NAMES participated in the Arab Science Week (ASW) 2020 as a Community Partner in the period of 15-23 August. The ASW is considered the most significant scientific event in the Arab world for the issues and problems it tackles, and for discussing solutions that could contribute to changing our lives for the best. The Arab Science Week also allowed individuals to participate and watch the events from home, as it all happened on an online platform, to empower the individuals and encourage them to engage in science and spread the scientific material.
The Egyptian Science Week was launched in 2016, succeeding in bringing together 2.5 million participants through its events, which led to its expansion to become a regional event that included the whole Arab world. The event witnessed the participation of a number of speakers who are science pioneers in the Arab world, to discuss significant scientific issues in all science fields.
Under a new slogan, and with different paths, the Arab Science Week brought us new events to discuss the most significant scientific topics that affect us as individuals, and affect our planet with all its billions of creatures that contribute to building life on Earth and the sky. The Arab Science Week 2020 explored the future of science and technology within the next 100 years, under the slogan “future vision”; this issue was discussed in six different paths:
- Future Vision (the main idea of the Arab Science Week 2020).
- Technological Aspirations (discussing the technological effect on our lives within the next 100 years, from treating diseases to inhabiting Mars).
- Sustainable Earth (discussing worldwide efforts to sustain Earth's resources to keep up with the population growth around the world).
- Science Basics (discussing scientific topics and discoveries, their influence on our understanding of the universe and uses in shaping the human life in the future).
- Science in Our Daily Life (discussing the scientific and technological interference in our daily life, from cooking mechanism to the science-art relationship).
- Disaster Preparedness (discussing the history of humans with disasters in the past, present, and future; how these disasters affect the human life, and how humans can be protected from the upcoming danger).
Professor Farouk Elbaz spoke about the role of youth in the scientific community and in life in general, and the importance of including them in significant political and leadership positions, and to make sure they are given a chance to shine, You can watch the speaker's speech through this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRsFWwJinoA
The event included many speakers; in this article, we highlight the contributions of Dr. Jawad Alkharaz, Head of Research at the Middle East Water Desalination Center, and Head of the Sustainable Earth Track at the Arab Science Week, along with Dr. Rana Dajani, Head of the Association for the Advancement of Science and Technology in the Arab World, and Head of the Science Basics track at Arab Science Week, as they tackled many thorny scientific issues and significant details in the scientific world.
Evolutionary Stories
Dr. Rana Dajani discussed one of the thorniest issues in the Arab Muslim world and the scientific community: the theory of evolution. The biologist discussed the reasons that led the Islamic community to reject the theory, clarifying that the proofs of the natural selection mechanism in living organisms whether plants or humans. Moreover, she stressed the need to accept all opinions, and that acceptance does not necessarily mean consent, but respect of others and acceptance of different perspectives. Visit this link to watch the event:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO4zxUsd5dU&t=1591s
Towards Arab Water Safety
Dr. Jawad Alkharaz discussed the issue of water security, which could be defined as providing reasonable quantities of quality water to resilient environmental systems for the future. The speaker pointed out the scientific community's attempt to provide water security by providing multiple sources of water to serve various fields in a sustainable way for the upcoming generations and future needs, and not just for our present time.
Dr. Alkharaz also spoke about water as “the nerve of life”, tackling a very dangerous issue, which is “water scarcity”. It occurs when the world's freshwater decreases, which is needed to fulfill daily life needs; such as: nutrition, hydration, agriculture, industry, and preservation of life, including our own. Water scarcity has many risk factors; such as: floods, pollution, and the crises resulting from shared water, like the Nile river's water, as more than one country share its water. He also pointed out that the joint water crisis could be solved through “water diplomacy”.
The speaker also talked about the dangers of climate change on water, including drought and high temperature, which results in the melting of ice and, hence, the rising of sea levels, all of which negatively affects water availability. Statistics also indicated that by 2050, water resources will decrease by 50%, which will have an impact on economic development, quality and continuity of life, food security, and warfare, which urges us to take the necessary measures from now. To watch the event, visit this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhqOjgR3oCI&t=323s