Saudis to promote science

[Kortpeel (imported)]

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/thesw ... -scie.html

“Roger Highfield, editor, New Scientist magazine writes

From the empire of Islam came the astrolabe, algebra and the collective wisdom of the likes of Ptolemy and Aristotle, ideas that would pave the way to the Renaissance and shape the modern world.

This golden age of Arabic science faltered centuries ago but what is notable is the magnitude of the current efforts to rekindle the flame of this influential scientific tradition.

In Saudi Arabia, a £20 billion endowment aims to turn the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology into a powerhouse to rival the California Institute of Technology within just two decades.”

In my view this is a promising development. Science is incompatible with religious fundamentalism so it could be that the days of the mad mullahs preaching their gospel of hatred and destruction for the western world are numbered.

If the Saudis can achieve their objective of re-creating a culture of science in the Arabic world it will be beneficial for the world as a whole. At the very least you won’t have to take off your shoes before you get on a plane (You will still probably have to take them off before you enter the mosque).

Currently in the Islamic world their idea of education is memorising chunks of the Koran and accepting it uncritically. What sort of education is that? If they switch to studies of quantum physics, molecular biology, cosmology and other modern subjects they will learn more about their God than they will from ancient texts.

Seeing that Saudi’s main business is energy, perhaps they will get the world’s first fusion reactor to work and export electricity instead of oil. That would be a greater gift to our planet than Islamic fundamentalism.

But shouldn’t we get our own house in order and stop the superstitious nonsense about intelligent design?

[Dave (imported)]

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/thesw ... -scie.html

“Roger Highfield, editor, New Scientist magazine writes

...

Seeing that Saudi’

s main business is energy, perhaps they will get the world’s first fusion reactor to work and export electricity instead of oil. That would be a greater gift to our planet than Islamic fundamentalism.

...

They expect to have electricity from Fusion in 25 years.

(sorry to be so abusively and ignorantly funny)

[Arab Nights (imported)]

Sorry, could not resist this:

Currently in the Texas

world their idea of education is memorising chunks of the Bible and accepting it uncritically. What sort of education is that? If they switch to studies of quantum physics, molecular biology, cosmoloy and other modern subjects they will learn more about God than they will from ancient texts.

Seeing that Texas' main business is energy, perhaps they will get the world's first fusion reactor to work and export electricity instead of oil. That would be a greater gift to our planet than

Christian fundamentalism.

Having appologized, I wish them and all well. There is a huge amount of human intelligence and ingenuity that goes untapped because of religious and cultural restraints. I am all for unleashing it.

[Dave (imported)]

I have to explain -- From the day I saw a fusion exhibit at the New York World's Fair in 1963, Fusion power has been 25 years off. In 25 years they will have fusion power.

1963+25=1988

1964+25=1989

etc, etc, etc

[Riverwind (imported)]

So many posts on this and everybody is dead on right.

Thank you to all for your insight and great posts.

River

[moi621 (imported)]

I have to explain -- From the day I saw a fusion exhibit at the New York World's Fair in 1963, Fusion power has been 25 years off. In 25 years they will have fusion power.

1963+25=1988

1964+25=1989

etc, etc, etc

YUP !

Moi likes to imagine,

once the first Fusion reactor is lit,

it will be like a lit candle that can power other candles to flame.

The reactor will maintain its' own magnetic fields with power to spare.

Y'think?

[Dave (imported)]

YUP !

Moi likes to imagine,

once the first Fusion reactor is lit,

it will be like a lit candle that can power other candles to flame.

The reactor will maintain its' own magnetic fields with power to spare.

Y'think?

And it's only 25 years away.

[Patrickchemcast (imported)]

“Roger Highfield, editor, New Scientist magazine writes

From the empire of Islam came the astrolabe, algebra and the collective wisdom of the likes of Ptolemy and Aristotle, ideas that would pave the way to the Renaissance and shape the modern world.

The empire of islam did not create these things, they came from the ancient greeks, the numbers we use from 1 to 9 were created in India. The Arabs just carried them over to us. I agree that Saudi Arabia can turn into a country of culture and research, but as long as women must hide their body, as long as there will be an islamic police, as long as women have no freedom, I will never expect any real progress in that country.

[transward (imported)]

“Roger Highfield, editor, New Scientist magazine writes

From the empire of Islam came the astrolabe, algebra and the collective wisdom of the likes of Ptolemy and Aristotle, ideas that would pave the way to

the Renaissance and shape the modern world.

The empire of islam did not create these things, they came from the ancient greeks, the numbers we use from 1 to 9 were created in India. The Arabs just carried them over to us. I agree that Saudi Arabia can turn into a country of culture and research, but as long as women must hide their body, as long as there will be an islamic police, as long as women have no freedom,

I will never expect any real progress in that country.

Your history is incomplete. The astrolabe is usually attributed to Hipparchus, a Greek, but it was improved and further developed by the Arabs

Astrolabes were further developed in the medieval Islamic world, where Moslem astronomers introduced angular scales to the astrolabe,[6] adding circles indicating azimuths on the horizon.[7] It was widely used throughout the Muslim world, chiefly as an aid to navigation and as a way of finding the Qibla, the direction of Mecca. The first person credited with building the astrolabe in the Islamic world is reportedly the 8th century mathematician, Muhammad al-Fazari.[8] The mathematical background was established by the Moslem astronomer, Muhammad ibn Jābir al-Harrānī al-Battānī (Albatenius), in his treatise Kitab az-Zij (ca. 920 AD), which was translated into Latin by Plato Tiburtinus (De Motu Stellarum). The earliest surviving dated astrolabe is dated AH 315 (927/8 AD). In the Islamic world, astrolabes were used to find the times of sunrise and the rising of fixed stars, to help schedule morning prayers (salat). In the 10th century, al-Sufi first described over 1,000 different uses of an astrolabe, in areas as diverse as astronomy, astrology, horoscopes, navigation, surveying, timekeeping, prayer, Salah, Qibla, etc.[9]

And algebra traces its origin back to Babylonian astronomers and mathematicians, and Babylon is certainly in what is now the Arab world. As Solomon said 3200 years ago "There's nothing new under the sun." All civilization pass along knowledge they inherited, hopefully adding to it along the way.

Transward

[Paolo]

Maybe now they'll figure out how to build a better bomb for the further benefit of Mankind.