseph
Buhagiar and Dr Bertram Mallia) modified current hip replacement joints to
make them more durable to wear and
tear. Her work revolved around the alloy
cobalt-chromium-molybdenum (CoCr-Mo), which is the material of choice
for metal-on-metal hip replacements.
Cassar modified and hardened the
joint’s surface by using a proprietary
low temperature carburising treatment
owned by Bodycote called Kolsterising®.
This treatment is used to make high-end
watch-cases more scratch and corrosion
resistant. By increasing the hardness of
medical grade Co-Cr-Mo alloy their
hardness started to compare to ceramic
joint replacements. The aim is to make
a joint surface that is cheap and resistant
to mechanical damage (wear) in a hostile environment: the human body.
The human body sees replacement
joints as foreign and attacks them on all
fronts. These joints need to be protected. The first line of defence is a passive
Josianne Cassar
film on the Co-Cr-Mo alloy. The film is
made up of a nanolayer of an oxide that
protects the alloy against corrosion.
Corrosion usually happens because
the implant is in a saline bodily fluid.
In order to study the metal/solution
interface and changes in this passive
film, a technique called Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) was
used. The technique showed that the
films protect both the untreated as well
as the Kolsterised® alloy treated joints
from corrosion and wear. The Kolsterised® metal’s passive film was superior
and enhanced corrosion resistance after surface treatment of the joint. The
new, hardened case provided improved
mechanical support and stability to the
passive film. As a result the Kolsterised® material may last longer than the
untreated metal and is an improvement
on the untreated alloy currently used
in surgeries.
•
This research was performed as part of a
Master of Science by Research at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Malta. It was funded by Bodycote Hardiff
GmbH, Think10K, and partially funded by STEPS (the Strategic Educational
Pathways Scholarship—Malta). This
scholarship is part-financed by the European Union—European Social Fund
(ESF) under Operational Programme
II—Cohesion Policy 2007–2013, ‘Empowering People for More Jobs and a
Better Quality of Life’. The testing equipment was financed by ERDF (Malta),
‘Developing an Interdisciplinary Material Testing and Rapid Prototyping R&D
Facility (Ref. no. 012)’.
Hip Resurfacing.
Source: www.orthonewengland.com
Above: Metal-on-Metal hip
replacement and Resurfacing.
Source: www.caperay.com
7
Opinion
Oceans Re-energised
Angie Bartolo
T
he world’s oceans support the
lives, economies, and health
of societies. When the ocean
is in decline, a society will
also be in decline. Take the
Aral Sea Crisis—destroyed by Soviet-era irrigation projects—where a
prosperous society used the sea in an
unsustainable manner, degrading this
resource and their livelihoods. This cycle of decline needs to be turned into a
cycle of recovery.
The Global Ocean Commission
Report is trying to restore the ocean’s
health and ensure sustainable productivity for years to come. The then Maritime Affairs and Fisheries commissioner Damanaki together with the Global
Ocean Commission launched it at a
conference in Brussels on 30 June 2014.
The Mediterranean is a large sea with
over 200 million people living on its
shores. This sea shares many problems
that afflict oceans and affect the good
quality of life of its inhabitants.
The Global Ocean Commission outlined five drivers of ocean decline. These
are the rising demand for resources,
technological advances, decline of fish
stocks, climate change, biodiversity and
habitat loss, and weak governance of the
high seas (international waters—over
200 nautical miles from the coast).
In order to combat the drivers to
decline, the report presented eight
points that were recommended by the
8
Commission (Global Ocean Commission, 2014). Firstly, to make the
oceans sustainable through the United
Nations; secondly, to govern the high
seas by promoting its care and recovery;
thirdly, to end overfishing by removing
subsidies on fishing fleets; fourthly, to
combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing by establishing uniform
enforcement and legislation; fifth, to
keep plastics our of the ocean; sixth, to
establish binding international safety
standards and liability for offshore oil
and gas; seventh, to setup a global ocean
accountability board to move towards a
Damage in a
faraway place
will adversely
affect the
damage of one’s
own waters—
especially true for
the Mediterranean
Sea
healthy society; eight, to create a high
seas zone that allows the regeneration of
fishing stocks. If even some of these ambitious points are achieved they would
help stop the ocean’s decline.
The ‘Not in My Backyard’ concept
does not work with oceans. Everyone
needs to see them as a common good,
a shared resource. Damage in a faraway
place will adversely affect the damage of
one’s own waters—especially true for
the Mediterranean Sea.
What gives Malta optimism is that
there are very adequate resources to implement the necessary innovations. The
Irish EU Presidency in 2013 chaired
the negotiations which secured €1.28
billion of EU Funds for Malta under
the Multiannual Financial Framework
(MFF) from 2014–2020. In addition,
University of Malta researchers can
now apply for an additional €80 billion
of Horizon 2020 funding. This gives us
great confidence that the errors of the
past can be corrected and a prosperous
future ensured for all Mediterranean
citizens.
•
For more about the report see: Global
Ocean
Commission,
2014:
http://bit.ly/GlobalOceanMT
Jim
Hennessy (Irish Ambassador to Malta from September 2010 to September
2014) encouraged this article. The current ambassador is Padraig MacCoscair
http://www.ireland.com
THINK Opinion
Haven’t We Had Enough
of Gender Stereotypes?
Liża Mallia
A
n essay by linguist Deborah
Cameron about gender
misconceptions really hit
home hard. It made me ask,
why do we let gender role
restrictions influence our identity.
The thing about these restrictions
is that they are often subtle beliefs
and mentalities that have been hardwired into us. They easily go unnoticed
and manifest themselves in most of
what we do and say. As Judith Butler
pointed out in most of her gender
studies; a person’s sex is biological,
but gender is formulated, learned, and
performed.
Certain standards seem to need
to be met in order for someone to be
considered manly or feminine. There’s
an unjust mentality that excuses
someone who ridicules a man wanting
to become a professional dancer. This
is the same mentality that demands
that young girls aspire to a stereotyped
physical beauty.
What is this mentality teaching us?
Where is the respected individual?
How can we ridicule people for not
accepting who they are and then falsely
advertise self-acceptance?
If one looks at any commercial
blockbuster movie, one is likely to
find the same formulas: mindlessly,
men objectify women and women
romanticise men. People mimic this
behaviour, setting themselves up for
disappointment, only for reality to hit
home.
Sexuality
plays a huge
role in gender
stereotyping.
Media portrays
women as an
object to earn
Cameron’s essay outlined one study
she performed with her student. The
student studied the speech patterns
and habits from a recording of five male
friends having a conversation. They
repeatedly gossiped about other men
they knew, saying that these men were
immensely unmanly. Cameron points
out their paradoxical behaviour. By
gossiping, they were violating their own
perceived standards of masculinity—a
contradiction.
People seem to be oblivious to
such inconsistent actions. Men and
women seem to expect behaviour from
each other that not only eradicates
individuality and genuine interaction,
but is even downright illogical—
especially when it comes to sex.
Sexuality plays a huge role in gender
stereotyping. Media portrays women
as an object to earn. This completely
destroys the idea of individual identity
and the ability of having confidence in
one’s body as it really is. It also shames
women who feel happy in their own
skin and are sexually active. The chances
are they will be labelled sluts. Most men
have become afraid of accidentally
conveying an unmanly persona: they are
constantly trying to prove themselves
to other men, and this leads them to
objectify a lot of what is in their lives.
This leaves no room for selfexpression and, for example, the
ability to love whoever one chooses.
Janet Hyde’s Gender Similarities
Hypothesis holds that men and women
are, for the most part, psychologically
interchangeable, meaning that men and
woman are more alike than they are
different. Through meta-analysis, Hyde
concluded that the ‘overinflated claims’
around gender differences were causing
harm to individuals ranging from
successful career pursuits for women to
teenage self esteem issues.
We are being falsely educated about
who we are supposed to be by outdated
stereotypes, simply because there is a
need to differentiate between the sexes.
There are biological differences, but
there cannot possibly be an absolute
differentiation between a man and a
woman. An individual has his or her
own characteristics and personality that
has nothing to do with gender.
We are living in the 21st Century. Isn’t
it time to wake up?
•
9
Storytelling 2.0
The art of telling stories in a connected world
The rapid advancement of technology has transformed us into The Jetsons. But the use of these
tools to enhance our storytelling makes us seem more like The Flintstones. Writers, creators,
producers and academics are still busy developing ways to create richer, more engaging and
more profitable transmedia experiences. Dr Jean Pierre Magro speaks to THINK on
the fascinating and lucrative world of transmedia narratives. Illustrations by Sonya Hallett
10
THINK Feature
Dr Jean Pierre Magro
S
torytelling is in an exciting period of change. New narrative
forms are being created daily.
Producers, due to a range of
different platforms, are able
to expand their canvas and share more
of their vision with the most dedicated
fans. They can achieve this by creating
and designing multimedia narratives
from the ground up in which movies,
video games, websites, smart phone
applications, comic books, and other
media are equal chapters of a complete
story. This is transmedia storytelling.
My transmedia story began in 2009
while working as Head of Development
in Los Angeles with US/Spanish outfit
FishCorb Films. This emerging ecosystem of texts and para-texts, and their organisation, became a personal obsession.
But while I consumed the literature
available, attended seminars, and formulated a slew of ideas to apply this new
concept to existing projects, I hit a snag.
While I was ready to experiment and
see the effect of transmedia on our audiences, my bosses, and financiers held
me back, unwilling to invest against the
high risk of the unknown.
It was then that I decided to shelve
my career in Hollywood and return to
Europe to test and play with the form.
Media studies become essential during
periods of disruption and transition, offering a sober analysis of the situation,
while continuously suggesting various
alternative paths. Therefore, the next
logical step for me was to enrol for
a Ph.D.
With backing from STEPS, I started
a three-year journey focused on unravelling transmedia and its functions.
Transmedia is no longer a mere buzzword or some millennial sideshow
distraction, but an important reality
of the global entertainment industry.
Audiences and their behaviours have
changed drastically over the last five
years. The ‘lean back’ approach is being
replaced by the ‘lean in’ approach. People want to be in control of their media,
deciding when to watch what and on
which device.
Experts believe that the companies
which will survive in this landscape are
those with the ability to understand
and speak to the needs of their audiences. Producers today need to know
how to keep audiences satiated and
engaged. These particular skills will become essential to their success. Whether producers like it or not, they are
increasingly dependent on networked
communities to circulate, curate, and
appraise the final product. In reality,
they no longer have any control over
their content from the moment it leaves
their hands.
The basic premise of transmedia storytelling is that instead of using different media channels to simply retell the
same story, each channel is utilised to
communicate different elements of the
story. Each segment should stand on its
own, while also contributing to the narrative as a whole. Each segment should
add new pieces of information which
forces the audience to revise their understanding of the overall narrative.
Transmedia storytelling offers a real
feast for postmodernist writers who,
like James Joyce before them, love to
challenge an audience by inviting them
to construct their own text from the
fragments provided.
For me, transmedia is an art form that
invites the audience to become an active participant of a 'world'. While each
different segment needs to be unique
in its own right, these extensions must
also uphold the canon, style, and tonality of the primary text. Each extension
needs to play a vital part in the telling »
11
Feature
of the entire narrative, creating a richer
experience. However, this can only be
achieved if properly planned, with each
component acting very much like a sequence in a screenplay, each one building on the other in a coherent structure,
enhancing the consumer’s experience.
The real issue with transmedia is
that it lacks its own proper grammar.
Even the term transmedia is still open
to misinterpretation and hegemonic
discourse. There is no set of ‘standard
best practices’ yet. This became very
Transmedia storytelling represents a
process where integral elements of a
fiction get dispersed systematically
across multiple delivery channels for
the purpose of creating a unified and
coordinated entertainment experience.
Ideally, each medium makes its own
unique contribution to the unfolding of
the story
– Henry Jenkins
12
clear during various conference and
seminars, including Power to the Pixel
in Potsdam and London, Storyworld in
San Francisco, and the Torino Film Lab.
Professionals are experimenting with
the form, attempting to find a method
which works, that can then be replicated and sold to investors.
All of these reasons pushed me to focus my Ph.D. on attempting to create
principles which could contribute to
the establishment of a set of standard
best practices.
From my interviews with other professionals, it became clear that storytellers have been unable to fully exploit the
possibilities at their disposal. Many lack
the necessary knowledge and skills to
maximise the potential of their stories
across various platforms. It is not easy
to understand how the combination
and coordination of so many different
disciplines can offer an exciting experience. In many cases, transmedia has
been reduced to a mere business plan.
Marketing teams seeking to expand
their text as far as possible, encourage
audiences to consume the same IP (Intellectual Property) from different outlets, wrongly calling it transmedia.
A prime example is The Hunger
Games, one of the most successful film
franchises of 2012. After the release of
the first film, a series of poor tie-ins were
THINK Feature
released, none of which did anything
to enhance the story, the characters or
the world. Instead, the would-be transmedia components morphed into silly
puzzles, games, blog competitions, toys,
nail polish, and other merchandise.
Such thoughtless entertainment can
easily be equated with fast food. Transmedia is being ‘McDonaldised’.
The transmedia label is often applied
indiscriminately to anything that is
even remotely interactive, participatory,
pervasive, or multi-platform. Confusion arises, in part, because the field is so
young. The term transmedia is very often used to make a product sound more
innovative than it actually is. This is expected, especially when considering the
enormous capital investment at stake.
The media industry is big business.
As an international producer, I always felt the need to analyse and make
sense of this particular moment in
time. Transmedia storytelling remains
a murky term, with new vocabulary
sprouting on a regular basis. This again
shows just how sparse ‘industry standards’ are within transmedia. The difficulty in finding the appropriate terms
to use is an immense problem because
it makes it extremely hard for creators
to explain what they are selling. Consequently, attracting investment becomes
practically impossible.
I always like to compare transmedia’s
present with the early days of TV. Not
knowing what to do with cameras, producers solved their quagmire by filming
radio shows. Soon after, industrious
people realised the tools’ potential. As
time went by, a new language was created, more eloquent and sophisticated.
At the moment, many transmedia practitioners are still applying a single medium mindset to the form.
Transmedia storytelling needs to
become a recognisable and repeatable product. My contribution to this
argument was to apply a known concept—the eight sequence structure of
a screenplay first introduced by Frank
Daniels—to the structure of the roll
out. The sequential release of various
extensions which make up the project »
13
Feature
The Narratives of the world are
numberless[…] Able to be carried by
articulated language, spoken or written,
fixed or moving images, gestures,
and the ordered mixture of all these
substances; narrative is present in
myth, legend, fable, tale, novella,
epic, history, tragedy, drama comedy,
mime, painting [...], stained glass
windows, cinema, comics, news item,
conversation
– Roland Barthes
must create a clear and identifiable
journey with each part of the story, regardless of the platform, feeding into
the next in the same way the sequences
of a film script build on each other to
create rising tension. The idea has been
well received among industry circles
and I have already applied the concept
to the projects I am producing.
The volatile state of storytelling
provides a unique opportunity. Unfortunately, I feel that the University
of Malta has been largely absent from
this debate. While MIT and University of Southern California, to name just
two, have recognised the importance of
transmedia and its study, Malta is dragging its feet. This is not something new.
Film has also suffered similarly, and has
had to deal with the consequences of
being sidelined for many years.
Malta can never become Hollywood and should never aspire to be
14
such. However, as technology becomes cheaper, possibilities for creatives are on the rise. Digital creative
work and critical media literacy play
a defining role in our information society. Studies show that all aspects of
contemporary life are being affected,
including the way many professional
visual artists ranging from multimedia
performers to film-makers and publishers pursue their practice. Educational institutions need to start
preparing students to face the realities
of today’s landscapes.
MCAST and the University of
Malta urgently need to create and
develop programs that explain the
new economies emerging from
these technological shifts. At the
moment this is not being done.
Without a shadow of a doubt, I am
certain that it will come back to
haunt us.
•
FURTHER READING
• Dowd, T., Niederman, M., Fry, M.
and Steiff, J. (2013). Transmedia.
Burnington, MA: Focal Press.
• Hutcheon, L. (2006). A theory of adaptation. New York: Routledge.
• Jenkins, H. (2008). Convergence culture. New York: New York University Press.
• Rose, F. (2011). The art of immersion. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
• Scolari, C. (2014). Transmedia archaeology. [Place of publication not
identified]: Palgrave Pivot.
• Wolf, M. (2012). Building Imaginary
Worlds. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.
THINK Feature
Science
fiction
mythology of the future
Science fiction reimagines our future. Sometimes it is inspired
by science; sometimes it inspires current scientists. Anna
Fava visited Prof. Victor Grech at his home to talk about
the mythology of science fiction and his love for Star Trek
A
Anna Fava
ll children mythologise
their birth. It is a universal trait. You want to know
someone? Heart, mind
and soul? Ask him to tell
you about when he was born. What
you get will not be the truth: it will be
a story. And nothing is more telling
than a story.’
[The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield]
Science fiction is a genre of scientific chronicles, which often occur in
diverse time frames other than that
contemporary. It is the blending of
scientific principles and fantasy, exploring potential outcomes of technological innovations.
In archaic cultures, mysterious phenomena are often attributed to the
supernatural and spiritual. Through
magical tales and sacred rituals, »
15
Feature
primitive communities explore the relation between experiences and dreams,
an archetype of human visions and aspirations. One Aztec legend speaks of
the deity Quetzalcoatl, whose human
figure traversing on barren land would
have starved to death if not for a passing
rabbit. The rabbit offered its life to save
him and Quetzalcoatl was so moved
that he imprinted the rabbit’s image
in the moon’s light—the rabbit moon
folk-tale was born.
Other mythologies simply invented
creatures like the unicorn as a creative
product of the human imagination. In a
similar vein, primeval cultures invented
myths to explain phenomena they had
no hope of understanding. The Chinese
thought that the goddess Xi He carried one of her ten sons across the sky.
Each of them was a sun. Science fiction,
which uses the human imagination to
explore our future, also tries to understand its uncertainty by creating stories.
Doubt about future events led to an
instinctive need to try and control this
unexplainable world. Take the traditional rain dance of the Aborigines. Such
superstitions have no origin whatsoever
in experimental data. On the contrary,
science fiction tends to stem from established scientific fact. To better understand science fiction, I met Prof. Victor
Grech a cardiac paediatrician with a
Ph.D. in science fiction, who also co-organised a local Star Trek symposium.
Prof. Grech explained how science
fiction gave a paradigm shift to the
world of ancient mythology. In the
modern world humans have expanded their knowledge of how the world
works through scientific and logical inquiry. Science fiction evolved as a plausible science chronicle.
16
In the modern
world humans
have expanded
their knowledge
of how the world
works through
scientific and
logical inquiry.
Science fiction
evolved as a
plausible science
chronicle
Darko Suvin, a science fiction critic,
defines the science fiction genre as ‘the
literature of cognitive estrangement’
since it attempts to obtain certain legitimacy by appearing scientific. Science
fiction posits the introduction of a novum (new idea) of a scientific nature,
mostly through technological innovations like teleportation (instantaneous
matter transport). This is because science fiction tends to be futuristic. Authors design innovative machinery and
pioneering theoretical concepts, sometimes before scientists confirm them.
This spawns a generation of new terminology to express innovation, such
as playwright Karel Čapek coining the
term robot in his play R.U.R. in 1920.
Science fiction writers attempt to
envisage the future. They reflect upon
patterns of love and death, aspiration,
and reconciliation in a totally fresh context, by encouraging a sense of wonder
and willing suspension of disbelief in
the reader. In AD 190, Lucian of Samosata wrote the first science fiction
story where the protagonists take a trip
THINK Feature
to the moon, encountering alien creatures and getting embroiled in celestial
warfare. Subsequently, there have been
several texts and poems which incorporate this kind of technology and themes
like flying machines, the quest for immortality, an alternate history of our
planet, fantastic voyages in outer space,
and time travel. These reflect the culture and scientific progress of the time.
Victorian era writers, Wells and Verne,
reflected the innovative machinery of
the industrial revolution, while Abbott,
in roughly the same period, reflected in
Flatland on the latest ideas exploring
extra dimensions in space.
Star Trek fiction: myth
and ethical principles
‘Science fiction is metaphor. What sets
it apart from older forms of fiction
seems to be its use of new metaphors,
drawn from certain great dominants
of our contemporary life—science, all
the sciences, and technology, and the
relativistic and the historical outlook,
among them.’
[Introduction to the Left Hand of
Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin]
American screenwriter and producer Gene Roddenberry created the Star
Trek series using ‘[his] social philosophy, racial philosophy, overview of life,
and the human condition’, said Grech.
Roddenberry thought that he would
reach more people through media than
any other conventional philosopher. By
alluding to myth, enchantment, and
logic, his philosophy of moral virtue is
conveyed in over ten films and hundreds
of TV series. The storyline reminds us
of Aesop’s parables due to the inherent
moral implications. These mostly »
A short Star Trek history
In 1964, Gene Roddenberry already had plans for ‘a Western in outer space’ even though the first episode was not aired before 1966.
Curiously, it was not well received when initially viewed but gained
popularity through reruns. After three years of The Original Series, the
Motion Picture production in 1979 helped the whole franchise bloom
in popularity, gathering extensive fandom who were called 'Trekkers'.
The Next Generation episodes broadcast in the late 1980s, embraced more socially liberal morals than its progenitor, spawning
two sequels (Deep Space 9 and Voyager) and four films. More recently, the series Enterprise and the two latest films continue to reach
fans worldwide.
In July 2014, Malta hosted the first academic Star Trek symposium.
For two days, academics and fans discussed the philosophy, ethics,
and scientific principles behind Star Trek. It intended to explore the
boundaries of interdisciplinary research between the humanities,
medicine, and the sciences in Star Trek.
17
Feature
emphasise dignity and respect for all
sentient life, personal loyalty, tolerance
of multicultural diversity (infinite diversity in infinite combinations), opting
for peaceful resolutions rather than violent conflicts, and the exercising of our
rational faculties and scientific knowledge to pursue truths, all the while advocating the importance of education
and free thought. Star Trek encapsulates
a Utopian future, one where the characters’ altruistic temperament matches
Roddenberry’s belief in humanity’s potential for self-transcendence.
Grech explained how progressive
these values were for their time. The
series was launched on Thursday, September 8, 1966 with the Cold War,
apartheid in the United States, and
the influences of hippie culture in full
swing. The spacecraft’s crew took in humans from all over the world (including
a Russian, Japanese, and African-American woman), and science officer Spock,
an alien from the planet Vulcan. These
humanoid creatures are disciplined and
logical. This is especially so for Spock,
a member of this alien species who
learned to master their emotions by
following the teachings of Vulcan philosopher Surak, after their planet was
almost destroyed by war. Star Trek exemplified diversity.
The Star Trek franchise incorporates
several philosophical topics. The under-
The Star Trek
franchise
incorporates several
philosophical
topics. The
underlying ideology
is humanistic: a
secular approach
that discards
supernatural and
religious dogma,
replacing this with
rationalism
lying ideology is humanistic: a secular
approach that discards supernatural
and religious dogma, replacing this with
rationalism (where reason is the chief
source of knowledge). Any deity or divine spirit is described as the myth of the
past, discouraging any theistic worship.
Grech went on to describe how myth
is explored in Star Trek. For example,
in the curious episode Elaan of Troyius,
Captain Kirk encounters a mysterious
yet conceited young princess whom he
falls in love with because he has been
affected by the biochemistry of her
tears. In conventional alchemy these
tears are a love potion, but modern
science might slap on the chemical oxytocin, the so-called ‘cuddle hormone’
that seems to be linked to a person falling in love. ‘Add some technobabble,
give it a chemical name’, Grech remarked jokingly about the validity
of such aphrodisiacs. Reality is a lot
more complicated.
Another episode Who mourns for
Adonais? delves into ancient Greek
beliefs, where Apollo has captured the
Enterprise and demands worship from
the trapped crew. As always, the Star
Trek crew would contemplate the best
logical solution to an otherwise labyrinthine problem, in this case by finding the source of Apollo’s power and
rendering him vulnerable. As he fades
with the wind to join his fellow brother
and sister gods, he laments, ‘the time has
passed. There is no room for gods.’ One
can appreciate why postmodern civilisation in general dismisses these gods
as mythology, and thus why myth is as
evolving as language.
Speaking of language and communication, in The Next Generation, the episode Darmok portrays the difficulty of
Captain Picard (of the Star Trek ship)
to understand the Tamarian leader
since his language cited metaphors derived from mythology and folklore. At
the end of the episode, Picard remarks
that ‘more familiarity with our own mythology might help us relate to theirs’
meaning that understanding our own
stories more helps us communicate better with other societies. Indeed, science
fiction is certainly more conscious and
literary than primeval myth. Yet it is not
designed to be the myth of society, but
rather it is the mythology concocted for
the delight of the technological human.
Fellow readers and fans, live long
and prosper.
•
18
THINK Feature
FURTHER READING
Victor’s research into science fiction
Prof. Victor Grech has been a science fiction fan from a young age. Although he
studied medicine and became a paediatrician, he remains a physicist at heart,
with an enduring interest in astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology. The allure
of science fiction eventually led to his reading for a Ph.D. called Infertility in Science Fiction at the Department of English, University of Malta. The thesis classified infertility in science fiction according to themes like after warfare, terrorism,
state inflicted, alien inflicted, affecting aliens and animals. In over 300 texts one
commonality ensued: optimism. Science Fiction is the modern replacement of
the fairy tale and therefore almost always has a happy ending. Instead of monsters, we have aliens. Instead of magic, we find advanced technologies. The end
result is the same, the willing suspension of disbelief and an abiding sense of
wonder. The thesis spawned several scholarly (and otherwise) publications, with
Star Trek offering the potential for lots more. Grech continues to read science fiction in his spare time and greatly enjoys watching science fiction films and series
(such as Star Trek) with his two children who have also become fans.
• Grech, V. (2013). Philosophical Concepts in Star Trek: Using Star Trek as
a curriculum guide introducing fans
to the subject of Philosophy [online]
James Gunn's Ad Astra. Available
at: http://adastra.ku.edu/philosophical-concepts-in-star-trek/
[Accessed 10 Oct. 2014].
• Grech, V. (2013). The Pygmalion-Galatea myth in relation to simulation
scenarios in Star Trek. Xjenza Online,
[online] 1(2), pp.23-28. Available at:
http://www.mcs.org.mt/index.php/
xjenza/2013-vol-1-iss-2/114xjenza-2013-2-03.
• Star Trek: The Original Series, Elaan of
Troyius [television series 3 episode
13]. (1968). [film] Hollywood: John
Meredyth Lucas, Paramount.
• Star Trek: The Original Series, Who
Mourns for Adonais? [television
series 2 episode 2]. (1967). [film]
Hollywood: Gilbert Ralston, Gene L.
Coon & Marc Daniels, Paramount.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation,
Darmok [television series 5 episode
2]. (1991). [DVD] Hollywood: Joe
Menolsky, Phillip LaZebnik & Winrich Kolbe, Paramount.
19
Feature
Science for Maltese Wine
Wine borders on obsession for some, while others call it research. Some drink it, while
others burn it. Creative solutions are turning wine and its waste into algae, pharmaceutical
products, and electricity. Words by The Editor
20
THINK Feature
W
e drink it, we use it in
rituals and celebrations, we went to war
with it: wine is life.
Wine is also the subject of scientific research. When sitting
back after a long day’s work, sipping
a pleasant wine, you probably do not
think about how the wine was made,
what acidity was modified to make it
taste fresher, what processes softened
the tannins; but oenologists, wine scientists, do. They have manipulated that
relaxing glass of crisp white or full-bodied red that you have just drunk into an
art form and science.
Wine connects everything. The beauty of wine production is that it is much
more than just the wine itself. Wine is
linked to archaeology, making algae,
food, biomass for energy production,
heating or cooling, making ethanol for
biodiesel, and lots of other possibilities
dependent on people’s creativity. Wine
also needs to be researched, but before
that let us start from the beginning.
Wine was first made in Georgia
around 6000–8000 BC. The Phoenicians introduced the Mediterranean
(and Maltese Islands) to the culture
of wine starting a long love affair. As
traders they used to barter wine from
their place of origin, the Levant, and exchange it with the Egyptians for wheat,
with the English for tin, and also with
other societies. Wine provided commerce even for Malta. Archaeologists
from the University of Malta found that
Malta was probably making commercial
quantities of wine long ago. It was also
important for public health; wine was
deemed "safer" to water as a beverage’,
said oenologist Dr Roger Aquilina—
oenology is the science of wine.
After the Phoenicians, the Romans
developed and spread wine-making.
The Romans knew that wine could replace and preserve water. ‘Wine had
a military purpose.’ And the Romans
were a serious military machine. So serious that taste was not an issue. ‘They
used to place wine in an amphora, seal
it with clay, then leave it in the summer
sun’, explained Aquilina, which destroyed the delicate flavour of wine but
let them have safe drinking water on
their long marches.
Why bother with a too-brief history
of wine in the region? The links with
this illustrious past are important today.
Agritourism and wine routes attract
millions worldwide. ‘In Italy or Spain
agritourism is something fundamental for tourism. […] We could have the
For Aquilina and
Schembri, these
problems are
surmountable:
‘Malta has
everything’
same thing in Malta, as long as we are
prudent to create a structure around
wineries’, aspires Aquilina. We can make
history pay and create a better wine
product in Malta.
Malta: land of vine
and wine?
Malta is almost ideal to wine-making,
Aquilina thinks . ‘A good wine depends
on these main factors: sun, temperature, environment, water, and soil’, he
explains. ‘The most important is sun.
Locally, we’re good with sun, it comes at
the right season.’ Cardiac surgeon and
wine-lover Kevin Schembri continues
‘the ideal position is 35 degrees. We are
at 33 degrees—not far. The vines should
be facing South [and West]. Other [directions] will give you a nice wine as
well, but that’s the maximum exposure
you can get to the sun. […] The vine is
essentially an energy capture source.’ So
the more exposure the vines receive, the
better the wine, as long as the temperature does not go too high.
‘We are in a good situation with temperature, contrary to others’ belief ’, stated Aquilina. ‘The critical temperature is
35˚C. Higher temperatures for a long
period of time really stress the grapevine, especially red wine. It destroys the
balance between these components.
[…] Cold winters are also important to
help the grapevine to sleep,’ and Malta 's
winters offer sufficient guarantees. The
environment the grapevine grows in
bestows a certain character and flavour
to the wine. For example, ‘if you have »
21
Feature
Ing. Louis Borg, Prof. Robert Ghirlando, Dr Roger Aquilina, Ing. Redeemer Axisa and Guido Baldacchino. Photo by Edward Duca.
the grapevine close to the shore you will
have the influence of salt spray,’ which
could impart a unique taste.
Water and soil is where Malta starts
to lose its ideal status. Malta suffers
from chronic water shortage with no
solution in sight. The flip-side is that
too much water is also a problem. Aquilina likened the grapevine to a child
that should not be spoilt and needs discipline. ‘Many think that the grapevine
needs a lot of water when we feel a lot
of thirst and heat. The grapevine needs
water during "bud break" in late winter
to early spring, when it wakes up after
hibernation.' Later on, when the fruit
is growing, you need to control water
amounts because if it is too comfortable it will make weak fruit.’ This makes
sense against the backdrop of evolution
and survival. Many animals invest more
in the next generation when they are
stressed but not too pressured—grapes
seem no different.
Vines watered correctly can make
a very good wine. Soil is a bit trickier
to get around. ‘Our soils are shallow,
but we have so much sun that the importance of soil is diminished.’ That is
what we are gunning for in Malta. The
shallow soils mean that a viticulturist
needs to pay extra special care for the
first few years of a vine’s life. For Aquilina and Schembri, these problems are
surmountable: ‘Malta has everything’.
But what about taste? Drinking wine
tends to be the most important part
and research is critical here. ‘Taste is
complex, […] taste is dynamic, […] a
22
fashion,’ explained Schembri. ‘There
can be mistakes [in wine production]
leading to bad wine, but the variability in good wine can be enormous. So
the ingredients always need to be good,
then we need a cook who mixes them to
make a better final product.’ You need
research to train good cooks.
Wine research, or oenology, started
in Malta in 1947. Aquilina explained
how Malta’s desire to make good local
wine increased with greater self-governance. ‘They reasoned that since we
have this ideal climate to produce wine,
why are we sending our money abroad
when we can grow our own wine here?’
A programme in Buskett was launched
in a building of the Knight’s of St.
John. ‘This building still has a lot of old
wine-making machinery and in the future, with funding, we hope to restore
it and turn it into a small wine museum
and enoteca.’
‘The next step happened in the 60s
as independence was approaching. […]
Another idea started coming to Malta:
the concept of quality’, said Aquilina.
Using FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) funds they started another
research station after bringing a professor from Davis, California, and sending
a Maltese student over to study oenology and viticulture. Unfortunately, ‘we
didn’t plan a successor’. When the Maltese oenologist retired in the 1980s the
place fell into ruin.
By attracting EU funds, Aquilina has
finished the restoration of the research
station. The first harvest has been pro-
cessed with a larger one planned for
next year. However, for this station
to flourish it needs a postgraduate research programme through a collaboration that involves government, industry,
MCAST (Malta Council for Arts Science and Technology), and the University of Malta.
But what could all of these researchers do? Aquilina would like to rediscover lost grape varieties described by
Professor Borg relating to the beginning of the 20th century. Recent DNA
studies from the Centro di Ricerca per
la Viticolture in Italy (in collaboration
with the Directorate of Agriculture
and University of Malta) have already
identified Girgentina and Ġellewża as
two local grape varieties unique to Malta. ‘There is nothing exactly like them
in the world. Like these grapes, other
[unique varieties] might exist. They
[Girgentina and Ġellewża] could have
remained popular because they have
a dual purpose, they could be eaten or
used to make wine’. Aquilina thinks
The vine is
essentially an
energy capture
source
THINK Feature
How do you make wine?
First harvest the grapes when they have the right sugar level, amount
of acids, and pH. Do not harvest mouldy or bad grapes, if more then
2% of the harvested grapes have gone mouldy the quality of your
wine will suffer.
that this could have been critical during
the Arab rule of the islands.
New wines can only be created
through research. Malta cannot ‘compete on price or we will lose the war’,
stated Aquilina. ‘Our pitch is that we
have a product with its own identity
and a certain ‘drinkability’ and aroma.’
We have to capitalise on our uniqueness. Research into wine can help Malta
do so much more.
Wine: the local
research manifesto
Some research has already started in
Malta as part of an EU-funded sustainable energy research project called
ViEnergy (Italia-Malta ERDF Programme [2007–2013]). Prof. Everaldo
Attard and his team (Institute of Earth
Systems, University of Malta) studied
Maltese wine, its waste from wine »
To make a white wine use white grapes or peel some black varieties. Crush the grapes to make a juice and discard any skins. Use the
juice for the primary fermentation. To kick off fermentation add some
yeast, which converts the sugar to alcohol.
To make a red wine use red or black grapes and crush them to make
a pulp or must. The must has the grape juice, skin, seeds, and stems
of the fruit. Red wine can be naturally fermented because of yeast in
the skin. However, yeast can also be added. The juice has now been
turned into the first free run wine, which can be separated from the
solids. The rest of the must is sometimes pressed to make a different
tasting wine that is mixed with the free run wine for the oenologist
to achieve a particular taste. Grappa can only be made from the must
solids only.
Red wine can have a harsh flavour due to high levels of malic acid.
This is converted to the softer tasting lactic acid by a secondary bacterial fermentation.
The oenologist decides how the grapes should be grown, when to
harvest the grapes, when to ferment them, for how long. Yet, there
is still has a lot of work to do and tricks to extract the best wine they
can from the grapes. Fining agents can be added to the wine to remove tannins (that give a dry taste to tea), and remove microscopic
particles to make a clearer wine (although wine can also be filtered
before bottling). Winemakers can use gelatine, milk protein, egg albumin, isinglass, milk powder, and even bull’s blood. Non-animal-based
fining agents exist and are more commonly used.
The wine also needs to be preserved. Despite the alcohol content
wine would need to be kept cold if a preservative is not added. Commonly it is sulfur dioxide. The level of sulfur dioxide varies and maximum levels are legally regulated.
Throughout the process a winemaker would be testing the wine
for levels of sugar, volatile acidity (that gives an idea on the level of
ethanoic acid), pH, total sulfur, percentage of alcohol, amount of potassium hydrogen tartrate, levels of proteins and a few others. This
information is important for the oenologist to change the properties
of the wine to make it softer, preserve properties, and bring out the
wine’s desired flavour to make a great glass of wine.
23
Feature
Photos by Edward Duca
production and pruning waste. They
chose ten different fields and a range of
grape varieties. Then they analysed the
chemical profile of the grapes from local
and international varieties.
Using a variety of high-end technology they identified that local varieties have
a higher pH and low acidity. They have
a comparable amount of polyphenols,
these being responsible for the taste,
colour, and mouth-feel of wine. Polyphenols are also under the lens for reputed
health benefits. Aquilina stated how ‘the
tendency is that in warm countries wine
have a lot of polyphenols. In the 1970s,
these were often removed because they
were problematic. This is because when
they oxidise, white wine goes darker
while red wine becomes more sour’.
Wines are now prized for these compounds, which is good for Malta.
Attard’s study found that a large
amount of the polyphenols was ending
up in any waste associated with wine
production and harvesting. He sees
24
an opportunity here. Pharmaceutical,
food, and cosmetic companies could
collaborate with wine makers, process
their waste, and extract high-value
polyphenols to be sold as phytomedicines, food supplements, and cosmetics.
The relationship between wine and
health captivates heart surgeon and
wine-lover Mr Kevin Schembri (Mater Dei Hospital and University of
Malta). ‘Part of my [Ph.D.] research is
analysing the entire profile for cellular
gene expression. These RNAs [RNAs
are the go-betweens reading DNA and
making proteins] are being expressed
when there isn’t enough oxygen. In the
future, I’d like to see what the effect of
wine is on this process. Is wine making
cells more resistant to a lack of oxygen?’
Such findings would be remarkable
for the wine industry and society. ‘But
these are still early days. There is still
much work to be done’.
The health benefits of wine have taken the world by storm. But let us not
get carried away. While wine has been
linked to good health Schembri emphasised, ‘as doctors, we have to admit
that right now there is no evidence for
us to state that if you drink wine it will
be beneficial for people in general. As
a doctor, you cannot recommend wine
because of the problem of alcohol addiction. Some patients might misinterpret that and instead of drinking a glass,
drink a whole bottle, thus doing more
harm then good.’ ‘Perhaps the best rule
is little and often’, said Aquilina with a
boyish smile.
Eating and Burning Wine
Wine for a healthy heart and long life is
not the only health fad. There is much
more to it. Ing. Davide Pierobon (Microlife, Italy) is combining wine making
with algae farms. Wine produces food
grade CO2 that is perfect to capture
carbon dioxide made during wine-making (each bottle drunk releases 1.45 kg
THINK Feature
Consume a
bottle of wine
and contribute
to save the
planet
CO2: most is from yeast fermenting
alcohol). The algae flourish on this carbon dioxide.
Pierobon has grown several different
algal types. One of the most profitable is
spirulina, a cyanobacterium (blue-green
algae that converts CO2 and water into
carbohydrates with a bit of sun) that
fetches a high price worldwide. Pierobon
studied different systems to grow these
cyanobacteria, and found that closed
systems are better for the wine industry. Production still needs to be cheaper, faster, and easier, but by combining
carbon sequestration with wine-making
costs can be reduced for the winemaker by diversifying their products. Wine
production can produce a much loved
beverage and health supplement while
protecting the environment.
Such ingenuity is driving other ideas
to make the wine sector greener and
more economically viable. Sustainable
energy expert Ing. Vincenzo D’Alberti is driving the idea of using biomass
from wine production to make electricity, and heat and cold. The solid waste
from wine fermentation and vineyard
pruning can be collected as biomass to
be used for several processes. D’Alberti
was studying its conversion into a highly combustible syngas. The waste can be
fed into a gasifier with the waste dried
at 100˚C. After drying, the temperature is increased ten-fold and causes
all the volatile substances to turn into
a gas. It can run a normal engine that
drives energy production or heat/cold
generation. A winery could either sell
the energy, operate its own systems, or
heat/cool the winery and nearby community—again, this is more economic
diversity for wine makers.
D’Alberti thinks that the idea can
work in Malta. ‘Dr Alex Rizzo from
MCAST [Malta College of Arts, Science, and Technology] is studying a
gasifier of 20 kW’, explained D’Alberti,
‘so each winery could have one’. For it
to be viable you would need a feed-in
tariff for biomass electricity generation.
Locally it is set at 16c for solar energy.
It is higher in Italy, so a feasibility study
is needed to see what government support would be needed. ‘To have biomass energy production in Malta you
need governmental action.’
An idea that would require even more
government coordination is oenologist
Mario Ragusa’s plan of making ethanol
from grape must and waste then mixing that ethanol with diesel to make
biodiesel to fuel public transport. According to a European study around
68% of petroleum products are used to
drive trucks, cars, and buses. Just having 5–10% of ethanol in diesel reduced
emissions of carbon monoxide by 17%,
carbon dioxide by 17%, and small particulate matter by 21%. This is an easy,
cheap way to have cleaner air.
Ethanol can be made from the solid
remains of wine fermentation by breaking down the grape skin’s cellulose into
sugar using a variety of enzymes. The
sugar is then used by yeast to make
ethanol, as normally happens in wine.
‘The industrial cost is about 30c for
1 litre of ethanol’, said Ragusa passionately. ‘Because it [wine waste and harvest
biomass] is a waste, you don’t need to
produce any of the fuel, because it’s free,
you can find it in your winery, you only
have industrial costs.’ Once the technology is in place, it seems like a no-brainer.
‘Consume a bottle of wine and contribute to save the planet.’ Unfortunately, the
wine sector in Malta is not big enough
to supply enough biomass for ethanol
production, but with the right political
willpower we could still add that touch
of ethanol to our diesel.
Sustainable Wine
Maltese researchers are also finding inspiration in the wine sector. Prof. Robert Ghirlando and Ing. Redeemer Axisa
explained how they are installing two
technologies at the research station in »
25
Feature
26
THINK Feature
Buskett. ‘One uses PV [photovoltaic]
panels and a conventional chiller, and
the other uses a vapour absorption system run by solar heated water’, said Axisa. Vapour absorption refrigeration was
invented in the nineteenth century and
uses heat to drive the cooling process.
‘When I was younger, we had no electricity in our Għadira summer house
but we had a refrigerator that worked
by means of a small kerosene flame that
provided enough heat to drive the system’, reminisced Ghirlando.
The project is trying to establish
which system is the most cost-effective
for the local scenario. The PV system is
pretty standard, but the solar-driven vapour absorption system is innovative in
its simplicity. It doesn’t reach the same
cold temperatures of systems in Tunisia and Sicily, but it works with fewer
moving parts and a dry cooling tower
to reduce the need for water and maintenance. The PV system is up and running, but the absorption system is still
being installed. In a few years we should
know which the best is.
This research is trying to make wine
production more sustainable. In Malta,
during wine fermentation heat is released which must be removed from the
fermentation vessel. If the energy used
is being generated by the sun it lessens
fossil fuel use. Couple that to the technology the Italians are researching, let
us say the algae farms and biomass ener-
gy generation, and wine making quickly
becomes a zero carbon green industry.
Considering the worldwide wine market will be worth over $300 billion by
2016 means a huge step for greening up
our economy without damaging it.
Wine is the great networker. In
moderation it loosens people up and
can aid creativity. But apart from socialising, the study of wine can build
a research network and economy. To
understand wine and make full use of
it, needs archaeologists, sociologists,
chemists, oenologists, viticulturists,
engineers, politicians, farmers, ecologists, and agricultural scientists. Wine
is stunning; ‘wine is the glue’, said
Schembri, to life.
•
Wine Facts
Keep your wine at a constant temperature. Temperature
fluctuations can turn your Super Tuscan into salad dressing. Oxygen enters your wine bottle oxidising the alcohol, or
ethanol, into ethanoic acid, or vinegar.
Wines taste differently because of the environment the
grapevine lives in, the variety of grape, and manipulations
by the oenologist when producing the wine.
Cooling wine brings out acidic flavours like grapefruit and
lemon, but also tannins. That’s why it is a good idea to chill a
white wine but not a red. Red wines have much more tannin
from the grape’s skin and seeds.
A corked wine is tainted by the contact of fungi in the cork
with chlorides in the cleaning solutions wineries use. This
creates the compound 2,4,6-trichloranisole that means the
wine is corked. The only way to detect a corked wine is to
taste it.
Wine from warmer climates produces a wine with higher
alcohol and less acidity. Higher temperatures make a riper
fruit with a higher sugar content that gives the yeast more
source material to convert to alcohol and a host of other
wonderful substances.
Screw tops, natural cork, and synthetic corks all have their
benefits and weaknesses. Screw tops do not allow enough
oxygen and neither do synthetic corks—though this is
changing—while natural corks can lead to corked wines.
No perfect cork exists.
27
Feature
The mystery of
St Paul’s shipwreck
Malta’s identity is deeply intertwined with St Paul. The Islanders have even named a whole
bay after him. However there is no hard evidence that St Paul was actually shipwrecked in
this area. Elaine Gerada Gatt investigates. Illustrations by Marisabelle Grech
28
THINK Feature
Elaine Gerada Gatt
F
or years the Christian religion
on the Maltese Islands has
had strong foundations. Popular belief holds that St Paul
brought Christianity to Malta
after being shipwrecked on the Islands.
Some academics are sceptical. Although
documentation from the Middle Ages
is scanty, when the Order of St John arrived in Malta, it was already very clear
to them that the faith revolving around
St Paul was very strong.
Malta seems the most likely place
where St Paul’s ship was grounded.
The other contender was Mljet (Mileda) which is close to Dubrovnik in the
Adriatic Sea. Based on the wind direction prevalent during St Paul's voyage
from the Levant to his execution in
Rome for his Christian belief, Malta
is the most possible location. The new
question being debated is whether St
Paul’s vessel was actually wrecked towards the north of the Island at St Paul’s
Bay, or nearby at the salt pans of Salini,
or on the Island’s southern beach called
St Thomas Bay in Marsascala.
tected over the winter period. St Paul
is thought to have reached our shores
in that season. Current harbours have
a very different coastline today than
nearly two thousand years ago. Coastal
erosion, land subsidence, plate tectonics, and siltation are constantly altering
coastlines over many years.
Siltation is a major coast-modifying
factor. The process involves soil being
washed down by heavy rains or landslides, with the silt or clay building up
in flatter areas like the bottoms of valleys and coastline. ‘The city of Pisa in
Italy is a clear example of a well known
harbour in the Middle ages but which
became inaccessible after the fifteenth
century because of the amount of silt
that accumulated in its bed’, said Gambin. With reference to Malta, Gambin
found out that the area of Burmarrad
and the nearby floodplain was probably a harbour in St Paul’s time, since it
was covered in sea water. Supporting
this claim is Prof. Godfrey Wettinger’s
research on place names, which indicates that the same area in the Middle
Ages was well known for its stagnant
water pools and had different names
suggestive of a port. Back then Burmarrad was known as Bir l-Imriekeb
(lit.trans. ‘Well of Vessels’) or Ħirbit
l-Imriekeb (lit. trans. ‘Destroyer of Vessels’). Does the word ‘Bir’ (well) refer
to a metaphoric well which engulfed
vessels, or in the case of ‘Ħirbit’ (destruction) was the area well known for
wreckage? The base root of the word
‘Ħirbit’, ‘ħ-r-b-t’, denotes the term ‘ħarbat’, meaning ‘to destroy’. »
Archaeology to the rescue
Dr Timmy Gambin, a marine archaeologist, notes that current Maltese
harbours mostly face the North East
making them susceptible to the strong
North Easterly (Gregale) winds. The
reconstruction of Malta’s ancient coastline will help define whether vessels in
Malta’s harbours would have been pro-
Diver Mark Gatt. Photo by Dr Antonio Ghio
29
Feature
His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI Emeritus speaks to the diver who found the ISIS and SARAPIS anchor
on 17 April 2010
Acts 28:1–2
After our escape we
discovered that the
island was called Melita.
The natives treated
us with uncommon
kindness. Because of
the driving rain and
cold they lit a fire and
made us all welcome.
Scanning Malta
To gain valuable archaeological information about where St. Paul was shipwrecked many studies have been carried
out. In 1999, Gambin, the United States
Institute of Nautical Archaeology, and
the Museums Department scanned the
Valletta harbours using sophisticated
technological equipment, such as a sidescan sonar, together with diver surveys.
Salina Bay (Salini), Qawra point, and
St Paul’s Bay were also scanned. These
surveys help map the physical features
of the bays and harbours, while providing clues to locate or study archaeological artefacts that might give an
idea to the ship’s location. The earlier
Malta Archaeological Survey (1988),
proved that St Paul’s Bay and the Salini
area were used as harbours in the past,
however it did not discover any hard evidence directly associated with St Paul.
Meanwhile, new technological
equipment is allowing more accurate
underwater surveys to take place. Remote sensing technology is making
amazing discoveries for marine archaeology without damaging the site. This
technique mostly uses airplanes or satellites to map large areas of coastline
accurately enabling the study of archaeological sites—like locating St Paul’s
wreck. Objects under the seabed can
be detected by means of a sub-bottom
profiler which maps the sediments underneath the seabed using sonar.
Underwater robots or remote operated vehicles (ROVs) allow archaeologists to explore deep-water sites. This
equipment is usually operated from
on-board the vessel while the ROV ex-
A comparison
30
St Paul's Bay/Salini
St Thomas Bay
§ Area was a port so the skilful sailors at the time
would have recognised it. The Catholic Bible says
that the area was unrecognisable
§ It has no sandy beach
§ Salini has a sand bank in the middle of the bay
§ Remains of amphorae date back to Roman times
found in the area-indicating it was a port
§ Siltation research indicates harbour evidence
§ Area was not recognised by sailors
§ It has a sandy beach
§ Existence of a reef — Munxar Reef
§ Divers claimed to have found parts of anchors
which, however, were never taken for
appropriate testing
§ Siltation research indicates harbour evidence
THINK Feature
Current harbours
have a very
different coastline
today than nearly
two thousand
years ago
plores the archaeological site. ROVs
usually have cameras to take both still
and moving images, as well as lights and
arms which can be used to lift up objects. ‘Technology is great and it does
guide you but it does not provide you
with answers. The continuous changing
nature of coasts does not make seabed
surveying easier,’ explains Gambin.
This technology is helping narrow
down the search for St Paul’s shipwreck.
Gambin has developed a new model
based on the technology available and
coupled with literary sources like the
Bible. This model sets criteria to help
find the harbour close to which St Paul’s
ship sank. It will be explained in more
detail in an upcoming publication. He
points out that despite the model helping to narrow down the ship’s possible
location, this research does raise new
dilemmas. For instance, ‘if one questions whether the actual author [St
Luke] of the Acts of the Apostles in the
Bible, was actually on
board the ill-fated vessel,
the whole perspective from which
we have been looking changes drastically’. This is because if St Luke was not on
board, then the written account would
not be an eyewitness account, but it
would be based more on hearsay.
Other theories exist. Bob Cornuke,
an American amateur Biblical archaeologist, who is conducting research
which can shed further light on passages from the Bible, claims that St Thomas Bay is the most likely location of the
shipwreck. His theory is based on four
small anchors that were found in the
area. The Bible refers to the wrecking
being in a place where two seas meet. So
according to Cornuke, the anchors and
physical geography of St Thomas Bay
make it a likely place for the shipwreck.
For now, this hypothesis fails due to
lack of evidence.
Whilst diving a few metres off the
Għallis Tower in Salina in 2005, rescue diver Mark Gatt came across a one
ton lead anchor. The sheer size and
weight suggested that this must have »
31
Feature
FURTHER READING
belonged to a large vessel—fit for a galleon. Yet the most interesting part of
the anchor still had to be revealed. As it
was lifted out of the sand, the impressed
letters ISIS and SARAPIS appeared on
the side of the anchor which had been
lying face down in the sand for years,
probably preserving this valuable evidence. These are the names of two Graeco–Egyptian gods, suggesting a ship
from St Paul’s land of origin. Although
this has been considered a major find,
it still does not prove that the anchors
belonged to the actual vessel St Paul was
on when being taken to Rome.
Salina Bay has a large number of archaeological artefacts, while St. Paul’s
Bay and St. Thomas Bay do not, making Salina a more likely candidate.
32
Mark Gatt is currently working on a
documentary highlighting the importance of Salina Bay as a more likely
place for St Paul’s shipwreck. Current
technologies and a large concentration
of archaeological artefacts found within the area are shedding more light
on Salina, although this is by no
means conclusive.
‘The beauty of this research topic lies
in its elusive character,’ claims Gambin
and it is precisely this elusiveness which
motivates researchers. New concepts
and outlooks keep emerging, encouraging more thought-provoking hypothesis. The answers though, are still obscure
and far from conclusive. The location
of St Paul’s shipwreck is still shrouded
in mystery!
•
• Fiorini, S. and Vella H. C. R. (2006).
“New XIIth Century Evidence for the
Pauline Tradition and Christianity
in the Maltese Islands,” in The Cult
of St Paul in the Christian Churches
and in the Maltese Tradition, ed. by
John Azzopardi (Malta: Acts of the
International Symposium of Malta,
26-27 June, 2006), pp.161–172
• Gambin, T. (2004). “Islands of
the Middle Sea: An Archaeology
of a Coastline,” in Evolución
paleoambiental de los puertos
y fondeaderosantiguos en el
Mediterráneo
Occidental,
ed.
by Lorenza De Maria and Rita
Turchetti (Calabria: Rubettino
Editore), pp.127–146
• Gambin, T. (2004). “Malta and the
Mediterranean Shipping Lanes in
the Middle Ages,” in Rotte e porti
del Mediterraneo dopo la caduta
dell’Impero d’Occidente: Continuità e
innovazioni tecnologiche e funzionali.
IV Seminario Genova, 18-19 Giugno
2004, ed. by Lorenza De Maria
and Rita Turchetti (Calabria:
RubettinoEditore, 2005), pp.115–
133
• Gatt, M. (2010). PAVLVS The
Shipwreck 60 A.D.. Valletta, Malta:
Allied.
• Wettinger, G. (2000). PlaceNames of the Maltese Islands Ca.
1300-1800 (Malta: Publishers
Enterprises Group)
THINK Feature
Photo by Jean Claude Vancell
Rocking the
Islands
Debunking the myth: Malta is at no risk
from earthquakes. Malta’s seismologists
speak up
A
major earthquake hit Malta in 1693. At an estimated
magnitude of 7.4, it struck
about 170 km away, devastating south-eastern Sicily,
destroying buildings and killing almost
two thirds of Catania’s population. Historical documents record damage in
Malta. Mdina’s cathedral needed to be
rebuilt. While some might think that
an earthquake of similar intensity is rare
and would probably not happen again,
research suggests that earthquakes of
this strength strike every few hundred
years in the area. For many, Malta is considered as an earthquake-free region and
even the 1693 earthquake is regarded as
a ‘Sicilian’ event.
Many of the earthquakes felt in
Malta originate beneath Greece, along
the Hellenic arc (more than 500 km
away), but earthquakes even closer than
50 km away do occur too. Dr Pauline
Galea, who lectures at the Department
of Physics and coordinates the Seismic Monitoring and Research Unit
(SMRU) at the University of Malta,
explains that the nearby seismic activity
is no surprise. ‘Evidence of major tectonic events that took place millions of
years ago is right in front of our eyes.’
The Maltese Islands have been shaped
by faulting in which large blocks of the
Earth’s crust have been displaced vertically. The seabed of the Sicily Channel
(between Sicily and Africa) shows that
this is still going on, as revealed by the
constant seismic activity being recorded. In the last decade alone over 170
earthquakes have occurred within a
100 km radius around Malta.
To understand the risk of earthquakes to Malta, seismicity close to
the Islands needs to be monitored.
The SMRU is setting up new facilities
to better study these earthquakes. The
project is a major investment amounting to €2.5 million, called SIMIT, and
funded by the Italia-Malta 2007–2013
Operational Programme. Within this
project Dr Matthew Agius, a researcher at the SMRU, is responsible for
establishing the Malta Seismic Network and the real-time earthquake »
33
Feature
Clockwise: Dr Matthew Agius, Dr Pauline Galea, Dr Sebastiano D'Amico, Mariya Grech Muscat, Daniela Farrugia and an example of how wave propogation
occurs through the Earth. Photos by Edward Duca.
monitoring system. Two new, permanent seismic stations are being deployed, one in central Malta and another in Gozo, complementing the seismic
station in Wied Dalam. By improving
coverage of earthquakes, the new stations will improve the accuracy of
earthquake hypocenter location—the
point within the Earth where an earthquake rupture starts—and the determination of the fault mechanism. This
will provide a better understanding of
what is actually causing the local earthquakes to occur.
Regional earthquakes with epicentres even up to 1,000 km away can also
be felt in Malta. These seismic events
can pose a danger. In order to monitor
these distant earthquakes the SMRU
has upgraded its IT systems and installed current state-of-the-art soft-
34
ware for early warning systems developed by the seismological community.
With this software, ‘virtual networks’
can be created by obtaining real-time
feeds from seismic recording stations
all over the globe—the size of the network is limited only by the amount of
data storage space available. At the moment, data from over 30 stations across
the Mediterranean are being retrieved
at the SMRU in near-real time. The
data is automatically processed to detect earthquakes, and alerts personnel
when they happen. The system can issue an alert within a couple of minutes
after an earthquake occurs hundreds
of kilometres away from Malta. When
a strong earthquake occurs, an early
warning can be activated before the
strong seismic waves reach our shores.
Such systems are already in place in
countries like Japan, where the early
warning system might give just enough
time (seconds or minutes) for people to
seek a safe place and essential systems,
like power stations, to shut down automatically.
Plan, protect, preserve
An earthquake happens because stress
accumulates between two sides of a
fault line. The locked-in stress gives way
suddenly causing a huge quick release
of energy that travels through the earth.
When a major earthquake strikes an urban area the consequences may be disastrous. The assessment of seismic hazard
is one of the most important contributions of seismology to modern society.
Seismic hazard refers to the study of the
expected earthquake ground motion of
THINK Feature
a particular area on the Earth’s surface,
and the corresponding damage that can
be caused there. These studies result in
seismic hazard maps that identify the
extent to which different areas are expected to shake, on a local, regional, or
national basis. Architects and structural engineers need this information to
plan for the worst and reduce the risk
of damage and death in case a strong
earthquake hits Malta.
Recent large and moderate earthquakes worldwide in densely populated areas have shown that buildings are
often inadequately built to withstand
seismic events. Many houses, industrial complexes, and cultural heritage
sites are unable to resist strong ground
shaking and may collapse or experience
severe damage. To predict how susceptible an area is to earthquake damage,
ground motion scenarios (a description of expected ground-motion levels)
need to be generated, combined with
a probabilistic seismic hazard analysis
and proper earthquake source characterisations (an analysis of the size and
behaviour of the faults that generate
earthquakes). These models simulate
how a hypothetical earthquake would
affect each point in an area. This is the
work of Dr Sebastiano D’Amico, a resident academic at the SMRU. By basing
scenarios on realistic earthquake events,
such research can help governments
understand specific problems based on
scientific and engineering knowledge
rather than on fear.
D’Amico and other local researchers are building this type of computed
scenarios for Malta and nearby regions.
These are extremely important. A set
of well-crafted scenarios provides a
powerful tool for decision makers,
The brand new, state-of-the-art seismometers and digitisers recently purchased by the SMRU.
emergency planners, private industry,
and the general public to evaluate an
area’s risk, and create plans that would
minimise damage and loss. In addition,
the use of these simulations in quasi-real-time can be critical for emergency
management that can save lives and
optimise Civil Protection operations.
Several factors need to be considered to
obtain reliable earthquake ground motion scenarios, such as location of the
earthquake source, the energy released
at the source area, the physical properties of the Earth’s crust, and the local
site effects. Over the past few years the
SMRU scientists have carried out several studies, investigating the behaviour
of different areas of the Maltese Islands
during earthquake shaking. This behaviour depends in part on the underlying
rock types.
Ph.D. student Daniela Farrugia is
helping build a scenario of how the
ground surface could respond to earthquake shaking in Malta and Gozo. Using field equipment acquired through
the SIMIT project, she is recording
and utilising seismic ambient noise—
the natural and continuous vibrations
of rocks caused by wind, ocean waves, »
When a strong
earthquake
occurs, an early
warning can
be activated
before the
strong seismic
waves reach
our shores
35
Feature
Damage to Port au Prince's downtown area in Haiti after an earthquake measuring 7+ on the Richter scale rocked the country just before 5 p.m., 12 January
2010.
traffic, and other passive sources. This
type of commonly available seismic
signal is becoming increasingly used
by seismologists, who are finding that
it can provide detailed information
about the Earth. From her analysis
Farrugia can establish various rock
properties of the shallow subsurface,
down to around 100 m in Malta, which
affect the amount of vibration and
duration of ground shaking caused
by an earthquake. Soft layers of rock
amplify ground motion and can cause
considerable damage even if an earthquake is not large or at distance. The
1985 Michoacán (Mexico) earthquake
caused severe damage in Mexico City,
which was more than 350 km away, and
much less damage in places closer to the
epicentre. Mexico City is built on soft
shallow sediments.
The Maltese Islands are characterised
by four main strata (layers) of sedimentary rocks. The blue clay layer is softer
36
The 2011 Japan
earthquake, which
had a magnitude
around 9, was
equivalent to
around 30,000
Hiroshima
bombs exploding
altogether!
than the other limestone layers, and
found commonly in the western half of
Malta and Gozo. Farrugia is investigating the degree of amplification caused
by the soft clay layer. This information
can help create a model that predicts
the behaviour of different localities in
response to earthquake ground shaking.
Which stands? Which falls?
Violent ground shaking rarely kills
people; earthquakes lead to deaths because of collapsing, structurally-weak
buildings. In general, damage during
an earthquake results from several factors: strength of shaking, duration of
shaking, type of soil, and building construction.
During an earthquake all buildings
oscillate irrespective of their size. A
taller building does not necessarily
shake more. This is because different
THINK Feature
buildings have their own ‘unique’ frequency at which they shake by a much
greater amount, known as their natural
resonant frequency. Small buildings are
more prone to shaking by high frequency waves, whereas high-rise structures
are sensitive to slower ground shaking.
Moreover, earthquakes from different
sources give rise to different ranges of
frequency of ground motion. If the frequency at which the earthquake causes
the ground to shake is close to a building’s natural frequency, the building is
much more likely to be damaged.
In general the most damaging earthquakes are closer and stronger. The only
way to reduce damage is to construct
buildings that can withstand the shaking. Sometimes, even weak earthquakes
unexpectedly cause a lot of damage because of poor preparedness. In the 1908
Messina earthquake, the major cities of
Messina and Reggio Calabria, and surrounding areas, were almost completely
destroyed with 70,000 deaths. Buildings were not earthquake resistant having heavy roofs and vulnerable foundations. Four years ago a magnitude 7
earthquake in Haiti caused one of the
worst humanitarian disasters in recent
history. Again, the buildings that collapsed were built shoddily. Most of the
worst natural disasters result from poor
strategies in preparing for, and dealing
with, earthquakes.
The underlying geology is another
key ingredient to earthquake damage.
The 1985 earthquake that devastated Mexico City killed 10,000 people, injured 50,000 and left 250,000
homeless. Bizarrely, short and tall
buildings remained standing while
medium-height buildings proved vulnerable. These buildings’ resonance
frequency matched the frequency amplified by the subsoils under this area
of Mexico City. The subsoil made the
damage much worse than it should
Above: Earthquakes which occurred in the Mediterranean region as recorded by the SMRU between 2007 and 2012. Below: Seismogram of the Great East Japan earthquake recorded at
Wied Dalam (Malta) on Friday, 11 March 2011.
have been, leading to a damage bill of
$3.5 billion.
Malta needs to learn from these events.
In the last few decades urban development has sky rocketed after the nineties’
building and economic boom. If Malta
were to be hit by a similar earthquake to
the 1693 one, the economic impact and
damage would be very high. All around
the world the economic losses from
earthquake disasters are increasing,
not because earthquakes are stronger
or more frequent, but because cities
are becoming metropolises having high
population densities and sophisticated
infrastructures. »
37
Feature
The bright side of
earthquakes
For many people the word ‘earthquake’
sends shivers down their spine, but
for Earth-curious seismologists every
earthquake is an opportunity to discover what the Earth looks like from
the inside. Just like in the medical field
patients undergo ultrasound imaging
or CT (computerised tomography)
scans to see what is inside their body,
similarly, seismologists use seismic
waves to image the entire planet.
Earthquakes release tremendous
amounts of energy. For each unit increase in magnitude the energy increases by about 30 times. For example,
an earthquake of magnitude 3 has the
energy equivalent to a large lightning
bolt, while a magnitude 6 earthquake
has the energy equivalent to the Hiroshima atomic bomb. The 2011 Japan
earthquake, which had a magnitude
around 9, was equivalent to around
30,000 Hiroshima bombs exploding
altogether!
Earthquakes release their energy
as seismic waves. The energy radiates
across the globe both at the surface
and deep within the Earth. These pulses penetrate through the entire planet,
literally propagating from one side of
the Earth to another—a distance of
approximately 12,700 km. In the early 20th century seismologists carried
out tedious searches for the arrival of
these pulses by examining seismograph
recordings from across the world. By
analysing this data they realised that
the Earth is not a homogeneous sphere
of uniform density. Waves were being
slowed down, accelerated, reflected,
and refracted by the planet’s internal
38
The Magħlaq Fault, located south of Malta, is a perfect example of vertical displacement of large blocks
of rock that make up the Maltese Islands.
layers. The way the waves are modified
gives a clue on the Earth’s rock composition. As a result of these studies, we
know that the Earth is made up of a rigid crust, a softer mantle, a liquid outer
core, and a solid inner core.
There are tens of thousands of seismographs around the world keeping
track of earthquakes. This number is increasing hand in hand with computing
power enabling seismologists to process
huge amounts of data relatively quickly, and extract much more detail about
the Earth’s interior than ever before. A
powerful imaging tool used to image
the Earth’s outer layers is the analysis
of different velocities of seismic surface
waves at different frequencies, an effect
known as dispersion. During his Ph.D.
at the Dublin Institute for Advanced
Studies, Dr Matthew Agius investigated the tectonic dynamics beneath Tibet
by studying the dispersive properties of
such waves. Tibet is considered a natural laboratory to study active plate
tectonics. India is moving northwards
towards Eurasia by approximately five
centimetres a year and subducting beneath Tibet’s plateau. By analysing
how seismic surface waves propagate
through the vast region, Dr Agius was
able to image the geometry of the Indian continent buried under Tibet, and
has established how far north India is
beneath Tibet today. Dr Agius explains
The 1985
earthquake
that devastated
Mexico City killed
10,000 people,
injured 50,000
and left 250,000
homeless
that when an earthquake strikes it is
like a flashlight illuminating the Earth’s
interior—the stronger the earthquake
the better the quality of the data. The
compilation of many earthquake recordings from many seismic stations
increases the resolution of the image.
Earthquakes give the opportunity to
image the world in 3D and help us better understand the driving mechanisms
that generate the earthquakes in the
first place.
Another study is peering deep into
the ground beneath Malta and the
Sicily Channel. Mariya Grech Muscat,
another research student at SMRU, is
THINK Feature
Ground motion scenario for an earthquake of
magnitude 5 located about 20 km south of Malta. Colour scale represents peak velocity of the
ground surface in cm/s.
studying the seismograms of large, distant earthquakes (more than 1,000 km
away), where the waves have travelled
through the planet’s interior and were
recorded at a few stations in the central Mediterranean. She can extract
the part of the signal that represents
the last few kilometres of the travelling
path of the seismic waves—the layered
crust and upper mantle beneath the station. On travelling through these layers
the waves are modified and reverberate
within the crust. This produces seismic
signatures that contain information
about the thickness and nature of these
crustal layers. In this way the thickness
of the crust around Malta and Sicily can
be measured. Below the Sicily Channel,
a rift in the crust appears to be causing a part of the Pelagian platform to
pull away from North Africa (beneath
Malta and Tunisia). Such studies could
shed more light on what is happening.
Malta is not an earthquake hotspot
like California or Mexico, but it is susceptible to large quakes that happen
elsewhere in the Mediterranean. The
SMRU is finally getting the injection
of funds it needs to expand its facilities,
work to continue monitoring the local
and regional seismicity, and to piecing
together the puzzle of Malta’s subsurface landscape. Studies on how different areas of the Maltese Islands could
react to earthquakes is important for
developing national strategies that will
minimise damage. These studies need
to go hand in hand with civil engineering efforts to make sure that our buildings are safe. Only then will the Maltese Islands be earthquake ready and
ensure the preservation of their beautiful heritage.
•
This article is part of a series celebrating
100 years since the Faculty of Science was
founded in 17 September 1915.
40
THINK Feature
Immortalising
Heritage
Limestone is precious to Malta. The softness of the stone makes
beautiful sculptures but also erodes quickly. Jessica Edwards
caught up with Dr Daniel Vella and Prof. Emmanuel Sinagra
to find out how limestone and Malta’s heritage can be protected
W
alking through a historical city, seeing all the old
buildings and statues,
how are they still in such
an exceptional condition?
Or, imagine you need to renovate an old
house in Mdina, or the Neolithic temples in
Tarxien, or the over 100-foot high bastions
around Valletta. These structures all need
stone conservation.
Stone conservation is a complex science.
Two methods used to conserve and/or restore stone are consolidation and cleaning. Limestone is soft and deteriorates
by weathering. This erosion is caused by
natural phenomena: wind, rain and salt
crystallisation—very common in Malta.
The salt may come from fog or sea spray,
or even from rising damp with the salt dissolved in water. If the water evaporates »
Jessica Edwards
41
Feature
on the stone’s surface it is harmless
(efflorescence), but if it crystallises below the stone’s surface (inflorescence)
it is a very different issue. Then salts
crystallise in the stone’s pores, where
they apply pressure on the surrounding
pore walls that eventually breaks the
structure down causing the stone surface to flake.
This is the purpose of a consolidation,
which is the application of a material
on a stone’s surface to bind the deteriorating outer layers with the ‘healthier’
inner stone. The consolidant restores
its mechanical integrity. But how do
conservators know which material to
use? Dr Daniel Vella, Prof. Emmanuel
Sinagra and their teams at the Univer-
42
sity of Malta are testing consolidants to
find the best ‘glue’ for local limestone.
Before his work at the University of
Malta, Vella worked for nine years
with Heritage Malta teaching conservation students the science behind the
practice. His Ph.D. involved applying
transparent protective coatings to historical steel objects. After his Ph.D.,
Vella teamed up with Sinagra to work
on stone conservation and, in doing so
expanding his research portfolio.
One of the first chemicals used for
consolidation were organic polymers
(polymers are chains of the same molecule strung together). Substances such
as acrylic, PVC, and epoxy were used
as consolidants. The problem is that
these materials degrade with time and
change to a yellowish colour. A consolidant needs to seem invisible, not
be noticeable.
Old Maltese houses are built of limestone. Limestone is porous, with water
and its dissolved salts passing through
it. This continuous passage of water is
needed in old houses to prevent salt
build up. Another problem of organic
polymers is that they prevent the free
passage of water through the stone. The
salt deposits end up forming beneath
the consolidant. Accumulation of salt
eventually pushes out the consolidant
along with a thick layer of stone. Modern houses are damp proofed with a
thick layer of tar so that the water never
THINK Feature
Left: Dr Daniel Vella and Prof. Emmanuel Sinagra. Photo by Edward Duca.
Above: Shots of stone deterioration in Valletta. Photos by Jean Claude
Vancell.
reaches the stone walls, eliminating the
problem completely.
Vella and Sinagra’s research focuses
on a new breed of consolidants that
provide mechanical support for the
stone, but allow it to breathe allowing
water to pass through it along with dissolved salts. These polymers are not organic but instead based on lime (calcium oxide, used in concrete and mortar)
or silica (Silicon dioxide, used to make
glass and microchips). Silica consolidants will be discussed later, lime works
by first being used to coat walls after being made into a coarse lime slurry that
is applied to the stone. This blocks the
pores but the stone still remains porous.
‘The advantage of lime is that if it is
A consolidant
needs to seem
invisible, not be
noticeable
used as a consolidant it can also be used
as a sacrificial layer,’ Vella explained.
This approach was used back in the
15–18th century by the Knights of St
John. The lime was applied as two thick
layers together with a colour pigment.
The second layer acted as a protective
layer from salt crystallisation within the
stone, which causes the outer layer of
the consolidant to eventually fall off. If
the outer layer does fall off it can easily
be reapplied.
Lime dissolved in water is one consolidant Vella and Sinagra are investigating. Limewater (calcium hydroxide) works by entering the stone where
it reacts with carbon dioxide being
transformed into calcium carbonate, »
43
Feature
limestone itself. The downside of limewater is that large amounts are needed
because lime does not easily dissolve
in water. Improving the solubility of
lime would turn it into a much better
consolidant for stone conservation
and restoration. One solution is nano-limes, so named due to their small
size. These small particles are so tiny
that they can remain suspended in the
water for a long time without settling,
allowing much more lime to be applied
to the stone.
Nano-limes are already available
commercially. Tests by Prof. JoAnn Cassar (Faculty of Built Environment, University of Malta) and her team showed
that these limes are not always as small
as is claimed on the packet. Commercial
nano-limes do not always penetrate local limestone even though they should
be small enough to do so.
To control the nano-lime’s size,
chemistry student Duncan Micallef
created a micro-reactor. Micro-reactors
are confined spaces used to make particles of a specific size. He created a micro-reactor out of a micro-emulsion, a
liquid mixture of water in hexane. Hex-
44
In large
amounts,
hexane is
a health
hazard to the
conservator
ane is not soluble in water, forming tiny
droplets, like the fat droplets in milk.
He grew his lime nanoparticles in these
tiny droplets. Micallef grew 10-20 nm
nano-lime particles, around an order
of magnitude smaller than commercial
products. These nano-limes could pass
through stone pores and properly consolidate local stone—problem solved.
Micallef dissolved his nano-lime in
hexane—a toxic compound—creating
another problem. In large amounts,
hexane is a health hazard to the
conservator.
The next stage is to find a harmless
solvent to dissolve the nano-lime. An
ideal consolidant would be a liquid that
when placed inside the stone polymerises becoming solid. The consolidant
should also line the internal stone pore
structure rather than fill up pore space
as happens with organic polymers.
Vella researched salts that are basically
liquid glass. The starting material is a
liquid precursor molecule containing
silicon-tetraethoxysilane—a modified
form of silicon. With the addition of
water this molecule reacts to form silica
nanoparticles (~4 nm diameter) small
THINK Feature
enough to seep through the limestone
pores and polymerise. This consolidant
nicely lines the stone’s pores rather than
blocking them.
Silica consolidants suffer from weak
chemical binding with limestone. Silica
is not chemically attracted to the calcium carbonate that makes up limestone.
The stone needs a ‘guru’ (a primer to
help it bind) to be consolidated. One
‘guru’ is pre-treating the stone with ammonium tartarate. This primer reacts
with the stone forming a layer of calcium tartarate, which silica consolidants
can react with forming a stronger bond
and improving the mechanical integrity
of the stone. The only problem is that
the reaction does not occur easily. Vella,
Sinagra, and their team are working on
making new silica-based molecules that
can be more effective. Their student, Sophie Briffa, tested the ammonium tartarate primer and is planning to improve
silica-based consolidants by having the
primer attached to it. This would reduce
the number of steps simplifying the procedure to conserve or restore limestone.
Apart from consolidation, the stone
must be cleaned. The requirement to
clean a building is usually motivated by
the aesthetic benefit. Stains of iron (III)
oxide, or rust, are the most common
stains, these usually give the stone a reddish colour. Rust has a very low solubility in water which means it is incredibly
difficult to wash away. The ochre decorations at the Hypogeum would probably have been lost otherwise. Looking
over the bastions of Mdina, some of the
stone appears reddish due to this. One
way of removing these stains is through
the chemical reduction of iron (III) to
iron (II) by using a mild reducing agent
followed by a chelating agent that traps
the heavy metal, the iron. Vella and Sinagra used a similar method to remove
copper stains, were they used an amino
acid called glycine as a chelating agent,
which worked in cleaning the copper.
Malta’s limestone heritage can be kept
alive. The methods Sinagra and Vella
are researching still need refining before
they can be applied in the real world.
What would Malta be like if it lost the
bastions of Valletta or Birgu’s houses,
not to mention the churches and chapels all over the Islands? Heritage denotes the history of a place, its identity:
a projection of Maltese culture.
•
Photos by Jean Claude Vancell
45
Alumni
ALUMNI talk
Brain
Works
Ariana Gatt talks
about pharma, fruit fly
research, and Alzheimer's
and Parkinson's disease
46
IN 2008 I graduated from the University of Malta with a B.Sc. in Chemistry and Biology. Then, I worked as
an R&D chemist with SoleaPharma
Ltd., which also allowed me to spend
six months training in pharmaceutical
chemistry in Spain at the mother company Gadea Pharmaceuticals. I learned
a lot in this period—not only lab work
skills, but also about the whole business
and industry. However, after two years
working in the pharma industry, I realised I still wanted to further my studies.
I had always dreamed of studying
abroad and experiencing a university
in another country, so I applied for
Masters courses in the UK. I had realised by this point that I wanted to
carry out biomedical research, with a
particular interest in neuroscience. I
read for an M.Sc. in molecular sciences
and biomedical research at King’s College London, funded by an EU funded
STEPS scholarship. The M.Sc. opened
the door for a Ph.D. in the same lab,
which I am currently finishing .
For my Ph.D., I am investigating
the role of mitochondrial dysfunction
in neurodegeneration. Mitochondria
produce energy for our cells. They are
especially important in brain cells,
since the brain uses 20% of the body’s
energy. In neurodegenerative diseases,
such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, mitochondria stop functioning properly, leading to a loss of
energy in the brain. This may contribute to the eventual death of brain cells.
In my project, I am modelling the loss
of mitochondrial function in fruit flies
(Drosophila melanogaster) to understand the early stages of neurodegeneration. Fruit flies and humans share
many genes and therefore, studying
the genes involved in mitochondrial
dysfunction in the fly allows us to find
potential early treatments to prevent
irreparable damage in human neurodegenerative diseases.
Part of my Ph.D. focuses on studying human tissue from patients who
have died from these diseases. These
post-mortem tissue samples are obtained from UK brain banks. I am
using them to identify genes that are
involved in these diseases.
I don’t know what lies ahead in my
career path. I hope it will involve answering questions regarding brain
function and helping to solve the many
puzzles related to neurodegenerative
disease.
•
THINK Alumni
Succeeding by Failing
Luana Micallef tells us about her career starting from a young computer
scientist at Microsoft and CERN to helping treating cancer
FIRST, become a computer scientist. Second, study abroad. Third, work
at Microsoft and CERN—one of the
world’s largest nuclear research centres.
Fourth, get a Ph.D.. Did I plan this
since I was a child? No, not really. I was
fortunate enough to have tutors who
helped me recognise my abilities and
the career I should pursue. My career
was kick-started by the opportunities
provided by the academic institutions
I attended.
I graduated with a B.Sc. (Hons) degree in Information Technology from
the University of Malta in 2008. A year
before, I was chosen by University to
be the computer scientist in the first
group of Maltese students to work at
CERN over summer. That year, my
group was selected to compete at the
Microsoft Imagine Cup with a system
we had devised for a course module.
The system was deployed in a primary
school in Malta, where 30 students in a
class could each participate in the computer activities using only 8 computers.
This system made it to the finals and we
were awarded an internship with Microsoft Research to help improve education in India.
These enriching experiences encouraged me to pursue a research career and
to further my studies. The inspirational
people I met helped me realise that with
hard work, passion, determination, and
perseverance anything is achievable.
You just have to believe in yourself and
give it a go. If you fail, you try again.
Failures just help us strengthen our
weaknesses—a mentality often forgotten in our culture.
The University of Kent awarded me
a postgraduate Ph.D. scholarship in
the area of information visualisation. I
devised computer methods to facilitate
the analysis of groups in data through
visualisations. These data groups are
commonly found in areas like medicine
and criminology. One of these methods
featured in a New York Times Science
article and on the US Department of
Energy National Laboratory website,
while another was used to help patients
understand the likelihood that they
have breast cancer when diagnosed with
a positive mammography.
As a Ph.D. student, I tried not to
lose any opportunity to learn and get
involved in my scientific research communities. For instance, I interned with
INRIA (the current top European Computer Science research centre), gave a featured talk to the Charlotte Analytics and
Big Data Society, helped organise conferences, got a National Security Agency scholarship for the Grace Hopper
Celebration of Women in Computing,
and attended the Google EMEA Scholarships Retreat. The list of opportunities
for Ph.D. students is endless, especially
for women in science. You just have to be
active and look for them.
After completing my Ph.D. I was
appointed a Research Fellow at the
University of Kent. A few months ago,
I moved to Finland where I am now a
Postdoctoral Researcher at the Helsinki
Institute for Information Technology. I
am also an Honorary Research Fellow
with the University of Kent. My current
research is trying to help clinicians determine the right treatment for a cancer
patient through visualisations.
I could only achieve all that I have
thanks to my mentors, my role models,
and my failures. And now? I just keep
an eye out for new exciting ventures and
other inspirational role models, while
trying to support the next generation of
researchers.
•
47
Culture
A Relationship
of Cultures
M
alta is European (and
a few other things). So
European that in 2018
Valletta will be the European City of Culture
(ECoC). ECoC was set up to raise
awareness about ‘Europeanness’ with
mixed success over the last 25 years.
To explore through cultural diplomacy the common histories and geo-political realities of Europe and the Mediterranean, the Valletta 2018 Foundation
launched the first of a series of conferences last September. For Dr Jason Dittmer, a conference speaker and expert
on cultural practices and diplomacy at
University College London, ‘the ECoC
offers the opportunity to learn about
parts of Europe that have rich histories
and cultures but which are overshadowed by the more obvious cultural
centers. Many of these places are absolutely fascinating and distinctive and
only need a nudge from a programme
like this in order to get the limelight’. In
fact, one of the outcomes of the conference was to create a concrete road map
for Valletta (and Malta) in the build-up
to its celebration of ECoC, 2018.
Having the spotlight on Valletta in
2018 also raises the issue of what Malta’s identity is. Dittmer thinks that ‘the
48
identity of any city or country is always
an amalgam of other places, shaped by
historical flows of people and ideas’. Being in the centre of the Mediterranean
has left Malta with a rich identity.
Dittmer then expands on the concept
and gives an important warning. ‘I prefer not to talk in terms of identity, but
instead to think in terms of cultural repertoires from which people can draw.
These repertoires are produced from
the full array of influences shaping the
place in which they live. Those attempting to nail down a single identity for a
place tend to have an unsavoury objective in mind.’
Anna Steinkamp’s views on identity
are different on paper, yet also very similar in that both Dittmer and Steinkamp
are arguing for a more inclusive idea of
‘Europe’ that acknowledges the role of
the south shore of the Mediterranean
(Steinkamp was another conference
speaker and is an expert on cultural diversity at the German Commission for
UNESCO). ‘[…] Human beings identify through differences. Accordingly,
the European identity is not only built
upon diversity but also [on] differences.
These differences become very clear in
the Mediterranean area, [for example]
through the high number of migrants
Dr Jason Dittmer
Anna Steinkamp
who fail at the European borders.
Hence, this discourse about EU/European identity is also generating new
boundaries whereas the Mediterranean
has always [been] a melting pot of cultures. We should focus more on commonalities than on differences and not
think too much about our European
identity but about our identity as global
citizens.’
•
The ‘Dialogue in the Med’ conference was
the ‘First Annual Valletta 2018 International Conference on Cultural Relations
in Europe and the Mediterranean’ and
took place between 4–5 September 2014
at the University of Malta, Valletta Campus. A second conference is being planned
for October 2015 focused on Cultural
Mapping.
www.valletta2018.org
THINK Fun
BOOK REVIEW
by The Editor
The Immortal Life
of Henrietta Lacks
Rebecca Skloot
Quill rating:
OVER 60 Best Book of the Year lists,
75 weeks on the New York Best Sellers
list, and several prestigious awards,
The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks by
Rebecca Skloot is a must read for all. I
don’t usually review 4-year old books,
but this non-fiction book has it all: race
and class issues, betrayal, loss, education
and healthcare access, exploitation, and
lucidly told science.
The book is a journey. A journey for
Skloot, you can sense a certain naïvety
and youthful enthusiasm at the beginning of the book that matures by its
end. You also see a change in the people
she meets, especially the family of Henrietta Lacks: some became close friends,
others shunned her, others still ignored
her then became her strongest allies in
righting the wrong behind Henrietta’s
life and beyond. Book proceeds helped
Skloot set up the Henrietta Lacks Foundation to help her family and people in
similar circumstances.
I met ‘HeLa’ before I met Henrietta. For my masters, I grew her cells to
study a protein complex involved in cell
division (cells dividing incorrectly leads
to cancer) without knowing anything
about her. I learnt about Henrietta before this book; my Ph.D. supervisor
Prof. Margerete Heck passed around a
one-page article about her with a moral
tag line about one of the lowest ethical
points in science.
Henrietta Lacks was an African-American woman who died on
the 4 October, 1951 aged 31 from a
very aggressive form of cervical cancer.
The cancer was so aggressive that she
died within months of her diagnosis at
Johns Hopkins Hospital. That aggression made these cells special. Before
she died, Dr Howard W. Jones took a
sample of her cancer and passed it on to
researcher George Otto Gey who, together with his wife Margaret Gey, successfully cultured Lack’s cells in a lab.
The story is what I
love about this book.
Many popular science
books are slaves to
explaining really cool
science, missing the
point of storytelling
Otto generously and freely distributed this first immortalised cell line popularising it around the world. Researchers used it to develop a polio vaccine
protecting millions, to learn about how
cells work, DNA functions, cancer, toxicity, and even AIDS. Companies commercialised it making countless millions
from Henrietta’s cells with nearly 11,000
patents involving HeLa cells. Her family
received neither notifications of these
developments nor any royalties.
Yet even Skloot doesn’t demonise the
scientists since back then the concept
of informed consent was non-existent.
It’s not even a question of race; Skloot
admits that the scientists would have
propagated the cells of a poor white
woman in the same way. It’s a question
of education and healthcare access,
points still pertinent today.
The story is what I love about this
book. Many popular science books are
slaves to explaining really cool science,
missing the point of storytelling. The
best science books manage to balance
these two qualities. Skloot goes one
step further. To appreciate the story,
she needs to tell you about the amazing
scientific findings behind these cells. By
learning the scientific background, the
story becomes richer.
After this book, Skloot started tackling animals. Before science writing,
Skloot was a veterinary technician.
If you thought HeLa was an ethical
mine field, animal research is much
more explosive.
•
49
Fun
GAME REVIEW
by Costantino Oliva
Vib Ribbon
If you’re into music-centric games,
you’re in for a treat. Vib-Ribbon, the
seminal rhythm game released in 1999
for the original Playstation, is back on
contemporary consoles. It’s not a new
version, but rather a faithful emulation:
an important recognition for a title
that was never commercially released in
North America, but still made its way
into the MoMA (Museum of Modern
Art, New York) collection.
The gameplay has remained crucially
simple and appealing: push the console
buttons on time, and the rabbit heroine
will jump, spin, and rotate, all to the
rhythm of the incredibily well-fitting ultra-pop songs composed by the Japanese
band Laugh and Peace. The soundtrack
is heavily manipulated with morphing
tempos and bass counterpoints in reaction to the player’s input: the result is
exhilarating. The visual style, somewhat
reminiscent of the famous animation
La Linea, is extremely minimalistic,
contributing to the remarkable originality of the game.
It’s a shame that the PS Vita version
lacks one of the main features: using
any kind of music CD to generate
potentially infinite levels. Even so,
one of the most creative titles to ever
appear on the Sony console is back,
ready to surprise a new generation of
players.
•
Can humans live on other planets?
Well this is a vast question, yes they can.
However, it is not all that simple. Start
off with the fact that we don’t have the
technology to access Earth-like planets
we could live on. Over forty planets that
could be habitable have already been
found.
Reaching the exoplanet might only
be half the problem. Will the planet
already be suitable for life? Or, will we
need to terraform it, manipulate its
environment, so we can mould it into
our Mother Earth? Will we be wiped
out by some unknown disease we have
no resistance to—as happened to the
aliens in War of the Worlds. Will we
be able to adapt to the environment?
What about building a colony outside
our planet which will be completely
independent of Earth? Eventually yes,
on a planet with the right conditions,
but let’s get there first.
Send your questions to think@um.edu.mt and we’ll find out if it’s the truth or just a fib!
50
?? ?
?
?
?
?
??
FACT or FICTION?
by Alexander Hili
Developer:
NanaOn-Sha/Sony Computer
Entertainment
Platform:
PS Vita (version tested)/PS3
Game Rating: «««««
?
THINK Fun
FILM REVIEW
by Noel Tanti and
Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone
Horns
Krista: I will first get one gripe out of
the way. There are two female supporting characters who fit too easily into the
binary categories of ‘slut’ and ‘pure’. I’d
like to say that it’s a self-aware critique
of the way social perceptions entrap anyone, but the women are simply there to
either support or motivate the action,
leaving boyhood friendship dynamics
as the central theme. Unfortunately, the
female characters felt expendable.
Noel: The female characters are very
much up in the air, shallow, and abstracted concepts that are thinly fleshed
out. As you pointed out, they are little
more than unimaginative props that
work around the murder mystery plot.
Thematically, they don’t make much
sense and come across as half-baked (at
best).
K: Does it work on the crime-thriller
level? Being a two-hour film it’s overlong. If it were to rely on the ‘suspense’
of its ‘whodunnit’ plot, the solution is
pretty obvious early on, given the shortage of suspects.
N: I loved the bits where the film became a sort of Carry-On Demon. I loved
the scene with the doctor and the nurse.
These moments were funny, poignant,
and had a point to make. They reminded me of early John Landis films: light,
Film: Horns (2013)
«««««
Director: Alexandre Aja
Certification: R
Gore rating: SSSSS
campy, and with something interesting
to say, extremely tongue-in-cheek.
K: The premise is inherently comical
and the film embraces that for a while.
It then seems to swing between bitter-sweet sentimental extended flashbacks and the ridiculous. The tone feels
unsettled. The film was at its best when
it was indulging the ridiculous streak. I
wanted more of the shamelessly overthe-top parts and less of the cringe-inducing Richard Marx doing Hazard
vibe which firmly entrenched the woman in a sentimentally teary haze. The
more delightful parts reminded me of
Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981). In
that film the community-pariah was
excluded for a crime he didn’t commit,
revenge transformed him into a monster. (On a side note: the soundtrack
features a great music selection.)
he embarked on two remakes that are
more miss than hit, Mirrors (2008) and
Piranha 3D (2010). Both of them share
the run-of-the-mill, textbook scare-bynumbers approach as Horns.
K: Verdict? Like you, I enjoyed the
over-the-top aspect interrupted by the
over-earnestness in the overly extended
flashback sequences that were too drastic a change of tone.
N: I see it as a missed opportunity. This
film could have been really good if only
the filmmakers had the guts to pursue
its campy, mischievous premise.
K: Agreed.
•
N: The film started off well but then it
didn’t seem to know where to go next. It
resorted to a clichéd approach—seemingly, director Alexandre Aja’s preferred
way of doing things. He started off
as one of the bad boy French
directors—High Tension
(2003) was daring in
many ways. Few films
had dared to empower
women with so much
savagery as he did. Then
51
. 76. 75. 74. 73. 7
. 77
2.
7
78
1
.7
9.
0.
69 .
6 8. 67,
66
65, 64. 63. 6
2.
38. 37
9
. 36
61
.
1.
. 25
.6
. 34. 33. 32. 31. 30
.
. 83. 82.
5. 84
81.
6. 8
80
.8
.7
87
.
8
. 99.
100
6. 4
7. 4
. 51. 50. 49. 4 8. 4
4
5. 4
41. 40. 3
42.
9.
3.
.4
98
.9
. 93. 92 1. 90. 8
. 94
9.
. 95
8
96
7.
9
.
Fun
52
.2
28. 27. 26. 2 5
, .
4 . 23. 22. 2
.
56. 55. 54.
53.
2
20. 19. 1 8. 1 7
. 16
. 1 5. 14. 13
. 11. 10. 9.
12
8
. 7 . 6. 5. 4
0. 59. 58
.5
2. 1
7.
3.
100
WORD
ideas to
change
MALTA
PLAS
by DR JEAN-PAUL DE LUCCA
Think breadth: broadening your
knowledge, pursuing your passion
and acquiring useful transferable
skills.
Think opportunity: studying at
your own pace while juggling many
commitments. An opportunity
to continue your education or
improve your career prospects.
Think flexibility: designing
your own programme of studies
[Don’t] THINK!
52
by choosing any and as many
short courses as you wish from
a wide variety of fields. You can
take just one or several classes,
but you can also build up a
diploma or a degree, with no
time limits.
The University of Malta’s
Programme in the Liberal Arts
and Sciences (PLAS). Think about
it. Visit www.um.edu.mt/clas
•
by Dr Ġorġ Mallia
1
2
3
4
5
THE MUST-HAVE 2014
TECH CHRISTMAS LIST
C
by Matthew Cesareo from the Gadgets team
hristmas is just around the
corner, and for many of you
out there, that means that it’s
time to start dropping hints to
your loved ones. Gadgets are
growing in popularity and are one of
the most wanted Christmas presents—
according to us. Below is our list of top
Gadgets for your Christmas stocking.
1 The GoPro Hero4
GoPro have released the latest in their
series of blockbusting action cameras,
the GoPro Hero4. It’s the first gadget
on my list because it provides amazing
filming in the palm of your hands. The
Black edition caps out at 4K resolution
at 30 fps (Ultra HD), or 1080p (HD)
at 120 fps, which brings impeccable detail to your footage. The image sensor
has been tweaked, enhancing overall
performance and image quality in low
light conditions. The Silver edition has
an LCD panel at the back of the camera and records at 1080p at 60 fps—just
like the GoPro 3+ Black. For those on a
budget, the Hero model offers 1080p at
30 fps video for just €125!
2 The Bose QC®25
Every music lover wants a decent pair of
headphones, and even though the Beats
by Dr Dre have dominated most of the
mainstream market, I still find Bose
headphones deliver impeccable performance and offer a fuller, more dynamic sound. Their latest noise cancelling
headphones, the QC®25, are perfect for
noisy environments like people enduring regular flights—remove on take-off
and landing—or commuting by buses
or trains.
3 The Sphero Ollie
The list wouldn’t be complete without
a gadget that provides senseless fun. Ollie is basically a smartphone-controlled
robot-cylinder which has been dubbed
as the ‘Tony Hawk’ of the Sphero family. The device can reach speeds of up to
14 mph and can perform cool tricks.
Ollie is also extremely rugged, and is
able to take some abuse. Thanks to the
third party hubcaps, Ollie can tackle
different terrains without affecting its
manoeuvrability. 4 The moto 360
Smartwatches have taken over the
world and the craze is far from over.
The only smartwatch which I would
be inclined to purchase, and wouldn’t
mind finding in my Christmas stockings, is the moto 360. The minimalistic
design, the sleek finish, and the superb
high-resolution display, simply set this
device apart. The smart notifications
keep you constantly connected to the
online world. The smartwatch is hardy
with a Gorilla Glass 3 screen mounted
on a waterproof housing.
5 The Playstation®4
This was released last holiday season,
but the device is being revitalised with
a set of exclusive game titles and a new
virtual reality headset. Project Morpheus is hitting the shelves in 2015.
The Playstation®4 has sold 10 million
units, so if you’re mildly interested
in gaming you should really immerse
yourself in the world the of PS4™
and jot it down on your Christmas
List.
•
53
Fun
BOARD GAME REVIEW
by David Chircop
Haggis
HAGGIS is the only game that
I rate a round solid 10. I know, it’s
probably not good review practice to
give your opinion so clearly and obviously at the very beginning, but Haggis is a special game. It’s the only game
that I voluntarily own two copies of,
just in case something happens to my
other one, or the cards just disintegrate after one too many plays. Haggis
is that game.
The game is strange, because Haggis has no theme. It’s a game of numbers, colours, and emptying your
hand of the cards in delightfully
strategic moments during gameplay. Quite simply, you need to shed
all your cards. Sounds like Uno!
Well that’s where the similarities
end. Haggis’s design is much more
modern, fresher, and not shoved
down our throats. Let me put it another way. Uno is a terrible, terrible
54
game. Haggis is my favourite game of
all time.
Haggis is in the family of card
games called ‘climbing’ games (it has
nothing to do with rocks and climbing them). Tichu, another extraordinary card game made specifically for
four players is the spiritual predecessor of Haggis. The designer wanted to
make a Tichu-like game which plays
well with only 2–3 players. The main
mechanic of ‘climbing’ games is that
the starting player leads with a set of
cards reminiscent of poker: so, a pair,
a three of a kind, a four of a kind, and
so on. The next player needs to play
the same set, but of a higher value. So
if the previous set was a pair of twos,
the next one needs to be either a pair
of threes or higher, but the pair always stays. Each of the players takes a
turn until nobody can play any higher
cards in that set. The player with the
Designer: Sean Ross
Publisher: Indie Boards and Cards Game Rating: «««««
highest number takes the points and
also the right of choosing which set
will be played next.
Climbing gameplay introduces very
interesting decisions on which set to
play at which point in the game. The
balance of trying to maintain control
of the game whilst getting the most
points is exquisite, and further additions of mechanics like ‘bombs’ and
‘betting on who will win the round’
help bump up the strategy to a whole
new level.
Haggis is a great three-player game
and an even better two-player game.
Haggis wins and wins again on too
many levels.
•
THINK Research
Let us set a precedent
Words by The Editor
A
changing University greeted me when I returned to
Malta four years ago. This
culture of change has only
snowballed as new institutes, centres, and facilities have opened
up, backed by personnel that are pushing its research portfolio. To continue
supporting this progress the Research
Trust (RIDT) is launching a Staff Contribution Scheme as from January 2015.
The Staff Contribution Scheme allows
any University of Malta staff member to
donate some of their payroll to research.
After filling in a simple one-time form,
donations can be started from a minimum of €1 per month, and donations
can be stopped at any time through a
quick email. Donations are effected
before tax, which ensures that all of the
donation goes towards research.
A few staff members have already
signed up to the scheme. Dr Ing. John
Betts (Dean, Faculty of Engineering)
talked about how ‘University does not
“need” to collect money from staff, but
as a member of staff I wanted to support
an initiative which is part of a collective
effort to promote, help sustain, and enhance research at University.’ Research
is the core of any world-class university.
The University of Malta has a solid
teaching background with over 11,000
students. It has trained Malta’s leaders
with academics, administrators, technocrats, and professionals who have
transformed our country from a barren
archipelago into a civilised, developed
nation. Continuing this socio-economic development needs more funding.
Prof. Charles Sammut (Dean, Faculty
of Science) stated that the scheme was
Dr Alessio Magro and Dr Jackson Said have recently graduated with their doctorates from the University
of Malta. They organised a party to thank their friends and families. They also used the celebrations to
collect money for the RIDT collecting €1000 for research.
‘an excellent idea which gives University
members an opportunity to set an example. Government (and citizens) will take
note that we have achieved so much over
the past few years that we are confident
in investing our own money to support
research. Local industry might also appreciate our dedication and hopefully
cultivate a culture of investing in research. I hope our voluntary contributions will be matched by others.’
‘No modern-day University can rely
exclusively on Government funding’,
stated University Rector Prof. Juanito
Camilleri. Traditional funding sources
will not increase substantially, thus making creative schemes like this one vital to
continue expanding research funds. The
Rector continued echoing this sense of
hope by saying that his donation was
‘because I believe it is a good cause’.
I’m signing up to the scheme myself.
Like all others already pledging part
of their payroll towards this scheme,
we all think that research is vital for
Malta. Betts said ‘I am happy to con-
tribute to supporting this, not only by
my work, but also by putting my money where my mouth is.’ While Sammut
hopes that ‘we can easily double what
little money is allocated by government for research at the University
of Malta’, supporting what the Rector
said previously.
I have faith in the culture change I
see around me. The University of Malta is communicating to the public what
it is doing, more graduates are furthering their studies, and world-class research groups are being built locally.
NGOs and corporate partners are also
donating money to research, realising
the vital role it plays in achieving their
long-term goals.
The Staff Contribution Scheme will
not change the world, but every little
bit does count and I will be putting my
money where my pen is.
•
The scheme has received endorsement
from other staff members and three Unions: UMASA, MUT and UĦM.
55
MEME
culture genes
MEME
56
With you
wherever
www.um.edu.mt/think
THINK
I D E A S
•
M A LTA
•
R E S E A RC H
•
P E O P L E
•
U N I V E R S I TY
COMPUTIME INTERNSHIP
Coffee.
No matter where you choose to
work you will drink up to 5 cups on
your average working day. Discover
a world of opportunities in between.
Visit us on facebook or apply under
the
careers
section
on
w w w.computime.com.mt