In a rare show of unity in the Middle East, an advanced research centre to be shared by the troubled region has opened in Jordan.
Despite political tensions and rows, countries usually hostile to each other are jointly supporting the venture. Its name is Sesame - Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East. The facility hosts a synchrotron, a particle accelerator that acts as a powerful microscope.
Researchers including Iranians, Israelis and Palestinians - who would never normally meet - will now use the machine together.
Sesame is a play on the famous phrase "Open Sesame" and is meant to signal a new era of collaborative science.
Best wishes to Sesame!
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Open Sesame: Science Centre Unveiled in Jordan
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(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20 2017, @02:03AM (4 children)
Isn't that from "Aladdin and the forty thieves" or something?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20 2017, @02:28AM (1 child)
Ali Baba and the Forthy Thieves. Not Aladdin, you disney-(b|d)rainwashed millennial.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20 2017, @02:31AM
Drainwashing, is that like a whore's bath, with special attention to the urethra?
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Saturday May 20 2017, @03:16AM (1 child)
I've been told by someone who knows Hebrew (and a little Arabic) that sesam is just the word for "door". Can anyone confirm this?
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Saturday May 20 2017, @04:26PM
I don't know if there are related terms (quick internet search for Hebrew seems to imply "sesam" may just be a Hebrew word for "sesame" -- the plant/seed), but sounds like a fake etymology to me. Here's the real one. [etymonline.com] Apparently dates back to a Babylonian term meaning "oil-seed." (Appropriate enough.) It wasn't used as a password to open a door until European writings of the 18th century.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20 2017, @02:08AM
Babel, Memory Alpha, Nimbus III, it's all peaceful collaboration until people start dying.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20 2017, @02:09AM (4 children)
Anybody working on cheap desalination? And being the Middle East and all, maybe a few more solar installations can power it. So much abundance and look what they do with it. Where's the real science? Rocketry seems to be popular. And demolition is a biggie.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday May 20 2017, @02:17AM
Reminds me of Masdar City [wikipedia.org].
Which is connected to that iceberg towing project [maritime-executive.com].
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20 2017, @02:25AM (1 child)
All you need is a giant black painted pancake resevoir, a bunch of white condenser pipes rising high enough to filter out unwanted products (evap temp lower than water/lighter substances) then let the water condense in a pipe that goes underground to store it.
Would be financially intensive to build, would require periodic cleaning of the pancakes for mineral buildup from the condensed saltwater brine, and would require post processing of the 'desalinated water' from the underground resevoir to avoid contamination issues from storage, but it is totally doable, would require little to no maintenance if made out of the proper materials (namely concrete or geopolymer tolerant to saltwater, high temperatures during curing, and rapid loss of water (unless you can provide the volume necessary to keep it wet until it sufficiently cures to avoid cracking.)
This would be a huge engineering project, and cost plenty to do, but once build it should last essentially forever, and would allow the use of saltwater for people/crops with very little non-solar energy input, except for the initial pumping from the ocean into the resevoir. (Could probably engineer a gravity feed to avoid the pumps, but you might have lower efficiency since more solar energy would be dissipated into the ground rather than the contained water.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday May 20 2017, @11:30AM
Why not simply two basins next to each other with a flat black roof on top at an angle such that water that evaporates from the incoming basin starts to flow towards the other basin and drip down. It should separate the salt content using plain sun heat?
I think any white pipes will be hotter than is good for optimal efficiency.
How hot is the ground btw, say 4 meters down in say Lebanon?
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Sunday May 21 2017, @10:37AM
Israel [scientificamerican.com], and in particular its Sorek Desalination Plant [water-technology.net]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20 2017, @02:45AM (4 children)
If people from all walks of life can get interested in something more important than tribal feuds, and which name to call God by, peace might be achieved.
I'm not holding my breath though. It's the mideast.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20 2017, @02:51AM (1 child)
In the midwest we are at peace, still we have tribal feuds between south side and north side, gang wars between black and white, and both sides spit in the streets.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20 2017, @03:28AM
Blacks and whites and their spit are renewable resources. The streets are not.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20 2017, @08:39AM (1 child)
I look forward to hearing all about the latest in Creation Science in the next few years from this institute. Some say God created the Universe in 7 days, while others say it was Allah. Which is it? The USA is getting left behind while it wastes time on mythical stories of so-called "global warming" and "environmental pollution". We need to fund our own centers of excellence to support the Christian side otherwise your grandkids will be speaking Arabic. Teach the controversy!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20 2017, @09:08AM
We need to fund our own centers of excellence to support the Christian side [...]. Teach the controversy!
Isn't the whole point of those in not teaching the controversy?
(Score: 2) by looorg on Saturday May 20 2017, @11:51AM
The cynic in me wonders how long it will take before the place is filled with spooks pretending to be research assistants, every scientist that goes there gets taken to some dark basement room upon return home for a "talk" and eventually someone will stuxnet (or whatever the new one is called) the synchrotron. After all the Iranians already believe that the Israeli are murdering their scientists, which might not be totally uncalled for.