Sesame Project: Multinational Particle Accelerator in the Middle East

benbradley said:

I thought of dropping this link into another thread, but this really deserves its own thread - it's something positive (pun intended in this highly charged area) in the Middle East:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20446971

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Hopefully they have enough of a background in mathematics to succeed

I really hope that this brings back some of the Muslim scientific prowess. They were kicking Europe's ass for centuries back in the day...

That's a really great idea. I'm not familiar with what it's like in all of those nations, but I can spot that many of them are good at science, and even female scientists aren't rare at all.

Now fewer of them will have to travel to Western places to do research. They'll be working alongside folks from their own region, and that can only be a good thing, imho.

How long will it take them to find the Allah Particle?

Zoombie said:

I really hope that this brings back some of the Muslim scientific prowess. They were kicking Europe's ass for centuries back in the day...

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Let's all remember that the word "algebra" is Arabic in derivation, and that mathematical calculation system was invented by an Arab scholar. The familiar names of many of the bright stars we see are also derived from Arabic astronomers: Aldebaran, Algol, Rigel, Altair, Deneb, Alnitak, Alnilam, Dubhe, Mizar, Fomalhaut, Achernar, Betelgeuse . . .

Regrettably, with the rise of Wahhabism, much of this enterprise of erudition ceased, oddly in near coincidence with the rise of Renaissance science in Europe, in the work of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo.

But this new proposed development won't be without controversy in the Islamic world, where in places like Iran, scientific inquiry has been severely stifled for the past three decades now.

caw

blacbird said:

Regrettably, with the rise of Wahhabism, much of this enterprise of erudition ceased, oddly in near coincidence with the rise of Renaissance science in Europe, in the work of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo.

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People tend to forget that it wasn't only the rennaisance that came with the 14th century. The plague did too. A lot of the stagnation of muslim science in this era is most likely due to the civilisation being utterly decimated by the disease.

Europe, which still lost between a half and a third of the populations, was fairly sparsely populated with a vast majority living in small town and on the country side. But with Bagdad? Istanbul? Kairo? These great population centres, and the centres of philosophy and science were ruined.

The impetus for the stagnation was probably a "god is punishing us", which lead to a rise of extremist devotion both in Europe and in the Middle East. By the time the waves of plague were over in the 16th and 17th centuries, the age of empires had started in earnest, and the Islamic world was never allowed to gain in influence.

Edit-
I'm trying to dig up sources for this. I read the theory in a Swedish history book by one of the members of the Royal Academy, but my googling doesn't bring up immediate sources. Give me some time.