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Saudi Arabia Advances 15 Ranks on Global Innovation Index

A general view of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (SPA)
A general view of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (SPA)
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Saudi Arabia Advances 15 Ranks on Global Innovation Index

A general view of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (SPA)
A general view of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (SPA)

Saudi Arabia has risen 15 places in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Global Innovation Index 2022, reflecting the extent of development in research, development, and innovation in the Kingdom.

In June, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman revealed the National Aspirations and Priorities for Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI) in Saudi Arabia for the next two decades based on four key priorities; human health and wellness, sustainable environment and supply of essential needs, energy and industrial leadership, and economies of the future.

The plan aims to enhance the Kingdom's global competitiveness and entrepreneurship, align with the plans of the Saudi Vision 2030, and improve its status in the region.

Forbes Magazine reported that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the fastest-transforming countries in the world, working to diversify its economies by entering new sectors that have contributed to the development of the national innovation system over the past decade.

It also cited Saudi Aramco in its report, which included the contributions of ten Saudi companies in innovation fields. The company obtained 864 patents from the US Patent and Trademark Office in 2021 alone, bringing it to first place in the oil and gas sector globally and entering the list of the top 50 companies and universities that obtained patents this year. In 2022, the company strengthened its efforts in research and innovation, with the number of patents increasing to 963.

Digital infrastructure in the Kingdom ranked second among the G20 countries, according to the Digital Competitiveness Report 2021 issued by the European Center for Digital Competitiveness, state news agency SPA reported.

In 2017, only one Saudi company entered the "Forbes" list of the most funded startups in the Middle East. By 2020, that number increased to two, and this year the number rose to five Saudi companies within the top ten positions in the list.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has focused its innovation efforts on sustainability, announcing its commitment to increasing the percentage of energy generation from renewable sources to reach 50% by 2030, in preparation for achieving zero neutrality by 2060. In the same context, the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) entered the Guinness World Records, achieving a new record as the desalination plant with the least energy consumption in the world, at a rate of 2.27 kilowatt-hours per cubic meter of desalinated water.

The Research, Development, and Innovation Authority (RDIA), in collaboration with Forbes Middle East, reviewed the ten most innovative companies in each of the four sectors of the national priorities in the Kingdom, totaling 40 companies. The list includes Aramco, SABIC, NEOM, STC, Ma’aden, Almarai, Al Rajhi Bank, Al-Habib Medical Group, ACWA Power, and Saudi National Bank.

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New Study Finds That We Can Multitask

New research challenges the long-held belief that the human brain isn’t set up to be able to multitask. (Getty Images)
New research challenges the long-held belief that the human brain isn’t set up to be able to multitask. (Getty Images)
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New Study Finds That We Can Multitask

New research challenges the long-held belief that the human brain isn’t set up to be able to multitask. (Getty Images)
New research challenges the long-held belief that the human brain isn’t set up to be able to multitask. (Getty Images)

Researchers have long said that the human brain is not set up to multitask — but new research is challenging that understanding.

Experts previously explained that when we believe we’re multitasking, we’re actually just quickly switching between tasks. That’s because the area of the brain that manages thinking, the prefrontal cortex, can only really handle one thing at a time, according to The Independent.

But another region of the brain involved in memory lends a helping hand over time, new research has shown. When people needed to perform image sorting tests over the course of weeks, the tests initially activated the prefrontal cortex and later activated the temporal cortex.

Over time, the brain is remodeled, Maximilian Riesenhuber, a professor of neuroscience at Georgetown University School of Medicine, explained in a statement. The prefrontal cortex passes responsibility to the temporal cortex and is free for “whatever else you want to do, increasing your capacity.”

“What we show is that the circuitry actually changes so the brain can do two things at once,” he said. “This really is true multitasking.”

The researchers wanted to understand why people need to focus when learning a task for the first time and can also do other things simultaneously when they become experienced. For example, long-time drivers are able to listen to music and engage in conversations.

Men and women in the small study were trained to sort morphed images of cars into two categories using an image-sorting app, completing more than 30,000 trials over the course of 5-10 weeks.

The researchers scanned their brains before and after they completed the trials, revealing the change.

“Previous studies have shown that parts of the temporal cortex can be activated by particular object categories in experienced observers – birds, cars, even Pokémon – but a limitation of all of those studies is that they only looked after people became experts,” Patrick Cox, an assistant professor of psychology at Lehigh University, said.

He added: “The strength of this study is that it is longitudinal: We measure before and after training, so we can see that extensive training essentially put a category-selective area in the temporal lobe that was not there before.”

It’s unclear why right now. However, multitasking has been linked to experiencing stress and other mental health impacts, Brown University Health points out. That’s part of why experts say it could actually hinder productivity.

“This is unlocking a whole new set of questions,” he said. “What is the source of that variability? We don’t know yet.”

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Parisians Will Get a New Chance of Seine Swimming

People gather on the banks of the Seine River as the sun sets amid a severe heat wave in Paris, France, May 26, 2026. (Reuters)
People gather on the banks of the Seine River as the sun sets amid a severe heat wave in Paris, France, May 26, 2026. (Reuters)
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Parisians Will Get a New Chance of Seine Swimming

People gather on the banks of the Seine River as the sun sets amid a severe heat wave in Paris, France, May 26, 2026. (Reuters)
People gather on the banks of the Seine River as the sun sets amid a severe heat wave in Paris, France, May 26, 2026. (Reuters)

Swimmers will for the second year be able to cool off at designated points along the Seine River in Paris this summer, authorities said Friday, as well as along the Marne River in the suburbs.

In Paris, the swimming season was to open at three official bathing sites on July 4, the mayor's office said.

The Seine reopened to swimmers last summer for the first time in a century, after Paris poured more than a billion euros ($1.15 billion) into a years-long effort to making the waters clean enough to use in the 2024 Olympics.

Sites this year will again include the Bras de Grenelle near the Eiffel Tower, the Bras Marie -- a short walk from Notre-Dame -- and Bercy, on the eastern side.

Some 100,000 people last year queued to jump in, the city said, despite a slow start to the season with rain disrupting the water quality.

Some 50,000 swimmers jumped into the Marne River in the eastern suburbs last year.

The bathing spots in Joinville-le-Pont, Champigny-sur-Marne, Saint-Maur-des-Fosses and Maison-Alfort would again welcome swimmers. A fifth spot would be added this year at Neuilly-sur-Marne northeast of Paris.

French authorities warned against swimming in parts of the rivers without lifeguards.

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Independent Researcher Exposes Basic Blunder in Scores of Cancer Studies

Researchers at the laboratory. (Cancer Research UK, Cambridge Institute)
Researchers at the laboratory. (Cancer Research UK, Cambridge Institute)
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Independent Researcher Exposes Basic Blunder in Scores of Cancer Studies

Researchers at the laboratory. (Cancer Research UK, Cambridge Institute)
Researchers at the laboratory. (Cancer Research UK, Cambridge Institute)

An independent researcher has uncovered potential blunder in scores of scientific studies, including cancer-related research, as a result of inappropriate antibody use in laboratory experiments, raising questions about the reliability of some of the results published in prestigious scientific journals.

The researcher found that scientists at Cambridge, Oxford, Stanford and other universities appear to have accidentally used the wrong ingredient in their experiments, muddling two proteins with similar names but entirely different sequences and functions.

Several British media outlets said researcher Sholto David reviewed the full text of 334 research papers to determine whether the antibody used in the studies was correctly intended for p16-ARC or incorrectly used to try and bind p16-INK4a.

P16-INK4a acts as a tumor suppressor by halting the cell cycle and is widely studied in cancer biology and is considered a key biomarker of ageing.

He found astonishing result: 95% of these papers have got it wrong.

“The vast majority of researchers who purchased antibodies have tried to use them to investigate p16-INK4a expression. Only 17 used these p16-ARC antibodies correctly,” he said in his research.

David said the implications are not good, to put it mildly.

“And these are not just insignificant papers. There are papers with hundreds of citations in high impact journals claiming to probe for p16-INK4a with antibodies which do not bind p16-INK4a,” he noted.