November - 2007

Scubed gets cool!

Freshers Week & 3rd Annual Seminar Resume!!

Well, October is nearly over and that means that several activities and events are over. However I decided to give a resume of what our organization did throughout these last weeks.

As a faculty based organisation, we organized well ourselves during the summer holidays to give a real warm welcome to all freshers of our faculty during the first shaky weeks on campus. On Monday 1st October we were invited by the faculty to talk to all new science students in a meeting held at the Science Lecture Theatre. We gave some brief information of what our organization is all about and stressed the point that we are available to help all students if they were in need, in other words we established the organization as a point of reference throughout these weeks. We invited all students to pick a fresher’s pack from our stand. This pack included several information which was very useful such as a note on the ECTS system, contacts of whom to talk in case of any problems, a time table, the registration form, a discount card, information about the faculty, book reviews, a university map and more. We also helped students to fill in their forms and gave some ideas of what extra credits they may chose as they all felt completely lost. We think that we really helped these students! We distributed not less than 170 packs [which were so nice that students from outside our faculty came to ask for one too!!]

We also had a very interesting full colour publication, In Situ containing several articles dealing with News, Science, Lifestyle and why not some Fun Pages too! We distributed 400 copies at University and another hundred at other post secondary colleges in Science departments. The upcoming publications from November till March will be in the hand of a subcommittee.

What about our stand? We had a very good looking stand with an interesting arrangement to reflect all asects and departments of our faculty. When we were visited by H.E. the President, the Leader of the Opposition, EU MP Simon Busuttil and other MP’s they all dedicated some time to observe our ideas, showed great interest, and encouraged us to keep up the good work as active science students. Our magazine was also highly rated.

As an extrapolation of fresher’s week we also organized a 3 day seminar at the President Hotel Paceville between the 19th & 21st of October. We had the opening from Scubed President and the In situ spearhead Matthew Mifsud. On Saturday we had talks by Prof Felice - President Malta chamber of Scientists, Dr Siangra for the Chemistry department, Prof Agius for the Biology Department and Dr Farrugia delivered an interesting talk on the Pharmaceutical industry. Apart from educational and informative talks we had other activities to allow student to integrate with each other. 70 students ranging from 1st years to third years attended.

I would like to thank our sponsors, the Ministry of Education Youth & Employment, Alf Services, Papier Plus Studio, Matildas and Bestprint co ltd for their support. I would also like to thank several individuals who helped us throughout these weeks in order to put up our stand, to prepare the packs and to hold the science seminar, especially, Nicola Darmanin, Cristina Fiott, Alexandra Fiott, Claire Grima, Justine Schembri, Jacqueline Barbara, Ingrid Gatt, Bernard Galea and obviously all the executive for their hard work.

A big welcome goesto our new members of the executive: Justine Schembri, Susannah Vella, Matthew Camilleri, Charles Zahra, & Andrea Ali.

A final note goes to all students in our faculty to appreciate the hard work of the entire executive. I hope that the fresher’s realise that really scubed is there as their point of reference. Last but not least I encourage all students of our faculty to participate wholeheartedly in our activities so have a look at our calendar of events… on the trail is next.

Karl Agius

Scubed President

Spotlight on: Zeffie

I was interested and very much delighted to interview one of our fellow students Christine Zerafa, aka Zeffie, BSc Chemistry and Biology 3rd year. A girl full of energy, enthusiasm and intelligence, matched only by her ability to play the piano. I immediately sated my curiosity and asked about her paradox- science and art, what gives?

“I study these subjects because of the choice I made in form 3, and they sort of grew with me. On the other hand, I have been playing music since the age of 7 and I have to say, it has been my passion ever since. Still, you might ask why I didn’t drop sciences to pursue a musical career. Science is stable, especially in Malta where not enough importance is given to music and art. Also my parents always pushed me in that direction. There are times, especially now, that I wish to simply drop everything and study music. As much as I would love to, it wouldn’t be intelligent. Firstly, now that I’m so close to the finish line, might as well get it over and done with and secondly, I want to keep my options open, since I really do enjoy science, not only music. Then again I can’t imagine myself working an 8-hour non-stop shift in a lab, so yes, there is a huge conflict going on inside between the two.”

We continued discussing her options, Christine describing that it’s not easy making a choice since this is, after all, her future. I also popped the question about an important milestone in her life - a scholarship she had won.

“This competition is one of the most prestigious competitions on the island, even though I don't like such stuff, since Malta is small and there might be people pulling strings. I actually entered as a gamble, especially since this was during the university exams. I mean the stress was sky high and I didn’t want to pressure myself into winning. Still when I was there I gave my 100% - I always do in matters regarding music. Anyway, I managed to qualify to the second round, which for me was already a satisfactory result. Even so, when they where announcing the winners starting from the 3rd place, I was excited (which was an understatement) and then moving onto the 2nd place. As I was already resigned about doing well, my name was announced! I was speechless! So I won the scholarship which involved two weeks of intensive piano tuition with the crème de la crème of music at the Lake District in the U.K. This experience was very refreshing and it finally made me realise that there is actually a possibility for me to have a music career off this island.”

Thus this experience has led her to consider a career in music even more, especially since one of her dreams is to open a school of music, and passing her knowledge to younger generations, so as they experience the joy music brings. I also asked her how she manages to do all of this; since everyone knows our course is not a walk in the park.

“Well the trick is in time management. I practice for 4 hours a day approximately, plus I also work, and do my schoolwork on time. I am not saying it is easy but one cannot simply focus his entire life on sciences. Having extracurricular activities is as important because it helps in the formation of a person. I do not believe that by choosing these subjects one has to completely shut everything else out. Still I do realise that this doesn’t apply for when I choose a career. I think that it has to be either or, since I can’t imagine myself coming home after 12 hours at work, having a family and finding time to practice the piano”

And with that she smiled, as both of us stood up to take our leave, still chatting, as we made our way to the canteen, where we finely said our goodbyes. It was a pleasure to interview such a person, and I hope that some of you out there realise that science doesn’t completely form a person.

Anyways, here at In Situ, we wish you the best of luck and success for your future, Zeffie.

Veils of Time...

Most people think that time is like a river; flowing swiftly and surely in one direction, but I tell you, they are wrong! Time is an ocean in a storm!

Where did all this start in the first place? No one really knows who the first person to suggest time travelling was, but the first one to mention a time traveller in English Literature was Samuel Madden in his book ‘Memoirs of the Twentieth Century’, first published in 1733. The book talks about a series of letters from English ambassadors in different countries to the British ‘Lord High Treasurer’, all written (of course according to the book) between 1997 and 1998. The interesting part however, is that these letters were given to the narrator by his guardian angel at night in 1728. Since this story, time travelling stories slowly grew in popularity, for example ‘The Time Machine’ by H. G. Wells (1895) and several others. This concept was soon introduced in movies, like the ‘Back to the Future’ series, and later on in games like ‘Prince of Persia’, giving the stories a very interesting twist! But what’s the science in it?

There are several theories, all of which have been given an endless amount of thought. The most plausible theories for travelling through time involve, travelling faster than the speed of light, using black holes or wormholes. Just looking at these “requirements” one might say “It’s hard, but not impossible”. That’s what you think? One step at a time then; ‘Faster-than-the-speed-of-light’ – Albert Einstein once came up with a theory that explained that a body’s mass increases as its speed increases. Years later, a device that accelerated particles was invented, the Cyclotron. It was found that the particles exiting the Cyclotron were indeed larger, proving Einstein’s theory correct. But the most interesting fact about this theory is that once a body reaches the speed of light, it achieves infinite mass… now that’s off the charts! Black Holes: this is an easy one, a point in space that has an insanely high gravitational field, enough to crush stars! I’m not going anywhere near it! Next, Wormholes! A wormhole is a hypothetical feature of the space-time continuum, which is a form of mathematical term that merges space and time together. There have been theories of building machines on such wormholes to use them to traverse the barriers of time. Although the theories seem very plausible, the machines would need the “faster-than-light” attribute and also, wormholes are hypothetical, no one knows if they really exist or if so how big they are, and their position in space might prove hard to reach or build a suitable machine over it.

So it appears that building machines that travel through time is simply unattainable. But there seems to be way around this problem that we are not noticing, time dilation. Again, a theory concerning Albert Einstein’s special and general theories of relativity, they state that time moves slowly for quick-moving bodies and for bodies which are deeper in a gravity well. Therefore with this theory, time around a large body with a great gravitational pull and very fast spin (like Jupiter; huge mass and gravitational field, and a spin of about 10 hours) would be really slow when compared to Earth. Also, when a body travels in space, time moves slower on that body. Why is this? It’s hard to explain, but in a simplified manner, it involves theories tied to gravitation. But this is not really moving through time, it’s just a form of … distortion.

An interesting argument against time travelling is talking about tourists from the future; I seem to fail to spot any, oh wait, maybe it’s because there are none! It is a good argument against time travelling but doesn’t really prove anything. This brings us to the time line, the all-famous time line. Many people believe that past present and future are all written, that it’s ‘destiny’, making the idea of time travelling plausible. That’s all crap! We make our own destiny, nothing is written, nothing is ‘meant’ to happen, you are what you decide to be! You don’t like how things are turning out? Do something about it, you always have a choice! Now I have to go, I’m late for La Vallette’s 13th birthday!

James Ciarlo`

Life...

Is artificial life just a far-off dream? A thing of science fiction? A possibility that is wholly synthetic? It would seem that this might not be the case. John Craig Venter (an American biologist and DNA researcher) and his team have created the first artificial chromosome! Or to be exact, it’s mostly artificial. It was made from a bacterium, Mycoplasma genitalium, by removing a fifth of its genes.

One cannot help but wonder at the implications. Is this the potential for a ‘miracle cure’ to humanity’s problems? Perhaps this is the first step in actively selecting characteristics for our children. Or maybe it is the beginning of the answer to alternative energy sources. Or perhaps an answer to removing the excess carbon dioxide from the air, or maybe repairing the ozone layer (though considering the toxic nature of ozone, the latter is unlikely). Or maybe things like the ‘X-Men’ are not as far off as one would think (I’m pretty sure many wouldn’t mind that).

One thing is for certain, at this stage, one can only speculate, and as far as most people know, the possibilities are infinite. However, as far as modifying the human genome is concerned, it is likely that such a thing is very far off. The human genome is rather ‘fragile’. Having an extra chromosome, or even an extra part of a chromosome very often results in the foetus being aborted. Hence any changes to the human genome, unless small and at specific sites could easily disrupt the fragile balance known as life (something which is more fragile than one would think, after the human psyche, but nevermind that) and hence would yield nothing at all. As with most things, the creation of artificial chromosomes is bound to raise a number of ethical issues (actually, it very likely has already). Some would say, who are we to dictate how a life-form should be? Who are we to ‘play God’? (a term which has become commonplace during the past decade or so). Others would argue that since we can, then we should, provided it causes more good than harm. Who knows what will happen? Maybe this is the answer to creating new species, should we want to. One thing is for sure, having a tool is all very well, but how you use it is something else entirely. Let us hope that we humans have learnt from our mistakes, and do not seek to create new ones.

Nigel Borg

Instances

The society of the new millennium, a total population of 6,605,008,900, all separate lives, intertwining at some point. Now consider all the possibilities of how and in which directions can their lives change in a single instant. Indeed this is life, a path one takes to reach the final destination- some sort of dream and fulfilment (on any level).

Most of the time, I find myself thinking about these instances. I mean, I might sound like I have nothing better to do with my time but still, the realisation that a second ago my life was perfect and after a phone call everything came crashing down, is something very real, something one has to learn to deal with. The problem with most people is that they don’t stop and think, realising, taking note, of their surrounding environment, because they have to keep up with the rest of society- the media advertises that; one cannot afford to lag behind.

Then is all comes back to you. Being the social animal I am, I tend to speak with many different people, all with their own problems in life, joys and so on. For a example a friend of mine was over the moon with happiness as she was seeing this guy. They had been dating for quite a while now and things were moving in the right direction. A week after they broke up, and of course, desperation followed. This is understandable but this is my point- in a instance we can latterly be thrown to the opposite end of the emotional scale. You might think yes, big deal, we all know that. Well how true is that I don’t know, since for starters, if one had to realise that in an instance a life can change, one would automatically realise that every decision taken doesn’t affect only the maker but also the surrounding people, in some way or another. The fact that we have certain problems that could be simply avoided through careful consideration of our action rests my case that most of us have no idea of how to live in a society.

Fair enough, the human is egoistic by nature. I’m sorry that’s not a good enough excuse to justify certain things. I mean we have come a long way in manipulating nature in order to survive so why can’ we control this? In any case, as one can see, the occurrence of these instances is completely out of our hands. Incidentally it’s because of these drastic and sudden changes in our lives that humans are constantly on the lookout for ways and means to know their future.
So what can one do about all of this? Learn how to deal. That is the key to avoid desperation. These events occurring in our lives are sometimes inevitable, and learning how to accept them helps. I’m not saying just sit there and say “ah well there is nothing I can do about it” and let it slide by. This is not as healthy since usually it can come bite you in the ass, and this does not qualify as dealing with the situation, just skidding past it. A good example of dealing with it is by taking as much as you can out of the bad situation, try to find an alternative, be positive. In poor word be pro-active instead of sitting there and moping, because even though you might not be able to solve the problem, the fact that you are doing something about it helps especially from embarking the lane of desperation and loss.

Once again you might come to a point where things seem to grim, but don’t lose hope. Remember there are people around you who might be able to help you, and don’t exclude anyone since help can come from the strangest places. That’s all for this month an remember “there aren’t any problems, only solution”


M @ U

Spot the Blue Box!!!

Last year everyone used to complain that there were too little parking spaces at University, considering the vast amount of students here. When I first heard that they (they being administration) put a lot of work into the parking situation, I thought, HURRAY!! However, I was slightly off track. They HAD put a lot of effort into sorting out parking… for themselves!!

Now, as you know, students can only park in the little blue boxes. If you haven’t seen one yet, don’t worry, they are extremely rare! You will only find them in that ‘car park’, if it can be called one, next to the canteen with about 30 spaces there; in another car park close to the football grounds; and the car park next to Mater Dei. Only these? Yep, that’s about right. The rest of University is dedicated to lecturers and other administrative staff, including every white box you find and the ring road.

So basically, by half seven in the morning, most of the spaces are already taken. You will end up going round and round university in vain trying to look for a blue box, while somewhere like the ring road is half empty. But no you cannot park there because you will risk your car getting towed. So although you would have arrived at Uni early, you will still get to your lecture 30 minutes late and probably get thrown out of the lecture room, or if you are lucky, just a very nasty look and a sarcastic comment.

One can try and understand the reasoning behind the administration. Probably last year several lecturers complained that they were not able to find parking, just like us, but the administration took the complaint a bit over board. To normal logic, there are many more students than lecturers, but two thirds of the parking is dedicated to administrative staff… is it just me or is the ratio a bit wonky?

There was a problem with parking last year, and now it is even worse. They had to increase the parking spaces and not decrease them for us. They have solved problems for lecturers yes, but not for students. Anyway, most lecturers are on a part time basis and come to lecture at 4pm, when most students would have left, so I don’t know what the reasoning behind this new system was.

The only good thing I can come up with is the permit. Yes I agree that only university students can park on university grounds, or else other people will take up the little parking we have left! However, University regulations state that to get the permit, one needs to present the insurance under their own name. Now seriously, how many students actually have their insurance under their own name, when the insurance premium for people under 25 years of age is sky high?

I know how the administrative staff will respond to these complaints… there are more direct buses now; students should use buses instead of coming with their own cars! Yes sure, if a student catches the direct bus at 7am in the morning, there is still 99% chance that the student arrives at University at 8.20/8.30, due to factors such as traffic, and also the minor detail that the ADT forgot to mention… direct buses are now passing through St. Luke’s and Mater Dei before making their way to University. So you are leaving home earlier than you would have if you use your own car, yet you are still arriving at Uni late for your lecture. All hail ADT!

I’m still amazed at how this (quotes) ‘New Parking System’ beams with practical efficiency. A little note to KSU: we appreciate what you have been trying to do to solve this problem, but maybe you need a more efficient approach? I mean, we started with a debate, which lead to a protest (which wasn’t exactly highly successful), which lead to yet another debate! Are we going to keep on going round in circles? Has there been any response? Maybe by the next In Situ issue I will have my answers!

Jackie Barbara

A search for the Soul

What is the soul? Does the soul really exist? The soul is the spiritual part in us that keeps on living after we die.

Man has a dualistic nature; man is composed of a physical body which is visible, and a soul which is invisible and immortal unlike the body which will die. Scientists and theologians argue about the concept of the soul. This is a similar debate like that between evolutionists and creationists.

From observations and experimentation, many scientists claim that the soul does not exist. On the other hand theologians argue that every human is endowed with an immortal soul. Emotions and moral reasoning are terms associated with the soul. Thus the soul is the ultimate internal principle by which we think, feel and by which our body is animated. But biologists and neuroscientists are discovering that these are actually built in our genes and brain structures. The brain scientist V. S. Ramachandran (University of California) states that, “There may be soul in the sense of "the universal spirit of the cosmos" but the soul as it is usually spoken of, "an immaterial spirit that occupies individual brains and that only evolved in humans" - all that is complete nonsense. Belief in that kind of soul is basically superstition.” Georgetown University theologian John F. Haught states that, “Instead of eliminating the notion of a human soul in order to make us humans fit seamlessly into the rest of nature, it's wiser to recognize that there is something analogous to soul in all living beings”.

Scientists are materialists; all that is physical is real for the scientist. But science cannot prove everything. Since the soul is invisible; therefore it cannot be proved by science, but this does not conclude that the soul does not exist. Taking into consideration we have no scientific proof that God exists since He is a spirit; but that does not mean that God does not exist. Dr. Charles Tart, a professor of psychology emeritus at the University of California says that we need both science and spirituality to make us human.

As mentioned above this is a similar debate between evolutionists and creationists. Men maybe regarded as an evolutionary process that came into existence, or else as the Bible states that men was created by the Almighty one. My view is that man is the result of an evolutionary process BUT everything governed under the hands of God; thus combing the evolutionary and creationist theories. We as humans tend to deny the existence of the invisible. But the soul does exist; in fact in Genesis there is written that God blew the breath of life in man after creating him. We think that science can solve all the mysteries of life and can give us an answer for everything forgetting that God is above all science!!! If we believe in an afterlife we should exist in some form either as visible (but the body dies and gets rotten) or as invisible……….maybe the soul?

Maria Camilleri

!Bite Size!

Queenstown, New Zealand: A contractor made quite a big mistake by incorrectly stacking the NZ$10 slot of an ATM with NZ$20 and vice versa. Dozens of customers used this Kiwibank ATM with one person making 40 transactions. The bank does not intend tracking down customers who were given double the money but reimbursed all those who lost money. (>)


Bangkok, Thailand: Thai police officers who break police rules will not only be forced to pay a fine and penalties like the other members of the public but will have to wear bright pink armbands featuring the young girl icon Hello Kitty as a mark of shame. Thai police colonel Pongpat Chayaphan stated that ‘simple warnings no longer work’ so it was decided to make the offenders ‘feel guilt and shame and prevent them from repeating the offense, no matter how minor’. (<)


Pennsylvania, US: On the 2nd October 2007 Russell Byars became a world record holder in stone skipping with a mind boggling 51 skips. This throw tamed the old record of 40 skips held by Kurt Steiner. Mr. Byars is a 43 year old engineer and, needless to say, a professional stone skipper. He is nicknamed The Giant because of his size (188cm, 114kg) and proves that size might play a part in increasing the number of skips.


Moscow, Russia: Andrey Scherbakov, a 15 year old boy, accomplished an unprecedented feat in the history of aviation. After running away from an alcoholic father, he found himself near Perm city airport where he bypassed security and got into a wheel well of a Boeing 737 bound for Moscow – 1300km away. In these planes the wheels do not entirely retract but remain exposed, leaving quite a lot of available space. Upon arriving in Moscow airport, workers found the boy on the tarmac. Unbelievably, he was alive after enduring 2hrs traveling at 900km/h at an altitude of 10000m and a temperature of -50°C! He is reported to be in a critical condition but survived due to his body being frozen. His hands may have to be amputated as a result of frostbite.


Nevada, USA: American couple Michael and Iana Straw pleaded guilty to child neglect brought about by their obsession with the game Dungeons & Dragons. Both young adults (aged 25 and 23) were unemployed and spent their recent $50,000 inheritance on the computer game and a large plasma TV screen. They were so addicted that they failed to feed or clean their young children (11 month old girl & 23 month old boy). Police were called in after neighbours’ complaints that one child was constantly crying and after investigation, the children were found on the brink of death. Both children are in foster care while the parents risk 12 years of jail, obviously without a computer. (<)

Who are the sexiest, rudest and funniest Europeans? Researchers from Reader’s Digest were dispatched to 19 different countries to interview 4000 people about other nations. Italians were decided to be by far the most popular and the sexiest, followed by the Spanish and the French. Belgians were voted the least sexy and least popular. The United Kingdom was said to be the country with the best sense of humor, and are also those who contributed most to the world with many people citing football, medicine and industry. The Irish however, were said to have contributed to only one thing – Guinness! The Swiss seem to be the most serious with a very distinct 19th place in humour, yet the Swiss were said to be very polite, as are the Norwegians. Germans are at the base of the scale and are least polite. Lastly are the Dutch who were voted to be the most unbiased. Paris is Europe’s favourite city while Italy is the favourite country.(<)


Aleisk, Russia: Nadia Barabanova broke a world record the second she was born on the 17th September 2007 by a Caesarean section in Aleisk, Siberia. At birth she weighed a massive 17 pounds 1 ounce (7.75kg). The previous record was set in 2005 by a 17 pound Brazilian baby. The 43 year old mother, Tatyana, had already given birth to 8 girls and 3 boys and all weighed more than 11lb. The story behind these ‘heavy weight’ babies, is that the family had no money for “special foods” and so “ate everything she could” while pregnant. (>)

Spontaneous Combustion

It occurs when an object, in the case of spontaneous human combustion, a person, bursts into flame from an internal chemical reaction, apparently without being ignited by an external heat source.

Spontaneous combustion occurs when an object, in the case of spontaneous human combustion, a person, bursts into flame from an internal chemical reaction, apparently without being ignited by an external heat source.

The first known account of spontaneous human combustion was reported in 1663 by a Danish anatomist Thomas Bartholin, who described how a woman in Paris simply "went up in ashes and smoke" while she was sleeping. In 1673, a Frenchman named Jonas Dupont published a collection of spontaneous combustion cases in his work De Incendiis Corporis Humani Spontaneis.

Since then numerous reports of spontaneous human combustion have been made. All seem to follow the same pattern: the victim is almost completely consumed, usually inside his or her home. Sometimes, accompanying the body, a sweet, smoky smell in the room where the incident occurred is found.

Strangely enough, charred bodies of spontaneous human combustion are often found with their extremities intact. Although the torso and head are charred beyond recognition, the hands, feet, and/or part of the legs are unburned. Also, the room around the person shows little or no signs of a fire, apart from a greasy residue that is sometimes left on furniture and walls. In rare cases, the internal organs of a victim remain untouched while the outside of the body is charred.

Not all spontaneous human combustion victims simply burst into flames. Some develop strange burns on their body which have no obvious source, or emanate smoke from their body when no fire is present. And not every person who has caught fire spontaneously has died, a small percentage of people have actually survived what has been called their spontaneous combustion.

The Theories

To combust, a human body needs two things: intensely high heat and a flammable substance. Under normal circumstances, our bodies contain neither, but some scientists over the last several centuries have speculated on a few possible explanations for the occurrence. In the 1800s, British author Charles Dickens ignited great interest in spontaneous human combustion by using it to kill off a character in his novel Bleak House. The character, named Krook, was an alcoholic, following the belief at the time that spontaneous human combustion was caused by excessive amounts of alcohol in the body.

Today, there are several theories. One of the most popular proposes that the fire is sparked when methane (produced when plants decompose) builds up in the intestines and is ignited by enzymes. Yet most victims of spontaneous human combustion suffer greater damage to the outside of their body than to their internal organs, which seems to go against this theory. Physicists speculate that the fire begins as a result of a build up of static electricity inside the body or from an external geomagnetic force exerted on the body. A self-proclaimed expert on spontaneous human combustion, Larry Arnold, has suggested that the phenomenon is the work of a new subatomic particle called a pyroton, which he says interacts with cells to create a mini-explosion. But no scientific evidence proves the existence of this particle.

As of March 2005, no one has offered scientific proof of a theory explaining spontaneous human combustion. If humans can't spontaneously combust, then what is the explanation for the stories and pictures of people who have seemingly burned from within?

Zachary Engerer