Hayat Sindi holds up the postage stamp-sized invention that could save the lives of millions of people

Born in Saudi Arabia, Hayat Sindi’s path into science may be rather untraditional for a Muslim women but it is there she has excelled and developed technologies which could improve the health of people living in the developing world. A biotechnology researcher, she has helped develop a life saving tool that is the size of a stamp and costs just a penny, which helps detect disease by analysing body fluids.

In a world where humans are doing the majority of the destruction of this planet, it’s nice to be able to point to individuals who are working to improve our existence.

The National Geographic recently announced its list of 14 activists and scientists who could change the world for the better and Hayat Sindi was on their list. They remarked that the science entrepreneur has not only been a inspirational figure for female students to science in the Middle East but also her team’s invention “could be a medical breakthrough saving millions of lives.”

The low-tech diagnostic tool which is made of paper has micro-channels with chemicals which react when the drop of blood that is placed on the paper. They reaction takes around a minute to occur and a change in colour provides the result. In isolated and rural areas of the world where such health monitoring is rare, such a device could help cheaply and safely diagnose millions of patients.

As she told the NatGeo: “For me, science is a universal language that transcends nationality, religion, and gender. It can help solve any problem our world faces.”

Hayat Sindi left her home and family in Mecca as a teen to travel to the UK to become a scientists. After working hard to learn English, she became the first Saudi woman to be accepted at Cambridge University to study in the field of biotechnology. She went on to earn her Ph.D., and became a visiting scholar at Harvard University where she and her team invented the diagnostic life-saving device .

In 2009, Hayat Sindi became the first Arab woman to win a fellowship in the American innovation network PopTech and in 2010 she received the prestigious Prince Khalid Award for her innovative approach to the sciences.

There are nature conservationists who insist that we need to protect the survival of every animal and plant not simply because biodiversity is important but because certain species could hold the key to resolving our problems. Indeed, medical and scientific discoveries have often emerged from the study of the natural world.

In a similar line of argument, it seems that there are certain individuals, who with the right encouragement and opportunities, could also provide the solution to our world’s problem. Hayat Sindi is such an individual and I hope to see more individuals shaping the world for the better emerging from the Middle East.

For more individuals changing the world for better see:

Palestine’s Geothermal Pioneer Shares Expertise Online

Egypt May Survive Climate Change Thanks to AUC Students

Interview With Environmental Filmmaker Zeina Aboul Hosn

The post Hayat Sindi: The Saudi Scientist Changing The World appeared first on Green Prophet.

Believe it or not, this busy week saw the start of the Islamic new year of 1432 A.H. Unlike the typical new year celebrations with parties, fireworks and new year countdown, the Islamic holiday is a pretty low-key event. Public celebrations are minimal and the event is mainly marked with private contemplation, prayer and reflection on the year that’s passed.

The Muslim calendar marks the hijrah, or pilgrimage, of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) from Mecca to Medina to escape religious persecution in 622AD which is why the Islamic year has the suffix A.H. (After Hijra). So in the true spirit of the Islamic new year, I want to look back on the year that’s gone and also consider whether the Middle East’s hijrah- or migration- towards a more sustainable future is on the right path.

Balloons, Bin Laden and ‘Not-so-green’ Buildings

There’s no denying that the Middle East’s environmental record this year has been pretty mixed- there has been some great progress but also some true green-washing horror stories. Let’s start with the disasters. The year was off to bad start due to the complete failure to secure afair and effective climate deal at the Copenhagen Summit but that didn’t stop the Middle East from adding to the problems. Green Prophet reporters have done a great job following the Masdar project farce in Dubai which is far too expensive to be considered a model of sustainable construction. And who could forget the misguided Green approach Syrian celebrities took in promoting environmentally-responsible behaviour by releasing balloons in Damascus or Bin Laden’s bizarre foray into the environmental arena.

The UAE’s biggest water theme park built around the global warming theme also hit the green-washing headlines as it failed to acknowledge the hypocrisy of building a water park in such a water scarce region. This year also saw further devastation of the River Jordan, Red Sea Oil spill, the Carmel fire as well as rising concerns about the impact climate change will have on the region.

Praying For Rain, Reform and Regional Co-operation

As one of the biggest threats facing the region, water security has been an issue we’ve been unable to ignore. Green Prophet interviewed Gidon Bromberg, the Israeli Director of Friends of the Earth Middle East who spoke of the need for “regional cooperation… to more fairly allocate shared water sources” as well as the Prince of Jordan on the severity of the issue. There was also a greater realization of the urgency of the issue of water scarcity from Muslim countries with Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali added that resolving this issues was one of the ‘most important duties’ of our time. In fact with Jordanians praying for rain and Syrians fleeing drought-stricken zones, it seems this realization has come a little too late.

Morocco took a big leap by creating an Environmental Charter this year (although they went on to arrest an environmental activist exposing illegal logging) whilst Egypt took steps towards eco-tourism in Sharm el-Sheikh. We have also reported on the growing influence of the Lebanese eco organisation IndyACT and Green Prophet has been advising people on how to green their Passover, to eat well, how to recycle/upcycle and get around in (green) style.

The Islamic world also seems to be making progress (as the eco-Islam editor I may be a little biased here!) with a celebrated Green Sheikh, the aptly ‘Mekkah Metro’, Green Ramadan as well as the rise of eco-mosques in the UK, the US and Turkey.

So are we on the right path? Well, it feels like the Middle East is slowly (and finally) recognising the real implications that climate change could have on them and why they have a vested interest in taking effective action now. Although it can sometimes feels like there is a lot of talk and little action, talking is part of the process of understanding the problem and what can be done. Hopefully as the impacts of global warming become more apparent, which they are, the region will be pushed into taking collaborative and effective action to create a more sustainable future.

Wishing all Green Prophet readers a happy and productive new year!

See more on climate change in MENA:

Arab World and Med Region More Vulnerable to Climate Change

Is the Middle East taking Climate Change Seriously?

Rehabilitate and Detox Your Lifestyle in Time for the New Year

Image via by Ivan Mlinaric on Flickr.

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Dire predictions, and new approaches, described the tenor of presentations made during the opening day of the Drylands, Deserts and Desertification Conference last week held at the Sde Boker campus of Ben-Gurion University in Israel.

The conclave, the third annual international conference organized by the University’s Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research in cooperation with UNESCO was devoted to the theme “The Route to Restoration.” Organized by BGU professor Alon Tal, a leading environmental figure in Israel, over five hundred participants from fifty countries were expected to have participated at the four-day conference. The theme of restoration was presented at the very start of the meeting where the plenary lecture was given by Professor Michael Rosenzweig of the University of Arizona (Tuscon).

Speaking on the subject of ecological restoration in the drylands, evolutionary biologist Prof. Rosenzwei began his talk by citing the unprecedented peril posed by the biodiversity crisis.

He stated that the crisis “is much, much greater than recognized by the international community.”

Prof. Michael Rosenzweig (below right) differs with a major school of ecology that advocates the closing off from human activity of  territories that are particular rich in biodiversity. These areas include approximately thirty ecological “hot spots” around the world.

Hot spots, which together cover just over two percent of the earth’s land mass are characterized by such a great endowment of biomass that by protecting them upward of fifty percent of all plant species and 34 percent of vertebrate animals species could be safeguarded (see Conservation International’s  Biodiversity Hot Spots).

The biodiversity crisis is characterized by species loss including extinction due to habitat destruction. It is now estimated that a species becomes extinct every twenty minutes and that a large proportion of bird and mammal species will become extinct in the next 200-300 years as a result of climate change and habitat loss deriving from deforestation, the reef crisis and other forms of environmental degradation.

While the elimination of species is a natural part of evolution, the current rate of extinction is believed to be 100-1000 times greater than expected, a situation that qualifies the current reality as an age of mass extinctions.

At risk is not only the number of species but the diversity of genetic characteristics that survive (see Levin and Levin,  American Scientist The Real Biodiversity Crisis).

A further concern that has been less clearly established is that the rate of speciation, the process by which new species arise, may also be in decline.

Reconciliation Ecology

Rather than closing off hot spots and other ecologically vulnerable areas from human activity, Prof. Rosenzweig advocates another approach, reconciliation ecology which he pioneered in such books as Win-Win Ecology and in the journal Evolutionary Ecology Research.

Essentially, reconciliation ecology posits that it is possible to protect  biodiversity in areas of human occupancy if the economic activities undertaken foster rather than harm diverse species. Areas where species loss and other damage to flora and fauna has taken place can actually be revived by carefully controlled regimes that enhance and promote the regeneration of biological stocks and species restoration.

Reconciliation ecology envisions designing “ways we use the land for living, for profit, for recreation and for producing our food, fuel, fiber, minerals and building materials,” in a manner that “supports many other species. Sharing our land and having it, too,”  as described by the Alliance for Reconciliation Ecology.

Living Laboratory

Michael Rosenzweig and his group have a living laboratory at Tumamoc Hill in Tucson, Arizona. The site has been home to successive settlements including a village established there some 2300 years ago. Today it is a recreational site for hiking and its unique ecosystem is maintained as a nature reserve by a partnership of  the University of Arizona and the Pima County. Activities for adults, students and school children ranging from astronomical observation, instruction in soil science and topology, cactus cultivation and surveying plant species take place at Tumamoc Hill.

At Tumamoc reconciliation ecology the approach is applied. It  entails inventorying existing species and establishing and maintaining new habitats to conserve species diversity. This is done in a way that integrates, rather than excludes human occupancy and activity.

Nest Towers in Portugal, A Salt Marsh in Eilat

Prof. Rosenzweig also described a case he is familiar with in Castro Verde, Portugal where the restoration of a dwindling bird population, kestrels (a type of small falcon) was revived through the invigoration of agriculture in the region. Emphasis was placed on cultivating crops that the birds could use as food. Nest towers were erected to  provide new homes for the birds whose original arboreal nesting grounds had been denuded. The agricultural restoration countered pervasive soil erosion in the area by ninety percent and increased yields in the region by a factor of fifty.

Prof. Rosenzweig also cited the case of the International Birding and Research Centre where a salt marsh was established by ornithologists Dr. Reuven Yosef on a garbage dump in northern Eilat.

The natural marsh, used by migratory birds flying the air lane between Europe and southern Africa and that passes directly over Israel provides ecological service (a rest area and food source) to an estimated half a billion to one billion birds representing 230 species each year.

After the original salt marsh was destroyed in order to make way for hotels and other infrastructure for Eilat’s tourist industry, Dr. Yosef created  a new ecosystem by involving volunteers from all over the world,  including a program conducted in cooperation with the Earthwatch Institute (for further reading see An Oasis Builder In A Land Of Strife).

The creation of the new habitat in the midst of a densely populated urban center fostered new sets of flora and fauna in a system that is scientifically designed and maintained. It has enabled the great avian migration to continue over Israel. The wellbeing of this migration has myriad ecological implications throughout three continents.

The  Tumamac, Castro Verde and Eilat cases offer a new view to ecological restoration. Rather than leading to the closure of the regions from human settlement it promotes creating an optimal relationship between people and the natural involving adaptive practices that, aside from enhancing biodiversity serve to create employment opportunities and increase incomes in marginal areas. The approach is to reconcile human activity with the maintenance and enhancement of new habitats or the restoration of diminished ones.

Photo by Wolfgang Motzafi-Haller courtesy Ben-Gurion University.

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