OPEN SESAME – JORDAN’S HIGH-TECH HUB IS MAKING HISTORY IN THE REGION
▶ A centre north of Amman is helping to bring cutting-edge science to the Middle East
Gihan Kamel, an Egyptian physicist, smiles broadly as she holds up a clear plastic bag containing a tooth.
This molar almost looks like it could have been extracted from someone’s mouth earlier in the day, but it actually comes from an archaeological site in eastern Iran, and dates back 4,000 years.
It is one of scores of samples, from bags of soil to slides on which ultra-thin slices of human breast tissue have been laid, in a room at the Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East (Sesame) in Jordan.
Dr Kamel is using infrared light to carry out a detailed analysis of materials sent by researchers from several nations.
“We have hair and teeth and bones. The analysis is different for each sample. They want to know what’s in this sample. They want to know how to preserve them,” she said.
Graphs on a computer screen show how samples interact with the infrared radiation, which in turn indicates their chemical composition, with various peaks and troughs representing proteins, fats and other substances.
When it comes to analysing the breast-tissue slides, the results could improve cancer diagnosis, one among countless areas of science, ranging from physics to chemistry to metallurgy, that could benefit from this particle accelerator.
Located at Allan, 35 kilometres north-west of Amman, in a warehouse-type building that overlooks the Jordan valley, the Unesco-supported centre appears slightly out of place among pretty olive groves and the occasional villa.
Inside is the kind of high-tech set-up that brings to mind early James Bond movies.
There is a vast circular apparatus that contains a storage ring, a 133-metre circumference channel along which beams of electrons (negatively charged particles) travel at just below the speed of light.
As they circulate and are deflected by magnets, they give off electromagnetic radiation called synchrotron radiation, covering a wide spectrum. The various types of radiation, including infrared and X-rays, are collected in beamlines leading off from the ring.
There are dozens of synchrotrons around the world, with a few in developing countries such as India and Thailand, but this is the region’s first.
Sesame’s significance extends beyond the scientific, however, as it is notable for having transcended the Middle East’s fractious politics by bringing together, as members, such unlikely partners as Israel and Iran.
Also on board as members are Cyprus (it was a Cypriot scientist who provided the tooth Dr Kamel has been analysing), Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, the Palestinian Authority and Turkey. Numerous other nations have observer status.
In supporting world-class research, Sesame could help to reverse the brain drain that
leads many scientists from the Arab world to leave for the United States, Europe and elsewhere, where research is often better funded and more advanced.
Sesame has been two decades in the making, and reaching where it is today – the facility is in use, but the synchrotron proper is yet to be switched on fully, something set to happen this month – has not been straightforward. Some researchers doubted the project would ever reach fruition.
Khaled Toukan, Sesame’s director and a former Jordanian cabinet minister, admits there have been “a lot of ups and downs on the way”.
“The idea came in 1998. It took five years more or less to develop and crystallise. Many wars took place in this region, but every six months we sat and
discussed the plan for the next stage,” he said.
Crediting Unesco with playing a key role in bringing disparate nations together, Herman Winick, a retired professor from Stanford University in the United States, who has been involved from the early stages, says it worked because politics was kept out of meetings.
“The rules were very clear: you talk only science,” he said.
In fact, money has been more of a headache than regional politics. Members vary in their ability – and willingness – to pay. Bahrain was recently dropped as a member for not contributing, while Pakistan pays about half of what it supposed to, and Iran will be removed unless it begins making payments. Overall, the centre receives only about half of what it is supposed to from annual membership fees, which are up to US$600,000, the amount depending upon variables such as a country’s GDP.
“The facility should have started in 2011/2012 if the financing was in place. [In fact] we inaugurated in May,” said Dr Toukan, who is also chairman of the Jordan atomic energy commission.
Costing about $100m, Sesame has, despite these problems, been completed thanks to the contributions of members and foreign donors, including the European Union.
The UAE was an early financial contributor, and some of the equipment is secondhand kit donated by Germany.
Beyond the capital expenditure, Sesame’s running costs are eye-watering.
Chief among them is electricity, which costs $100,000 a month, a bill that will double when the facility is fully operational.
The centre is setting up a solar-power plant at a remote site to produce electricity for the national grid, contributions that will offset the power that Sesame uses. It is hoped the plant will cover 80 per cent of Sesame’s power costs.
The centre’s management hopes that once important scientific findings start spilling out, countries that have kept their distance will come on board as members, improving the finances. Gulf nations such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia are among the many that would be welcome to join.
“Once we get photons [particles of electromagnetic radiation] in the beamline they will be encouraged,” Dr Toukan said.
The idea came in 1998. It took five years more or less to develop and crystallise
KHALED TOUKAN
Sesame director