No science excites quite like the search for origins. Just consider the excitement surrounding the exhibiting of Tutankhamen's face last week.

One possible reason why Maltese in the past shied away from Science is that the current creation theory challenged that of Genesis. However, this type of scepticism towards Science was resolved when everyone accepted that "Lucy" and her fellow members of Australapithecus afarensis unambiguously demonstrated that early humans first got up and walked, and then developed the onboard computers that distinguish people from other organisms.

The next step to overcome was the myth that science is a male domain. This problem is now solved. A significant number of women students are taking up the sciences, including engineering. Sometimes they even outnumber men.

So what is keeping the Maltese from embracing the field of Science?

Some say the reason is that the University did not succeed to tackle areas where the hatred of sciences is real and deep. Articulate, well placed scholars argue that science is biased to its deepest roots, and little has been done to move away from that concept. The baby boomers, suffering from post-war trauma, have inherited the preferences and prejudices of society against science.

The University did little to influence local citizens to grasp the concepts of the growing body of science, the success of its predictions, and its technological applications. In Malta, the major connection with science was related to the repair and maintenance of warships at the dockyard.

Not enough attention was given to triumphs in areas of science including archaeology or medicine, such as those made by Temi Zammit, who was rarely presented as a role model. Later, the University introduced the teaching of science for its own sake and a few Maltese followed this line.

However, after a short period of time, science at the University was given an almost fatal blow when it was displaced and replaced by the introduction of all the science-hating soft staff, such as sociology and Eastern mysticism, which then led to a distrust of the establishment. This led many to stop thinking of science as a possible benevolent power, and a mentality against it was cultivated. Very recently, through the Schranz-Muscat effort on the study of neurology, the University is attempting to experiment in the realm of joint scientific and cultural ideologies.

Maltese society and its leaders need to establish a scientific mentality. We need to catch up with lost time and reach a stage where scientific thinking and science as a whole becomes the order of the day. That science should have a distinctive nature and success has long been a matter of discussion. In the end, all would agree that Science has to triumph. In the long term, all Maltese must develop into 'scientists' in their minds and hearts. The University has a distinct duty to lead Malta to this end.

The reason 'scientists' are successful is because science has rules to guide its practitioners, rules of conduct that enable scientists to go forward as they succeed, but bring them up again when they fail. Notable, for instance, is the need to be consistent.

When Darwin devised his theory of evolution, there was disagreement between him and the physicists because their best calculations yielded a far younger Earth than Darwin's national selection mechanism required. The physicists finally gave ground, ignorant of the existence and warming effects of radioactive decay, they had vastly underestimated the age of the Earth.

The best science unites everything in its field under one or a few hypothesis. Newton, for example, could show that both Kepler's planetary physics and Galileo's terrestrial mechanisms followed his own laws of motion and the supreme law of gravitational attraction.

Science is predictive. It succeeds because more than being just the subjective knowledge of practitioners, one starts with facts and then foretells the future. Would society not be better if everyone had a scientific, consistent, unifying and predictive frame of mind?

The Government has emphasised the importance of Smart City, and the University has established an IT Faculty. It is hoped that these will help stimulate a scientific mentality. However, these developments need to spread to the grassroots.

Perhaps an urgent demand on our University is to use the Faculty of Education as the most effective tool to reach as many students as possible. All teachers need to be educated 'scientists'.

The University has to ensure that science transcends a negative cultural attitude that unfortunately is a remnant of a not too distant past. It is up to the University to change a science-sceptical mentality, although this is a difficult task.

If it is successful, many other problems would be resolved, because science has little to do with division and separation ─ it applies to all, irrespective of sex, orientation, religion, status or colour.

What better institution is there than the University to unite all these forces?

If the University succeeds to change Malta from a science-sceptical country to a science-based society then there will be less danger of having to face in future the revival of a movement fostering a sentiment of anti-intellectualism, whichever party is in government.

But alas, while Smart City, Mater Dei Hospital, and IT Faculty will help develop a strong body of science, we need to work hard to truly search for Science's soul.