I have two articles reposted below. One is about an Egyptian girl, age 19, named Aisha Mustafa who has, in theory, created a revolutionary theory of how to provide fuel free propulsion systems for space craft. Egypt is in danger of becoming another theocracy with Sha’ria law, in which women are forbidden to learn, or even leave the house without a male family member’s permission and accompaniment. The other story is about Malala Yousufzai, a Pakistani girl age 15 who was shot in the head, point blank range, by the Taliban for reading and for speaking out in opposition to Sha’ria law against her being educated. Malala is in Britain being cared for and is doing as best as can be expected considering she was shot in the head. British Islamists have issued a “Fatwa,” or holy decree, to have her shot and killed whenever possible for disrespecting Islam.
How many great scientists, philosophers, leaders, doctors…how many great achievements will be missed for mankind as long as we have so many women not allowed to participate in education? Perhaps I will die of cancer or heart disease before my time because a girl like Malala cannot go to school. This is a tale of two girls, one in Egypt, one in Pakistan. Both Muslim.
Egyptian girl, Aisha Mustafa, invents new space propulsion system
Read more: http://digitaljournal.com/article/325785#ixzz2DftSHeMk
Sohag – A physics student from Egypt’s Sohag University, Aisha Mustafa, 19, has patented a new type of propulsion system based on quantum theory that she says could propel space probes and artificial satellites without using any fuel.
According
Gizmodo, Aisha’s new system exploits the quirky laws of quantum physics which state that in spite of appearances, space really is not vacuum but that it is a seething cauldron of fundamental particle interactions involving creation and destruction of
“virtual particles.”
Mustafa believes it is possible to use vacuum energy fields to create propulsion and build spacecraft propulsion systems that need little or no fuel to travel in space. According to Fast Company, Mustafa is betting on exploiting quantum effects involved in dynamic Casimir effect and the Casimiri-Polder force. She uses two silicon metallic plates in a vacuum, “like capacitors placed a few micrometers apart.” The plates interact with the virtual photons in the quantum field and generate a net force that is either an attraction or a repulsion depending on their arrangement.
According to OnIslam.net, the invention is similar to a hypothetical concept of jet propulsion termed “Differential Sail,” proposed by NASA’s Marc G. Millis.
Fast Company reports that Aisha’s university was so impressed with her new invention that it assisted her with a patent application. OnIslam.net reports that Mustafa’s supervisor, Dr. Ahmed Fikry, who heads the physics department in Sohag University, said “I expect this invention to be highly beneficial in several fields and areas of industries.”
The President of Sohag University, Dr. Nabil Nour Eldin Abdellah, said the university facilitates “science clubs” for creative students. He said: “Once we knew about her (Mustafa’s) invention, we encouraged her and provided her with the budget needed through the Science Club for innovative students in the university. This is the case with any other creative student.”
According to OnIslam.net, with the retirement of NASA’s space shuttle program, the field of space vehicles propulsion is expanding and and growing in importance with ongoing search for new methods of space travel that are faster, safer, cheaper and easier. A rich variety of new ideas in propulsive systems are being proposed some of which are beyond current technological capabilities to implement.
Gizmodo reports that Mustafa intends to further study and develop the design so that it may be tested out.
In a popular Egyptian morning program “Sabah El kheir Ya Masr”(Good Morning Egypt), Mustafa expressed her appreciation to her faculty and university staff for providing materials, resources and support. She, however, lamented that there is no funding for a department of space science in her university and in Egyptian universities in general. She said this prevents development and research in the field of space technology. She said: “Departments of astronomy and physics are only available. Although they are related to space sciences but unfortunately they aren’t into the specific field of my invention and they can’t practically test or implement it.”
Read more: http://digitaljournal.com/article/325785#ixzz2DfqCwrwS
Pakistani girl shot by Taliban “doing well”
LONDON | Fri Oct 19, 2012 10:08am EDT
(Reuters) – A Pakistani girl shot in the head by Taliban gunmen is “not out of the woods” but is doing well and has been able to stand for the first time, doctors at the British hospital treating her said on Friday.
Malala Yousufzai, who was shot for vocally opposing the Taliban, was flown from Pakistan to Birmingham to receive treatment after the attack earlier this month, which drew widespread international condemnation.
She has become a symbol of resistance to the Islamist group’s effort to deny women education and other rights.
Dave Rosser, medical director of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, said she was now able to write and appeared to have memory recall despite her brain injuries.
“It’s clear that she’s not out of the woods yet,” Rosser told reporters, saying she had sustained a “very, very grave injury”. But he said she was “doing very well”.
“In fact she was standing with some help for the first time this morning. She’s communicating very freely, writing,” he said.
Rosser said, however, that the teenager was not able to speak because she had undergone a tracheotomy so she could breathe through a tube in her neck, an operation that was performed because her airways had been swollen by the bullet.
Yousufzai was shot as she left school in Swat, northwest of Islamabad. The Taliban said they attacked her because she spoke out against the group and praised U.S. President Barack Obama.
The alleged organizer of the shooting was captured during a 2009 military offensive against the Taliban, but released after three months, two senior officials told Reuters.
In a detailed statement about Yousufzai’s injuries, Rosser said she had suffered fractures to the base of her skull and to the bone behind her left ear. Her left jawbone is also injured at its joint.
“POINT BLANK RANGE”
“Malala was shot at point blank range,” with the bullet hitting her left brow, Rosser said. But instead of penetrating skull it travelled underneath the skin, the whole length of the side of her head and into her neck.
Shock waves from the shot shattered the thinnest bone of her skull and fragments were driven into her brain.
Rosser said there was certainly physical damage to the brain but it was too early to tell whether that would affect any brain functions.
“She seems to be able to understand, she has some memory,” he said. “She’s able to stand, she’s got motor control … (but) whether there are any subtle intellectual or memory deficits down the line, it’s too early to say.”
The hospital unit is expert in dealing with complex trauma cases and has treated hundreds of soldiers wounded in Afghanistan. It has the world’s largest single-floor critical care unit for patients with gunshot wounds, burns, spinal damage and major head injuries.
Rosser said Yousufzai’s treatment is likely to include reconstructive surgery to replace the damaged skull bone.
That surgery is unlikely to be able to be carried until for several weeks or even months, he said, since she is also fighting an infection that needs to be cured first.
“She’s going to need a couple of weeks to rehabilitate, to make sure the infection is cleared up,” he said.
(Reporting by Alessandra Rizzo and Kate Kelland; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
Michael Bradley - Time Traveler 