Best Muslim Scientific Achievements in 2014 (OnIslam’s Top 10 Science Articles in 2014)

Seems that 2014 was a fruitful year from a scientific point of view for Muslim scientists and Muslim countries. Our Holy Book the Qur'an condones and encourages the acquisition of science and scientific knowledge, and urges humans to reflect on the natural phenomena as signs of God's creation.

Muslims believe that doing science is an act of religious merit, even a collective duty of the Muslim community to the wellbeing of humanity since Allah designated the human beings including Muslims as His viceroy on earth.

This is a summary review of some of the scientific breakthroughs made by Muslims in 2014.

Genetics:

• Scientists co-led by the Egyptian geneticist Dr. Sherif El-Khamisy at the Center of Genomics (CG), Zewail City of Science and Technology (ZC) in Egypt, identified the first defect in a genetic pathway for individuals who suffer impaired neural function.
• A team of researchers led by an Iranian computational biologist, medical geneticist and evolutionary geneticist Pardis Sabeti from the Broad Institute has been working with collaborators in Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone for several years, training them to use sequencing and diagnostic technology.
• Teepu Siddique, a Pakistani neurologist succeeded with his team in discovering one of the causes of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
• The female Moroccan geneticist Dr. Ismahane Elouafi named among the 20 Most Influential Women in Science in the Islamic World under the Shapers category, and the CEO-Middle East Magazine listed her among the World’s 100 Most Powerful Arabophone Women; in the Science category.

Medicine:

• A Kashmiri molecular neurotherapist and stem cells professor has successfully discovered a brain cancer treatment. He achieved this via prompting stem cells to kill brain cancer.
• Two Egyptian scientists hope that sample crystals of two proteins of the hepatitis C virus which they develop in space can help in the search for new drugs to fight it.
• Scientists in the Muslim country of Bashkortostan are developing a technology to make monoclonal antibodies specific to the Ebola virus.
• The doctor leading Sierra Leone's fight against the worst Ebola outbreak on record died from the virus.
• The Muslim country of Bashkortostan succeeded in obtaining a license from a Swiss pharmaceutical company, Novartis, to start producing a cure for one of the types of Leukemia.

Mathematics:

• An Iranian mathematician who learnt at a university in Tehran became the first ever female winner of the celebrated Fields Medal. In a landmark hailed as "long overdue", Prof Maryam Mirzakhani was recognized for her work on complex geometry.
• Kazakhstani Muslim scientist proves the existence of a solution to Navier Stokes Equation which is deemed one of the hardest in the world.

Engineering:

• The Moroccan engineering scientist Rachid Yazami, in addition to John Goodenough, Yoshio Nishi and Akira Yoshino were awarded the Draper Prize by the US's National Academy of Engineering for pioneering and leading the groundwork for today’s lithium ion battery.
• Three Malaysian academics were chosen among the world’s leading scientific minds, according to a report by business information firm Thomson Reuters.

Education:

• According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), four Muslim countries rank in the top 20 destinations for international students in the world.

Space:

• The European probes Rosetta and Philae didn't only hold Egyptian names to commemorate the Egyptian Civilization’s contributions to humanity, but four Egyptian scientists have also worked and contributed to this historic space mission.
• Egyptian students ranked internationally among the top 10 teams of space engineering youth groups that participated at the University Rover Challenge (URC), in USA.

A young female Kazakh inventor Nazifa Baktybayeva created a real in-orbit satellite.
On the other hand, these are the top 10 articles of the H&S section in 2014 that gained the most attraction from OnIslam audience:

• Visibility Possibilities of Ramadan Crescent 1435.
• Fasting Hours of Ramadan 2014.
• Natural Cures for Schizophrenia.
• Prophet Mohammed's Advices of Healing with Prayers.
• Moonsighting of Shawwal Crescent 1435.
• History of Medicine in the Islamic Civilization.
• Nutritional Blessings from Our Prophet: Part 2/5.
• Muslims and Weight Loss.
• The “Yoga” of Islamic Prayer.
• Happy New Hijri Year 1436: Astro Moonsighting Maps.