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CONTENTS<br />
ISSUE<br />
10<br />
SEPTEMBER<br />
2014<br />
A Fragile Archipelago<br />
8<br />
OPINION<br />
Social wellbeing<br />
policy at University?<br />
Coping with stress at University<br />
Fragility is core to Malta. As a near-desert island that extracts<br />
fresh water from the sea and imports most of its<br />
food, Malta could not survive without an outside connection,<br />
though there was a time when humans did. Our cover<br />
story is about the Temple People who built the oldest free-standing<br />
stone structures in the world and survived in Malta for around<br />
a thousand years.<br />
The Temple People left behind the megaliths of Ħaġar Qim,<br />
Mnajdra, and Tarxien amongst others. Around 2500 BC they vanished<br />
off the face of the Earth without a trace. The theory is that<br />
environmental degradation and religious extremism killed them<br />
off. The FRAGSUS project is trying to find the evidence to see<br />
what really happened (pg. 34).<br />
THINK is all about future technology. Local academics are<br />
working with industry to find a better concrete brick. A brick that<br />
can help Malta meet its environmental goals that it has signed<br />
with the EU (pg. 15). Another future technology story, talks about<br />
how taking advantage of colour could provide the key to a wave<br />
of new products on the market (pg. 42). Fluorescent molecules<br />
which give off light could be the next detectors in devices and<br />
our bodies.<br />
With regards to health, we have two pieces. An opinion piece (pg.<br />
10) talks about how we should be using more eHealth products to<br />
bring down costs. Another looks into Malta’s new dementia strategy<br />
to help improve the situation of dementia patients and their carers.<br />
Other opinion pieces talk about how the University of Malta needs a<br />
social policy, and how scientists and government need to chat.<br />
Scientists and politicians need to communicate to safeguard<br />
Malta’s fragile existence. Malta needs to think its way out of it by<br />
investing in research and innovation. We do not want to go the<br />
way of the Temple People.<br />
Edward Duca<br />
EDITOR<br />
edward.duca@um.edu.mt<br />
@DwardD<br />
15<br />
26<br />
34<br />
FEATURE<br />
Hot house, bad house<br />
Concrete just got upgraded<br />
FEATURE<br />
I'm sorry, I forgot<br />
Tackling Malta's growing dementia<br />
problem<br />
COVER STORY<br />
The Death of the<br />
Temple People<br />
Life, death, religion—<br />
Malta 5000 years ago
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