Middle East North Africa Science Platform
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MENA Science
COVID-19 landmark vaccine results
'Nature'
Scientists welcome the first compelling evidence that a vaccine can prevent COVID-19. But questions remain about how much protection it offers, to whom and for how long The Husband-and-Wife Team Behind the Leading VaccineCOVID-19 Middle East Map
'Nature Middle East'
Weekly updated World Health Organization figures on COVID-19 cases and deaths within the Arab region. Providing context for COVID-19 numbers in the Arab region
Towards targeted therapies for amyloid diseases
'Nature Middle East'
Study reveals a promising route for inhibiting the aggregation of harmful proteins associated with Alzheimer’s and other amyloid diseases. Dramatic species loss
'Middle East Eye'
From decimated fish and wildlife stocks in the Red Sea to declining water resources in Iraq, myriad environmental issues plague the region. Delegates at the UN conference in Egypt will not have to look far for evidence of ongoing biodiversity loss. The corals of the northern Red Sea around Sharm el-Sheikh and the Gulf of Aqaba are among the richest natural habitats on earth, home to more than 1,000 species of fish and 250 different types of coral. Red Sea corals have shown remarkable resilience in the face of rising temperatures and climate change. But haphazard tourist development, the dumping of waste in the sea, overfishing, and the use of explosives by fishers have all done serious damage to this rich area of biodiversity. Spread of agriculture
'Agro biodiver'
Luigi Guarino created an interesting image: merging a recent updated map of the expansion of agriculture in Europe with the localities of genebank accessions using barley landrace data from Genesys and importing it into Google Earth. There are ongoing efforts at ICARDA to maintain and identify new cereal landraces in the MENA region. This underpins global scientific efforts to identify new crop cultivars better suited for agriculture and adaptation to changing climate. Farming with ancient species'Al Jazeera'
An economic success story combining organic farming , ancient varieties and protecting biodiversity. Two brothers are leading a farming revolution in Greece, which has Europe's highest plant biodiversity. This has lessons for sustainable farming globally and especially for the MENA region with a rich history of crop landraces and evolution. Iranian landrace durum wheat
'Frontiers'
Genomic Regions From an Iranian Landrace Increase kernel size in Durum wheat. The availability of the latest genome sequences in wheat plus genetic analysis was used to investigate durum wheat kernel morphology factors and their relationships with kernel weight, and to map the corresponding QTLs. Kernel size and shape are important parameters determining the wheat profitability, being main determinants of yield and its technological quality. WATER-WISE
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MENA Sustainability
Women in STEM face challenges
'Nature Middle East'
'UK-based Egyptian computer science lecturer Mai Elshehaly considers the need for a more inclusive narrative that recognizes the diversity of women in STEM.' 'Mai Elshehaly is a lecturer in computer science at the University of Bradford, UK. Recently, two young women from very different backgrounds and stages in their education asked me if a successful academic career in computer science was possible for ‘someone like them’. Their questions made me think about what was behind the lack of confidence in their ability to excel.' Saving Endangered Hyenas in Palestine
In February, 2020, a Striped Hyena was released after ten months of nursing care by staff and volunteers at the Palestine Museum of Natural History; a huge victory in a small world.
Research conducted over time in occupied Palestine placed awareness of the Striped Hyena (Hyaena hyaena syriaca) as being among animals threatened globally according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/ 10274/45195080) as well as being endangered locally. It is widely distributed across Asia, Africa and the Middle East indicating transitional stages among known subspecies. The Striped Hyena is the only hyena of four global species found within the Palestinian territories. Palestine Museum of Natural History
The primary mission of the Palestine Museum of Natural History (PMNH) and its companion, the Institute of Biodiversity Research (PIBR) is to promote research and educate people.
The importance of conserving and protecting our natural world places strong emphasis on the teaching of elementary and high school students at the Museum. Most important is to train the young people to pass on their acquired knowledge so as to promote responsible behavior between people and the environment. To that end, students coming to the Museum play a critical role. MENA food security
' IDS'
The projected impacts of climate change on food security in the Middle East and North Africa(MENA) 'How mattresses could solve hunger'
' The BBC'
' Syrian refugees at Za'atari camp in Jordan and scientists from the University of Sheffield in the UK are working together to create a way to grow healthy, fresh food with nothing but water and old mattress foam. These 'recycled gardens' use the mattresses in place of the soil, which solves two problems in one: It reuses the mountain of plastic mattresses that have piled up in the camp and it allows everyone to grow fresh food in a crowded, desert environment.' Qatar started air-conditioning the outdoors
' The independent'
Temperatures in Qatar – one of the hottest places on Earth – have risen so much that authorities have installed air conditioning in the open air including in streets and outdoor markets. Eat less meat
'Nature'
IPCC: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet. Efforts to curb greenhouse gas-emissions and the impacts of global warming will fall significantly short without drastic changes in global land use, agriculture and human diets, leading researchers warn in a high-level report commissioned by the United Nations. Environmental Sustainability
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