Monthly Archives: June 2012

Jordan to set up regional nuclear science hub

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The Chemical and Physical Analysis Laboratory (CPAL) in Jordan may become a regional hub for nuclear science training after it received accreditation this week from International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation.

In a statement released by the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission, the new facility, which is still under construction with help from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Arab Atomic Energy Agency, will be a “training ground” for Arab students and researchers in nuclear engineering and physics.

Once the new facility is up and running, Jordan hopes it can provide consultation to other states in the region that are interested in starting their own nuclear energy programmes.

According to the local news agency Zawya, Jordan has already put together a nuclear engineering programme at the Jordan University of Science and Technology in Ramtha, where the first research nuclear reactor will be built in 2016. A centre of excellence is also planned at the University of Jordan to produce the trained workforce that will run Jordan’s many planned nuclear reactors.

Jordan started talks last week with several international partners and firms to select the technology it plans to use for its first planned nuclear reactors. “[Jordan] will select the technology for the nuclear reactor before the end of this year,” said Khaled Toukan, chairman of the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission, reports Chinese media outlet Xinhua.

Jordan has plans to build several nuclear power reactors to produce electricity. Currently it depends on imported fossil fuels for nearly 96% of its energy.

Critics, however, have been wary of Jordan’s push into nuclear energy. The country is already the fourth poorest in water, and nuclear energy requires intensive water usage to call down the reactor. Additionally, nuclear reactors depend heavily on foreign expertise and technologies that are lacking in most Arab states.

Bahraini medics in protest trial get shortened sentences

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An appeals court in Bahrain has acquitted nine medics, and cut down the jail terms of nine others, after they were charged last year for their role in pro-democracy protests last year.

Of the nine who received shortened sentences, five of them have received sentences shorter than one year and will not go to jail since they’ve already served their sentences, according to AFP.

While all the medics have been on bail since last Septmeber, arrests will be reissued for the four who will still serve terms after the appeal. Among those four are orthopaedic surgeon Ali Alekri, whose initial jail term went down from 15 years to five years, and Ibrahim al-Damstani, secretary-general of the Bahraini Nursing Society, who will serve three years. The remaining two doctors are named by AFP as Ghassan Daif and Saeed al-Samaheji, who each got a sentence of one year.

Two other doctors did not file an appeal in the first place.

The 20 doctors and nurses had been handed sentences ranging from five to 15 years in September 2011 after indicting them of plotting to overthrow the government in Bahrain. They all worked at the Salmaniya Medical Compound (SMC), a large hospital in the capital Manama, during mostly peaceful protests that broke out in February and March 2011.

The case has generated wide international criticism from human rights groups and the international researchers’ community, with the International Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies sending an appeal letter to the Bahraini king asking to clear the medics and allow them back to work.

Women pursuing university education more than men in the Middle East

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In most Arab states in the Middle East, there are more women than men pursuing university degrees, according to the United Nations. This does not translate to the same percentages in the workforce after graduation.

In Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, nearly two thirds of all university students are women. They are making an especially strong showing in Science, Technology, Environmental, and Mathematics (STEM) areas. While this represents a higher ratio than in the West, the picture is very different after graduation. In Qatar, for example, women make up less than 12% of the workforce.

Dima Dabbous-Sensenig, Director of the Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World at the Lebanese American University, told the CNN it’s probably because not all women go to university to receive degrees to work with. For many of them, university is the only social outlet in their conservative societies where they can mix and mingle with friends freely.

While boys have more freedoms in the Middle East, girls often go to universities to enjoy similar freedoms and make friends. Others continue their university education so they can find a ‘better husband’ or to fill up their time before marriage, argued Dabbous-Sensenig. “”Lack of protection for women at work and harassment are among the factors that keep women out of the workplace,” she told the CNN.

However, Bayt.com, the largest recruitment portal in the Middle East, has recently conducted a survey which suggests that women are playing a more active role in the workforce lately and climbing to higher managerial jobs.

According to the report, 59% of women in the workforce feel they are treated fairly and receive equal opportunity to their male counterparts, compared to only 24% feeling a bias against them. Over 40% feel they stand a lower chance of getting promoted in their work than their male counterparts, however.

While more women than men are pursuing STEM education in university, even reaching a ratio of 2:1 in some faculties, Mehrunisa Qayyum, founder of PITAPOLICY Consulting, argues in a commentary piece on the Huffington Post that they are not influential in STEM fields. A list of Top 100 Most Powerful Arab Women published by Arabian Business in 2012 included only four women working in the STEM areas: two in science, and two in technology – one of them based in the US.

“I believe that things will change gradually,” Dabbous-Sensenig told CNN. “The more women are highly educated, some of them will become motivated, independent young women who will get good jobs. Thirty years ago they didn’t have that option.”

KAUST research centres look into sustainable food production

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The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) has signed an agreement with the National Prawn Company in Saudi Arabia for collaborative research relevant to the shrimp and prawn industry.

Joint projects will encompass research on waterborne diseases relevant to shrimp cultivation, studies of the impacts of long-term aquaculture and agriculture on the Red Sea, biotechnology, and environmental monitoring.

Scientists from KAUST’s Water Desalination and Reuse Center are working on new membranes which will be capable of partially desalinating seawater to produce brackish water. This will be used for brackish water agriculture to irrigate salt tolerant crops.

The Red Sea Research Center will look at the environmental impact of the large prawn aquaculture farms near the coast of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on marine ecology.

Finally, KAUST bioscientists will perform a genomics-driven project that will try to identify genes that produce favourable traits in shrimp aquacultures, such as resistance to diseases that are common in the Red Sea.

The prawn farm generates a unique resource of concentrated, high-saline and nutrient-rich wastewater, much of which flows back into the sea. “What interests me is how to capture nutrients from the waste water and use them to drive the growth of plants,” said Nina Fedoroff, a bioscientist at KAUST.

“I’m excited by the potential for field research on a scale much larger than would be possible at our campus alone,” she added.