Bridging the Medical Research Gulf

What price excellence? Qatar’s Sidra Medical and Research Centre has $7.9 billion to build a world class institution. But is money enough to bridge the gap? | ScienceBusiness.net

Of the six Gulf States, Qatar ranks second to last in size. But in investment in science and research, by contrast, the small emirate has recently become second to none -even outspending its much larger Middle Eastern neighbours, including Syria, Egypt, Turkey and Iran.   

Qatar’s newest research initiative embodies one of the tiny state’s grandest ambitions yet. Sidra, a 382-bed medical and research facility with a whopping $7.9-billion endowment, is being set up in partnership with the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q) to be a regional hub of high-quality healthcare, education and research.

A Tale of Two Sheikdoms

With their oil billions, the Arabian Gulf states are on a spending spree in science and technology – inviting Western universities and technology companies to set up classrooms and laboratories. But will the investments pay off?  | ScienceBusiness.net  

A close look at two of the biggest science spenders shows contrasting strategies for technology
development. Dubai, one of the seven United Arab Emirates, is a pioneer of diversification from oil into science—drawing 19 universities so far to its “Knowledge Village,” to set up profit-seeking satellite campuses for science, technology and business. 

Nearby Qatar, by contrast, is a newcomer to the field and is taking a long-term strategy, spending heavily to bankroll labs and classrooms with the help of selected Western academics.

Qatar’s Science Revolution

Qatar is building an education, science and technology infrastructure at record speed — but not  without friction, reports Waleed Al-Shobakky | SciDev.Net

Qatar is experiencing a near revolution in science aimed at catapulting the oil-wealthy emirate into the 21st century.

Last November, Qatar’s emir, Hammad bin Khalifa Al-Thani pledged to allocate 2.8 per cent of Qatar’s gross domestic product (GDP) to science research.

The pledge signifies a serious, long-term commitment to science of about US$1.5 billion a year — highly unusual in a region where science and research budgets are almost non-existent.

Web 2.0 Can Benefit the Poor

New web applications can benefit the world's poor, argue Waleed al-Shobakky and Jack Imsdahl | Science and Development Network

The term 'Web 2.0' captures the transition of the worldwide web from flat websites offering static information to a new computing platform independent of earlier shackles.

The applications available include web-based word processors and spreadsheets such as gOffice or ThinkFree, online calendars like Kiko and backup services such as that provided by Mozy. Most of these also offer free storage space, acting as a kind of virtual hard disk for saving files.

PCs for the Poor: As Good As Their Hype?

Technologists are at odds over how to bridge the digital divide.  What one group calls the ultimate solution, another dismisses as "the scam of the century," reports Waleed al-Shobakky | SciDev.Net

At the 2005 World Economic Forum in Switzerland a soft-spoken academic made an announcement that sent seismic waves across the computer industry. Nicholas Negroponte, then director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, spoke of making laptops available at US$100 for schoolchildren in developing nations.

The price was not the only big news. Negroponte named companies that had agreed to collaborate on what would become the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project.

Learning to listen: technology and poor communities

Waleed al-Shobakky reports on a Sri Lankan robotics scientist leading an effort to get technology working for poor communities around the world | Science and Development Network

Bernadine Dias, a Sri Lankan-born scientist based at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), United States, admits she "wears many hats". Her main focus is robotics, but she also devotes a lot of time promoting innovative ways of using technology in poor communities.

In 2004, Dias founded an initiative called TechBridgeWorld to forge collaborations between CMU and developing communities around the world, including poor neighbourhoods in the United States.
Dias believes this kind of relationship benefits both partners: university staff and students learn about the real needs of the world's poor, while communities gain skills and access to technology.

Ongoing TechBridgeWorld projects are using technology to improve healthcare in Haiti and to teach English in Ghana. And when Dias moved to Qatar last year to teach in the robotics department of 'CMU-Q', her university's recently launched local branch, she took TechBridgeWorld with her.

Science in Arab media: barely scientifc

Science issues rarely appear in Arab media. When they do, they are either too sensational to be scientific or too scientific to be attractive to general audiences. Here, science communicators weigh in | IslamOnline.net

It does not take effort to note the dearth of content about science and technology in Arab media. Popular science magazines (like Scientific American or NewScientist) or television channels (like Discovery) are rare if at all existent. In mainstream print and broadcast media, the coverage of science and technology is modest, and with varying quality.

“The content about science and technology in Arab media is inadequate and low in quality compared to what we see and read in international media outlets, whether popular or specialized,” said Dr. Mohamed El-Makhzangy, an Egyptian science writer and novelist. “In most cases, the content [about science and technology] is based on poor translation of stories and programs from Western sources. 

And worse, the coverage sides heavily with the newsy and sensational angles, not science,” he said.

Oddly, this is not what the audience necessarily wants. “Only rarely are audience surveys done to assess what audiences in the Arab world really want to read/see/hear. And when these surveys are conducted, it is even rarer that they are actually acted upon,” said Nadia El-Awady, an Egyptian physician-turned-journalist and the editor of IslamOnline.net’s English Health & Science section. 

And it may come as a surprise to many that media outlets that provide in-depth content enjoy an enviable readership. IslamOnline.net’s Arabic science section, for example, attracts around 300,000 page views per month. And according to El-Makhzangy, well-made scientific documentaries are as attractive as action movies for a wide range of audiences in the region.