Thailand
This is the second part of the article on Asia, as covering scientific and technological advances from many Asian countries is not feasible in one article. I have deliberately left out big contributors such as China, India, South Korea, Singapore and Japan as I feel smaller countries need our attention. So, continuing from where I stopped last week, here is a new list of countries and their scientific contributions to the world.
Thailand: This is a country known for its agricultural exports and for the last 6 decades they have been constantly innovating to improve their productivity. Thailand has been quick to adapt advanced technology such as robotics, drone technology, automated sensors to improve productivity and cut costs.
Pakistan: One of the most impressive medical devices is the Ommaya reservoir. This is a catheter which is used for delivering drugs into cerebrospinal fluid and was invented by a neurosurgeon of Pakistani origin Dr. Ayub K. Ommaya.
Uzbekistan: My research on the science and technology advancements lead me to an interesting discovery. 41% of the total Uzebek researchers are women making this one of the highest ratios in the world. Another interesting fact is that the term ‘algorithm’ derived from the name of 9th century Mathematician al-Kwārizmī .
Algorithm
Nepal: A country with 6000 rivers provides plenty of potential to support agricultural needs. However, farmers are still dependent on rains for growing their crops as pumping water to highlands is a challenge that . An engineer has come up with a simple solution called the Barsha Pump to reduce the dependency on rain water. The pump requires no fuel to operate and has a special spiral pipe where air is compressed to lift the water upto a height of 2kms.
Bangladesh: A country known for Sundarbans recorded 20 new species of wildlife in 2020 which includes, fishes, shark, owl, seabirds, crabs etc.
Lebanon: A lebanese professor has invented user friendly technology which allows farmers to accurately understand the weather conditions and hours of sunlight to help with their farming activities.
Illustration of robot jockey
Qatar: Qatar is known for its camel race, temperatures in July can get as high as 44⁰C or 112⁰F makes it challenging for human jockeys to race, due to this a novel idea has been implemented. Robot jockeys have replaced humans in races, the development of this novel technology began in 2001 and today has been widely used. These jockeys are controlled using remote control from SUVs which run alongside these camels.
Mongolia: This is a country where tourists go to unplug from the rat race and all the technology associated with it. However, the nomads of Mongolia have used technology not to jump on to the rat race but to help them enhance their nomadic life. One such example is the use of solar panels and batteries to generate electricity. This not only helps in lighting their yurts, also to charge their mobile phones and turn on their televisions.
I hope our readers are enjoying the series so far. If you need more in depth information please click on the hyperlinks above or you can always refer to Wikipedia.
Royalty free images were used.
