Imagine popping a pill, it scans the inside of your body and automatically tells your doctor which parts suffers from disease.

This is not science fiction but reality stemming from research coming out of the University of Malta.

Researchers are also saving Malta’s music memory, protecting the world’s largest experiment and identifying shipping pollution. Read all about them in the latest issue of Think magazine.

An estimated 30,000 ships pass by Malta every year. Ships are responsible for between four and five per cent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions and also emit toxic pollutants. Local researchers are finding out how this problem affects the islands.

Maltese researchers are saving millions of euros for European experiments. Dr Gianluca Valentino has recently developed algorithms that help the Large Hadron Collidor (LHC), of Higgs Boson fame, to run more safely for less. The LHC costs €150,000 per hour to run; Valentino’s work has already saved it hundreds of hours.

Culture takes centre stage in this issue. The M3P project is trying to save Malta’s music for the next generation. Dr Toni Sant and a group of people set up the project to study Maltese music and archive it. Their open collaborative approach will make it available for everyone.

Creative writing students also looked into whether couples can really connect over the internet. Can cybersexuality replace reality? Meanwhile, another student covered Dr Pippin Barrs’s game adaptation of the artwork The Artist is Present. It reflects on life, art and frustration.

Dr Pierre Scehmbri Wismayer shares his thoughts on stem cell banking for newborns. He asks whether parents should invest in the private schemes. How useful are they? On the other hand, Alexandra Fiott talks about the importance of mapping your family tree with your doctor to protect family members.

The magazine also covers student researchers, who talk about the diversity of Malta’s rocky shores, augmented reality, nanomolecules and preventing heart attacks. After graduating, some of these have continued to study in European institutions pushing research boundaries in biomaterials and wind energy.

Think may be picked up for free from newsagents around Malta and Gozo and from Agenda bookstores. It may also be viewed on Issuu ( http://bit.ly/ISSUUThink07 ).

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