Dear Colleagues and Friends:
Please find the latest weekly newsletter of Muslim-Science.Com. Last week was quite eventful for the recognition of the efforts that went into the creation of Muslim-Science.Com.Muslim-Science.Com Founder was Elected Fellow of US-based World Technology Network and Nominated for WTN Awards in Media and Journalism Category in recognition of his "Visionary Contributions" to Science in the Islamic World. Please see here for more details. Previous Award Winners include Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Tim-Berners Lee, Al Gore, and Tony Blair!
The finalists will compete for an Award on October 25-26th, 2011 at a Oscar-style ceremony at the UN HQ in New York City.
We look forward to the support and prayers of our readers. Please visit the page above and drop a comment or "like" to demonstrate your support for this important cause.
Also, What Muslim World can Learn from Egyptian Science? We look at the plans for the Desert Development Corridor in Egypt that promises to be an important first in establishing a Social Contract for Science within the Islamic World.
Excerpts from the article are produced below. Follow the link to read the complete article.
Islam Analysis: Give science a social contract
By: Athar Osama
Published at SciDev.Net on 11 August 2011
Ambitious plans for a 'desert development corridor' in Egypt could provide a concrete example of the social value of science, says Athar Osama.
Last month, the journal Science published a supplement called 'Revolutionizing Egypt's Science' that hailed the prospects for Egyptian science after the 25 January revolution. Its optimism reflected a spate of initiatives and increased science budgets announced by the new government to demonstrate its commitment to science and innovation.
But some have rightly warned against reading too much into recent announcements, saying there are still significant obstacles to lifting the scientific profession from its low point during the pre-revolution regime to a place where it can play a constructive role in socio-economic development.
Egypt's leaders and scientists, like those in much of the rest of the Islamic world, need to work with both intellectuals and ordinary citizens to achieve a vast cultural change before science can really be expected to deliver the goods. Progress for Egyptian science must come by putting people first, rather than high-profile 'bricks and mortar' mega-projects.
Highway to prosperity
One example of how this might be achieved is a proposal for a massive 'desert development corridor', which is the brainchild of Boston University geologist Farouk El-Baz, who has been using satellite imagery to study Egypt's deserts for decades.
Initially conceived in the early 1980s, when El-Baz served as president Anwar Sadat's science advisor, the project was shelved for two decades after Sadat's death. But interest was reignited in the mid-2000s and has escalated since.
This US$24–billion initiative — even larger than the US$2-billion 'science city' proposed by Nobel laureate Ahmed Zewail — would use scientific knowledge of satellite imagery, desert geology and hydrology to provide socio-economic benefits to society.
It seeks to build a major superhighway to the west of the Nile from the country's north to the south, with arteries connecting it with towns in the east and west. The corridor will also provide a freshwater pipeline and an electricity line to support these areas during the development and afterwards.
According to El-Baz, the corridor "would bring much-needed relief to overpopulated Egyptian cities and reduce urban encroachment of agricultural land, enhance the habitable land mass, improve continental trade linkages from the Mediterranean in the north all the way to South Africa, and create, literally, a 'breathing space' for Egyptian society that is so critical to creativity".
A key aspect of the idea is the creation of a special funding vehicle — essentially, a bond open to the public — that would allow Egyptian people to invest in the initiative. They would become its 'owners' and so, according to El-Baz, control their own destiny.
A social contract
The initiative is most unusual in the Islamic world in making an explicit link between a scientist's idea and its direct beneficiaries.
Read more here.
Other Articles in Islam Analysis (here)
Also:
PRESS RELEASE: IMMEDIATE
Dr. Athar Osama has been recognized for Visionary Contribution to Science and Technology and Elected a Fellow of World Technology Network. Winner to be Announced at an Oscar-style black-tie dinner at United Nations headquarters in October 2011.
NEW YORK, NY – September 10, 2011 – The World Technology Network ("The WTN") announced today that Dr. Athar Osama has been named a finalist for a prestigious World Technology Award for Science and Innovation Media and Journalism, presented by the WTN in association with TIME, Fortune, CNN, Science/AAAS, and Technology Review. Dr. Osama joins a roster of organizations and individuals from over 60 countries around the world deemed to be doing the most innovative and impactful work.
The World Technology Awards – widely seen as Oscars of Science and Technology – have been presented by the WTN since 2000, as a way to honor those in 20 different categories of science and technology and related fields doing "the innovative work of the greatest likely long-term significance." Nominees for the 2011 World Technology Awards were selected through an intense peer review process by the WTN Fellows (winners and finalists from previous annual Award cycles in the individual Award categories) through an intensive, global process lasting many months. Winners will be selected from among the finalists with the input of a select group of prominent Advisors and will be announced in a ceremony at the United Nations.
Read More for Details.-
Athar Osama, PhD
Editor, Muslim-Science.Com
Founder, Technomics Media Ltd.
No comments:
Post a Comment