Bronze age weather report solves some ancient mysteries

Bronze age weather report solves some ancient mysteries

Posted by Pakinam AmerCategories: Archaeology, Research, Wisdom

A revised translation of a Bronze Age Egyptian stela corrects the timeline of Ahmose’s reign and offers a more precise geological and political map of the old region.

The world’s oldest weather report is here in Egypt – and it describes the devastation of the entire country due to an atypical “tempest”; a thorough and detailed description that finally helped scholars determine the precise timeline of Ahmose’s rule, and in turn shed light on the chronology of ancient events in this region.

The record of the sweeping rains and thunder described in the 3,500-year-old 6-foot block of stone, otherwise known as Tempest Stela, is not metaphor, explain the two scholars in their new translation of the record, published in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies. Robert K. Ritner and Nadine Moeller, of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, wrote that the weather events described on the block appear to be the aftermath of a very real geological event: the famous volcano eruption at Thera (present-day Santorini, an island in the Mediterranean) whose effects reverberated across the region.

Ahmose I of Dynasty 18

THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

Ahmose I was the founder of the 18th dynasty and a pharaoh of ancient Egypt, famous for military campaigns that saw him drive the Hyksos out of Lower Egypt, clinch their stronghold in modern-day Gaza and take over lands in Syria and Nubia—heralding the birth of the New Kingdom. The stela was written down during his reign.

Scholars previously believed that the records of thunder and rain described on the stela were figurative –perhaps analogical references to Ahmose’s political conquests. But Ritner and Moeller beg to differ. The stela’s reports are not only literal, but are “further proof that the scholars under Ahmose paid close and particular attention to matters of weather,” they say.

The natural catastrophe lasted for an extended period, and was “unparalleled in intensity and extent,” as per the stela. Although the precise number of days is lost, the storm could have lasted for up to a month, according to some estimates, suggested the scholars.

The Egyptian stela mentions vivid imagery from the resulting chaos: “construction debris, household furnishings and […] human victims are washed by the driving rains into the river.” And it clearly states that the devastation extended into the “Two lands” a reference to north and south of Egypt.

“What Ahmose experienced and recorded was neither a typical storm, nor a masked reference to Hyksos destruction and royal defeat of primordial chaos,” say the researchers. “Whether the Tempest Stela records the actual events of Thera or later after-effects cannot be proved conclusively since the text cannot be expected to state that the storm ‘originated in Santorini’ or ‘among the Aegean islanders’.”

“The events described need not be testimony of the initial explosion, but rather of climactic after-effects that would have continued for some years,” the researchers added in their paper. “The Ahmose text’s further statement that those on the east and west lacked “clothing” … proves that this is a reference to the specific rain event, not a general metaphor for long term Hyksos domination.”

The researchers suggest that other scholars may have been reluctant to link the eruption at Thera to the Tempest Stela not because of the text itself, but because of chronological implications of such a link. “With newer and better dates for the eruption, there yet remains another possibility for reconciliation […] If Thera cannot be moved to Ahmose, it is becoming clearer that Ahmose might be moved toward Thera.”

The link between Ahmose’s reign plus the stela on one hand and Thera on the other has meant that scholars have now accurately placed his reign 30 to 50 years earlier than the previously recorded dating.

David Schloen, associate professor in the Oriental Institute and Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations on ancient cultures in the Middle East told EurekAlert!, science news agency, that Ritner and Moeller’s revised translation and their new conclusions helps “realign the dates of important events such as the fall of the power of the Canaanites and the collapse of the Babylonian Empire” in the ancient Near East, fitting the dates of other events more logically.

“This new information would provide a better understanding of the role of the environment in the development and destruction of empires in the ancient Middle East,” he said.

Google doodle celebrates Muslim physicist - NATURE MIDDLE EAST | HOUSE OF WISDOM

NATURE MIDDLE EAST | HOUSE OF WISDOM

Google doodle celebrates Muslim physicist

01 Jul 2013 | 10:29 BST | Posted by Mohammed Yahia | Category: Science, Wisdom

If you live in one of the Arab states of the Middle East, then you will likely have been greeted by an interesting new Google doodle today for the anniversary of one of the most celebrated Muslim medeival scientists.

Ibn al-Haytham, known in the West by his Latinized name Alhazen, was born 1 July, 956 AD, in Basra in present-day Iraq but lived most of his life in Egypt. A polymath, Alhazen has contributed to the sciences of optics, astronomy, mathematics and philosophy. He is one of the earliest, if not the first, theoretical physicists in the world, using mathematics to prove his theories of optics.

Alhazen is best known for his work to prove experimentally how we see objects. He disproved the emission theory, which was popular at that time and stated that the eyes shine light on objects that we see, and countered that we see objects because light from them falls on our eyes instead. He was also the first to prove that light moved in straight lines through experimentation on mirrors and lenses  and studying refraction and reflection.

This led to the discovery he is best known for, the camera obscura, or pinhole camera. His books had the first clear description of it and an analysis of how it worked.

Most of this research was done when he was under house arrest, after feigning madness when he had promised the caliph of Egypt, Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, he would be able to control the flow of the Nile but it proved too daunting a task for him. His arrest was lifted following the death of the caliph and he continued his research and made money copying books.

The most important contribution of Alhazen to science must be his “Book of Optics”, a seven-volume study of optics and other related disciplines. The book was quite influential in Europe when it was translated in the 12th century. The experimental approaches and mathematical verification that Alhazen took when writing the book were essential for laying the foundation of the scientific method. It was considered the most important book on optics in Europe until Kepler’s work.

In addition to his work on optics, Alhazen is thought to have published 200 books of science in total, with at least 96 being currently known. Most of his work has been lost, but nearly 50 books have survived and are still being studied.

NATURE MIDDLE EAST | HOUSE OF WISDOM

Scientific Saudi – bringing science to the public

14 May 2013 | 16:26 BST | Posted by Mohammed Yahia | Category: Science Journalism

In my search for good science blogs and science communication efforts in the Arab world, I ran over the past few years into a few really interesting things that people are doing, and have always been keen to highlight them here. Recently, we had a blog post about the first students science magazine in the Arab world – which should be launching online next month – and another on a Syrian researcher who has set up a YouTube channel to communicate science in a simple, easy to understand manner for the public.

Hot on their heals, and working tirelessly since almost a year ago, is Scientific Saudi – which started as a Facebook page by 25-year-old medical student Muath Alduhishy and expanded today into a six-member team covering most of the other social networks. I caught up with Muath to chat about Scientific Saudi, how it started and where they hope to take it in the future.

1)      How did the idea for Scientific Saudi come about and how long have you been online? 

The idea of Scientific Saudi started over a year ago, when I noticed the high prevalence of English-speaking scientific groups in the social media, namely Facebook, while I couldn’t find any in the Arabic-speaking world of Facebook.

However, there are plenty of pseudoscientific groups, which in lieu of providing updated, credible and verified scientific articles and news, they broadcast common factoids that have been circulating the internet since its establishment or, in other cases, they are religious-oriented groups that uses science as a means to support their spiritual believes.

I couldn’t find any credible Arabic-speaking group that’s passionate to communicate science purely for the sake of educating and informing people about the astonishing and mind-blowing advances and breakthroughs that happen every day in the research centres and universities, as it was the case with the numerous English-speaking scientific groups that I’ve come across, albeit I did found a couple of amazing Arabic scientific groups later on, but they are extremely scarce and have negligible impact in terms of the quantity of fans.

At this moment, I realised that it’s my duty to bridge the gap, or at least to attempt to do so, due to the fact that I have always been passionate about science and I’ve been nurturing my passion for years through listening to scientific shows and podcasts and subscribing to scientific publications, such as your sister science publication Scientific American, hence the name Scientific Saudi.

I started the group by myself as a Facebook page at the end of July 2012. It was just an ad hoc step. I had no grand plan or long-term strategy at that time. I had this idea for a while so I wanted to do something about it. From the first day, I made a pledge to myself to distinguish my page by not publishing anything without a credible, and, where possible, peer-reviewed reference, and to preserve the intellectual rights of any materials or persons presented in the group. I know it seemed a bit extreme and overly ideal commitment, especially that I publish new posts every day, but I did strictly adhere to it and still do, with a few exceptions. Also, I request from every contributor to adhere to this golden rule of mine.

Today, we have pages on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube as well as an official website. We have over 30,000 followers in the aforementioned social networking websites, which is still a considerably scant number compared to the overwhelmingly ubiquitous religious, celebrities and trivia pages.

2)      What are your plans to expand on what you have right now?

We are currently in the phase of expansion and development, which means focusing on increasing our impact and spreading further out. We are being gradually recognized in the world of social media as it’s evident in your reach to us. Also, we are interested in collaborating the efforts with other scientific groups and with individuals who share the same passion as us. You can read more about our goals as well as our mission and message here http://www.scientificsaudi.com/about-16051606-160615811606.html

3)      I see the website is updated rather irregularly and not very often. Why is that?

From our experience so far, you cannot have a large number of visitors to the website, enough to make it worthwhile to regularly maintain and update it, without a high number of fans and good marketing of the group in the first place. We have two websites, the former beta website (http://scientificsaudi.wix.com/home) and the official one (www.scientificsaudi.com), and we used to update the latter one on a daily basis since its launch at the end of January 2013.

By time, we discovered that it is considerably time-consuming effort to regularly maintain the website. We only got a few hundred visitors in the first month, while our impact in the social media reaches tens of thousands a month. So we are currently concentrating all our efforts in social media for the time being, to expand our audience and to publicise our group further.

However, the website is currently indispensable to our group since it identifies us and allows us to collect and manage our intellectual work. Besides, we have plans to regularly update and keep up the website in the future when our impact is considerably higher.

4)      How do you choose the topics you highlight on your page?

Currently, there’s no strict scheme of publication. We post variable scientific news and information on daily basis, most of them concerning newly published research papers. Occasionally, we post scientific infographics and resources that demonstrate fascinating information about different scientific topics. More importantly, we try to raise the public awareness about the scientific methodology and some of the major scientific theories, such as the evolution and big bang theories. Many of the major theories of science are either unbeknownst to people in the region or have been inaccurately presented to them or even, in extreme cases, mutilated by pseudoscientists, who are driven by their personal agenda, to make these theories look irrational and offensive.

Moreover, we have several correspondents who occasionally write for us about different fields of science, such as physics and astronomy. Also, we highly encourage and support any scientific endeavours in the region, and we have multiple collaboration with different Arabic scientific groups and individuals to publish their intellectual work on our pages.

5)      I see you have several articles on Darwin and evolution – topics that are often thorny in the Arab world, and might be especially so in Saudi Arabia. How do you handle these topics? And has there ever been a backlash against you for your coverage of these topics?

This is a good question, I have to say. However, before I answer it, you should know that we are committed to not discuss religion or politics in our published work, which is really an unprecedented proposition in the Arabic-speaking world. Most of the Arabic scientific speakers and communicators, albeit they are few, have strong religious tendencies.

I, myself, have no problem with that at all, but the problem is that many of them handle scientific theories that might contradict with their religious views with an unscientific mentality. I was listening the other day to a highly regarded scientific communicator in the Islamic world talking about Darwin’s evolution theory as if it was a ‘conspiracy’ to dehumanise people, and that it has no plausible scientific basis. He clearly has no clue how significant is the evidence that supports this theory, or at least he appears so.

Now to answer your question, yes, we do care greatly about scientifically and objectively explaining such major theories that shaped our current knowledge of the world. Darwin’s theory of evolution, in particular, is supported by a significant amount of evidence from different fields of science, and that’s what we care about here as a scientific group. Of course this means we will deal with a backlash from some of our readers, and we did, but we are still willing to answer every inquiry they have about such theories without judgment or reject. In fact, we have witnessed people who strongly disbelieve that humans have ever passed the stratosphere, others think that the big bang theory is just an absurd lie, and some who think that stem cells technology is a myth. If we are afraid of any backlash in the group, then we should quit science.

However, it should be noted that if an opponent of any theory of science brought a plausible scientific evidence against it, then we are willing to adopt the evidence without hesitation. In short, science is our language in this group.

Simplifying science in Arabic - NATURE MIDDLE EAST | HOUSE OF WISDOM

NATURE MIDDLE EAST | HOUSE OF WISDOM

Simplifying science in Arabic

03 Apr 2013 | 15:39 BST | Posted by Mohammed Yahia | Category: Science, Science Journalism

Mouhannad Malek, a young Syrian researcher studying in Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, is obsessed with spreading science among the public in the Arab world. He wants to start with complex issues of science from interesting research papers and distill them down to a format where someone with no prior science knowledge whatsoever would be able to understand.

He started the “Syrian Researchers” page last year on Facebook which was quite successful, which has over 13,000 likes now, where he explains science papers in a simple, easy to understand way. “When I write an article to publish it on this page, I try to read it to my parents, who don’t know anything about science. So if they understand it, I publish it. Simple, but it works,” says Malek.

More recently, Malek has launched a YouTube channel where he explains new science papers to a layperson audience in Arabic – probably a first of its kind. The topics are diverse – ranging from the effect of drinking diet soda to sleep deprivation and stem cell research. Malek contends he opted to use videos because Arabs mostly prefer to watch television rather than read. This way, he is able to offer them science knowledge in an exciting format with the click of a mouse.

While Malek has been posting a new movie every two weeks or so, he is increasing the frequency to twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays. While it is currently a one man show, several other scientists have contacted him showing interest in joining the project and generating similar videos. “I asked them to shoot something and to speak with a simple language, this is my red line. I am waiting for their trials.

While there are over 40 volunteers now helping across the website and Facebook page, Malek still handles the YouTube channel alone. “My problem is technical; I don’t have any professional software to help me so I am learning as I go. And on top of being a scientist from 9:00 to 6:00, when I get back home I start to become an actor, animator, editor and director.”

He does not want to stop at YouTube, however. Malek would one day like to expand his project into a full-fledged science channel on television. He hopes he can generate interest in science and compete with other mainstream channels by offering science in a simple, fun and engaging manner, making it a contender for the time people spend in from of the television. “I am not talking just biology; I am talking about everything – biology, geology, physics, economy, art, architecture, music, etc.”

The channel he envisions would be profitable to the investors, while part of its revenues would go to a charity that supports scholarships for students in the Arab world to study overseas “in order to create a new Middle Eastern scientists generation,” he explains.

“I hope that one day, this YouTube channel would reach every single connected house in the Middle East. I hope really that we increase the knowledge of our people. I hope that people would ask questions, not just reacting passively. I hope by doing what I do, I can make science and culture entertaining,” says Malek.

NATURE MIDDLE EAST | HOUSE OF WISDOM

Top science news of 2011 in the Middle East

02 Jan 2012 | 12:00 GMT | Posted by Mohammed Yahia | Category: Research, Science, Science Journalism

The year 2011 was an exciting and pivotal one for the Middle East, mainly for political reasons. However, science also saw some very interesting developments, with a substantial increase in papers from the region published in prestigious journals and a boost to collaborative research between universities in the Arab world and their counterparts in the West.

Following our list of the most read research highlights of 2011 two days ago, here is a list of the five most interesting science news pieces published in 2011 on Nature Middle East, based on how popular they were with you, our readers.

1. The Arab Awakening Special: By far the biggest news in the Arab world has been the spread of the Arab Spring from Tunisia to Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain, with young people rising against long-time dictators and seeking greater freedoms and democracies. Scientists and university professors and students played an important role in the events, taking to the streets to protest limited academic freedoms, and discussing how science can reshape their countries. Eventually, a scientist became the first post-revolution prime minister of Egypt.
2. Attention drawn to epidemic of HIV in the Arab world: A new paper published in PLoS in 2011 offered the first systematic review of the rate of HIV/AIDS within the men who have sex with men (MSM) community in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This group is often ignored since the subject is taboo in the region, which easily fuels HIV/AIDS spread. The report found concentrated epidemics are starting to show up in several countries among MSM.
3. Report tracks standard of research in Middle East: How has the Middle East performed in terms of science research output over the past decade? According tho a Reuters Thompson report, research output in the region has more than doubled over that period of time, with Turkey and Iran taking the lead. Engineering  is the strongest sector in research, with neuroscience and the social sciences the weakest across the Arab world.
4. KAUST study reveals climate change impact on the Red Sea: Analyzing data collected from the Red Sea since the mid-1980′s, researchers at KAUST have that the temperature of the sea has been increasing sharply since the 1990′s, faster than global averages. The increase may be related to climate change, but its abrupt nature may make it hard to predict future temperature increases in climate models.
5. Genes reveal gender of date palms: Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q) were able to determine the date palm genes responsible for gender after assembling a draft of the tree’s genome. This could in the future allow farmers to increase their crop output by up to 100%, once a method is developed to extract DNA from the embryo without destroying the seed, thus determining the sex of the seed early on. They can select and only plant seeds of the fruit-bearing females.

NATURE MIDDLE EAST | HOUSE OF WISDOM

What NOT to do when discussing evolution

29 Jun 2011 | 22:11 BST | Posted by Mohammed Yahia | Category: Science Journalism

http://blogs.nature.com/houseofwisdom/2011/06/what_not_to_do_when_discussing.html

A pelinary panel on the second day of the World Conference of Science Journalists 2011 (WCSJ2011) discussed one of my favourite controversial issues: How should science journalists cover evolution?

The panel included the renowned Eugenie Scott, from the National Center for Science Education who has been active for many long years in protecting the education of evolution in US schools. She was joined on the panel by Elsabe Brits from DieBurger in South Africa and Valeria Roman from Argentina. Rounding up the panel was Salman Hammed , one of the people who have done the most research on evolution education in Muslim-majority countries and author of the Irtiqa blog.

I thought I’d curate here some of the amazing advice they shared which will be useful to anyone writing about evolution or discussing it, especially in religious communities.

1) Watch your language! Eugene argues that the language chosen by reporters can make a large difference. As an example, she suggests using the word ‘evolution’ rather than ‘theory of evolution’. In a science community the phrase theory of evolution makes every sense, but in a lay audience this is often argued to mean it is just a theory that still needs to be proven because there aren’t enough evidence for it. She also advises not to use the word “Darwinism” – because -ism usually refers to ideologies and has a bad reflection in the mind (take for example fascism, sexism, racism, etc)

2) Do not go into the narrative that pits religion against science in the context of evolution. Disband an acceptance of evolution from a refusal of religions. You can even cite examples of scientists or religious scholars who have no problem with their religious beliefs and the scientific evidence. Ever emphasizing this unnecessary conflict is not the smartest thing to do in a predominantly religious society.

3)Treat evolution like any other science story. That narrative neither makes sense nor has any necessity and does more harm than good when covering evolution in a religious community.

4) Find stories of evolution with a local angle. This makes it easier for people to relate to evolution and see it as something that is actually happening in the backyard rather than half the world away. Hameed gives the example of Pakicetus, a 50-million-year old ancestor of modern whales, which was actually discovered in Pakistan but did not get much coverage there.

5) Don’t try to use the word “missing link” even though it is always sexy. This conveys a wrong impression that scientists are missing a certain fossil to actually prove evolution happened. The truth is, every newly-discovered fossil of a creature we didn’t know of before IS a missing link. There is no need to hype a story unnecessarily.

6) Understand your audience. The context of evolution coverage would be vastly different depending on who you are talking to. For example, Muslims have no problems with an Old Earth theory so there will be no need to discuss a Young Earth for any reason. This can be different depending on other religions

Finally, if you are curious about the picture, it comes from a funny story that Hameed shared at the beginning of his presentation. Apparently, there was a religious fatwa (or edict) in Saudi Arabia a few years ago against Pokemon because the show encourages evolution.

Do you have other tips not covered here? Share them in the comments section!

Do we need science media centres in the Arab world?

09 May 2014 | 13:35 BST

Do we need science media centres in the Arab world?

Posted by Mohammed YahiaCategories: Science Journalismhttp://blogs.nature.com/houseofwisdom/2014/05/do-we-need-science-media-centres-in-the-arab-world.html

A talk about the negative effects that science media centres are having on science journalism is almost an obligatory session at any meeting of science journalists or science communicators, and the 13th International Public Communication of Science and Technology (PCST 2014) was no exception.

Science media centres can often become PR centres, deceive journalists and can contribute to churnalism, where journalists try to put out a large number of stories that involve little research and are of low quality.

There are no science media centres in any country in the Arab world, for better or for worse. I would sometimes argue that we should start setting some up, especially in countries that are increasing their science output, in order to promote more and higher quality of science journalism.

But a panel discussion at PCST 2014 about science media centres in the United Kingdom, argued how effective science media centres can really be.

“The problem is science media centres often don’t promote science, but promote corporate-funded controversial science,” says David Miller, a professor of sociology at University of Bath, United Kingdom.. In a study he presented during the session, he showed that science media centres were communicating very little public health, which may be relevant to the community. Most of their coverage was of controversial science topics such as stem cell research or genetically-modified organisms (GMO), which are issues important to corporates.

Connie St. Louis, director of the MA in Science Journalism at City University, London, argues that in the developing world, where most science research is government-funded, it can lead to the government practicing more censorship on media.

Based on the problems of science media centres, the speakers suggested that anyone setting up a new one need approach it differently:

1) they should emphasize transparency with the budget and make sure they are independent, which is ultimately In the long-term interest of science since it will be seen as promoting scrutiny;

2) Tailor them to the interests of journalists and make sure they work in the interest of journalism, not promotion of science;

3) Science journalists should be more involved in the governance of science media centres

A different model

St. Louis suggests that an alternative model to the current science media centres could have much better results. “I would close down science media centres and urge the governments to use the money to fund science journalists to do better investigative journalism.”

Andy Williams, from Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, suggests that such an institute should be run by science journalists, who would know how to best tailor it to the needs of their fellow colleagues.

Miller suggests that this kind of initiative would have to be quite different from the current model – arguably a different sort of phenomenon altogether – in that these new institutes would need to be insulated from corporate funding, and could thus also encourage investigative reporting of both sides of controversies.

Such an institute could, ultimately, be much more beneficial for developing countries eager to enhance their science coverage than the current science media centre model prevalent in the West.