A cause worth funding
10 June 1999 (Nature Vol. 399, page 507)
A German synchrotron would be good for the Middle East.
It's too easy for Nature to urge the world to spend more money on science. On the whole, that temptation is resisted. But there are honourable exceptions. A proposal - as yet unfunded - to establish a joint synchrotron radiation facility in the Middle East is one such, and deserves immediate attention.
The government of Germany is understood to be receptive to the idea of giving away a fully functioning synchrotron radiation source for use by scientists in the Middle East 'Middle East synchrotron could bring regional cooperation'). The synchrotron is to be the focus of a broader centre for research excellence for scientists from throughout the region, as well as other parts of the world. The project's founders envisage a facility similar in aim to the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN), which brought together scientists from countries that had fought each other during the Second World War.
Scientists nominated by many of the region's governments will discuss the project at a meeting organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in Paris next week. Israel is expected generously to agree not to bid to host the synchrotron - as its scientific competence would well qualify it to - allowing the facility to be housed in one of its neighbouring countries. There appears to be no shortage of potential hosts, with Cyprus, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority among the contenders.
But the proposal needs funds in no small measure. There are several potential sources. These include the European Union and the US government, as well as states within the Middle East itself. The issue of funds for the project will also be raised at the World Conference on Science in Budapest later this month. Nature's advice to any potential funder is not to hold back, for this will be a worthwhile investment. Initiatives such as this do not come around often. When they do, they should be supported unhesitatingly.
After a troubled half-century, the peoples of the Middle East are making the slow transition to peace. It is sometimes hard to imagine, but there was a time not so long ago when the Christians, Jews and Muslims of the Middle East lived in relative harmony, when philosophers and scientists were recruited to the region's leading institutions of learning because of their expertise, and not on the basis of their faith or geographic identity.
Is it too optimistic to suggest that next week's meeting in Paris may mark the return of such happier times? Probably. But the meeting will be a valuable and long-awaited beginning. And if the project succeeds, it could be a step closer to the day scientists from Israel and its neighbours are free to travel to - and work in - one another's laboratories, exchange information and cooperate in research. That alone would be a major step forward.
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