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Lebanese Prof. Niveen Khashab Wins Great Arab Minds Award in Natural Sciences

Lebanese Prof. Niveen Mohammad Ali Khashab. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Lebanese Prof. Niveen Mohammad Ali Khashab. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Lebanese Prof. Niveen Khashab Wins Great Arab Minds Award in Natural Sciences

Lebanese Prof. Niveen Mohammad Ali Khashab. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Lebanese Prof. Niveen Mohammad Ali Khashab. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Lebanese Professor Niveen Mohammad Ali Khashab won the Great Arab Minds Award-2023 in Natural Sciences, for her contributions in chemistry, bioengineering and biology.

Her research interests focus on applications of programmable, intelligent, engineered nanomaterials and their uses for medical, pharmaceutical, industrial and environmental purposes. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president, prime minister and ruler of Dubai, said that scientific and cognitive curiosity has been the base of nations’ cultural development throughout history.

The winning announcement was made by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Prof. Niveen Khashab is associate dean of Physical Sciences and Engineering Division and Professor of Chemistry at KAUST - Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, given her pioneering contributions in the field of natural sciences and her research in Arab universities.

“Today we announce the winner of the Arab Minds Award in natural sciences, Professor Nevin Khashab, a researcher and academic who inspires a new generation of young scientists in the Arab world and transforms research into advanced innovations in medicine, advanced industries, nanotechnology and sustainable agriculture,” said the Ruler of Dubai.

“Scientific achievement is the basis of civilizational development. We want to preserve scientists, empower them, honor them, celebrate their achievements and provide them with the space they need to transform their ideas and research into reality. Resuming the region’s contribution to human civilization is a comprehensive project and a strategic commitment that focuses on the Arab citizen capable of achievement, creativity and excellence in science and knowledge,” he added.

Khashab is exploring the new opportunities that nano capsules and devices can provide in drugs, gene therapies, medical diagnosis and industries, given their sturdiness, durability and superior thermal resistance.

Khashab is currently experimenting with carbon nanotubes characterized with their exceptional rigidity and strength, as well as electronic properties. She is also testing applications of carbon tubes in smart membranes. Khashab also collaborated on designing smart materials used in biomedical systems based on molecule assemblies at the nanoscale using non-covalent interactions.

The applications of the scientific innovations and smart materials developed by Khashab are diverse, including medical in the fields of sensing and drug, therapeutic and surgical delivery; industrial as in nanocomposites and others; and environmental in sustainable agriculture solutions and platforms.

Mohammad Al Gergawi, chairman of the Committee leading Great Arab Minds, congratulated Khashab on the phone, hailing her contributions in natural sciences and its pioneering research that opened new horizons in the uses of ultra-fine nanomaterials for medical and pharmaceutical purposes and advanced technology applications.

The initiative aims to promote the reverse migration of Arab minds and keep them in the Arab world by celebrating, honoring and highlighting their achievements.

The competition received thousands of nominations in its six categories: engineering and technology, medicine, economics, literature and natural sciences, arts, architecture, and design.

The Great Arab Minds Awards’ winners announced so far are: Dr. Hani Negm from Saudi Arabia in Medicine, Professor Fadel Adib from Lebanon in Engineering and Technology, Dr. Muhammad el-Erian in economics, and Professor Niveen Khashab in natural sciences. The winners in the two remaining categories will be announced later.

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Vanishing Glacier on Germany's Highest Peak Prompts Ski Lift Demolition

An aerial view taken with a drone shows the Schneefernerkopf ski lift prior to its demolition at the Zugspitze ski resort near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany on March 20, 2026. (Photo by Philipp Guelland / AFP)
An aerial view taken with a drone shows the Schneefernerkopf ski lift prior to its demolition at the Zugspitze ski resort near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany on March 20, 2026. (Photo by Philipp Guelland / AFP)
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Vanishing Glacier on Germany's Highest Peak Prompts Ski Lift Demolition

An aerial view taken with a drone shows the Schneefernerkopf ski lift prior to its demolition at the Zugspitze ski resort near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany on March 20, 2026. (Photo by Philipp Guelland / AFP)
An aerial view taken with a drone shows the Schneefernerkopf ski lift prior to its demolition at the Zugspitze ski resort near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany on March 20, 2026. (Photo by Philipp Guelland / AFP)

Vanishing glaciers atop Germany's highest mountain prompted the demolition of a ski lift Friday, as global warming reshapes the Alps.

A ski slope that for decades ran down the Schneeferner glacier on the Zugspitze has melted away, leading operator Bayerische Zugspitzbahn Bergbahn AG to begin dismantling the lift after more than 50 years of service.

"The glaciers in Bavaria will inevitably melt away, as they can no longer survive in the face of climate change," Christoph Mayer, a glaciologist at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, told AFP.

High-tension cables anchoring the existing ski lift will be cut with blasting charges on Friday evening, said the operator's spokeswoman Laura Schaper.

The lift's pylons, which are built on the ice, will fall once the cables have been severed, she said near the glacier on Friday.

The peak of Zugspitze, which stands at 2,962 meters (9,700 feet), is located in the Wetterstein massif along Germany's border with Austria.

"The ice is receding, the terrain and the lift have changed drastically," Schaper said. "The slope has become significantly steeper, and for that reason it's no longer technically feasible to keep operating the lift."

New data on the remaining glaciers in the Bavarian Alps released Thursday found that the glaciers have receded by more than a quarter just between 2023 and 2025, losing around one million cubic meters of ice over only two years.

Wilfried Hagg, a geologist at the Munich University of Applied Sciences who worked on the study alongside Mayer, told AFP that climate change is entirely to blame.

Hagg told AFP that there's "absolutely no" chance of saving any of Germany's remaining glaciers.

There are four remaining glaciers in Bavaria: the northern part of the Schneeferne and the Hoellentalferner, which is also located on the Zugspitze.

Two others are both located on the Berchtesgarden massif: the Wazmann, at 2,713 meters, and Blaueis at 2,607 meters.

Those glaciers "are in very bad shape," Hagg said, with the two on Berchtesgarden "likely to disappear completely very soon -- this year or next".

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NASA Hauls Repaired Moon Rocket from Hangar Back to Pad for Early April Launch

NASA's Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft are seen at Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on March 20, 2026. (Photo by Gregg Newton / AFP)
NASA's Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft are seen at Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on March 20, 2026. (Photo by Gregg Newton / AFP)
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NASA Hauls Repaired Moon Rocket from Hangar Back to Pad for Early April Launch

NASA's Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft are seen at Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on March 20, 2026. (Photo by Gregg Newton / AFP)
NASA's Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft are seen at Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on March 20, 2026. (Photo by Gregg Newton / AFP)

For the second time this year, NASA moved its moon rocket from the hangar out toward the pad Friday in hopes of launching four astronauts on a lunar fly-around next month.

If the latest repairs work and everything else goes NASA's way, the Space Launch System could blast off as early as April 1 from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. The Artemis II crew went into quarantine this week in Houston.

The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket began the slow 4-mile (6.4-kilometer) trek in the middle of the night, transported atop a massive crawler used since the 1960s Apollo era. The trip was held up for several hours by high wind but completed by midday, 11 hours after it began.

The three Americans and one Canadian will zip around the moon in their capsule and then come straight home without stopping. Their mission should have been completed by now, but hydrogen fuel leaks and clogged helium lines forced two months of delay, The Associated Press reported.

While technicians plugged the leaks at the pad, the helium issue could only be fixed in the Vehicle Assembly Building, forcing NASA to roll the rocket back at the end of February.

The last time NASA sent astronauts to the moon was during Apollo 17 in 1972. The new Artemis program aims for a two-person landing in 2028.

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Beijing-backed Brain Chip Firm Says it is 3 years behind Musk's Neuralink

Beinao-1, a semi-invasive brain-machine interface system also known as the NeuCyber Matrix BMI system, is displayed during a media briefing as part of an organised media tour to the Chinese Institute for Brain Research in Beijing, China March 19, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo
Beinao-1, a semi-invasive brain-machine interface system also known as the NeuCyber Matrix BMI system, is displayed during a media briefing as part of an organised media tour to the Chinese Institute for Brain Research in Beijing, China March 19, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo
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Beijing-backed Brain Chip Firm Says it is 3 years behind Musk's Neuralink

Beinao-1, a semi-invasive brain-machine interface system also known as the NeuCyber Matrix BMI system, is displayed during a media briefing as part of an organised media tour to the Chinese Institute for Brain Research in Beijing, China March 19, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo
Beinao-1, a semi-invasive brain-machine interface system also known as the NeuCyber Matrix BMI system, is displayed during a media briefing as part of an organised media tour to the Chinese Institute for Brain Research in Beijing, China March 19, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo

Leading Chinese state-backed brain-computer interface (BCI) startup NeuCyber Neurotech said its most cutting-edge product is still three years behind Elon Musk's Neuralink, as Beijing races to expand clinical trials.

Last week, China became the first country in the world to approve an invasive BCI medical device for commercial use. It is the second country to launch BCI human trials after the US.

NeuCyber's frontier Beinao-2 product is an invasive BCI with flexible electrodes that fully implant into the brain, currently undergoing large-scale animal implantation, Reuters reported.

Neuralink's technical advantage is that its surgical robot can insert hundreds of electrodes into the brain in minutes for its invasive N1 chip.

"The benchmark for Beinao-2 is Neuralink. I have to say, (there is) about three years' lag because they have over 20 patients using it already," Li Yuan, rotating CEO of NeuCyber, a startup affiliated with the Beijing-based Chinese Institute for Brain Research (CIBR), said on Thursday.

"We have just finished the first product and have to go through animal testing, then early-feasibility clinical trials, and then the real trials. That's maybe about two years later for the real trial."

Beijing elevated BCIs to a core future strategic industry in its latest five-year plan, published this month, placing it alongside sectors such as quantum technology, embodied AI and nuclear fusion.

The BCI device approved by Chinese regulators last week is a coin-sized wireless implant by Shanghai-based private firm Neuracle, which sits on the brain's outer membrane and controls a robotic glove. It is intended for patients with spinal cord injuries.

NeuCyber has achieved seven human implantations so far of the earlier Beinao-1, a semi-invasive BCI consisting of a mesh with electrodes implanted on the brain's outer membrane, Li said.

Patients include quadriplegic car accident survivors who reported improvements in regaining hand motor function and could remotely control computer cursors after six months of use, she added.

NeuCyber hopes to expand clinical trials of Beinao-1 to 50 patients this year, an important precursor to regulatory approval for commercial use, its chief scientist told Reuters a year ago.

That could make Beinao-1 the brain chip with the highest number of patients in the world, underlining China's determination to catch up with leading foreign BCI developers.

Neuralink, by contrast, has 21 participants enrolled in human clinical trials worldwide, the company said in January.

Li estimates it could take two to three years before NeuCyber's BCI products could be commonly available on the domestic market, once they secure approval from China's health commission, medical insurance authorities and medical product regulators.

"When we translate this into a real medical device, going through registration (for) large-scale trials, we will focus on motor function restoration for the spinal cord," said Li.

The startup has received around 200 million yuan ($29 million) in funding from the Beijing government, Li added.