Any spin on the Malta-CERN axis?

The fanfare at the signing of the memorandum of understanding with the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) may seem a little excessive as this meeting was only intended as a precursor to discussions leading to the establishment of formal links between the University of Malta and CERN. A good half of the fanfare may have been justified by the current political weather, but too much hot air was blown down the trumpet.

The Prime Minister and his delegation, as well as the local reporters writing up the event, seem oblivious of the fact that the prime mission of CERN is to do cutting-edge physics. This may explain the complete absence of physicists from the PM's delegation and, in combination with the large engineering input, led to reports heavily biased towards engineering rather than the physical sciences.

The truth of the matter is that CERN, as any other research-performing facility, relies on the tools provided by engineers and ICT for the day-to-day running and maintenance of the experiments; but the research and innovation are performed by the scientists.

This absence of any member of staff from the physical sciences will lead to a number of detrimental effects. Besides the somewhat distorted view of CERN's activities, the reflection on local University physics was hardly flattering - a 'dead-end' subject, too passé for anyone to speak for it.

Worse than that, the now-customary trumpets on job-creation (there must have been a couple of local contractors advising Joshua at Jericho), associated with Engineering and ICT, inevitably cast shadows on physics and its role in today's society. Prospective students will draw their own - not necessarily correct - conclusions from that. As it happens, the Faculty of Science is on the verge of introducing single-subject three-year degrees, a fact well known to members of the Prime Minister's delegation, and such bad press could lead to dwindling numbers of students in the physical sciences. In this context, this type of approach not only robs physics of any glamour- it makes it look like a dead-end subject, in direct conflict with what CERN is trying to achieve.

The people who work at CERN believe whole-heartedly that particle physics and its cosmological connections are one of the most exciting and challenging fields of intellectual endeavour and a great advertisement for physics in the modern world. How ironic that the largest physics experiment in the world was "used" by the Maltese press, inadvertently we trust, to cast shadows on University physics. Still, we must admit to a certain affinity between politicians and reporters and particle physicists: both groups hold that it is spin that matters!