Arab states try to fill scientific shortfall

The words trip off the tongue: algebra and algorithm, alkali and alcohol, nadir and almanac. These technical words of Arabic origin attest to the role played centuries ago by scientists working in the Middle East.

Yet today the state of research and development in the Arab world is parlous.

In 2004, the UN Arab Development Report characterised Arab universities as “either buried in dust or smothered by ideologies”. A Unesco report in 2005 identified the region as “the least research-and-development-intensive area in the world”.