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Al-Karaji and the Secrets of Hydrology
(Inventions and Innovations)

Inbat al-miyah al-khafiya is an excellent manual on the supplies of hydraulic water; it was written by Abu Bakr Muhammed Al-Karaji. Besides its main interest in hydrology, it contains a discussion of many topics related to the geography of the globe, various remarks on soil types and nature, as well as paying great attention to surveying techniques.

A Surgeon for All Times: Abu al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi
(Inventions and Innovations)

The pioneer of modern surgery, known in the West as “Abulcasis”, Abu al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi was not just a pioneer in surgical innovation; he was also a great teacher whose medical texts had shaped the European surgical procedures up until the Renaissance and later.

Mostafa Mahmoud: A Thinking Phenomenon
(Inventions and Innovations)

Mostafa Kamal Mahmoud is an Egyptian scientist, thinker, author, and philosopher known for his role in bridging science and religious faith. He was trained as a doctor, but later chose a career as a journalist and author, traveling widely and writing on many subjects related to the philosophy of science and religion.

Arab Psychiatry in Medieval Times and Its Impact on Humanity
(Health and Diseases)

Psychological disorders are as old as Man himself. In Ancient Times, it was believed they happened due to supernatural powers, evil spirits, and black magic. Consequently, they were treated by charms, amulets, and spells, according to the spiritual and social beliefs.

Defender of the Environment: Mostafa Tolba, An Egyptian Legacy
(Inventions and Innovations)

A land that is blessed with relatively moderate varying landscape of sea and desert, rivers and farmlands, Egypt is blessed with a beautiful environment. However, this beauty that we are so in awe with has been greatly endangered in the past decades with the rise of industries and lack of concern for sustainability, which has negatively impacted our planet.

Genetically Modified Food: Pros and Cons
(Food, Mood, and Behavior)

Have you ever read the term GMO-free on your cereal box or any other food product packages that you have bought recently? Have you ever heard about the cube-shaped watermelons or tomatoes, or the blue strawberries? What are GMOs and what is its impact our health?

Good Agricultural Practices
(Microorganism, Animal and Plant Life)

Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) are specific methods when applied to agriculture create food for consumers or further processing that is safe and wholesome. While there are numerous competing conceptions of what methods constitute good agricultural practices, there are several broadly accepted schemes that producers can adhere to. Several food and agricultural organizations and authorities, use good agricultural practices as a collection of principles to apply for on-farm production and post-production processes, resulting in safe and healthy food and non-food agricultural products, taking into consideration economic, social and environmental sustainability. These practices may be applied to a wide range of farming systems at different scales.

Agricutural Waste between Feeding Plants, Animals, and People
(Microorganism, Animal and Plant Life)

The food problem has become a disturbing global problem for people and organizations; the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has thus taken on the challenge of bringing famine to zero level. The freedom and dignity of people have been attached to this dilemma; communities have thus come to know and believe that “they who do not have power, do not own his freedom”.

Egyptian Food and Agriculture Statistics
(Microorganism, Animal and Plant Life)

Since the Pharaonic era, Egypt is an agricultural nation. The Nile River and the fertile soils on its banks have allowed Egyptians to build a splendid civilization based on agriculture. Nowadays, agriculture is one of the main pillars of the Egyptian economy; in 2012, agriculture contributed with 13.4% of the national gross domestic production and employed 27.1% of the total Egyptian workforce.

Shifting Cultivation
(Microorganism, Animal and Plant Life)

Shifting cultivation is an agricultural system, in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily then abandoned and allowed to revert to their natural vegetation, while the cultivator moves on to another plot. The period of cultivation is usually terminated when the soil shows signs of exhaustion or, more commonly, when the field is overrun by weeds. The length of time that a field is cultivated is usually shorter than the period over which the land is allowed to regenerate by lying fallow.

Green Walls
(Microorganism, Animal and Plant Life)

Living walls, or green walls, are self-sufficient vertical gardens that are attached to the exterior or interior of a building. They differ from green façades in that the plants roots are in a structural support fastened to the wall itself; the plants receive water and nutrients from within the vertical support instead of the ground. The vegetation can partially or completely cover the wall; these green walls may be indoors or outdoors, freestanding or attached to an existing wall, and come in a great variety of sizes.

Ten Reasons to Go Organic
(Food, Mood, and Behavior)

In our hurried lives nowadays, we tend to overlook one vital aspect, which is nutrition; we forget that the key to our well-being is to eat good and healthy. Generally, we should choose our foods free of pesticides and toxic chemicals, which are the main reason of many serious health problems.

Food Sharing Programs
(Education, Business, and Society)

Every Wednesday morning Mr. Günther, an old helpless man living in an outskirt of Berlin, wakes up in the morning, wears the nicest thing he has, carries his big basket, and heads to the weekly central food-sharing gathering in his area. After the gathering, Mr. Günther comes back home with a smile on his face and a basket full of fresh and delicious food enough for one week until the next gathering, all for free. I had the pleasure meeting Mr. Günther during my short stay in Berlin. As a person who lived in Egypt for a lifetime, I was quite impressed by the strictly systemized and regulated German food-sharing system. As we rode together on the train, Mr. Günther explained how the system works.

Promoting Healthy Eating to Prevent Non Communicable Diseases
(Food, Mood, and Behavior)

Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) are diseases that cannot be transferred from one person to another. The four main non-communicable diseases are cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes. They are responsible for 75% of deaths worldwide, killing 38 million people each year.

Eco-Villages
(Education, Business, and Society)

With the increasing evidence of human-initiated climate change, people throughout the world are coming together to try to reduce their carbon footprint. Groups are trying to move away from the dependence of fossil fuels and consumerist practices. There is a focus on producing and consuming locally, and living as sustainably as possible. Many initiatives are encouraged, such as reducing energy use, creating sustainable local businesses, localizing farming and creating environmentally minded communities known as “eco-villages”.

Meat of the Future
(Food, Mood, and Behavior)

In the future, meat will no longer come from animals, or at least that is what scientists are hoping for. Scientists have, in recent years, been working on growing meat in labs, this is produced through “tissue-engineering” technology. The reason researchers are working on developing this new scientific field is to try to provide cruelty-free meat, as well as combat the adverse environmental impact that cattle farming creates. The advantages of growing meat in labs, is that it will take up less space than cattle farming, freeing up fields to be used for farming or other projects.

Eating for Healthy Bones and Teeth
(Food, Mood, and Behavior)

Food is not only eaten to satisfy our hunger; it is more important than that. What children eat today influences them for a lifetime. In our region, the ghost of osteoporosis looms. It has been linked, among other factors, to what people eat. To combat osteoporosis and for healthy bones and teeth, it becomes essential to pay special attention to our children’s diet to ensure that they do not suffer from future consequences of an insufficient diet.

Light Spead and Measuring the Size of the Universe
(Astronomy and Space Sciences)

Light is fast, but the universe is gigantic. Even light takes time to travel from one place to another. It travels 300,000 kilometers per second. Light from the Sun takes as long as eight minutes and twenty seconds to reach Earth. Far as the Sun is, 150 million kilometers away from Earth, it is the nearest star.

Say Goodbye to the Edison Bulb
(Inventions and Innovations)

Thomas Edison changed the world by inventing the incandescent light bulb; it is time to change the world again by another revolutionary invention.

Light Pollution
(Earth Sciences)

For most of Earth’s history, our spectacular universe of stars and galaxies has been visible in the darkness of the night sky. However, the increasing number of people living on Earth, in addition to the corresponding increase in inappropriate and unshielded outdoor lighting has resulted in the light pollution we are experiencing today.

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SCIplanet is a bilingual edutainment science magazine published by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Planetarium Science Center and developed by the Cultural Outreach Publications Unit ...
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