By: Mićo Tatalović

Members of royal families around the world often express support for science, but Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan of Jordan stands out for taking a particularly close and active interest.

She is a founder and president of the El Hassan Science City, president of Jordan’s Royal Scientific Society and chair of the board of trustees of the Princess Sumaya University for Technology. She has also recently helped set up a science and technology collaboration centre for the Middle East, in Jordan.

This month is the anniversary of two Arab uprisings, in Egypt and Tunisia. We asked Princess Sumaya about the impact the Arab Spring has had on science in the region, her views on science diplomacy, and her hopes and fears for science, education and innovation.

How has the Arab Spring provided opportunities for science and technology?

A large part of it is people starting to think in terms of meritocracy. A huge potential of talent has been unleashed — talent that was previously held back by corruption and by cronyism, and by a disregard for meritocratic progress.

This is when we can start talking about the Arab Spring becoming the Arab Summer — when we see people assessed on, and acknowledged for what they are able to contribute. You cannot have successful scientific cooperation without meritocracy.

The great new freedom has started to entice a lot of the Arab diaspora — we have lost so many of our talented people in the past.

Is there a lesson for other Arab countries that have not experienced protests?

I think so and that’s not just the result of the Arab Spring. Slowly people have started to realise that the way forward is investment in human resources, not in cement or other commodities. And, while some of our neighbouring countries have put huge amounts into science cities and so on, ultimately it’s the working partnerships that we develop between different scientists that will make the big difference. In Jordan, our great resource is human capital and that is what we are investing in.

When we think about the Arabic and Islamic world, the contribution we have made to science and technology is a very important part of our heritage, and now is the time for us to continue from where we left off.

So what are the main obstacles to science in the Arab world?

I think it’s re-establishing that feeling of ownership over innovation for community development. At the same time a lot of Arabs are feeling the weight of Western scientific hegemony. It’s not an excuse for anger or lethargy, but a call to action for a new generation with new ambition. In the Middle East we have focused a lot on imitation, and only in the last few years on innovation once again. Now we really need to start educating people on intellectual property rights and technology commercialisation.

It has been a year since the start of Egypt’s revolution 

Flickr/rouelshimi

What can be learnt from experiences in the West?

We can learn a lot of lessons from the West. One of the analogies I use is that when you look at a fragmented Europe after the Second World War you wouldn’t have expected some of the nations, such as France and Germany, to speak to each other again, but it was elements of science that brought Europe together and led to the second industrial revolution.

And I believe that, in the Arab world, if we started talking together — with the financial resources in some of our rich Gulf countries that are available as well as the human resources in countries such as mine, or Egypt, or Lebanon and Syria — that’s where we can really build a second scientific Golden Age.

What, if anything, is the role for science diplomacy?

Science always flourishes when talent is given freedom and support to apply itself, but I think mentorship programmes are the best approach for success and sustainability. If you can collaborate as people, the money will eventually come in. We have to make sure that science is directed at solving the challenges that we face in the region and that’s why we need to talk to each other and cooperate again.

At the El Hassan Science City, we are now working closely with Arab-American professors from the University of California, Los Angeles, who are working as mentors for our researchers in Jordan. The Science City in itself is a way of attracting back the lost Arab diaspora, and with the wonders of modern communications we are also able to develop our capacity without people actually being here.

The agreement that the Science City has with the SESAME project [Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East — funded by several Middle East countries, and based in Jordan] brings a huge advantage for collaboration with different nations. Some might not sit together around the political table, but scientifically we can overcome that political hurdle.

How do we make sure everyone benefits from science diplomacy?

In Jordan we recently signed an agreement for the development of the first UN ESCWA [Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia] technology centre for research and scientific collaboration. It’s the first time ESCWA has opened an office outside its headquarters and this centre involves 14 Arab countries. The idea is to increase not only Arabic content on the Internet but also to provide an opportunity for research and alliances.

The more we as a region can start addressing combined strategies and identifying national priorities — but where everyone gets a slice of the pie — the better.

Science culture must become an intrinsic part of our development from school age up.

Oil-rich countries could help the whole Arab region develop 

Flickr/potomo

What is the future for education and innovation in the region?

We are very focused on teaching and learning by rote and not being able to question. I think the fact that we have a generation that now wants to stand up and ask questions, and is being given the freedom to do so, is probably the first symbolic step forwards.

And then, of course, a more equitable division of resources is the right way to go about things. That starts with education and is particularly important with tertiary education. We must ensure that we build a quality university system that is affordable to the less well off. We have missed so much potential because education has not been equitable in our region.

I don’t have a PhD. Life experience can teach you a lot and while I don’t undermine the importance of a PhD, it’s also very important to acknowledge the role of entrepreneurial thinking. Enabling the right environments is very important.

When you look at innovation ecosystems you realise that it is young people who need to have an environment in which to become creative and commercialise technologies.

So a combination [of the traditional and the entrepreneurial] is the formula for success that we need.

And what is the position of women in science?

There’s a lot of encouragement given to women in science in my country. More than half of our undergraduate science students are women.

At my university we have just appointed the first woman dean for engineering, the first one in Jordan. Because women still traditionally have a dual role — they are also a mother and a wife — if you educate a woman, you educate a family.

It is very important that this is supported. There are a lot of women in the Arab world in leadership positions who are now able to give support to other women.

It is very rare now that you don’t see girls being educated in the Arab world — it’s one of the success stories of the MDGs [Millennium Development Goals]. With the advancement of social media you can’t keep women in the dark anymore.

Link to opinion by Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan

The creation of a modified H5N1 bird flu virus that can be transmitted through the air mammal-to-mammal has aroused wide consternation; a biosecurity advisory board to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommended the research findings be published only in a redacted form, so that a recipe for the hugely dangerous variant would not circulate widely.

The decisions this week by the Rotterdam and Madison researchers responsible for making the H5N1 virus variant to suspend their research for 60 days, and by Science and Nature magazines honor the HHS recommendation and publish the research in a redacted form, are reassuring but also somewhat disconcerting.

The statement by the Rotterdam and Madison research leaders, co-published online by Science and Nature yesterday, makes an odd impression. Written in a curious hybrid of third-person and first-person narration, it characterizes their research as “critical information that advances our understanding of influenza transmission” and yet recognizes “that we and the rest of the scientific community need to clearly explain the benefits of this important research.” They are declaring a 60 day moratorium on their work, they say, because “organizations and governments around the world need time to find the best solutions for opportunities and challenges that stem from this work.”

Where, one wonders, are the normally outstanding editors of Science and Nature? We don’t find solutions to opportunities, and had an editor firmly pointed this out to the lead researchers, perhaps they would have had to address the real issues raised by their work rather than tiptoe around them. Their statement refers to a “perceived fear that the ferret-transmissible H5HA viruses may escape from the laboratory,” as if this were the only or the main concern. The authors do not, contrary to what The New York Times reported today, refer at all the possibility of somebody maliciously replicating the virus variant and unleashing it on the world.

The discomfiting impression is that the lead researchers just do not get it, and that they have accepted some limited restrictions kicking and screaming. That impression is amplified by what the Rotterdam lead researcher Ron Fouchier told the Times: “It is unfortunate that we need to take this step to stop the controversy in the United States,” he said. “I think if this were communicated better in the United States, it might not have been needed to do this.”

Actually, if the researchers had never publicized their news at all and instead had communicated it confidentially to relevant authorities “it might not have been needed to do this.” Perhaps the researchers could have taken inspiration from a practice common in software engineering, where discovered vulnerabilities are communicated “responsibly,” giving software engineers the opportunity to fix them before they are widely known.

However that may be, somebody should probably tell Dr. Fouchier that the United States has probably the world’s strongest prohibition on “prior restraint” in publishing, and that the principle of no prior restraint is breached only with the greatest reluctance. Over government objections, The New York Times was allowed to publish the Pentagon papers, undermining the case for the Vietnam War, and The Progressive magazine published “The H-Bomb Secret,” despite Cold War paranoia.

One of the articles posted in Science magazine’s H5N1 bird flu package yesterday does a nice job of putting the HHS recommendation in the context of concerns about prior restraint. Putting the current controversy in the context of past cases, constitutional law, and government procedure, John D. Kraemer and Lawrence O. Gostin of Georgetown University emphasize that HHS merely asked Science and Nature to exercise restraint, without ordering them to do so.

A second article makes a strong case that our main focus should be on eradicating the bird flu virus itself, not bioterrorism or laboratory escape. The two studies “are a wake up call,” says Daniel R. Perez, of the University of Maryland’s Department of Veterinary Medicine. “Make no mistake, it is likely that these viruses can emerge in the field.”

If a human-transmittable bird flu virus emerges, will we be able to detect it and counteract it before it starts to wreck havoc? Not likely, say Michael T. Osterholm and Donald A. Henderson. Osterholm, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Minnesota and Henderson, a biosecurity expert at the University of Pittsburgh, highly affected countries like Egypt and Indonesia are not doing a good job of detecting and tracking the existing bird flu virus. So the notion that the Rotterdam-Madison research must be published in every detail to give us the tools to fight a human transmittable virus does not hold water. But “should a highly transmissible and virulent H5N1 influenza virus that is of human making cause a catastrophic pandemic, whether as the result of intentional or unintentional release, the world will hold life sciences accountable for what it did or did not do to minimize that risk.”

The 60-day moratorium is a good start, but there’s every reason to think more time than that will be needed to address the complex issues raised by the modified bird flu virus, as Osterholm told a reporter for Nature. Over-eager and excessively complacent researchers like Fouchier should be ignored, and the world should take as much time as it needs to develop procedures to deal with situations like this one. Meanwhile, as Perez argues and Osterholm and Henderson imply, we need to launch a much more aggressive campaign against the existing unmodified bird flu virus.

Here are 10 laws that Isaac Newton failed to share with the world.
10. Law Of Coffee: As soon as you sit down for a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.
9. Law Of Biomechanics: The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to [...]

بسم اللہ الرحمن الرحیم
دنیا میں روز اول سے ہی ایجادات کا سلسلہ شروع ہو گیاتھا کیونکہ روز اول سے ہی انسان نے اپنی ضرورتوں کو پورا کرنے کا بندوبست شروع کر دیا تھا جبھی تو سیانے کہتے ہیں کہ ”ضرورت ایجاد کی ماں ہے“۔ اگر ضرورت ایجاد کی ماں ہے تو، پس ثابت ہوا ہر ”ایجاد“ کو ”ضرورت“ ہی جنم دیتی ہے۔ کبھی موسموں کی شدت سے بچنے کی ضرورت نے مکان کو جنم دیا تو کبھی پیغام جلد سے جلد دوسروں تک پہنچانے کی ضرورت نے ٹیلی فون کو جنم دیا۔ ہر دور اور ہر انسان کے حساب سے یہ ”ضرورت“ اپنی شکلیں بدل بدل کر ”ایجاد“ کو جنم دیتی رہی۔ کبھی ضرورت نے مال و دولت کی شکل اختیار کر لی تو کبھی انسانیت کی فلاح، کبھی شہرت تو کبھی عزت، کبھی پیار تو کبھی شوق۔ بس ”ضرورت“ اپنی شکلیں بدلتی رہی اور ایجادات ہوتی رہیں اور یہ سلسلہ یونہی چلتا رہے گا۔

اب دیکھئے اپنے ارد گرد کے حالات۔ ضرورت موجود ہے، حالات رستہ دیکھا رہے ہیں، ذہانت کے سمندر بہہ رہے ہیں لیکن کوئی خاص ایجاد نہیں۔ ضرورت ایجاد کی ماں ہے اور یہی ضرورت چیخ و پکار کر رہی ہے لیکن ہمارے اکثر نوجوانوں نے صرف جنسی تسکین کو ہی ضرورت سمجھا ہوا ہے اور اس ضرورت کے تحت دن بدن ”محبت“ کے نئے سے نئے ماڈل ایجاد کر رہے ہیں، جیسے موبائلی محبت، انٹرنیٹی محبت اور فیس بکی محبت وغیرہ۔ کئی نوجوان تو اس سے بھی ایک قدم آگے نکل چکے ہیں۔ ان نوجوانوں نے ”ضرورت“ کسی جنسِ مخالف کا نام سمجھ رکھا ہے اور اس ”ضرورت“ کے لئے دن رات ایک کرتے پھر رہے ہیں تاکہ ”کچھ“ ایجاد کر سکیں۔

المیہ تو یہ ہے کہ یہاں آپ کو موجد نہیں بلکہ جگہ جگہ عاشق ملیں گے۔ یہاں آپ کو سائنسی تحقیق تو نہیں البتہ لڑکی لڑکے کی دوستی کو جائز و ناجائز ثابت کرنے والی تقاریر ضرور ملیں گی۔ سب سے بڑھ کر یہاں آپ کو رہبر نہیں بلکہ نظام پر گفتگو کرتے نقاد ملیں گے۔ جو دو چار اپنے ہی جیسوں کے ”ٹاک شوز“ دیکھ کر تنقید پر تنقید کرتے پھر رہے ہیں۔ تنقید بھی ایسی کہ جس کا نتیجہ صرف اور صرف بحث برائے بحث ہے، کوئی تعمیر نہیں۔ جس تنقید کا نتیجہ حوصلہ شکنی کر رہا ہے نہ کہ کچھ کرنے کا جذبہ پیدا کرے۔ دوسری طرف ذہانت نے اپنا ایک شور مچایا ہوا کہ ”جی ہمیں کوئی رہبر نہیں مل رہا“۔ ذرہ ان کی ذہانت تو دیکھو، یہ چاہتے ہیں کہ ساری رات یہ موبائل پر گپیں لگاتے رہیں اور جب دن کو سکون سے سوئے ہوں تو آئن سٹائن آئے اور ان کے سرہانے لکھی لکھائی تیار شدہ تھیوری رکھ جائے۔ ارے خدا کے بندو! محنت کرو اور خود آئن سٹائن بنو نہ کہ شارٹ کٹ کے چکر میں سوتے رہو۔ حالات خود رہبر بنے تو ہوئے ہیں اور تمہیں بتا بھی رہے ہیں کہ اگر اپنی بقا چاہتے ہو تو ترقی کی طرف جاؤ۔

اب فیصلہ ہمیں کرنا ہے کہ ہم نے حالات کو رہبر بنا کر، ان سے سبق سیکھتے ہوئے، اپنی اصل ضرورت کے مطابق ایجادات کرنی ہیں یا پھر یونہی ہاتھ پر ہاتھ دھرے خواب غفلت میں رہنا ہے اور فضول کاموں کو اپنی ضرورتیں بنا کر اندھیروں میں سفر کرنا ہے۔ فیصلہ ہمارے ہاتھ میں ہے کہ ہم نے اپنا لیڈر آپ بننا ہے یا پھر مسیحا کا انتظار کرتے کرتے اپنی موت آپ مر جانا ہے۔

ایجادات سے مراد صرف سائنسی ایجادات ہی نہیں بلکہ یہ ایک اصطلاح استعمال کی ہے جس میں سائنسی ایجادات سے لے کر معاشی، معاشرتی اور ہر لحاظ سے ہونے والی بہتر تبدیلیاں ہیں۔ آپ جو جواور جتنا جتنا کر سکتے ہیں، خدا کے لئے وہ تو کریں۔ ہمارے اندر اخلاقیات بہت کم ہو چکی ہیں، اس وقت یہ بھی ہماری ایک ضرورت ہے۔ بہتر نظام لانے، بہتر لیڈر پیدا کرنے، بہتر ٹیکنالوجی بنانے اور بہترین معاشرہ تشکیل دینے جیسی ضرورتوں کی طرف بھی توجہ کرنی ہے۔ نوجوانوں! ”ضرورت ایجاد کی ماں ہے“ کا اصل فلسفہ سمجھو اور ”ضرورت کو بچے کی ماں“ نہ بناؤ۔ ٹھیک ہے ضرورت کے تحت بچے ”ایجاد“ کرنے پر توجہ بھی دیں اور یہ بھی ایک ”اہم“ ضرورت ہے لیکن ساتھ ساتھ یہ بھی تو دیکھیں کہ ہماری اور بھی بہت سی ضرورتیں ہیں اور ان ضرورتوں کے تحت اور بھی بہت کچھ ایجاد کرنا ہے۔

یہ تحریر کسی ایک صنف کے لئے نہیں بلکہ اس میں دونوں (لڑکے اور لڑکیوں ) کو مخاطب کیا ہے۔ بس کئی جگہ پر محاورے کے مطابق چلتے ہوئے صنف واضح ہو رہی ہے تو اس مراد ہرگز لڑکے یا لڑکیاں نہ لیا جائے بلکہ یہ سوچئے کہ دونوں اطراف میں یہ سب چل رہا ہے اور تالی دونوں ہاتھوں سے بجتی ہے۔

While browsing Bob Rankins geekly update, came across a study regarding wifi, laptops and fertility.
Study with abstract and conclusions here (full text also in a tab on the linked page)

The conclusion of the study,

To our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the direct impact of laptop use on human spermatozoa. Ex vivo exposure of human spermatozoa to a wireless internet-connected laptop decreased motility and induced DNA fragmentation by a nonthermal effect. We speculate that keeping a laptop connected wirelessly to the internet on the lap near the testes may result in decreased male fertility. Further in vitro and in vivo studies are needed to prove this contention.

2011 Shayton Equilibrium Renderings You close your eyes and feel the breeze blowing through you. You feel the road gliding by as the wheels turn. You open your eyes and wonder if you are awake or in a state of flux. Then there it is elegance staring right at you. The 2011 Shayton Equilibrium Renderings [...]