Monthly Archives: February 2010

Mapping the underwater world of the Red Sea

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<img alt=“Coral reefs in Dahab, Egypt” align=RIGHT src=“https://blogs.nature.com/houseofwisdom/images/Coral%20reefs%20dahab.JPG” width=“250” height=“187” />

The Red Sea is home to some of the most wonderful and unique coral reefs in the world, attracting thousands of divers and sea lovers from around the world every year. However, these same reefs are some of the least researched and documented, according to Yossi Loya, visiting professor at the department of ecology and evolutionary biology, UCLA, Los Angles.

But now, using a combination of satellite, aerial and ship-based techniques, researchers managed to map the coral reefs of the Red Sea in unprecedented detail.

The map covers 25,000 square kilometres, spanning from Egypt to Saudi Arabia and even all the way to Yemen. It is the second biggest project to map coral reefs, and the most accurate one to date.

Work on this little known area has brought new discoveries. Sam Purkis of the National Coral Reef Institute at Nova Southeastern University in Dania Beach, Florida, commented that they did not even have names for some of the patterns found.

But this same region, which many visitors call a majestic underground kingdom, is also one of the most stressed ecological systems in the world. A map released in 2008 showing human impacts on the ocean show the Red Sea to be between heavily impacted to very heavily impacted.

Oil rigs, tourism, climate change, and pollution have all contributed to harming the coral reefs here. And the lack of research means that there is also a lack of conservation efforts, since these need to be coordinated based on the areas most in need.

Hopefully this map will pave the way to understanding just how affected this region is. The researchers plan to map the area again in 2012 or 2013, and see how things have changed. Maybe this will help show what areas need the most urgent conservation work.

However, in the meantime, it is important to build on this detailed map to try to understand this area more. For many countries, such as Egypt, the Red Sea has a huge economic value through tourism and thus it is in their best interest to increase research and preservation of this important resource.

Freak weather in Saudi Arabia

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Saudi Arabia is a desert kingdom. It has been like that for at least the past 5,000 years – according to Dr. Farouk El-Baz, director of the Center for Remote Sensing in Boston University.

But this year, the country has been experiencing some peculiar changes in the weather. This started back in September. During the hajj season, which is the Muslim annual pilgrimage to the holiest sites of Islam, severe rainfall and floods had disastrous effects on the unprepared country.

The floods in the city of Jeddah, one of the biggest cities of Saudi Arabia, led to the death of about 130 people. Two bridges collapsed and many cars were swept away, their drivers drowning along. The rainfall in just four hours was almost twice what the country usually gets in a whole year.

Now, there is more fear as heavy rainfall hits Mecca, the holiest site for Muslims. This comes at a time of the year when Mecca is popular with visitors due to spring vacations. While the rain has not caused floods as of yet, it is still very unusual for the kingdom at this time of the year.

This is all the more interesting when you keep in mind that Saudi Arabia is one of the biggest climate change deniers in the world. I wonder if this freak weather will change minds there.

Research Priorities

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Between Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, the Middle East is quickly becoming home to some of the most advanced research facilities in the world. Already KAUST in Saudi Arabia has one of the world’s fastest supercomputers, and come 2012, Qatar will complete Sidra Medical and Research Center, a world class multi-billion hospital and health research institute.

With incredible facilities and large money grants, many researchers and scientists from the West are likely to be interested in coming to the region. But is the research taking place in these facilities serving the needs of the average person in the Middle East?

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College – Qatar, comment that the health problems that Qatar suffers are the same as any Western country, such as diabetes, hypertension, Parkinsonism. In a way that makes sense. But Qatar is a tiny country with a population of around 1.5 million people. Shouldn’t these large research institutes cater further than the borders of the country they are in?

Not all of the Middle East suffers from the same problems as Western countries. While the Gulf States are well-off, many countries in the region are quite poor, and thus suffer from a different set of problems. For example, a recent research published on PLoS shows that member states of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) are disproportionately affected by neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). For example, between 200 and 300 million people living in OIC countries are infected with one or more intestinal worms.

Sadly, there isn’t a single medical school for tropical diseases in all of the Middle East.

The bulk of the burden of these diseases falls upon the poorer people. Many of them are debilitating and cause even more poverty.

So if these new Middle Eastern institutes will continue to focus on research similar to that in the richer, Western world, who will offer research to the poorer communities back home?

Women and IT in the Middle East

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An oft quoted statistic since 1998 claims that only 8% of women in Arab states are IT literate. This is more than a bit dubious. In my everyday life, most women that I meet are avid internet and mobile users.

Interestingly, new statistics coming out show quite a large increase in women interested in IT.

In the recently Arab Women in Science and Technology conference, held 28-30 September 2009, Fathi Gherbal, professor of mechanical engineering and material science and bioengineering, Rice University, USA, commented that women were an integral part of the recent growth in the IT sector in the Arab world.

Moreover, in the very conservative Saudi Arabia, the number of women who take on the International Computer Driving License (ICDL) rose from just 10 percent in 2006 to 35 percent in 2009, according to ICDL Saudi Arabia. They expect it to quickly bypass 50 percent in the next few years as well.

In Qatar, there is an increasing presence of women majoring in IT in Qatar Technical College of Qatar University.

This is especially interesting in the Middle Eastern concept, because it will open up a job market that can be very appealing to the women demographic in the region. A lot of work in the IT sector can be done from home, which solves a major hurdle for many women, especially in Saudi Arabia.

However, it would be interesting to keep an eye on whether the societies in the region give an equal opportunity to women as they give men. In many countries in the region, while women education is high, employment is quite low, and the pay can be lower than a man in the same position. But things are slowly changing in this regard now.

Will women become driving gears in the booming IT market in the region? And what needs to be done to ensure they get this opportunity?

Broadband highway in the Middle East

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While 2009 showed a general slight decrease in broadband wireless subscribers globally, the Middle East actually saw a very healthy growth. There was a 22 percent growth between Q1 2008 and Q2 2009, according to TeleGeopgraphy, a telecommunication research, analysis and consulting company.

Broadband also showed a growth of 25 percent over the same period, in contrast to a near plateau globally.

But this growth is not accompanied by a similar one in Arabic language online, explained Dr. Hessa Al-Jaber, secretary general at ictQATAR, during the opening of the Digital Communication Literacy Forum. Arabic is the 5th most spoken language in the world, but only accounts for 1% of material online. It ranks 27th on Wikipedia.

But this fast growth shows several trends in the region.

Mobile is fast becoming one of the most important tools for accessing the internet and broadband. With penetration in many Arab states surpassing 100 percent, young people spend more time on their mobile phones than most devices.

But how will this affect how we interact with the different media outlets in our lives?

Jeff Cole, director of the World Internet Project, thinks that digital technologies will have a far bigger impact than television ever did.

“When internet penetration reaches 30 percent, newspapers sales start going down,” he explained. The Middle East is not there yet, but it would be smart for newspapers to start adapting to the digital world.

But Cole also believes that broadband will give TV a great boost. “Television has previously been confined to our hours at home. But now the internet can break that barrier, taking TV anywhere.”

It would be interesting to see if these same concepts do apply in the Middle East. Granted, each community, and each demographic group, go online for different reasons than others.

So how will this boost in broadband availability affect the decimation of information and news in the Middle East?

Welcome to the House of Wisdom

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The House of Wisdom, founded in Baghdad, Iraq, is considered one of the most important intellectual centres in the Medieval Age. Scientists from all over the world flocked to it during the Islamic Golden Age. At that time, Baghdad became the world’s richest city and a centre of intellectual development. Among the House of Wisdom’s scholars was Al-Khawarizmi, known as the father of algebra.

Welcome to the Nature Middle East blog, House of Wisdom!

The blog is designed to be a place for scientists from the Middle East, or those interested in the region, to meet, discuss, and learn. We will discuss the problems of the region and the role of science in solving them.

You are welcome to suggest topics you are interested to see covered here. Just post a comment and the blog will be tailored to the needs of the community.

Feel free to start suggesting below!