Posted on 05/28/2005 8:24:35 AM PDT by Valin
Sabbah’s Blog life, politics, art, culture, science, technology & me! « Royal Metropolis: The Jordan Gate & Royal VillageRe: Here’s some good news from the Jordan: Israel, Iran, Syria, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Palestine Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Algeria, Jordan and many other countries from around the globe (click below graph for a list of other countries), need no “Open SESAME magic” to be able to cooperate on an advanced scientific project.
In Al-Balqa’ Applied University, just north of Amman - and at a comfortable distance from the spotlight thrown by political conflicts - representatives of these countries are involved in developing SESAME, an acronym for Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East.
It’s a rare and possibly unique example of scientific cooperation between Israel and so many Arab countries. Libya is expected to join soon as an observer. The UNESCO umbrella had been used in much the same way in the years following World War II to bring together two initiatives: one originating from physicists, the other pushed by politicians to use science as a pathway for regional cooperation and cohesion in Europe. That early “science for peace” effort built the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland-CERN. Schopper states that the Council originally created by UNESCO for the project retains a symbolic presence in the “C” in CERN, which is still governed by a Council with ultimate authority in all scientific, technical and administrative matters.
The political importance of the project cannot be underestimated. Scientists in the region work together in a spirit of cooperation for the sake of developing the Middle East.
SESAME, the Middle East’s first major international research center, is a synchrotron accelerator. It uses magnets to create a circular path for electrons traveling at nearly the speed of light, producing a beam of bright ultraviolet and X-ray light, about the diameter of a human hair, that is directed down beam lines to end stations.
An international synchrotron-light source in the Middle East was first proposed in 1997, when peace seemed to be on the way. European and Middle Eastern scientists worked together, and with the contribution of an old German synchrotron, SESAME got underway.
ping
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.