Science in Muslim World

[ekrem]

http://dinarstandard.com/current/Scientific100206.htm

Of the 25 most scientifically productive institutions in the Muslim world, 10 are in Turkey, 5 in Egypt, and 3 in Malaysia. Of the top-10 institutions, 7 are in Turkey.

 

[CSM]

Interesting...but not sure it means anything, especially given the measurement criteria they used (indicated by the asterisk). Writing about something and publishing it is not necessarily equivalent to production.

 

[ekrem]

Interesting...but not sure it means anything, especially given the measurement criteria they used (indicated by the asterisk). Writing about something and publishing it is not necessarily equivalent to production.

There is something called ISI Thompson "science citation index".
http://scientific.thomson.com/products/sci/
I do not know of which quality a scientific work has to be that this work could be declared "scientific". But there surely are some criterias.

here some more detailled informations:

In 1992, the number of scientific publications produced by Turkish scientists climbed to 1354, raising Turkey’s ranking to 36. By 1998, the number of articles by Turkish scientists rose to 3901 articles and Turkey was listed as 27th in the world. And, by 2002 the total skyrocketed to 9303, propelling Turkey to 22nd in the world. The 30 percent increase in scientific citations
that Turkey experienced in 2002 alone not only marked the country’s highest increase ever but also one of the highest increases in the world

http://www.ictp.trieste.it/~twas/pdf/NL15_2_PDF/06-Turkey_24-27_low.pdf


You wrote, that writing and publishing something is not neccasarily equivalent to produceing something. That is correct.

But anyway:
And remember that Turkey is not a reccource exporter (oil, gas) like Iran, Saudi-Arabia & Co. but an importer.

http://dinarstandard.com/rankings/ds100/analysis.htm#turk

25 % of the Biggest Muslim World Companies are Turkish
http://www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=24146


So, when it comes to scientific output as well as private companies Turkey with its 73 million people is unproportional leading within over 1 billion Muslims in both fields (scientific+business). And Turkey has no luxuries like Oil and Natural Gas.

 

[CSM]

There is something called ISI Thompson "science citation index".
http://scientific.thomson.com/products/sci/
I do not know of which quality a scientific work has to be that this work could be declared "scientific". But there surely are some criterias.

here some more detailled informations:


http://www.ictp.trieste.it/~twas/pdf/NL15_2_PDF/06-Turkey_24-27_low.pdf


You wrote, that writing and publishing something is not neccasarily equivalent to produceing something. That is correct.

But anyway:
And remember that Turkey is not a reccource exporter (oil, gas) like Iran, Saudi-Arabia & Co. but an importer.

http://dinarstandard.com/rankings/ds100/analysis.htm#turk

25 % of the Biggest Muslim World Companies are Turkish
http://www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=24146


So, when it comes to scientific output as well as private companies Turkey with its 73 million people is unproportional leading within over 1 billion Muslims in both fields (scientific+business). And Turkey has no luxuries like Oil and Natural Gas.

I totally understand. I am not trying to denigrate the statistics at all. I am however, questioning the importance of the statistics. The number of articles publish merely indicates that there are a good number of prolific writers out there. The statistics do not indicate if the published articles have any merit or are of any worth in advancing scientific endeavor/knowledge.

I sincerely do hope that such a vast amount of publication does indeed lead to scientific advancement and the resolution of mankinds issues...however, I am a cynic, and believe that much of the aforementioned publications are merely a ploy for either personal recognition, substantiating a political agenda or justifying further funding (whether or not there is real value in the effort).

 

[MtnBiker]

I sincerely do hope that such a vast amount of publication does indeed lead to scientific advancement and the resolution of mankinds issues...however, I am a cynic, and believe that much of the aforementioned publications are merely a ploy for either personal recognition, substantiating a political agenda or justifying further funding (whether or not there is real value in the effort).

Well said, the same could be applied to the global warming issue as well.

 

[CSM]

I suspect that a comparison of each nation's funding (in real money) of scientific research and development would be a more worthy indication. I suspect then that we would find the more wealthy nations (the G8 countries) would lead the pack.

I think Canavar's point though is that Turkey is leading the pack of Islamic nations and the number of publications are an indicator of that. I hesitate to draw conclusions based on this discussion, but it seems to me that Turkey is better off financially than many other Muslim countries and thus can better afford to fund scientific research. I also suspect that Turkey, because it is more secular than most Muslim countries is more interested in scientific endeavors than those other Muslim countries. I guess it boils down to the options of spending money to better the life of a country's citizens (Turkey) or spending money to enforce and spread Islam...by force if necessary...and let Allah take care of the lives of Muslims.

 

[ekrem]

in the last 4 years the budget for Reserch & Development have been multiplied fivefold increase:
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=53941

The reverse Brain-Drain in Turkey is ongoing. Many Turks from abroad come back to the country and establish Technology companies and Techno-Parks.
There are studies which say, that if only the American Turks come home they will generate a lasting 1% growth to economy:
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=39464

When this reversive brain-drain has ended, Turkey will activate the potential of Muslim qualified scientists and workers in countries like Saudi-Arabia, Iran and so on which are unhappy with their regimes and want to leave the country. Turkey with its culture which isn't that far from theirs and geographical closeness to their families which they leave, is perfectly suited for them.

Of course the quality of education is important. One Einstein can do the work of 1000 Professors combined. Since 2004 we have now a programme to sponsor talented childs. Before we had no such programm, and all talented children went the nornal education system.
But in broadening and improving education and science there is a higher possibility to assist, boost and most importantly activate this potential.
Turkey has a strong private entrepreneurship and a diversified non oil-related economy with huge potential and average growth rates the last 4 years of about 7 %. The last 2 quartals of 2006 even 8,5 %.
http://english.sabah.com.tr/48A5B5902D0F49F78FF43F4BC3DCAEBA.html

In most Muslim countries for example Iran, State controlls 63 % of economy and exports and budget is relied on eanings of natural reccources.
So state is work-giver from whom you get your bread.
It is a sort of control. You can guide things. In Turkey no State controlled company is in Top-10 biggest. And privatization is stil ongoing. This entrepeunership i think is the most evident advantage for Turkey in comparence with the Muslim world.

When you export natural reccources like Oil or natural gas, you do not need to produce technology to improve the natural reccources, because in exporting natural reccources you do not have to be competitive. Either you have it or you don't and there is always need for that kind of natural reccource.
Saudi Arabia's Oil is hydrocarbone, Iran's Oil is hydrocarbone. For natural reccources there are customers, you just have to pump it out of the earth. And even this pumping out of earth the most Muslim countires can not do by theirselves..
Malaysia is very very developed and its economy does not rely on natural reccources, but Malysia is far far away from the Middle East and has no meaning in power structure of the Middle East. United Arab Emirates are also doing very good. They diversify their economy for years now and this will bring them longstanding success in the future. And United Arab Emirates are also a open society allthough they have some rigid laws based on Islam.

Countries like Egypt for example have no oil, too, such as Turkey. But they are not doing that good as Turkey in science and economy. So i think that Turkey is something special in its Geography. Maybe this comes from socio-political things of Turkish history or that Turkey always competed with Europeans either with war or influence and always was in contact with them. Turkey has therefore more relations with European countries then other neighbours of Turkey.
Even with Greece, which we have had many conflicts we nowadays have a deeper cooperation then for example Syria.
We have for 10 years now a common market with EU. So our companies must be competitive and follow the rules of capitalism and must win and hold customers to be successfull. This goes about innovation and quality. So we must produce knowledge and utilise it for socio-econimic development.
But Turkey is not yet there where western countires are and in comparance to Germany or USA we do bad in science, but we are on a good way and constantly close the gap..

So, CSM, your oservation to compare R&D spendings would be a better comparamce is correct. But it is not Turkey's fault if other nations which have a dominant muslim population rely solely on natural reccources.
We have a project called "Vizyon 2023" where 27 govermental insitutions, 29 industrial represantitives and 9 universities are organized within.
This vision aims to successfully end the transformation of Turkey into a knowledge based society by 2023, the 100th anniversary of Turkish Republic.
This is detailled planned such as building high-altitude planes in 2008, sending scientific satellite to a planet in our solar system the same year, constructing of Turkish Space Port in 2011, firing turkish space rocket in 2014 from the Space port, sending Turkonaut in 2015 to ISS into space and from 2020 on produceing Space vehicles.
This plan is a whole guideline (Nanotechnology, alternative fuels, Machinery, Biotechnology and so on) which everyone has to follow and aims for different sectors are being set with detailled state-funded projects by years, and their fullfilling is being observed and financed.

The national science and technology initiative, including the creation of a Turkish Research Area, was adopted. It aims to synergise research and technological development activities among TÜBITAK, public agencies, non-governmental organisations, private sector companies and universities and seeks to contribute to solving problems, increasing the quality of life, enhancing welfare and boosting competitiveness. A national space research programme has been prepared. TUBITAK has determined the technology areas which should receive priority within the framework of Vision 2023, an important policy document for 2003-2023, setting the targets of the centennial of the Republic of Turkey in the area of science and technology. In order to promote research in society a number of support programmes have been initiated. A protocol aiming to disseminate scientific activities to primary and secondary schools was signed between the Ministry of National Education and TÜBITAK in November 2004. In line with the increase of its activities, the equivalent of EUR 250 million was added to TÜBITAK’s 2005 budget. Targets have been fixed to increase the level of gross domestic expenditure for research and development as percentage of GDP from currently around 0.8 % to 2.0% by 2010, and the number of full time equivalent researchers to 40.000 by the same year.(...) As regards the number of publications in international periodicals, Turkey is ranked 22nd in the Science Citation Index compared to rank 37 achieved in 1993.

http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/arc...kage/sec_1426_final_progress_report_tr_en.pdf


There is still a long way to go, and allthough i started this Thread in sort of propaganda, Turkey competes with industry societies which, unfortunately, overwhelmingly majority of Muslim nations in this world choose not to be.
For this the circumstances are there:

Budget surplus for the 1st time since 1983:
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=53991
And the Central Bank reserves are on a record level of 60 Billion Dollars.

Record increase in Turkish Export
http://www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=39420

Turkey Enjoys Record-Breaking Foreign Direct Investment
http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/features/2006/03/16/feature-03

Foreign investment to Turkey forecast to double in 2007
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=54868

Turkey's voting share in IMF is raised
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=54478

From year to year we break our own records. And economy growth enables extended budgets, so you do not have to take priorities.
So we can invest into present+future then only in present days.

 

[Annie]

http://dinarstandard.com/current/Scientific100206.htm

For sure! Must be why there are all the breakthroughs in medicine and technology from these universities. Not too mention the Nobel Prizes!

Great post!

 

[Annie]

I suspect that a comparison of each nation's funding (in real money) of scientific research and development would be a more worthy indication. I suspect then that we would find the more wealthy nations (the G8 countries) would lead the pack.

I think Canavar's point though is that Turkey is leading the pack of Islamic nations and the number of publications are an indicator of that. I hesitate to draw conclusions based on this discussion, but it seems to me that Turkey is better off financially than many other Muslim countries and thus can better afford to fund scientific research. I also suspect that Turkey, because it is more secular than most Muslim countries is more interested in scientific endeavors than those other Muslim countries. I guess it boils down to the options of spending money to better the life of a country's citizens (Turkey) or spending money to enforce and spread Islam...by force if necessary...and let Allah take care of the lives of Muslims.

I think you are correct. I also think Turkey, Egypt have taken steps away from secularism and are rapidly becoming more Islamic. It will be interesting indeed to see where they are in another 5 years.

Turkey in particular has apparently thrown it's chances with Iran, dumping EU, which was unfairly harsh in the past.

 

[ekrem]

For sure! Must be why there are all the breakthroughs in medicine and technology from these universities. Not too mention the Nobel Prizes!

Great post!

Yes, it was indeed a great post. Nice you see it that way, too.
Of course Nobel-prizes are the non-plus-ultra. Such thing Turkey can't exhibit, yet.
But what is not, can be in future.

Or does a country had to be nobel-priced that we can talk about science?
We did not win Nobel prize, but Nobel Prize from EU, the Descartes prize for a project of widening the capacity of 4,8 GB DVD twohundred-fold.
http://www.tuba.gov.tr/habergoster.php?haber=bdhaber_11

Using established quantum physics theory, theorist Taner Yildirim and physicist Salim Ciraci, both of Turkey’s Bilkent University, found that hydrogen can amass in amounts equivalent to 8% percent of the weight of “titanium-decorated” single-walled carbon nanotubes. That’s one-third better than the 6 wt.% minimum storage-capacity requirement set by DOE for 2010. (The target is 9 wt.% for 2015.)

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2005/05/metaldecorated_.html
http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/news_nanotubes.htm

You talk about breakthroughs in Medicine...
There are some very good mediciners in USA which are Turks. Why are they in USA? Because Turkish top university research was a long time neglected. So our scientists went abroad.
We now make this turn around again and when these scientists return it is very good for Turkey. But improving Turkish university research in such way that even next generations of scientists do not leave the country is even better.
And Turkey layed the conditions for this in improving fundings for science in Turkey.

All Turkish mediciners which graduated in Turkish universities and then left Turkey in past beacuse there was no environment of top- university research:

Kutluk Oktay: restoring fertility of cancer woman in USA:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/08/earlyshow/health/main604790.shtml

Gökhan Hotamisligil: researching in Diabetes and a cure for it:
Scientists Identify Major Molecular Pathway That Leads to Diabetes
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/press/releases/press10142004.html
+
Find May Lead To Diabetes Cure
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=503951

There are also world-famous mediciners like Mehmet Oz (Heart surgeon) and Kamil Ugurbil (cybernetics) which are specialists on their work and all left Turkey because in Turkey there was no environment of top research..

But not only from Medicine but also in Nanotechnology.

] Erdemir has broken one of the technological records of the century by conducting friction tests on a new ultra-hard, low-friction coating. The material is many times slicker than Teflon and hard enough to show promise for use in automobile engine parts. It is reported that the invention of Erdemir, who has been on the covers of many scientific magazines published in the USA, has broken the friction coefficient record by 20-fold. He developed a carbon coating that showed the lowest coefficient of friction, less than 0.001, when tested in a dry nitrogen atmosphere. This makes the carbon coating 40 times slicker than Teflon, which has a coefficient of about 0.04.

Erdemir made Argonne Laboratory the number one research center for tribology and has received many international prizes, including three R&D awards, considered the Oscar of technology, in 1991, 1998 and 2003 for a boric acid lubricant and a near frictionless carbon coating, respectively. He has patent rights for six of his inventions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Erdemir

There are some more like Mehmet Bayindir who worked on the Nano-technology Soldier programm of the Pentagon and optic-fibre cables for next generation sapce-telescopes
http://www.fen.bilkent.edu.tr/~mb/docs/Fabriccanseelight.wmv
, now returned to Turkey. And others.

I am of course proud of this people, but it would make me more proud when they all return to Turkey and make science in Turkey. This is an ongoing process.
Look, i know that Iranian scientists work at NASA for example.
But !! would these Iranian scientists return to Iran? No, they wouldn't. But Turkish scientists begin to return and we try to stop next generation scientists from leaving the country. And in near future we will even compete with states like USA for importing scientists from repressive countires like Saudi-Arabia or Iran.
We have the culture + geography bonus.

When you look to above graphic with the universities, they you see, that top Turkish scientific publications are in surgeon area. In Istanbul we have some very good eye operation institutes, whose customers come from Europe.
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=39586

Here a report form the University of Sussex (UK) about Nanotechnology in Turkey:

Both state and private universities are starting to dedicate budgets for nanotechnology research, and government and private foundations initiated to support nanotechnology research.
(...)
Under this frame, a National Nanotechnology Research Center was established by the contribution of Bilkent University and Turkish State Planning organization.
(...)
Other Turkish universities, which are trying to compete in the international research arena, are forming their own nanotechnology research and development centers, conducting their nanotechnology researches
(...)
Sabancı University in Istanbul, which is a private university, is one of the pioneering universities in the nanotechnology research area with the coordinative work of programs of chemistry, materials science and engineering, microelectronic engineering and bioengineering which has produced quality works on nanoporous and nanoscale carbon materials, gels and sensor technology, ceramics, optical materials, liquid crystals and nonlinear optic polymers, functional and conductive polymers, processing of nanocomposites and computational modeling studies.
(...)
Another private university, Koç University in Istanbul has a Micro-Nano Technologies Research Center and mainly focused on the micromechanical device fabrication, solid state laser materials, electromagnetic actuators, super hydrophobic surfaces as well as thin films of organic materials, surface modification by chemical and physical methods, characterization of nano-structured materials, friction at the atomic scale and nano-rheology of liquids and polymers and synthesis advanced polymers.
(...)
The nanotechnology research is not a new subject for the well known state universities namely Middle East Technical University and Hacettepe University in Ankara and Bosphorus University in Istanbul. There is a Central Laboratory and R&D Center in METU and the nanotechnology research is mainly focused on biomaterials, intelligent materials and nanocomposites. Hacettepe University with its Departments of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering have been contributing to the fields of nanopolymers, nanocomposites and nano-biomaterials for many years with active research groups working in these fields. Bosphorus University is contributing in the nanoscience and nanotechnology field internationally with its Nanotechnology and Smart Materials Advanced Technologies Research and Development Center. Other than universities there are high technology institutes such as Gebze Institute of Technology, MAM- Marmara Research Center which is the research center of The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey and Izmir Institute of Technology are highly productive in the nanotechnology research area
(...)
All of the mentioned universities and research centers have the international research standards and they have high quality article outcome as a result of those research facilities.The underlined workshops and universities are not one of their kind examples; there are many Anatolian universities which are dealing with the nanotechnology subject especially on advanced ceramics, ceramic-metal composites, surface modification, semiconductors, coatings, optical and magnetic properties
(...)
If one is dealing with nanotechnology, other than scientific improvement, there should be an industrially useful outcome of the research. Thus, other than universities, industrial companies are making their own progression by the R&D facilities also. One of the most important studies which take the interest of the public were the boron studies; Nanotechnology-NNT Company produces MCDP crystallites of boron and adds to the motor oil, this suspended boron nano particles coats the inner sidewalls of the motors of the automobiles which improves friction resistance and extends the motor life. Another important product is produced by a dye company, DYO-Nano a wall paint which is resistive to paling and getting dirty and has the property of self cleaning. As a result of the nanotechnological researches about polymer and surface modification, Arçelik Company, which is a white goods and electronics company, has marketed two products; first one is odor filtering hygienic refrigerator and the second one full protection triangle multi hygienic refrigerator and Yeşim Textile Company is produced nano-structured smart fabrics that are iron easily, dry quickly and get dirty hardly and these fabrics have been exported to American textile company GAP.
(...)
These quite few but impressive examples, the new developments and strategies combined with the qualified scientists puts Turkey in a hopeful position that there will be more qualified articles and industrial products will be produced in near future.

http://tc.cpes.susx.ac.uk/BCG/newsletters/carbon_newsletter_december_05.doc


Here the smallest Flag in the World in size of 1:700.000 Millimeters. 300 of these flags make the thickness of 1 human hair.:
http://www.nano.bilkent.edu.tr/docs/NanoBayrak_son.jpg

Turkey as one of 15 countries in the world produceing microchips with a transitor-thickness of 0,7 microns. Left to Ataturk-Portrait there are the transistors:
http://ntvmsnbc.com/news/156678.jpg

Kathianne, when you read the thread subject, it is not called "Turkey getting one after another Nobel-prizes".
So i got your statement, and you can say how often you want that Turkey is going backwards, but Turkey is going forward in major steps closeing the gap to knowledge-based societies.
We are not yet there, but we come !

 

[ekrem]

Air-cooling by sun awarded with World energy award

Turkish scientist Dr. Ahmet Lokurlu who received European Creativity Award for his project in which he developed a cooling system consuming solar energy is awarded with World Energy Globe Award on 27 April 2005 during a ceremony held at Tokyo World Fair which is considered as �Environmentalists� Oscar�.

http://www.icciconference.com/eng/index.asp?t=9&n=92

Prof. Dr Veziroglu, the hydrogen-guru, head of UN INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR HYDROGEN ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES, which was established in Istanbul.
http://www.unido-ichet.org/images/ICHETSigning.jpg
Also he is Head of "International Association of Hydrogen Energy" in Miami:
http://www.iahe.org/boardofdirectors.asp?did=1

Omnitek Launches the World’s First Gigabit Wireless Backbone in Istanbul

In September 2003, the world’s first gigabit wireless backbone was completed in Istanbul, by Omnitek.Running between Maslak-Eminönü route in Ýstanbul Omnilink is a 12 km backbone with 1.25 Gbps bandwidth. From the backbone Omnitek offers a number of services to business and service provider customers. For corporate customers, Omnitek offers LAN-to-LAN and Internet connectivity at Ethernet (10baseT) and Fast Ethernet (100baseT) speeds. LAN-to-LAN connections utilize the VLAN protocol to connect corporate offices that are located in multiple buildings along the route. Corporate customers can also use the backbone network to connect with their Internet Service Provider (ISP).

http://www.omnitek.com.tr/company_ing.htm
Here a picture:
http://www.kadinvizyon.com/Img/Photo/Banner/link.jpg


Robocup 2005 in Osaka, Japan:
The robot "Cerberus" from Bogazici-University in Istanbul won the first price in 4-legged technical challenge:
http://www.robocup2005.org/news/results.aspx


Turkish Anti-Bomb robots, which have an IP-address and can be accessed by typing the IP-Address into a Web-browser. After that Video-picture and controll elemtents come pu in the webbromwser and you can operate the roboter.
So you can operate the roboter by internet from USA allthough the robot is in Turkey:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y47/basbug/6290.jpg
Turkey before imported its anti-bomb robots from Israel for 80.000 Dollars. 2 Students of Konya university signed agreement with Turkish police for the production of these roboters. Costs: 2.000 Dollars.



Face recognition system from Turkish university installed on Turkish stadiums against Hooligans:

GAYE is a fully automatic system that detects and recognizes faces in cluttered scenes. The input of the system is any digitized image/image sequence that includes face/faces. The basic building blocks of the system are face detection, feature extraction and feature comparison. Face detection is based on skin color segmentation. For feature extraction, a novel approach is proposed that depends on the Gabor wavelet transform of the face image. By comparing facial feature vectors system finally makes a decision if the incoming person is recognized or not. Real time system tests show that GAYE achieves a recognition ratio over %90.

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=16106962


A Turkish satellite being shot into space in 2007 from Baykonur in Khazakhstan. It will be the first satellite to have a fuell-cell as impulse.
Hydrogen is stored within Borhydrid which when goes through the catalysator will discharge the hydrogen from Borhydrid.
Boron is a lose cousin to carbon and Turkey has 65% world reserves of Boron.
The fuell cells Vestel developed use also bor as a storage system for hydrogen.
http://www.bilten.metu.edu.tr/Web_2002_v1/common/img/medyadaBilten/H.O. Tercuman - 9 Ekim.jpg
The name of the satellite is RASAT and will fuction as meteorology-satellite and will live 5 years in space and has a solution of 5 meters.

Hard Cell-Turkish home-electronics giant Vestel has designed its own range of fuel cells
http://www.fuelcellsworks.com/Supppage3089.html

 

[onedomino]

Interesting...but not sure it means anything, especially given the measurement criteria they used (indicated by the asterisk). Writing about something and publishing it is not necessarily equivalent to production.

What does it mean to be on top of the Muslim academic world? For some perspective, the following is a ranking of counties sorted by the number of their universities appearing in the of list of the top 500 universities in the world. The top 500 universities list was compiled by Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, the “Chinese MIT.” The criteria used for a school to make the top 500 list appears below:

http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2004/Statistics.htm

USA 168
UK 40
Germany 40
Japan 34
Canada 23
Italy 23
France 21
China 18
Australia 14
Netherlands 12
Sweden 11
Spain 9
Switzerland 8
South Korea 8
Israel 7
Belgium 7
Austria 6
Denmark 5
Finland 5
New Zealand 5
Norway 4
Brazil 4
South Africa 4
Ireland 3
Poland 3
India 3
Russia 2
Singapore 2
Hungary 2
Greece 2
Turkey 2
Mexico 1
Argentina 1
Czech 1
Chile 1
Portugal 1

http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2005/ARWU2005Methodology.htm

Quality of Education: Alumni of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals - 10%
Quality of Faculty: Staff of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals - 20%
Highly cited researchers in 21 broad subject categories - 20%
Research Output - Articles published in Nature and Science* - 20%
Articles in Science Citation Index-expanded, Social Science Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index - 20%
Size of Institution: Academic performance with respect to the size of an institution - 10%

It would be interesting to see the country list resorted by the number of people per top 500 university. For example, the US has one top 500 university for every 1.7 million people; the UK has one top 500 university for every 2.2 million people.

-

 

[jillian]

It would be interesting to see the country list resorted by the number of people per top 500 university. For example, the US has one top 500 university for every 1.7 million people; the UK has one top 500 university for every 2.2 million people.

-

That's actually an interesting question. Using the World Factbook population numbers for 2006, I checked the following countries populations against the number of top 500 schools:

New Zealand: 1 top 500 school for every 815,228 people
Israel: 1 top 500 school for every 907,445 people.
Canada: 1 top 500 school for every 1.4 million people.
France: 1 top 500 school for every 2.9 million people.
Australia: 1 top 500 school for every 1.4 million people.

 

[ekrem]

What does it mean to be on top of the Muslim academic world? For some perspective, the following is a ranking of counties sorted by the number of their universities appearing in the of list of the top 500 universities in the world. The top 500 universities list was compiled by Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, the “Chinese MIT.” The criteria used for a school to make the top 500 list appears below:

http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2004/Statistics.htm

USA 168
UK 40
Germany 40
Japan 34
Canada 23
Italy 23
France 21
China 18
Australia 14
Netherlands 12
Sweden 11
Spain 9
Switzerland 8
South Korea 8
Israel 7
Belgium 7
Austria 6
Denmark 5
Finland 5
New Zealand 5
Norway 4
Brazil 4
South Africa 4
Ireland 3
Poland 3
India 3
Russia 2
Singapore 2
Hungary 2
Greece 2
Turkey 2
Mexico 1
Argentina 1
Czech 1
Chile 1
Portugal 1

http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2005/ARWU2005Methodology.htm

Quality of Education: Alumni of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals - 10%
Quality of Faculty: Staff of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals - 20%
Highly cited researchers in 21 broad subject categories - 20%
Research Output - Articles published in Nature and Science* - 20%
Articles in Science Citation Index-expanded, Social Science Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index - 20%
Size of Institution: Academic performance with respect to the size of an institution - 10%

It would be interesting to see the country list resorted by the number of people per top 500 university. For example, the US has one top 500 university for every 1.7 million people; the UK has one top 500 university for every 2.2 million people.

-

Thank you for this listing. I did not want to give a picture here, as if Turkey was leading in sciences in the world.
With 2 Universities in this listing we surely do not lead in the world.
European countries are well represented in that list.
And when i look to Spain, which joined the EU in the 80s, they have quiet improved in science.

Turkey has with EU 35 negotiating chapters, and "science and research" is the first one.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5071806.stm
Further, from 35 negotiating chapters are more then 25 of them related with industry, economy and standards.

And the question is not if Turkey will join EU or not, because this question will faced after the negaotiating chapters when negotiation is over. And Science and research is the first chapter which is being negotiated.
Turkey participates in the in 2007 beginning 7th framework programme of EU, which has a science budget of 50 Billion Euros to assist science projects over member states and candidate countries.
Also there are Leonardo and Socrates funds which Turkish research projects and Universities will get money from.

The EU has set up the Lisbon strategy to become the leading ompetitive and knowledge-based economy in the world. For this EU-States will raise their R&D spendings to 3% of GDP by 2010.
Under this strategy Turkey will raise its R&D spendings by 2010 to 2 % of GDP.
Turkey has now a R&D spending of 0,8% of GDP.

Also Turkey's GDP is yearly growing about 7-8%. So by 2010 there will be much money in comparence to the past for science. Paralell, EU also will fund Turkish science projects by the 7th Framework programme and Scorates and Leonardo projects.
Turkey is leading in the countries which have a majority Muslim poulation and this will further deepen.

We allready established the "CeBIT Eurasia" which is the biggest technology fair in its geography.
http://www.cebitbilisim.com/top-market_turkey.html

Also we build in last times many Technoparks throughout Turkey.
And together with Bill Gates, Turkey will build one big Technopark in Istanbul for which Silicone Valley in Nevada is the model.
This Technopark will employ 500.000 peoples.

Mr. Gates, preparing to gather the world's business CEOs in Istanbul, promised to be the first tenant in Istanbul’s Technocity, which will be built following the example of Silicon Valley in Nevada, will have the quality of a technology base for the Middle East and African countries and will create jobs for 500,000 people. (...)
Turkey has 17 technology- park projects and the first production-focused technopark, one of the most important, was opened in the Gebze Organized Industrial Zone on 20 December 2005.
(...)

http://www.zaman.com/?bl=economy&alt=&hn=28993

The for now biggest Technopark in Gebze was established with intense coordiantion and ccoperation with Israel. Their Hi-Tech forge "Tefen" near Tel-Aviv was model for this Technopark in Gebze.
And the Technopark in Gebze gives its first fruits:
First Hydrogen Automobile Developed
http://www.zaman.com/?bl=national&alt=&hn=21741

Also in Janauray 2006 in Turkish and Israelian parliament was a law ratified which enable intense cooperation between Turkey and Israel on different areas of technology:

Turkey-Israel to cooperate in space and science

Turkey and Israel are in the process of forming a very important partnership on technology. An agreement signed between the Turkish and Israel governments in 2005 is now in Parliament.
(...)
Among the scientific fields where cooperation is sought are:
- information technology
- lasers and optics
- mechanical electronics
- agriculture and agricultural genetics
- renewable energy
- nanotechnology
- aerodynamics
- biotechnology
- irrigation and other fields that will lead to industrial applications

The law also encourages entrepreneurs from both countries to develop projects. The two countries will from a commission to review progress in these fields where top officials and experts will participate. The commission will assess progress and support projects it finds interesting. Conferences, seminars and symposiums will be held to encourage participation and both countries will cooperate to find markets for goods produced.
Science and technology visits will be held and companies that work in related fields will be encouraged to exchange information and experience. Patent and intellectual property rights of individual participating companies will be respected and the laws of the two countries will be adhered to.

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=32813

 

[onedomino]

That's actually an interesting question. Using the World Factbook population numbers for 2006, I checked the following countries populations against the number of top 500 schools:

New Zealand: 1 top 500 school for every 815,228 people
Israel: 1 top 500 school for every 907,445 people.
Canada: 1 top 500 school for every 1.4 million people.
France: 1 top 500 school for every 2.9 million people.
Australia: 1 top 500 school for every 1.4 million people.

There is only one Muslim country that appears in the top 500 schools list: Turkey. It has one top 500 school for every 35 million people. Mexico has one top school for all of its 107 million people. Russia has one for every 71 million people. India has one top school for every 365 million people. China has one per 72 million people. Japan has one for every 3.7 million people. Iran has zero top 500 schools for its 70 million people, but it has 499 of the top 500 madrases.
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[jillian]

There is only one Muslim country that appears in the top 500 schools list: Turkey. It has one top 500 school for every 35 million people. Mexico has one top school for all of its 107 million people. Russia has one for every 71 million people. India has one top school for every 365 million people. China has one per 72 million people. Japan has one for every 3.7 million people. Iran has zero top 500 schools for its 70 million people, but it has 499 of the top 500 madrases.
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Actually, I figure Saudi Arabia has at least half of the top 500 madrassas. I'm not quite sure what the rest of your point, is... sorry. Might be missing it.

What I will say is that it's not religion which is inconsistent with science, education and advancement as the two can easily be complimentary when each remains in its place. It's religious fundamentalism, of any type, which interferes with science and education. Hence getting this list:

Evolution Less Accepted in U.S. Than Other Western Countries, Study Finds
James Owen
for National Geographic News

August 10, 2006
People in the United States are much less likely to accept Darwin's idea that humans and apes share a common ancestor than adults in other Western nations, a number of surveys show.

A new study of those surveys suggests that the main reason for this lies in a unique confluence of religion, politics, and the public understanding of biological science in the United States. Evolution and Religion Can Coexist, Scientists Say (October 2004)

Researchers compared the results of past surveys of attitudes toward evolution taken in the U.S. since 1985 and similar surveys in Japan and 32 European countries.

In the U.S., only 14 percent of adults thought that evolution was "definitely true," while about a third firmly rejected the idea.

In European countries, including Denmark, Sweden, and France, more than 80 percent of adults surveyed said they accepted the concept of evolution.

The proportion of western European adults who believed the theory "absolutely false" ranged from 7 percent in Great Britain to 15 percent in the Netherlands.

The only country included in the study where adults were more likely than Americans to reject evolution was Turkey.

The investigation also showed that the percentage of U.S. adults who are uncertain about evolution has risen from 7 percent to 21 percent in the past 20 years.

Researchers from the U.S. and Japan analyzed additional information from these surveys in an attempt to identify factors that might help explain why Americans are more skeptical about evolution.

Led by Jon D. Miller, a political scientist at Michigan State University, the team reports its findings in tomorrow's issue of the journal Science.

American Culture and Evolution

The team ran a complex analysis of the statistics, testing for a causal link between aspects of U.S. culture and Americans' attitudes toward evolution.

More:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/08/060810-evolution.html

for graph and full results:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/bigphotos/21329204.html

Ah... well, as Jon Stewart said, if evolution is ever disproven, then we can say we were second to Turkey in getting it right.

 

[onedomino]

Here’s a top 500 list related to academic and technological development: the top 500 super computer sites ranked by country:

http://top500.org/stats/27

United States 299
United Kingdom 35
Japan 29
China 28
Germany 18
India 11
Australia 9
Israel 9
Canada 8
France 8
Italy 7
Brazil 4
Korea, South 4
New Zealand 4
Saudia Arabia 4
Switzerland 4
Netherlands 3
Taiwan 3
Belgium 2
Ireland 2
Singapore 2
Belarus 1
Denmark 1
Malaysia 1
Russia 1
South Africa 1
Spain 1
Sweden 1
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[onedomino]

Actually, I figure Saudi Arabia has at least half of the top 500 madrassas. I'm not quite sure what the rest of your point, is... sorry. Might be missing it.

I was kidding about the madrases.
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[ekrem]

Here’s a top 500 list related to academic and technological development: the top 500 super computer sites ranked by country:

http://top500.org/stats/27

United States 299
United Kingdom 35
Japan 29
China 28
Germany 18
India 11
Australia 9
Israel 9
Canada 8
France 8
Italy 7
Brazil 4
Korea, South 4
New Zealand 4
Saudia Arabia 4
Switzerland 4
Netherlands 3
Taiwan 3
Belgium 2
Ireland 2
Singapore 2
Belarus 1
Denmark 1
Malaysia 1
Russia 1
South Africa 1
Spain 1
Sweden 1
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Hello.
ODTÜ University in Ankaral will also have a super computer in future.
ODTÜ is cooperating with the US "Stony Brooke" University in Long-Island on this subject.
The co-ordinator from "Stony Brooke" University is Prof. Dr. Deng.

Here you can watch him on ODTÜ-TV in Ankara about "Full-atom Simulation of Biomolecules Using Molecular Dynamics on Ultrascalable Parallel Computers" on 1 July 2005:
rtsp://lagun.cc.metu.edu.tr/online/video/superbilgisayar.rm?embed

The super computer in ODTÜ University will have capability to make 4 quintillion (4 TeraFLOPS) calculating steps in a second.
So this super computer will not be introduced in Turkey with Turkish reccource only, but with Cooperation by the knowledge of a US university.

But it is anyway very good, as super computers enable further work on nuclear sciences, gen technology and physics.
4 TeraFlops calculating steps seem to be low in comparance to IBM's BlueGene/L with 136 TeraFlops calculating steps (fastest computer on earth), but it will do for Turkey's needs.

It is only in Turkish:
http://www.ntvmsnbc.com/news/331620.asp

 

[jillian]

I was kidding about the madrases.
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