Israel Superior To Arab, Muslim Countries

JStone

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Tiny Israel A Giant In Scientific Research :clap2:
Israel's contribution to the world of scientific research has won it a growing number of accolades, with the Jewish state turning out an impressive number of achievements relative to its size.

Israeli professor Dan Shechter became the tenth Israeli to become a Nobel laureate when he won the prize for chemistry for his discovery of quasicrystals, which overturned scientific theory on the nature of solids.

"It's a paradigm shift in chemistry. His findings have rewritten the first chapter of textbooks of ordered matter," said Sven Lidin, a member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.

Shechtman's win was hailed by Israel's leaders as proof of the country's rich tradition of academic research.

"I want to congratulate you in the name of the citizens of Israel for your win, which reflects the intellect of our people," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

"There are not many countries who have won such a large number of Nobel prizes," said President Shimon Peres, himself a Nobel laureate.

Over the past 45 years, Israel has won a total of 10 Nobel prizes -- a major achievement for a country of just 7.8 million people.

Four have been in the field of chemistry, two were for economic sciences; one was awarded for literature while three Israelis have won the Nobel Peace prize, including Peres.

Israel is the country which counts the most engineers per head and ranks second only to the United States in the number of companies listed on Nasdaq.

Almost all the big names in technology -- from Intel and Google to Microsoft -- have important research and development centres in Israel, and there are 500 new start-ups every year.

Three of the Nobel chemistry laureates, including Shechtan, were graduates of the Technion, the prestigious technological university in the northern port city of Haifa, which has turned out 70 percent of the country's engineers and 80 percent of the executives of Israeli firms listed on Nasdaq.

Israel's fourth chemistry laureate, who won the award in 2009, came from the Weizmann Institute of Science near Tel Aviv, one of the country's leading research institutes, which has twice won the Turing Award, otherwise known as the Nobel prize of computing.

Other Weizmann researchers have won the Wolf Prizes in Medicine.

Part of Israel's success in academia, as in high-tech, lies in local researchers and developers who "do more with less," said Saul Singer, author of the 2009 bestseller "Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle."

"If you look at the top 25 drugs developed over the last decade or so, seven of them were partly developed at Weizmann. There's no other institution in the world that can say that," Singer told AFP, noting that Harvard developed only two of them -- and on a much larger budget.

"Or Tel Aviv University, which recently ranked number 11 in citations per faculty member. That's above Oxford, Cambridge and Yale. There's no comparison in terms of budgets involved," he said.

Through a mixture of dermination and doggedness, Israel had excelled in both academia and start-ups, he said.

"Israel has gotten very good at doing this sort of thing," he said.

"The dynamics of being determined, creative, and doing more with less -- and also trying to solve big problems -- you see that at both the academic level and the start-up level."

Congratulating Shechtman, Education Minister Gideon Saar said scientific research would be crucial to Israel's future.

"Developing human capital and investing in education and higher education are the key to achievement and scientific research in the future," the minister said.

"The future of the State of Israel will be ensured by research on the highest level."
Tiny Israel a giant in scientific research

UN: Arab World Rife with Illiteracy & Lacks Innovation :clap2:
U.N. report finds one third of Arabs illiterate and only $10 per person spent on scientific research. The level of education, research and innovation in the Arab world is appalling, a new United Nations report has claimed.

The report, produced as part of a partnership between the United Nations Development Program and the United Arab Emirates-based Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation, found that despite the efforts of scientists and researchers throughout the region, the Arab world makes up only 1.1% of global scientific publishing and the low level of investment into research has led to relatively low levels of innovation throughout the Arab world.
Examining a number of aspects of "the current Arab knowledge landscape," the report expressed "grave concerns over the state of education in the Arab world," with over one third of the adult population unable to read or write and major educational discrepancies between males and females.

The report found that despite 20% of national budgets in the Arab world being spent on education over the past 40 years, the average Arab individual reads very little compared to other societies and around 60 million Arabs are illiterate, two thirds of them women.

With almost nine million primary school-aged children not attending school in the Arab world, it is predicted that only a few select Arab nations will meet the universal primary education goal of the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals.

The report's harshest criticism was reserved for the lack of investment in academic and scientific research, hampering the ability of Arab nations to meet global occupational, technical and higher education standards. The report found that spending on scientific research in the Arab world does not exceed 0.3% of most nations' GDP and is 97% dependent on government funding.

While nations like Finland were found to spend over $1000 per person on scientific research each year, less than $10 per person is spent annually on scientific research in the Arab world. As a result, the number of patents registered with Arab national institutions is minimal and Arab scientists and researchers account for 1.1% of global scientific publishing.

"Things are really bad," Dr Ghassan Khateeb, Vice President of Community Affairs at Birzeit University in the Palestinian Territories, told The Media Line. "There is a direct relation between the lack of investment and the problematic situation we find ourselves in relation to knowledge."

"This is all related to politics," he continued. "The lack of democracy and lack of knowledge reinforce each other: the lack of education contributes to the lack of democracy and the fact that rulers can remain rulers without the will of the people. In turn, the fact that there is no proper democracy in the Arab world means that there is less incentive among rulers to really invest in knowledge of the kinds of things that have a positive impact on the public which would elect them."

"When there are vicious circles you have to work on both education and democratization together," he said.

The report was also critical of the quality of university education, citing a lack of emphasis on modern communication technologies and specialized sciences. "As a result," the UNDP wrote in a statement, "the region lacks a critical mass of highly skilled professionals equipped with the ability to innovate and capable of answering the needs of the marketplace."
UN: Arab World Rife with Illiteracy & Lacks Innovation | Menassat
 
Tiny Israel A Giant In Scientific Research :clap2:
Israel's contribution to the world of scientific research has won it a growing number of accolades, with the Jewish state turning out an impressive number of achievements relative to its size.

Israeli professor Dan Shechter became the tenth Israeli to become a Nobel laureate when he won the prize for chemistry for his discovery of quasicrystals, which overturned scientific theory on the nature of solids.

"It's a paradigm shift in chemistry. His findings have rewritten the first chapter of textbooks of ordered matter," said Sven Lidin, a member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.

Shechtman's win was hailed by Israel's leaders as proof of the country's rich tradition of academic research.

"I want to congratulate you in the name of the citizens of Israel for your win, which reflects the intellect of our people," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

"There are not many countries who have won such a large number of Nobel prizes," said President Shimon Peres, himself a Nobel laureate.

Over the past 45 years, Israel has won a total of 10 Nobel prizes -- a major achievement for a country of just 7.8 million people.

Four have been in the field of chemistry, two were for economic sciences; one was awarded for literature while three Israelis have won the Nobel Peace prize, including Peres.

Israel is the country which counts the most engineers per head and ranks second only to the United States in the number of companies listed on Nasdaq.

Almost all the big names in technology -- from Intel and Google to Microsoft -- have important research and development centres in Israel, and there are 500 new start-ups every year.

Three of the Nobel chemistry laureates, including Shechtan, were graduates of the Technion, the prestigious technological university in the northern port city of Haifa, which has turned out 70 percent of the country's engineers and 80 percent of the executives of Israeli firms listed on Nasdaq.

Israel's fourth chemistry laureate, who won the award in 2009, came from the Weizmann Institute of Science near Tel Aviv, one of the country's leading research institutes, which has twice won the Turing Award, otherwise known as the Nobel prize of computing.

Other Weizmann researchers have won the Wolf Prizes in Medicine.

Part of Israel's success in academia, as in high-tech, lies in local researchers and developers who "do more with less," said Saul Singer, author of the 2009 bestseller "Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle."

"If you look at the top 25 drugs developed over the last decade or so, seven of them were partly developed at Weizmann. There's no other institution in the world that can say that," Singer told AFP, noting that Harvard developed only two of them -- and on a much larger budget.

"Or Tel Aviv University, which recently ranked number 11 in citations per faculty member. That's above Oxford, Cambridge and Yale. There's no comparison in terms of budgets involved," he said.

Through a mixture of dermination and doggedness, Israel had excelled in both academia and start-ups, he said.

"Israel has gotten very good at doing this sort of thing," he said.

"The dynamics of being determined, creative, and doing more with less -- and also trying to solve big problems -- you see that at both the academic level and the start-up level."

Congratulating Shechtman, Education Minister Gideon Saar said scientific research would be crucial to Israel's future.

"Developing human capital and investing in education and higher education are the key to achievement and scientific research in the future," the minister said.

"The future of the State of Israel will be ensured by research on the highest level."
Tiny Israel a giant in scientific research

UN: Arab World Rife with Illiteracy & Lacks Innovation :clap2:
U.N. report finds one third of Arabs illiterate and only $10 per person spent on scientific research. The level of education, research and innovation in the Arab world is appalling, a new United Nations report has claimed.

The report, produced as part of a partnership between the United Nations Development Program and the United Arab Emirates-based Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation, found that despite the efforts of scientists and researchers throughout the region, the Arab world makes up only 1.1% of global scientific publishing and the low level of investment into research has led to relatively low levels of innovation throughout the Arab world.
Examining a number of aspects of "the current Arab knowledge landscape," the report expressed "grave concerns over the state of education in the Arab world," with over one third of the adult population unable to read or write and major educational discrepancies between males and females.

The report found that despite 20% of national budgets in the Arab world being spent on education over the past 40 years, the average Arab individual reads very little compared to other societies and around 60 million Arabs are illiterate, two thirds of them women.

With almost nine million primary school-aged children not attending school in the Arab world, it is predicted that only a few select Arab nations will meet the universal primary education goal of the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals.

The report's harshest criticism was reserved for the lack of investment in academic and scientific research, hampering the ability of Arab nations to meet global occupational, technical and higher education standards. The report found that spending on scientific research in the Arab world does not exceed 0.3% of most nations' GDP and is 97% dependent on government funding.

While nations like Finland were found to spend over $1000 per person on scientific research each year, less than $10 per person is spent annually on scientific research in the Arab world. As a result, the number of patents registered with Arab national institutions is minimal and Arab scientists and researchers account for 1.1% of global scientific publishing.

"Things are really bad," Dr Ghassan Khateeb, Vice President of Community Affairs at Birzeit University in the Palestinian Territories, told The Media Line. "There is a direct relation between the lack of investment and the problematic situation we find ourselves in relation to knowledge."

"This is all related to politics," he continued. "The lack of democracy and lack of knowledge reinforce each other: the lack of education contributes to the lack of democracy and the fact that rulers can remain rulers without the will of the people. In turn, the fact that there is no proper democracy in the Arab world means that there is less incentive among rulers to really invest in knowledge of the kinds of things that have a positive impact on the public which would elect them."

"When there are vicious circles you have to work on both education and democratization together," he said.

The report was also critical of the quality of university education, citing a lack of emphasis on modern communication technologies and specialized sciences. "As a result," the UNDP wrote in a statement, "the region lacks a critical mass of highly skilled professionals equipped with the ability to innovate and capable of answering the needs of the marketplace."
UN: Arab World Rife with Illiteracy & Lacks Innovation | Menassat
Then again, being superior to Arab countries isn't much of an acheivement.
 

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