By:Athar Osama
Published on SciDev.Net on 12 October 2012
Muslim countries must alter their stance on the social sciences if they are to use technology to its full potential, says Athar Osama.
The last two centuries have reduced global hunger, poverty, and disease in ways that were previously unimaginable. The accelerating pace of technological development — computing, the Internet, the information and genetic engineering revolutions — only promises greater progress in coming decades.
But getting these developments to the people who need them is far from an exact science, as recent development experience has shown . For example, mechanisms for producing c...Formation of startups and new companies
Commercial exploitation of science, technology, and novelty
System of laws, regulations, strategies, and funding priorities
Discovery and creation of new knowledge of the natural world
Application of new knowledge towards useful social ends
By Zakri Abdul Hamid
There was a time when budding Western scholars travelled long distances to the then epicentre of science and technology — the Islamic world that spanned from southern Spain to China, from the 7th to the 17th century — to seek and learn new knowledge from the masters of that 1,000-year era.
But that was long ago. The countries that constitute the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) today lag behind in the scientific world. As innovators, none of them can be considered in the league of developed nations, despite the financial wealth many of them have acquired.
Part of the problem is a lack of mastery of modern knowledge, in particular science and technology.
The knowledge deficit and what to do about it was the subject of a recent conference in Doha, Qatar, convened by the Islamic World Academy of Sciences (IAS) on its 25th anniversary.
The meeting was aptly themed, “The Islamic world and the West: Rebuilding bridges through science and technology.”
By: Tan Sri Dr. Omar Abdul Rahman
At the 34th convocation of UPM in October 2010 in my “ucapan balas” for the conferment of emeritus professorship of the university, I had suggested a defined new role for our public universities in line with current emphasis in national development. Because they are expected to, and in the position of contributing to the government’s socio-economic transformation program, I had suggested they be called transformational universities (TUs). What prompted me to do so was also the active discourse on the changing role of universities that has been going on for a number of years in academic circles in the West.
For example, during a...
By: Hazem Badr
Published on SciDev.Net on 18 January 2012
There has been a surge in public interest in science as the route to recovery
[CAIRO] Scientists have been reflecting on the astonishing gains that the Egyptian revolution has delivered them, as the first anniversary of Egypt’s Tahrir Square uprising approaches next week (25 January).
Over the past year, the science budget has increased by more than a third, salaries have risen and plans have been made for a science and technology city.
“Change has begun on both financial and administrative levels,” Maged El-Sherbiny, president of the Academy of Scientific Research and Techn...
By: Editor, Muslim-Science.Com
Muslim-Science.Com’s first Special Country Spotlight on Malaysian Science and Innovation is here.
This is the first in a series of Country Spotlights – with Pakistan to follow later this year and Egypt, Jordan, and Qatar planned for 2012 – and Special Topical Issues designed to bring into focus some of the most critical issues and capabilities across the Islamic World.
Malaysia is an apt country to kick off Muslim-Science.Com’s Country Spotlights with. Not very long ago, Malaysia was not much different from the rest of the OIC member countries in terms of education, health, science and technology, and socio-economic ...
On May 17, 2011 the inaugural meeting of the Global Science and Innovation Advisory Council (GSIAC) for Malaysia was chaired by Prime Minister Najib Razak at the premises of the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS).
A brainchild of the Prime Minister, the GSIAC was mooted arising from Malaysia’s positive experiences in utilizing expert advice from the private sector and academia to shape her socio-economic development plans. What is unique for the GSIAC is the depth and breadth of its membership which is both multidisciplinary and multisectoral in nature.
The council includes 25 renowned international figures of economics, business, science and technology volunteering t...
By: T. V. Padma Reporting from World Conference of Science Journalists in Doha
Pu blished on SciDev.Net on 29 June 2011
Science journalists in the Gulf States should be more critical
The Muslim world stands at a unique moment in its relation to evolutionary theory, according to the co-author of a major survey into attitudes towards evolution among Muslims around the world.
Acceptance of evolution varies widely across the Islamic world, demonstrating that stereotypical ideas about Islam and evolution are wrong, said Salman Hameed, director of the Centre for the Study of Science in Muslim Societies (SSiMS) at Hampshire College, United Sates.
But ideas are being ...
By: Editors, Muslim-Science.Com
Nature Middle East on its blog titled “House of Wisdom” reports in a post titled Zewail City of Science and Technology:
“The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research has announced plans to build the “Zewail Science and Technology City”, a research and innovation -centered project that Nobel laureate Ahmed Zewail has envisioned in since early 1990′s.
The ministry has not provided much details of the project, but did mention that Nile University, whose turbulent future was a source of much controversy recently amidst accusations of corruption in its founding, will be the nucleus of ...
By:Athar Osama
Published on SciDev.Net on 12 September 2012
Efforts to build innovation systems are too government-centric and tend to ignore a key ingredient — the private sector, says Athar Osama.
Recent years have seen a number of Islamic countries embarking on efforts to create and strengthen innovation ‘ecosystems’. But their delivery record has been mixed.
A couple of years ago, Malaysia created Agensi Inovasi Malaysia (AIM), under the Prime Minister’s office, to bridge the gaps in its innovation system. And plans are afoot in the United Arab Emirates to create an innovation agency to supplement or replace its Technology Development Co...
By: Frank Lehner
Published in Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy on 30 August 2011.
The idea of generating solar energy on a large scale in the sun-intensive countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to satisfy their own increasing energy demand and to export surplus energy to Europe as advocated in the DESERTEC concept1 has publicly received much attention in some countries, particularly in Germany, Morocco, Tunisia, and also substantial support from their governments. Besides the DESERTEC Foundation, an industrial consortium (Dii GmbH) was founded in 2009 which consists of major European and MENA companies to push this project further b...
By: Dr. Athar Osama
Muslim-Science.Com met with Tan Sri Dr. Omar Abdur Rahman, Mahathir’s Science Advisor for over a decade and half and, the “prime mover” behind Mahathir Mohammed’s vision of a Knowledge-driven Malaysia. A deeply humble man, Tan Sri Omar insists that Mahathir was a science policymaker par excellence in his own right and that he would hardly have needed a science advisor. However, he played a critical role in providing scientific credibility to Mahathir’s plans and helping the Prime Minister reach out to the scientific community to build support for his policies.
As Malaysia’s first and longest serving Science Advisor – a position t...
