While the political upheavals across several states in the Middle East have taken up the bulk of interest in 2012, there were exciting developments for science research and the science community in the region as well.

Over the next few days, we will look back at the most important and most read stories and research published on Nature Middle East throughout the year.

Following up from our roundup of research conducted or partially conducted in the Arab world, here are the top most read news articles of 2012, ranging from health and brain analysis to climate change and water security.

1. Mummy diagnosed with prostate cancer: Researchers performed X-ray computer tomography scans on three Egyptian mummies and discovered evidence of prostate cancer in one of them. This is the second oldest case of prostate cancer found, prompting researchers to suggest that cancer may not have been as rare in the past as expected, but it was just harder to discover than it is today.
2. Iraq’s soil turning white: Rising salinity in Iraq’s agricultural land due to an aging and failing drainage system is threatening the country’s food security. With nearly 2 million hectares of agricultural land becoming unsuitable for crop cultivation, the Iraqi government has reached out to ICARDA to launch an initiative to address the problem. They are working with local farmers to determine best cultivation practices and develop ways to improve the drainage system.
3. The unseen risks of water pipe smoking: Water pipe smoking, a popular social habit in the Arab world, continues to spread in the region and further to Europe and the US. While the social perception is that it is less harmful than cigarette smoking, new research is suggesting it may be just as bad for health, damaging lung functions as much as deep inhalation cigarette smoking.
4. Africa floats on underground water reserves: Researchers studying hundreds of underground maps of Africa have produced a comprehensive map of aquifers found in the continent, which has underground water reserves 100 times more than those on the surface. the catch, however, is that these water resources – especially the largest which are located in North Africa – are so deep underground that they cannot be used as a viable source of water for agriculture.
5. What’s in a language?: Researchers in New York University Abu Dhabi will use a new laboratory in the university housing a magnetoencephalography (MEG) machine to study how the human brain processes languages. They have starting with Arabic, studying how the brain processes the different dialects of the complex language.

This rounds up the list for our most read and shared news stories from 2012. Tomorrow we’ll highlight the best commentaries and features from the year.

What was your favorite news story on Nature Middle East in 2012? Tell us what you think in the comments section below!

While the political upheavals across several states in the Middle East have taken up the bulk of interest in 2012, there were exciting developments for science research and the science community in the region as well.

Over the next few days, we will look back at the most important and most read stories and research published on Nature Middle East throughout the year.

To start it off, here is the list of the most read research highlights – highly suggested to be worth a revisit!

1. Super battery made from graphene: In a world that is increasingly hungry for energy, innovative new ways to store energy are becoming increasingly important. A team of researchers have managed to use a DVD drive to create a superconductor that can store as much energy as a battery but charge up 1,000 times faster than conventional batteries. They used a DVD covered with a coat of graphite oxide. The laser in the DVD drive stripped the graphite into will-exfoliated sheets of graphene. They used two of these to create a superconductor.
2. Qatar discovers its second exoplanet: Two years after discovering their first exoplanet, the Qatar Exoplanet Survey team found a second one. The planet, dubbed Qatar-2b is over twice the size of Jupiter but orbits much closer to its star than Jupiter in our solar system. The nwely discovered exoplanet rotates a star of similar size to the Sun that is 500 million light years away. It makes a full rotation around the star just 1.34 days, however.
3. Rare form of autism might be treatable with diet: While the rates of autism are high in the Middle East, it is one of the least studied neurodevelopmental conditions in Arab states. Researchers performing exome sequencing on two consanguineous Egyptian and Turkish families with a rare form of hereditary autism found a mutation in a gene that encodes a certain protein. The researchers suggest that a special diet that provides certain amino acids can prevent symptoms of autism in this case if started early enough.
4. Hippo sperm discriminates against the male sex: As the strange title implies, researchers discovered that male hippos have the ability to alter the ratio of sperms carrying X- or Y- chromosomes. In a population of captive hippos, they found the sperms were skewed towards producing more X-chromosomes, which led to female offspring. The exact mechanism of how the hippos managed to diminish a certain type of  sperm remains unclear, but if this is not unique to hippos than it may explain population shifts in other mammals as well.
5. Protein deficiency causes autoimmune disease: Autoimmune diseases are becoming an increasing burden in the Middle East, and there is little research that explains why it is so. Researchers from across the Middle East and the United States investigated how a certain protein, DOCK8, affects immune cells. The researchers found that cells with a deficiency in DOCK8 failed to produce antibodies and when they did, they produced the wrong ones. The researchers are hopeful these findings can help formlate more effective vaccines for sufferers of autoimmune diseases and eventually paving the way to gene therapy.

That’s it for the most exciting research conducted or partly conducted in the Middle East for 2012. Tune in tomorrow for our list of top science news stories that affected the region.