Studying Nature

This post addresses the topic of "science". If you are in strong opposition of anything that is remotely scientific, I advise you to not continue reading any further. Doing so will only result in infuriation, on both my part and yours. Let us all live happily and close this browser window (or tab). On another note, learn to tolerate other points of views and read on.

Now that that's out of the way, I shall begin.

Several days ago I was sitting in class, staring at my iPad, oblivious to what the professor was attempting to teach me. I spend the rest of the class scrutinizing two tables, trying to make sense out of them. By the end of the class I finally understood. See them for yourself:

Now, these two tables don't quite look right do they? You might have seen either or both of them before, of course, because I've been going around showing people how awesome they are. In any case, in what world does 1 + 6 equal 10? In a septimal system where the base is 7! We live in a world that uses the decimal system where the base is 10, where 1 + 9 = 10; it is hard for us to think in terms of any other numerical system. If you notice, the numbers 7, 8 and 9 do not appear on those two tables in any way; they do not exist. Take some time and think until you finally understand why the numbers all seem very messed up. You can then go into a debate and argue that the only reason this is hard to comprehend is because of the meaning attached to the numbers, and not because of any mathematical trick. That is true, but you would then have to argue that you can only read and understand what I'm saying is because of the meaning attached to the words. It's more or less the same thing, there is no real mathematics involved here. 

That was just an introduction, because I think the multiplication table shown above is very interesting. Moving on.

The tables I've shown above, may or may not have interested you as much as they interested me. Different things interest different people. However, I do believe that if you are ever told the whole idea behind things, you will learn to like those things more. Maybe that is why so many people dislike mathematics, schooling rarely teaches you more than you need to know to compute. You're rarely told why exactly you're doing what it is that you're doing; it is to no surprise that the majority of people dislike math. 

The same thing applies to science, or any other field for that matter. Science, in most instances with the exception of biology, involves the use of mathematics. If a person dislikes math, it will become only natural for them to dislike science as well. Yet, what is science? Science is nothing but the study of nature. Biology the study of life and living systems, chemistry the study of matter and its interactions and physics the study of motion and energy. All other fields of science fall into one or a combination of these three sciences. Why do most people fear the study of nature? Nature is all around you.

Setting science aside, we come the study of the social sciences. Social science, by definition of its name, studies human society and human behavior and interaction. The human being is a complex creature, and thus this area will probably always be rich in things that have yet to be studied. This area is such a popular area of interest and study, and especially so here in the UAE. Which leaves me worried, if half of our youth is studying (studied/will study) business or economics, where would this leave us? Surely we do not want to remain as a minority group in our own country. In that case, we must be able to maintain a fully functional country largely on our own, and to do we must have an even distribution of specialists in all fields. 

I acknowledge that in a country like ours, business and trade are important. But I also know that complete reliance on one thing could lead to disaster. Even if we do not talk about business strictly, and talk about social science instead, we would also reach the same conclusion. The majority of Emiratis study something in the realm of social science. Most of the ones left would be studying engineering, and maybe medicine. Something was left out here; yes, science. 

Going back to what I mentioned three paragraphs ago, it is understandable that people dislike science. Science requires math in most instances, and also requires a lot of thought. Thinking is hard. Many people choose not to think, because of that reason. That still doesn't justify though, the fact that we have very few scientists. It has taken me such a long time to get here, but this is actually the point of my post. 

I was asked yesterday, whether I know that there is no potential for what I am intending to study here in the UAE. I do know, but I'm not necessarily trying to make money out of it; I'm doing it because I like it, and because I think I have a bigger chance at making a change if I choose to do something many people have not. I also know that in a country like ours, it is unreasonable to think that you wouldn't be able to get a job because of the field you have chosen. There are new companies sprouting up everyday, the field you choose to study is bound to have at least some job options. And then again, you are not bound to work strictly in your field of study. 

I am mostly worried about though, the fact that almost no attention is given to research. Research in any field, for that matter, but scientific research in specific. The main reason I talk about scientific research, if because actual equipment is needed to conduct it. Equipment needs space and money, and no one's going to fund it or make space for it if the country doesn't. At least I don't see any local companies interested in scientific research, so the country has to do it. We barely have any research universities either. Even then, in the case of UAEU, the funding provided to the researching faculty members is mediocre. We need more research centers, and we need government support to carry out our research.

I have an idea in mind. It requires a lot of research, and will most probably not be an easy project to undertake. If it does work, it will be awesome, for the UAE and other countries as well. The problem is, years from now when I will actually have the skill to do it, who's going to fund me? The second problem, who's going to work with me? As of now, I see no one interested in science, and even less people interested in scientific research. We cannot always be dependent on foreign technology, it just doesn't seem right. By relying on foreign sources, we will always be a step (or several steps) behind other nations. No one's going to work on developing something for us. They'll do it for themselves and then consider sharing their technology with us. Do we always want to be behind others? Of course not. 

Why don't we do something about it? The way I see it, we suffer from severe lack of experience in science. No one cares about science, no one appreciates science. Little do people know that without science, social science would be a boring field. For example, the topic of globalization that's been talked about extensively would not be an issue at all if the sharing of ideas through internet (computer science) and travel (aerospace technology) did not happen. You cannot say that science is not important. 

At this point, I'd like to very politely ask people to go into the study of science. Quite frankly, I find science much more substantiated than the social sciences are. I mean, with science, its either right or wrong, there's little room for grey area. With the social sciences, it's a whole other story. What I fail to understand is how a field of study can ever progress if all people do is argue their opinions on topics. How does any study advance through mere subjective points of view. However, that is just my opinion, and each is entitled to his own. 

If you go through a list of Nobel prize winners, you will find very few Muslims, and fewer Arabs; practically most from where we call the "west". A question: why does the entire Arab world, not have Nobel prize winners? With the exception of Naguib Mahfouz, winner of the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature, and five Arabs who won the Nobel peace prize, there have been no others. Literature and peace are not exactly sciences. There have been only two Muslim Nobel Prize winners who won prizes in science, an Egyptian chemist and a Pakistani physicist.

A few months ago I contacted the director of the National Research Foundation. Yes, we do have a research foundation. It's fairly new. What kind of research do they fund of course? Almost strictly social scientific research. I asked the director whether they would ever support natural science research. To my joy, he said yes; and he said that he will put me in contact with another person. I never heard from them again. In any case, it was nice to know that there is hope for science. 

I am not saying you should all abandon whatever you're doing and do science. After all, I will need some people who can fund me for my research. Its just that, with surplus of people doing things like business, what kinds of projects will these business-oriented people people take on, if there os nothing around them but more business? The country is already a very "busy" place, if you get what I mean. 

In order to be our own, in order to not be overly dependent on trade and on what we buy from other nations, we need to advance in science. What happens if the world decides to stop selling the UAE cellphones? We will be left without mobile telephones because we are unable to manufacture a simple phone on our own. I'm pretty sure such a scenario is unacceptable.

We need more scientists. I'll leave it at that. If you like science and will pursue (is pursuing/have pursued) it, make me happy and let me know.