https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/145811 2026-10-13T04:09:17Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149796 Title: Sun, sea, sand, seagrass remains, and plastic Abstract: The brown heaps of dead seagrass on our beaches might just be saving them. New research from the Department of Biology at the University of Malta shows that the piles of Posidonia remains not only stop beaches from washing away, but also capture plastics before they reach the sea. 2026-09-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149665 Title: Move over : floating wind turbines produce more power if they stay out of each other’s way Abstract: Floating wind turbines make poor neighbours. A turbine extracts energy from the air passing through its blades. What emerges behind it is a wake: slower and more turbulent airflow. Place a turbine downstream, behind another one, and it has less wind from which to generate electricity. 2026-09-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149664 Title: Our heritage in the deep Abstract: How do we define a park? For many, the word ‘park’ conjures images of trees and picnicking families. But what about an archaeological park, or a marine park? What about a deepwater archaeological park? A deepwater site is deeper than 50m, which is beyond the range that SCUBA equipment and training allow. Evidently, if these different places are all parks, then ‘park’ has a conceptual meaning beyond a place with trees. When an area is designated as a park, there are implications for its ownership, management, development, and preservation. As a public space, a park is also expected to be accessible, but what if it is physically inaccessible to most people? Can we find alternative ways of making the inaccessible accessible? 2026-09-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149618 Title: Observing the first stars : how software and space telescopes are decoding the early universe Abstract: Somewhere in a computer file is the light of a galaxy so distant that it has no familiar name. It appears not as a photograph, but as a faint wiggle – a spectrum marked by tiny rises and dips. To an untrained eye, it might look like noise. To an astronomer, those small imperfections can reveal what the galaxy's stars were made of billions of years ago. 2026-09-01T00:00:00Z