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Palestine’s Hope in Science: Insights from Neuroscientist Abdulrahman Abou Dahesh

Hifz Ur Rehman
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Palestine’s Hope in Science: Insights from Neuroscientist Abdulrahman Abou Dahesh

At the Lahore Science Mela 2025, the air buzzed with wonder and curiosity. Amid the incredible experiments and one of the most inspiring voices at the festival belonged to Abdulrahman Abou Dahesh, who stood out for his deeply personal mission. Despite Palestinian roots, his journey is a stirring testament to resilience, passion, and the power of science education as a force for good. 

Abdulrahman is rewriting the narrative for young learners, using storytelling, immersive games, and vibrant characters. For him, neuroscience isn’t just a field of study; it is a bridge that links knowledge with empathy, helping children understand not only their biology, but their emotions, memories, and innermost selves.

Science has no borders. Abdulrahman’s appearance at LSM 2025 carried deeper significance; as a Palestinian scientist, he carried the hopes of a community often deprived of access and infrastructure. In a nutshell, he is bringing cutting-edge science into the hearts and hands of future generations.

Here are the snippets of Abdulrahman’s conversation with Scientia Magazine at Lahore Science Mela 2025.

Science
Abdulrehman with Scientia’s team members Muneeb Siddiqui, Hifz Ur Rahman, and Owais. Photo, Scientia Pakistan

Hifz: It’s an honour to host and speak with Abdulrahman Al Dahesh, a Palestinian neuroscientist. He came from Palestine, studied in the USA, and is now at the Lahore Science Mela (LSM). How are you feeling here?

Abdulrahman Abou Dahesh: Thank you so much for having me today. It’s been really great to be part of LSM, and I feel excellent about it, as well as happy and grateful for all the people I’ve met and the students I’ve worked with. So, I’m feeling really thankful and fulfilled.

Hifz: We all love Palestine. We have an intense love with Palestinians and Muslims all around the world. So, what was your family and educational background? It’s a tough situation there in Gaza, Palestine, and the surrounding regions. How did you achieve this career?

Abdulrahman Abou Dahesh: Thank you so much for your question. My family is originally from Palestine, and in 1948, they were expelled from Palestine, and they went to Lebanon, where I was born.

So being born in Lebanon as a Palestinian doesn’t give you, I would say, the full rights you would have as compared to a Lebanese citizen there. But it’s definitely been, like, a good experience. I got a Fulbright scholarship for my Master’s in Neuroscience, and traveled to the United States. I actually just came back recently. 

Thank you for what you said about Pakistan’s love for Palestine. I can see it here. Almost everyone either wears a keffiyeh or the Palestine flag on their shirt. You can see flags all around the Mela.

It’s just that this love between the Pakistani people and the Palestinian people that I cherish and love. That’s why even before coming to Pakistan, I had many friends there, and they are like a second family to me. And yeah, I’m grateful to be here.

Hifz: As you studied in the U.S., and we see that the Western people are a bit off against that region, the eastern areas. So, how was your experience as a neuroscientist based in Palestine studying in the US? Did you ever feel some bias, restrictions, backlash, or hatred due to your nationality?

Abdulrahman Abou Dahesh: I didn’t face any direct issues; the American people I met were very kind and welcoming. Unfortunately, due to changes in the government in the last year, there were definitely issues. For example, I was on a scholarship, but I couldn’t pursue an internship due to administrative issues.

But if I were to look at it from a wider view, there are definitely big issues, especially now, a whole chunk of discrimination against Palestinians. The visas of students and children coming from Gaza who want to get treatment are halted and stopped. This is definitely something that bothers me as a Palestinian, knowing that these children can receive treatment and, of course, all the policies as well. That was my personal experience during the two years.

Hifz: To me, as a common man, neuroscience is a very complex subject to pursue. What motivates you to pursue this career field? And as a recent graduate, where do you see yourself in the next few years?

Abdulrahman Abou Dahesh: I wanted to understand how humans behave and how psychology works. I come from a science background. My bachelor’s is in chemistry. I wanted to join these two fields together. That’s how I came across the field of neuroscience.

I figured out that there’s a lot of power when people start understanding their brain, like getting to learn how they work, how all these memories are made, how feelings are created. There’s a lot of power that comes with it. I call it brain literacy. We become more literate about ourselves. In that way, we understand the world better. So that’s why I wanted to pursue neuroscience and also to communicate it.

Through the Neurochem Lab, which is my platform, I build stories and programs, creating an educational experience for children to learn about their brains in fun ways through storytelling. My connections are expanding, and I am hopeful that I will see this project growing in the next years.

And as a career, I would be very interested in creating such learning experiences. So, as an educator, I have a lot of questions about the brain. So, I think I will go through a research career as well.

Hifz: The cause that brings us here, the LSM, can you share your experience, how it is going, and what your expectations are? Have these expectations been fulfilled or not?

Abdulrahman Abou Dahesh: Yeah, it’s been an amazing experience to be there. And as I said to myself, to all these people and students, that it’s just very interesting to be surrounded by people who want to learn about science and are curious, being able to demonstrate something that would contribute to this curiosity for the students. So definitely this is something that is beyond my expectations.

You can see that the children are curious, they are interested, and they want to learn more. They have questions that they want answers to. A kid just came to me, and he said, like, What is a neuron? I love these kinds of questions. I love just talking to people, to children, especially about the brain. It was definitely a great experience and filled with connection and curiosity.

Hifz: The Khwarizmi Science Society, KSS, is organizing this event. So what ties do you have with KSS?

Abdulrahman Abou Dahesh: My friend, Abeer Asif, is a Fulbright scholar. We met through a Fulbright conference. She connected me with KSS. Once they found out what I do, we had a meeting together. We aligned in really valuable ways. They were very collaborative. It’s a great organization, keeping the curiosity of science in Pakistan for children, and really helping children move in that direction, hopefully to inspire more scientists. 

I am sure that I will have a lifelong connection with the Khwarizmi Science Society through more Melas (LSM), more learning activities. So, I’m really excited to have this relationship with KSS and the people behind it.

Hifz: Let us know about your neuroscience exhibit at the LSM? How does it help to learn about brain activities?

Abdulrahman Abou Dahesh: Absolutely. At my exhibition stall, we first introduce the brain to the audience and how it is common across the animal kingdom. How other species have a brain, and the difference in the brain. We also touch on what’s common between our brains and the brains of other species.

And there’s the brain cell; it’s called the neuron, has a very special shape. We have pipe cleaners and materials that children can use to build their own cell. So, actually, if you go around the Mela, you will see children holding these colorful shapes, which are usually neurons.

We also had a workshop today, where we read a story. It’s an original story that I developed. It’s called the brain blooms. It follows two characters as one is a scientist and the other is his friend. This follows as the scientists build a device based on the brain. The children learn about the brain through that story.

Hifz: You are the founder of an edtech startup, “Neurochem Lab”, which makes neuroscience engaging and relatable for elementary and middle school students. Would you like to tell us about some of its achievements?

Abdulrahman Abou Dahesh: Neurochem Lab is an extension of my efforts to basically, like, how can we make neuroscience accessible to children? We develop stories and programs that make science very accessible, interactive, and fun through storytelling.

Working with schools, especially working with children from Palestine, is an achievement. I think there are usually projects that students work on throughout their learning experience. The fact that they continued doing these educational activities even during the war is, to me, a remarkable achievement. And hopefully, it was maybe a moment of relief for them during this, this horrible suffering and genocide that they were going through.

That’s my achievement so far, and being at the LSM is definitely an accomplishment in itself. For me, it’s a challenge because, as you know, I don’t speak Urdu. But many children still understood me when I spoke in English.

It’s a challenge to actually speak to an audience that doesn’t necessarily speak a language that I do. Even the story we read today was in Urdu, and I chose it intentionally so it would be inclusive, rather than reading it in English. But I had amazing volunteers working with me, who were facilitating the discussion. It was just great that, despite everything going on, the activities still turned out so well. By the grace of God, it was a huge success.

Hifz: Do you have any plans to collaborate in the future with Pakistan regarding the Neurochem Lab?

Abdulrahman Abou Dahesh: Definitely. So as I said, with KSS, I am hoping to have more science communication events, more participation. And with Neurochem Lab, we deliver an online learning experience for students. So, hopefully, I want to collaborate with schools in Pakistan to provide these online learning experiences to these children.

Hopefully, if there is enough interest, we can have a team based in Pakistan, one that already speaks the local languages, to lead Neurochem Lab classes with schools and children here. I think that would be a very exciting collaboration for me, and a meaningful expansion of our work. It would allow us to come here more often and broaden the radius of these experiences.

More from the author: Cracking the Enigma of Crimes by Nanotechnology with Dr. Shahid Nazir Paracha

The Roots of Inequality: Understanding Gender Disparity in Pakistan’s STEM Education

Zoha Tariq
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The Roots of Inequality: Understanding Gender Disparity in Pakistan’s STEM Education

It is widely acknowledged that in the twenty-first-century global information economy, STEM education is a vital component of innovation, economic growth, and sustainable development. Strong STEM skills throughout the populace enable nations to tackle difficult issues like public health emergencies and climate change, while also promoting competitive sectors and high-value job opportunities.[2]

“For women and young girls, they’re expected to be a housewife, to mother a child, to take care of the husband and be in the kitchen,” said Rida Abbas, a second-year business economics and political science student from Pakistan. “People should have access to choose what’s right for them, and that’s not really a choice in Pakistan for many women.”[1]

When it comes to gender inequality in STEM education, Pakistan offers a compelling case study. Despite slight improvements in general educational attainment over the past few decades, Pakistani women and girls still face significant obstacles to involvement in and success in STEM disciplines.

These discrepancies seriously limit Pakistan’s capacity for social and economic advancement, in addition to being a violation of educational equity. Although the type and degree of gender inequality in STEM education differ significantly between nations and regions, it is a worldwide phenomenon. Despite international efforts to highlight the importance of STEM for economic growth, patriarchal systems and underfunded institutions continue to impede Pakistan’s advancement. 

STEM education is a cornerstone of socioeconomic development, enabling nations to address challenges such as climate change, public health crises, and technological innovation. So, what does it predict for the future of our country when the full potential of its intellectual capacity is not being implemented? Pakistan stands to lose an estimated PKR 500 billion annually, while closing this gap could boost the country’s GDP by $30 billion.[3]

Therefore, it’s not only a question of social fairness and fundamental rights since everyone, regardless of gender, should have an equal chance to explore their abilities and follow their academic and professional goals, but also about boosting women’s involvement in STEM subjects to improve Pakistan’s competitiveness in a global economy that is becoming more and more reliant on technology while also addressing the country’s severe talent shortage, presenting more inclusive and creative answers to Pakistan’s development problems.

Current State of Gender Representation in Pakistan’s STEM Education

The World Economic Forum ranks Pakistan, the sixth most populous country on earth, as the least gender equitable in the Asia and Pacific region, reporting significant gaps in enrolment across education levels – Pakistan ranks at 145 positions out of 146 with a gender gap index of 0.057, which has decreased by -3 points from last year. The educational attainment index is 0.836, ranking 139 out of 146 in 2024.[6]

Women comprise less than 10% of professionals in these fields. This disparity stems from entrenched cultural norms, systemic inequities in education, and economic barriers that disproportionately exclude girls and women.[7]

STEM

Statistics from UNESCO indicate that women’s university enrolment in Pakistan in the natural sciences fields rose from 20% to 31% between 2017 and 2020, indicating a good trend. But over the same time span, engagement in agriculture has dropped from 2% to 0% and in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) from 9% to 6%, suggesting regression in vital STEM fields.

The gender gap becomes more pronounced in rural regions, where just 28% of high school pupils are female. While women make up over 46% of students in the humanities at the postsecondary level, they are still underrepresented in STEM professions, especially in engineering by 21% and agricultural sciences by 12%.  The differences are even more pronounced within the workforce, where women only make up 4.9% of engineers and 3% of those working in the power transmission industry. 

Systemic Barriers in Education Systems for Women

The barriers that prevent women from pursuing STEM education in Pakistan are not isolated; rather, they intersect in intricate ways that further disfavour particular groups. A complex network of institutional, societal, and economic elements influences educational possibilities and experiences differently for diverse groups of women.

A Patriarchal Society and Taboos

Pakistani society is rife with patriarchal beliefs and gender norms, with men holding a firm grasp over almost every aspect of life, influencing what women should learn and do for a living. Women are largely discouraged from pursuing an education by their reigning male family heads, the values of mindless docility and submission being forced onto them since birth.

Even if they do, they are guided more towards humanities, education, or healthcare fields, perceived as continuations of traditional caregiving roles, with STEM being perceived as largely ‘unfit’ for women. Even if the family is willing to give support, the fear of disregarding societal expectations takes precedence in the end. 

Moreover, girls and women bear a disproportionate amount of the responsibility for household duties, which results in severe time constraints that impede their ability to pursue their academic goals. Even while they are studying, female students are sometimes expected to contribute significantly to household chores, which limits their time for academic pursuits, particularly the rigorous laboratory work or programming practice that STEM topics frequently call for.

With 54 percent of girls getting married and/or pregnant before turning 18 (regional variations apply), early marriage continues to be a major obstacle to girls’ educational progress. Marriage sometimes results in the cessation of study, especially in STEM disciplines that demand sustained, long-term dedication.

Marriage frequently occurs during significant educational turning points, such as the transfer from high school to college, which disrupts female students’ STEM career paths. And many women are forced to give up their education post-marriage altogether, as their spouses grow increasingly possessive and sceptical of the independence that it may grant them.

For example, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has indicated that 50% of female medical graduates never work following their studies. While 70% of medical students are women, only 23% of registered doctors are women. [5]

In coeducational environments, religious and cultural customs such as gender segregation and prohibitions on gender mixing erect further obstacles. These behaviours may restrict women’s participation in field trips, lab work, classroom debates, and other collaborative learning opportunities that are crucial to STEM education.

STEM
Source: Dawn.com

Safety and Mobility Concerns

Long commutes to school and dangerous or insufficient modes of transit create obstacles that disproportionately affect female pupils. Women’s educational options are essentially limited to local schools that might not provide high-quality STEM programs because families are sometimes unwilling to let them travel great distances alone.

While social criticism restricts women’s mobility in metropolitan areas, discouraging enrolment in STEM programs, girls in rural areas confront physical risks when trying to get to school.

These accessibility problems are exacerbated by safety concerns, since parents commonly limit their daughters’ educational opportunities out of fear of gender-based abuse or harassment, particularly inflamed by extremist groups who perceive female education as a threat to ‘religious’ values.

Families frequently decide to restrict girls’ educational opportunities due to the risk assessment created by the lack of safe campus environments, secure transportation, and sufficient protection measures, especially in STEM fields that may necessitate long hours in labs or computer centres.

Resource Gaps

Infrastructure for education is usually insufficient, and facilities reserved for women are either poor or non-existent, especially in more rural regions. The lab apparatus, technological resources, and specialised instructional materials required for high-quality STEM education are in low supply in many colleges and institutions.

Because they might have fewer options for accessing these materials outside of the classroom due to the various systemic barriers, female students are disproportionately impacted by these inadequacies. Government schools lack STEM resources, such as labs and qualified teachers, especially in remote locations.

With subpar science education and inadequate facilities for menstrual hygiene, girls’ schools bear a disproportionate amount of the burden, which results in high dropout rates. Elite private schools, which are frequently taught in English, on the other hand, have better STEM resources but are still out of reach for low-income families.

Curriculum and Pedagogy

In addition to the fact that STEM programs in Pakistan are frequently Western-centric, ignoring indigenous knowledge and neglecting to contextualise applications for rural communities, the “chilly climate” theory- which describes how classroom settings alienate female students through unconscious biases like teachers giving preference to boys in technical discussions- also applies to education.

Systematic prejudice in educational institutions themselves adds to the obstacles, with teachers and administration holding gender biases, evident in the way they treat female students differently, the low standards they have for their success in STEM courses, and the lack of support they receive to pursue careers in these sectors. These institutional prejudices can have a major effect on women’s self-efficacy, perseverance, and success in STEM fields.

Workplace Discrimination

The idea that STEM subjects are unsuitable for women is maintained by a lack of female educators and role models in these fields. In the absence of prominent female STEM role models, female students are less likely to imagine themselves following in their footsteps.z

Gender inequities are perpetuated over generations by this self-reinforcing cycle of the representation gap. When women pursue jobs in STEM, they face discriminatory conditions such as harassment, limited leadership opportunities, and pay disparities. Systemic exclusion is seen in the fact that women only hold 4.9% of engineering supervisory positions.

Socioeconomic Factors

Poverty intensifies gender gaps. Boys’ education is frequently given priority by low-income families, particularly in rural regions, who see it as a safer investment, based on the presumption that boys will become the primary breadwinners and girls’ principal roles will be focused on being a ‘good wife and mother’. Girls are often pulled out of school to help out around the house. Financial limitations restrict access to advanced STEM resources, such as computers or exam fees, even for those who persevere.

Research indicates that girls from low-income families are 52% less likely to attend school than their affluent counterparts, demonstrating the substantial impact poverty has on educational access and persistence. Since 88% of adolescent girls aged 11-17 live in poverty, many families are forced to make tough choices about their children’s education, frequently giving boys’ education priority when funds are tight.[10]

For many families, the immediate costs of education, such as tuition, supplies, transportation, and technology, create significant financial obstacles, especially in STEM disciplines that require a lot of resources.

With women comprising less than 10 percent of STEM professionals despite representing half the population, Pakistan is operating at a fraction of its intellectual and economic potential. Where so much talent remains unrealised due to an unreasonable gender bias, can we truly claim to value the talents and dreams of all our citizens?

Yet acknowledgment of the flaw alone changes nothing. The question now becomes: what will Pakistan do with this understanding? How will policymakers, educators, families, and communities transform these insights into action? The path forward requires not just awareness but concrete strategies, sustained commitment, and systemic reform.

References:

  1. M. Gill, “Opinion: Gender equality in education is needed for girls in Pakistan to pursue dreams,” January 2024. [Online]. Available: https://dailybruin.com/2024/01/21/opinion-gender-equality-in-education-is-needed-for-girls-in-pakistan-to-pursue-dreams.
  2. UNESCO, “Advocacy Brief: Support girls and women to pursue STEM subjects and careers,” UNESCO, 2024.
  3. A. S. Malik, “Empowering the future of Pakistan: Gender Strategy Pakistan 2024-2027,” UNICEF, 2024.
  4. E. S. Qadri, “The Brilliant Pakistani Women in STEM,” 2019. [Online]. Available: https://scientiamag.org/the-brilliant-pakistani-women-in-stem/.
  5. M. R. C. S. S. HOLLOWS, “Understanding female participation in STEM subjects in Pakistan,” British Council.
  6. World Economic Forum, “Global Gender Gap 2024- Insight Report,” World Economic Forum, 2024.
  7. M. Ahsan, “Less than 10% women in STEM in Pakistan: gender stereotypes or choice?” 2022. [Online]. Available: https://voicepk.net/2022/05/less-than-10-women-in-stem-in-pakistan-gender-stereotypes-or-choice/.
  8. A. Fleck, “Best and Worst Countries for Gender Equality,” 2024. [Online]. Available: https://www.statista.com/chart/20364/best-and-worst-countries-for-gender-equality/.
  9. M. Qaisar, “Gender Inequality in STEM Education in Pakistan: A Case Study of Female Students,” vol. 24, 2024.
  10. The World Bank, “Five major challenges to girls’ education in Pakistan,” 2024. [Online]. Available: https://datatopics.worldbank.org/dataviz/girls-education-pakistan/.

Similar Articles: STEAM Education: Igniting a New Dawn for Pakistan’s Future

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The Surprising Smarts of Sea Urchins: Nature’s Tiny Brainiacs

Lubna Rasheed
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The Surprising Smarts of Sea Urchins: Nature’s Tiny Brainiacs

Imagine a creature you thought simple and spiky rocks roll in the shallow pool, or a fancy treat on your shushi plate. But new research has turned the idea that these prickly creatures are actually incredibly complex, possessing a brain everywhere. This stunning reality has revealed new research about sea urchins. It has made scientist question their brain and how they work. Sea urchins are more complex than we ever guessed, so do not let their looks fool you.

Purple sea urchins (Paracentrotus lividus) begin life as tiny, swimming larvae. They undergo an incredible metamorphosis after maturity, transforming into the spiny, round creatures that we are more familiar with. Something remarkable happens in their bodies during this transformation from larvae to the adult stage.

A Surprising Transformation of Sea Urchins

Sea urchins get a whole new body as they grow up. They undergo a radical change and become the spiny urchins. This transformation process is called metamorphosis.

 It is like they are rebuilding their entire body during metamorphosis. They start as tiny, wiggling larvae that are bilaterally symmetrical, like us, with left-right symmetry. But when they become adult, they completely transform into a round, spiky creature with radial symmetry like a five-pointed star.

Surprisingly, this transformation is not only about a change in body shape. As a team of scientists, led by Periklis Paganos, discovered something amazing during this transformation. The urchins do not just add a few new nerves as they grow. They completely rebuild their nervous system from scratch and turn their whole body into a giant, spread-out brain.

Urchins
As a team of scientists, led by Periklis Paganos, discovered something amazing during this transformation. Photo, Science Alert

A Body Full Of Brain Cells

Scientists were amazed to find that over half of a young sea urchin’s cell types are nerve cells. Even more surprising, all these nerve cells are not the same; some use dopamine, others serotonin, GABA, glutamate, histamine, and even neuropeptides, the same chemical messengers that human brains rely on for communication.

The sea urchin is not just adding more nerve cells. It is rebuilding its entire nervous system from the ground up by using the same set of genetic instructions. It is an amazing example of nature completely redesigning a living, functioning brain that’s spread throughout a body. 

Unlike many animals, sea urchins do not have a traditional “trunk” region in their bodies. In most creatures, specific genes define distinct front (head) and back (trunk) regions, but in sea urchins, the genes that typically build the trunk are active only in internal organs such as the gut, not in the outer body. Instead, their entire outer body expresses “head”-like gene programs, making their whole form essentially head-like.

It means that rather than a loose nerve network, sea urchins possess a complex, integrated nervous system that researchers call an “all-body brain,” with the neurons spread throughout their entire body working together as a whole.

Sea Urchins: The Science Behind the All-Body Brain

This revolutionary insight was made possible by advanced genetic and cellular analyses. It revealed a surprisingly complex nervous system extended throughout the sea urchin’s body. Unlike animals with a centralized brain, where processing is concentrated in one location, the sea urchin has a decentralized system, a complex and interconnected neural network spread throughout its body.

This network functions collectively as an expansive “all-body brain,” and is capable of processing information across its entire form. In short, Sea urchins possess a sophisticated, body-wide brain, built with a genetic blueprint similar to our own, challenging the long-held belief that complex intelligence requires a central brain.

This discovery challenges long-standing assumptions about the simplicity of echinoderm nervous systems. The findings suggest that the “brain” is not confined to a single structure but is instead distributed throughout the organism, with genetic patterns and cell types remarkably similar to those found in vertebrates. 

References:

More from the author: Sudden Goodbyes: The Alarming Truth About Cardiac Arrest’s Hidden Dangers

Science, Leadership, & Local Empowerment: An In-Depth Conversation with Hassun El-Zafar

Maham Maqsood
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Science, Leadership, & Local Empowerment: An In-Depth Conversation with Hassun El-Zafar

Hassun El-Zafar is the Chief Executive Officer of Edinburgh Science, leading one of the UK’s most influential science engagement organisations and managing its various local and international outreach programs. In 2024, he was recognised by Innovate UK for “his work on democratising access to museums and knowledge.” He carries a unique blend of creative leadership and community-centred vision. He has also developed several storytelling projects, including an installation called HEAR and a virtual reality experience, Mirpur: The Atlantis of Kashmir.

We caught up with him before the Lahore Science Mela (LSM) to chat about his work and the landscape of science communication.

Maham: I’ll jump straight in. Your profile is fascinating, and we’ve seen the incredible work you’re doing in the UK with Edinburgh Science. Could you take us back to the beginning, like how this journey started for you?

Hassun: Well, Jazak Allah for having me. It’s great to talk to you, and I’m grateful to the LSM for inviting me. Alhamdulillah, my career traces back to my lifelong connection to science, whether through school, university, or what eventually became my main profession as a science teacher.

I studied science education at university, and even now, when I go home, people still know me as a science teacher. But I always wanted to explore beyond the classroom, which led me to informal science learning spaces, and ultimately to my role as Director of Edinburgh Science Foundation. Whilst I was doing my master’s, I applied for a job as a science communicator at the Abu Dhabi Science Festival, delivered by Edinburgh Science.

And therefore, that would have been a key moment and reason why I knew of Edinburgh Science to begin with. I was also blessed with wonderful science teachers who didn’t reduce science to facts and formulas but made it a creative endeavour. That shaped how I see science today. And I’ve been fortunate to have supportive friends and colleagues who pushed me to realise my potential. May Allah grant all of us such company that helps us grow and achieve work we feel is worthwhile.

Maham: What is your broader vision for Edinburgh Science? And in a landscape filled with volatility, misinformation, and declining trust, how do you see the science festival helping people connect with scientific knowledge?

Hassun: Yeah, it’s so important to be able to understand what your impact is going to be and what you want it to be, to be able to evaluate and assess it. We’re living in a time when people consume more information than ever, and truthful, transparent science communication is so imperative.

At Edinburgh Science, we approach this in many ways. We organise a science festival, not just in Edinburgh, but across the world. The Edinburgh Science Festival is the oldest, since 1989.

We deliver talks, cultural programmes, and, importantly, early-years interventions with children and families. Research shows that waiting until university is too late; perceptions of science form very young. So we try to get in as early as possible to build a positive perception of how inquiry knowledge should be, and a positive perception of why we should always go for critical thinking and honest information. I don’t know how we’re going to balance the world that’s coming between us, but in many ways, many of the challenges we face are not new; rather, they’re generational challenges.

There’s always been misinformation. There’s always been a place where science has to play a key role in the future to come, in the present day. The question is how we continue that work using today’s technologies. It might feel daunting, but everything seems impossible until it’s done.

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Hassun at the Athens Science Festival. Credit: Hassun El-Zafar

Maham: You also mentioned that the organisation runs programmes outside the UK. Could you tell us more about the kinds of initiatives you’re currently leading internationally, and how they’re engaging audiences beyond the UK and Europe? These areas have a relatively established science communication landscape, but that’s not always the case in local regions.

Hassun: I see three key areas. First, I’m involved in a lot of international engagement, and the Science Mela is one example of how we share our practice and expertise globally. Second, we’ve delivered creative science festivals for organisations worldwide, such as the Abu Dhabi Science Festival. That festival drew not only local schools but also a very diverse expat community.

We also delivered a science festival in Los Angeles with the Getty Foundation at the Libertas. It’s far from this region, but the number of Hispanic and Latino families there, often overlooked, made it an important project. There is still much more to be done.

And absolutely, that is one of the things that we’re doing out here is kind of really getting a sense of how other science festivals are operating across the world. And how we, as one of the leading science festivals worldwide, have a role to play in achieving our charitable purpose by supporting these festivals in whichever means they find most valuable.

Maham: On a more personal note, what has been the most challenging yet rewarding project you’ve worked on, and how did it shape your journey in science communication, and what did it teach you about leadership?

Hassun: Every project has its challenges, but I’ll mention the play I created, “There Is No Planet B.” I had directed a play before, but I didn’t go to drama school. I felt something needed to be said, and I wanted to push myself.

What I learned about leadership was, first, the importance of building a team. You don’t need to be an expert in everything. In theatre, you bring in a sound designer, a producer, and actors; they take your vision and elevate it. Second, trust your team to deliver your vision. And then the third thing, I guess, is creating the best environment they need to do their best work. Your job as a leader is to understand what helps them succeed and make that possible.

So challenge yourself, always be bold and ambitious. We need those kinds of people in the world right now to build high-performing teams; you do that through trust, and also by creating an environment that allows them to flourish.

In the case of No Planet B, it was bringing in the producer, the actors, and giving them the scripts, and then letting them really run with it. With theatre, it’s remarkable because you can see something which was an idea, to them being on stage, to someone giving you feedback and saying it was the most amazing piece of theatre they’ve ever seen.

And there’s a connection here to science communication. At its core, good science communication is storytelling—something humans have always done and must continue to do.

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Play directed by Hassun El Zafar. Credit: There Is No Planet B: The Play. Photo, Hassun El Zafar

Maham: Events like the LSM offer young people in Pakistan a rare chance to experience science beyond textbooks. What message would you like to share with the youth about nurturing curiosity? 

Hassun: Science is not necessarily something you have to do at a certain time or place, or even something someone has to give you a title for. If you’re curious about the universe and want to understand the world around you, you’re already engaging in science. It isn’t just the collection of facts and figures.

The second thing is that it is a wonderfully diverse area, you have scientists who wear lab coats in labs, scientists who are climbing mountains, going to space, and to the deepest trenches of the ocean. Some that work with insects, others with atoms. Some read all day, others hardly at all—though maybe they should. The point is, there’s a vast world to explore.

I would also say that we are entering an era where the world needs ideas.  We are trying to solve several problems worldwide, including climate change, food security, education gaps, water and sanitation, glacier melt, housing, and economic development.

You will find that research and science already present robust solutions to these problems. We do not only need scientists, but also builders of ideas that transform society. Science meets purpose when you use the talent God has given you to make the world better. For me, having a compass matters. It could be a spiritual compass, such as Islam provides. And why do we do things to make the world a better place? Because it’s something that is innately your responsibility as a Muslim.

Doing science for its own sake is fine, but doing it to create positive change is far more meaningful. And big change doesn’t always happen from big actions. It happens from people just doing the ordinary day-to-day actions. Doing science, informing public opinion, and transforming the ways that we can address very real problems in society is an art to which all of us need to play an active role.

And I would say, because most of your audience is from places like Pakistan, the time when others dictate how you should solve your problems should come to an end. You should feel empowered as you have the opportunity, talent, and autonomy to solve the issues you face. You can’t solve the problems you’re facing—or the world’s—using the same thinking that created them.

And we can’t solve them with people who have never lived experience of what those problems are like day to day. So use that to your advantage. We call it the unfair advantage in the startup world. Use that, relish it, and go out there and be the change that you want to see in the world because the world needs it more than ever.

More from the author: Exploring the Overlapping Realities of Climate Change and Infectious Disease Spread with Dr Quaid Saeed

Marine Animals Die From Much Smaller Plastic Doses Than Previously Believed

Muniba Usman
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Marine Animals Die From Much Smaller Plastic Doses Than Previously Believed

The marine environment is no longer the ideal place for many aquatic animals. Most of the ocean water is a subtle mix of unwanted materials, including plastic. A recent study reveals that a minimal amount of plastic can prove fatal for marine life. For instance, less than three sugar cubes can be fatal to birds like Atlantic puffins. According to researcher Erin Murphy, an ocean plastic researcher at the Ocean Conservancy, this was already below the lowest threshold they expected

The paper published by The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences saw researchers analyze necropsies from over 10,000 animals in a bid to model how different types of plastic can affect ocean life, and at what point the dose of plastic turns fatal.
Scientists are resolute to reduce the amount of plastics by cleaning up, reducing, or recycling.
Scientists, by and large, are compiling the necropsy results from dozens of studies and available database resources from all around the globe. Specifically, the data have confirmed the relation between the fatality of marine animals and plastic consumption.
Most of the animals had either washed up on beaches or were unintentionally caught.
Researchers then analyzed how the amount of plastic consumed, in terms of both the number of pieces and the volume relative to the animal’s digestive tract, has affected the likelihood of death.
The study also included the record of how different types of plastic have affected other types of animals. For instance, many seabirds were particularly affected by rubber and hard plastics.
Surprisingly, just six pea-sized pieces were enough to kill the birds with a 90% chance. Sea turtles face a significant risk from soft plastics such as polythene bags. These plastic items were lethal for marine mammals, as was fishing gear.
“One whale had the equivalent of a three-gallon bucket of plastic inside it,” Murphy said.
Fifty percent of the marine animals studied were from species designated as threatened, vulnerable, or endangered.

Plastic: a serious threat to survival

Researchers and study authors anticipate that their work can positively affect improving or creating monitoring programs to curtail plastic pollution, particularly in oceans
The research “helps us understand materials that might be particularly dangerous that we may want to address through policy,” Murphy said, pointing to balloons or plastic bags.
According to a study, which was particularly centered on deaths that occurred swiftly after injury to the GI tract, it is just one piece of a broader problem. The research did not include chronic effects of plastic chemicals or risks of getting tangled, which is another serious hazard.
An oceanography professor at the Sea Education Association, Kara Lavender-Law, called the study “remarkable” and “a really systematic, careful look at the data that exists” to better understand and predict risk.
According to a 2019 report, approximately six million tonnes of plastic entered major water bodies, including rivers, lakes, and oceans. Recent research has highlighted the widespread presence of microplastics at an alarming rate, from the deepest ocean trenches to inside the human body.
Lavender-Law stated that the study underscores how plastic pollution remains unresolved and a multi-layered issue. She also added that while growing concern over micro- and nanoplastics, especially for human health, is justified, the danger posed by larger plastic debris to marine animals is still very real.
References:

More from the author: Sindh’s Flood Crisis: A Stark Reminder of Indus Delta’s Vulnerabilities as Experts Forewarned

The Largest and most detailed Radio Image of the Milky Way is just Revealed

Scientia
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The Largest and most detailed Radio Image of the Milky Way is just Revealed

According to research published in the Astronomical Society of Australia, in October 2025, a ribbon of red splotches interspersed with blue dots marks the largest, most detailed image of the Milky Way in radio wavelengths ever assembled.

This new visible side of our fairly flat spiral galaxy, as seen from Earth’s southern hemisphere, will help astronomers find and classify objects within it and better understand ongoing processes, says astronomer Silvia Mantovanini of Curtin University in Perth, Australia.

She briefed that the new image was captured during the search for supernova remnants, leftover bubbles of gas and dust from exploding stars. Most of these objects have been discovered in radio light because they can continue emitting radio waves for tens of thousands of years after an explosion.

Researchers have detected about 300 supernova remnants in the Milky Way, but estimate that roughly 2,000 exist. Studying more stellar remains will shed light on the last evolutionary stages of stars and how they died, Mantovanini says. However, it was daunting to distinguish supernova remnants from other objects with past telescopes and surveys.

Mantovanini and colleagues compiled observations of radio waves captured over more than 140 nights from 2013 to 2020. The data were obtained from the Murchison Widefield Array telescope in Western Australia during two surveys. The surveys were carried out to map the southern hemisphere sky. Each observation captured a photograph of one section of the sky and lasted about two minutes, capturing a specific range of radio wavelengths.

Sorting together almost 2,000 of these observations using supercomputers revealed a dazzling edge-on view toward the center of the Milky Way, spanning roughly 60,000 light-years, or just over half the galaxy’s width.

The team of researchers stacked 20 versions of the image, each a different color to represent a specific range of radio wavelengths, with longer wavelengths depicted in red and shorter wavelengths in blue.

According to researchers, these colors hint at the mechanisms behind the radio emissions, such as heat-related radiation from stellar nurseries. They look like blue bubbles, and emissions from supernova remnants that don’t come from heat, which appear as red bubbles.

Mantovanini says that this multicolored view of the Milky Way makes it easy to distinguish what is going on within the galaxy. Its creation reminded us that we’re just a small part of something incredibly complex.

Reference: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/largest-radio-image-milky-way-galaxy

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A Legacy of Discovery: James Watson, Co-Architect of the DNA Double Helix, Passes at 97

Hadia Rashid
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A Legacy of Discovery: James Watson, Co-Architect of the DNA Double Helix, Passes at 97

James Watson, the co-discoverer of the double helix, the name every biology student has underlined at least once in a textbook, has passed away at the age of 97. In one of the greatest breakthroughs of the 20th Century, he identified the double-helix structure of DNA in 1953 alongside British scientist Francis Crick, setting the stage for rapid advances in molecular biology. Along with fellow researchers Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of DNA’s double helix shape.

James D. Watson was born on April 6, 1928, in the United States. By the age of eleven, Watson was already joining his father on a birdwatching walk. So early on, he heard of Charles Darwin, the architect of the theory of evolution by natural selection

Later, as a zoology major at the University of Chicago, Watson came across a review in the Chicago Paper of a book called “What is Life?”  by the great physicist Erwin Schrödinger. And that was a question he wanted to know. While Darwin explained life after it began but what was the essence of life itself? Schrödinger suggested that life’s essence lay in information carried in chromosomes and that this information must exist on a molecule.

Watson had never truly thought about molecules in this way before. The notion that this information could be digital and that it could be copied ignited a determination in him: he would become a geneticist. 

His journey led him to Indiana, where he got the impression that genes were like DNA. By the time he completed his PhD, he was ready to pursue DNA itself. Watson first went to Copenhagen, hoping to train as a biochemist, but this path wasn’t going anywhere toward saying what the gene was.

It was at a meeting in Italy that he met Maurice Wilkins, who hinted that DNA could indeed be the hereditary molecule on chromosomes and showed an X-ray photograph of DNA. Watson wanted to work with Wilkins, but the former birdwatcher was not what Wilkins had in mind. 

Eventually, he went to the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge because it was the best place in the world for X-ray crystallography. There, Watson met Francis Crick, a 35-year-old physicist, while he himself was just 23. They worked together at the University of Cambridge, UK, and solved the structure of DNA within a few years of their first meeting. In 1953, they published a seminal paper in Nature titled A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid.

But the discovery of the DNA helix turned into a big controversy. Watson and Crick elucidated the complex structure with the help of data and ideas from Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins, who were working at King’s College London at the time. Some of this data was taken without Franklin’s permission.

Wilkins was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962 with Watson and Crick. Franklin had died of ovarian cancer 4 years earlier at the age of 37, and so was ineligible for the award.

In 2022, a few experts visited Franklin’s archive at Churchill College in Cambridge, UK, and went through her notes, reconstructing the development of her ideas. They found a hitherto unstudied draft news article from 1953, written in consultation with Franklin and for Time Magazine. They also found a letter from one of Franklin’s colleagues to Crick. These documents reveal a different account of the discovery of the double helix. Franklin did not fail to grasp the structure of DNA; she was an equal contributor to solving it.

Today, when we pay homage to D. Watson, getting Franklin’s story right is crucial because she has become a role model for women going into science. She was up against not just the routine sexism of the day, but also more subtle forms embedded in science, some of which are still present today.

The Living Legacy of Watson’s Double Helix

Watson’s discovery didn’t just change biology; it changed humanity’s relationship with life itself. The double helix he had helped to reveal became the foundation for nearly every medical and forensic breakthrough of the modern era.  Diseases that once seemed untouchable, like cancer, genetic disorders, or even pandemics, are now being challenged through therapies rooted in the structure Watson helped uncover.

DNA testing now plays a crucial role in identifying criminals, identifying the innocent, and solving forensic cases worldwide. The first conviction based on DNA profiling in 1988 marked a moment when Watson’s scientific curiosity reached the courtroom. 

Every cloned gene, every sequenced genome, and every life saved through DNA technology is a living tribute to James Watson’s vision. His discovery didn’t end in a lab. It continues to pulse in every vaccine, every diagnosis, and every act of justice shaped by the language of our genes. 

Memorizing Names, Not Ideas: Pakistan’s Science in Stagnation

And yet, as the world celebrates Watson’s contributions, we in Pakistan must confront a difficult question: what have we done with this inheritance of knowledge? It has been seven decades since the discovery of the structure of DNA milestone every student of biology in the country remembers; the national contribution to molecular biology remains small.

Our research infrastructure lags, our universities struggle with underfunding, and the brightest minds often have to move abroad to seek recognition. We have built institutions, not intellectual ecosystems.

If we truly want to honor Watson, we must ensure that Pakistan’s young scientists inherit more than textbooks. They must inherit vision. Let us build research labs that are alive with questions. Let us give our scientists freedom to experiment, to fail, and to learn. Let us celebrate those who think, not just those who memorize.

James Watson once said, “Knowing ‘why(an idea) is more important than learning ‘what” (the fact).” Perhaps, that is the very message Pakistan needs most today. 

Despite being involved in several controversies and being largely disliked due to his racist and sexist remarks, Watson’s academic accomplishments place him as one of the most influential scientists of the 20th century. His work opened the door to entirely new fields of study, bringing us insights into how hereditary information is stored.

References:

More from the Author: Antibiotics in Chicken Farming: A Recipe for Disaster in the Fight Against Antimicrobial Resistance

Crime Scene Investigtion, Clickbait, and Screens: How Media Reshapes Forensic Reality

Anam Ilyas
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Crime Scene Investigtion, Clickbait, and Screens: How Media Reshapes Forensic Reality

Cameras flash. The courtroom is more of a film set than a court of justice for a crime turned spectacle. Millions of people observe it through their phones and break down every look, every inhalation, and every tear. TikTok is swarmed with videos marked as evidence. YouTube gurus pass their judgment each day, way before the jury. It is streamed, clipped, and hashtagged.

From the trial of Johnny Depp-Amber Heard to Making a Murderer, courtroom drama has become entertainment all over the world, and somewhere in between crime, clicks, and courtrooms, truth begins to lose definition.

Everyone’s a detective now.

The last 2-3 decades of television and social media have made forensics an entertainment; it has taught us that any crime has a perfect trace, and that the truth will always be covered in lab lights and DNA results.

Real life isn’t that neat.

The Birth of the CSI Effect

CSI was not just a hit but was a cultural phenomenon when it was first aired in the early 2000s. Laboratory work was glamorized through the show. Murderers were resolved with investigators in designer clothes in 45 minutes. Blood patterns glowed. Computers solved them within a few seconds.

In reality, forensic scientists could not have an opportunity to look away. Courtrooms began to change, where jurors mostly demand solid evidence, including DNA, fingerprints, digital trail, etc. They had faith in evidence they had watched on screens, not in testimony they had heard.

Scientists began to refer to it as the CSI Effect, caused by media, especially shows like “Crime Science Investigation”, and is seen as a misleading expectation that shapes what jurors and the public expect in real trials. This phenomenon is typified by the hope that forensic evidence is always available, flawless, and rapid. This is likely to cause jurors to ignore non-science-based evidence or a feeling that a crime cannot be solved without a gun or forensic evidence.

Was it real?

The meta-analysis subsequently establishes that watching crime dramas had a minimal effect on the verdicts. Nevertheless, the expectations of jurors were certainly influenced by TV, and they believed that all evidence in a trial had to be forensic.

The irony? The CSI Effect does not need to be massive to be significant. How justice is practiced can be altered through even a slight change in people’s expectations.

When Fiction Becomes Public Truth

Real-life crime programs were the next to burst.

Making a Murderer…… Mindhunter….. The Staircase….

Every episode was full of truth and closure. However, the editing of the story was done as a thriller behind the camera. Heroes, villains, dramatic revelations, and justice were packaged for viewers. Individuals began to think that they were knowledgeable in forensic science. Bloodstains told stories, fiber evidence had the power to convict, and DNA solved everything.

But it didn’t…

Real forensic work is slow, messy, and often uncertain. Samples degrade, labs backlog, machines fail… However, everything was clear and definite in the media version, and that’s where the danger lies. The difference between the reel and the real, and when such a distance goes to court, it may distort justice itself.

The Digital Crime Scene

Not every crime results in bodies and blood. Some live inside screens. A deleted text, a hidden server, a photo in the cloud….

It is at this point that digital forensics comes in, the art of tracing the digital fingerprints. It does not concern magnifying glasses and powders. It’s about code, data, and logic. Professionals check phones, computers, and networks to reclaim the lost or deleted data. Each click, each message, each log, may tell a story.

Nevertheless, digital forensics is not television; it does not have a magic data recovery button. It is meticulous research, finding, gathering, and providing evidence in a manner that can withstand in court, and the stakes are growing.

Online fraud, ransomware and cyberattacks are literally everywhere. Digital forensics has become an essential component of justice, yet it encounters massive challenges, legal loopholes, a lack of tools, and the endless development of malware. Nevertheless, it is the new frontier of the truth that lives in the unseen corners of the internet.

When Your Fridge Testifies

Today, smart devices are what the world operates with. Your automobile, wristwatch, and even your refrigerator speak to the cloud. It is the Internet of Things (IoT ) that refers to a network of physical objects that contain a sensor, software, and other technologies that connect and communicate data via the internet. Such things may include domestic devices and wearable, or even sophisticated industrial equipment, allowing them to communicate with one another and with their owners, which can, in many cases, be used to automate tasks and present new knowledge.

It’s convenient, until it isn’t. Crime scene investigators are now looking at the data of the IoT, such as the doorbell cameras, the smart thermostats, and the fitness trackers. During a murder, a heart rate spike may be registered by a smartwatch, and the GPS of a car may follow the track of a suspect.

Sounds futuristic, right? But there’s a catch: IoT forensics is a tangled mess.

The data in each device is stored differently; the evidence could be stored in servers in different countries and encrypted, and with data being erased that easily, each second counts. Researchers are creating new technologies to defend digital evidence, blockchain verifications, privacy-guaranteed infrastructure, and cloud-based solutions known as Forensics-as-a-Service (FaaS).

However, it is not only technical, it’s moral. Once your household appliances have been called to testify, where does privacy end and justice begin?

Inside the Real Crime Scene…

Turn off the TV, and enter into an actual investigation…. The floor is cold, and the lighting is faint; there is still the odor of chemicals. One detective in a brown suit takes pictures of a footprint before it gets washed away by the rain….

Crime
The Author generated this photo with AI.

This is the actual crime scene work…. Quite on the contrary, it is motivated by patience and precision, and also burdened by budget reductions, staff shortages, and obsolete equipment. Recent studies reveal a widening gap that is increasingly growing between what is on the screen and what is on the tape. Crime scenes are chaotic, dynamic environments, and evidence that is living cannot manage without training, and not merely technology.

However, with the falling budgets, automation is coming to the forefront; Machines begin to take over what human beings are doing. That could be effective; however, it is dangerous. Forensic science is judgmental, and the human eye can see what the computers are blind to.

The actual question is: Is it possible to have justice when it is autopiloted?

When Media Becomes the Jury

The courtroom was formerly sacred; now it’s streamed. The Amber Heard and Johnny Depp case was the trial that was being watched by millions of people live, breaking down every glance, every tear, and every word. Memes became testimony under TikTok clips. The evidence frame by frame was dissected by YouTube experts.

Crime
Photo: Los Angeles Times

It is the fresh appearance of the CSI Effect; social media does not simply report trials; it actually performs them. Viewers are jurors, liking, sharing, as well as judging in real time.

The danger? The boundary between the truth and entertainment is lost.

A viral video is more believable than a sworn statement. Facts are quick to be “liked and shared,” and propaganda is quicker than the facts, and justice in confusion becomes a popularity contest. It is not that people don’t care about the truth; they care too much. However, now caring with screens is different; it is not always the real story that prevails when the louder one is used.

Restoring Trust in Forensic Reality

It is not the solution to prohibit the real crime shows or shut down the internet. It is to educate individuals on how to narrate a story out of science. Media literacy is the key; people ought to be aware of what a real forensic work is like in the waiting, the uncertainty, the rules that make the evidence play straight. Lawyers and judges need to identify cases where jurors have very high expectations, and forensic scientists have to step out and talk directly to the general population.

There are already labs that are preparing for this future. They are experimenting with new systems to gather evidence, such as blockchain trails, which demonstrate the integrity of data. Scientists are developing frameworks of Forensics Readiness programs, which assist the investigators in gathering the digital evidence ethically and expeditiously.

Forensic readiness programs are pre-planned strategies that enable an organization to gather, conserve, and process digital evidence in legal, regulatory, or internal investigations. The purpose of these programs is to ensure that, in the event of an incident, the organization is equipped with quick and efficient response mechanisms to mitigate the effects of such occurrences, minimize business impacts, and reduce investigation costs. Additionally, the evidence collected is admissible and reliable. It is not about the ideal science. It’s trustworthy science.

Truth in the Age of Spectacle

Justice had been a matter of fact. Now it’s about visibility.

The reality is cut, edited, and sensationalized in the race for clicks on social media. But all true detective workers know, real facts do not shine. It conceals itself in the dull and stubborn details. The CSI Effect is, perhaps, not as massive as we believe it to be, but its shadow is long. It defines the kinds of justice in our eyes, our expectations of technology, and the way we determine guilt and innocence.

Perhaps, it is the true danger, not to believe a lie, but to hope for perfection. The fact that in real courtrooms, truth does not come in neon wrappings makes this possible. It arrives gradually and very quietly, one examination at a time.

“Sometimes the hardest evidence to find is not at the place of the crime, but what we want to believe.”

References:

  • Schanz, K., & Salfati, C. G. (2020). The CSI effect and its controversial existence and impact: A mixed methods review. Reviewing Crime Psychology, 145-164.
  • Rose, K., Eldridge, S., & Chapin, L. (2015). The internet of things: An overview. The Internet Society (ISOC), 80(15), 1-53.
  • Stoyanova, M., Nikoloudakis, Y., Panagiotakis, S., Pallis, E., & Markakis, E. K. (2020). A survey on the internet of things (IoT) forensics: challenges, approaches, and open issues. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 22(2), 1191-1221.
  • Zahari, F., Harun, A., & Nasrijal, N. M. H. (2022). A systematic literature review on the usage of digital photography in the crime scene investigation process. Journal of Pharmaceutical Negative Results, 13(6), 2061-2069.
  • https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2022-07-13/johnny-depp-amber-heard-defamation-trial-tiktok-documentary

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Lights, Camera… Forensic Science: Scientia Welcomes Dr Umair Haroon to its Advisory Board

Aliza Waqar
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Lights, Camera… Forensic Science: Scientia Welcomes Dr Umair Haroon to its Advisory Board
In an era where science shapes every aspect of our lives—from the technology we use to the health decisions we make—hearing directly from those advancing and communicating scientific knowledge has never been more crucial. Recently, Scientia Pakistan had a brief conversation with Dr Umair Haroon, a forensic scientist, producer, director, and elected member of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (IATAS), the organization responsible for the International Emmy Awards. Dr Umair Haroon is known for launching Pakistan’s first forensic science-based investigative TV series. He recently joined Scientia Pakistan as its Advisory Board member; with his diverse background, we look forward to his amazing suggestions in advancing our mission of promoting scientific awareness in Pakistan. His has significantly contributed to forensic science, science communication, and the public’s understanding of science. His insights offer a fascinating glimpse into the challenges, inspirations, and evolving landscape of forensic science in today’s world.
In this conversation with Aliza Waqar, Dr Umair reflects on his journey, discusses how he envisions the future of forensic science and Science journalism in Pakistan.

Aliza: It’s a pleasure to have you, and I would like to start with a brief introduction of myself.

Dr Umair: First of all, thank you so much for inviting me and having me on the advisory board. I want to thank Saadeqa Khan; she’s doing wonderful work, and obviously, Scientia is a wonderful organization. I think it’s one of the rare voices that speak reason, speaking for public understanding of science — and Scientia is one of those; it’s an honor to interact with your team.

By training and qualification, I’m a medical doctor. I completed my MBBS from Sindh Medical College in Karachi, with my specialization in forensic medicine. Forensic medicine is one of the rarer specialties in medicine, where we look at the legal aspects of medicine — how medicine can be helpful in legal matters to get justice. DNA fingerprinting is one of the famous parts of it; we also do many other things, but DNA has had a celebrity status in recent years.

After completing my fellowship from Dow University of Health Sciences in Forensic Medicine, I went to the USA and appeared in an exam in a similar field — the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators. That examination is required for conducting a death investigation. I attempted and was the first Person who pass it while holding a Pakistani passport. 

After 2014, I worked with organizations such as GIZ and the British High Commission, and then my focus shifted to the media industry. I started my own show called Kadi Se Hathkadi — it was the first practical forensic-science show in the Pakistani media industry. I was very impressed with shows like Dr. G: Medical Examiner and American forensic programs I watched, which inspired me to create a Pakistani version that could both entertain and educate. 

The show was shot in a crime lab set — we developed a sample crime lab — and that is something I can speak more about when the question arises. Currently, I lead a TV channel called Metro One News, serving as the channel’s President, and I also manage a digital media platform called Voice of Sindh. We publish magazines, write books, and run three websites in three different languages, and I lead those efforts as well. 

Forensic
Photo, Aaj TV

Aliza: Honestly, I’d like to start with a little bit about your journey from studying medicine at Sindh Medical College and how your fellowship at Dow University of Health Sciences shaped your career path.

Dr Umair: As usual, there were a few options — engineering, medicine, chartered accountancy — people usually choose the “best” ones. I got admitted to a medical college, completed my medical degree, and then completed the fellowship. I enrolled in the Department of Forensic Medicine at Dow University of Health Sciences and completed the program (a four-year degree program that I completed in five years). 

Aliza: Was there a defining moment or influence that inspired you to specialize in forensic sciences?

Dr Umair: I was always impressed with crime-scene work: Sherlock Holmes-style solving of mysteries. That inspired me. Also, there was less competition in the field, which I later regretted a little when I ended up moving to media — medicine didn’t always give me enough workspace to grow. Forensic medicine taught me about the reality of life and death; doing many post-mortems gives you a close view of how precious human life is. 

Aliza: From your perspective, what are the biggest challenges facing forensic investigation in Pakistan today?

Dr Haroon: The major issues are resources and training. There are fewer trained experts and a limited scope for career growth. In forensics, you mostly end up in lecturership/academia, with little practical forensic-science infrastructure. There is no proper, functional forensic-science lab in many areas yet; although the Punjab Forensic Science Agency exists, practical facilities are still limited. I was among those writing proposals around 2012–13 to build such capabilities. 

Aliza: You became the first Pakistani Diplomate of the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators — what did that achievement mean to you personally and professionally?

Dr Umair: It was important — it helped my career a lot. Passing the exam allowed me to learn how the system works in developed countries — how they conduct modern forensic investigations — and I brought that knowledge back. After passing the exam, I was interviewed in a Pakistani newspaper in America. This article was then noticed in the country, and I was invited by the National Defense University (NDU) for national security workshops. The recognition opened opportunities and was a rewarding step in my career. 

Aliza: You launched Pakistan’s first forensic-science investigative TV series — what inspired that idea?

Dr Umair: I used to watch US forensic programs and thought, “Why not have a Pakistani version?” The idea was to educate the public about forensic science and increase awareness, and I wrote a concept paper and pitched it. Although the project had delays, Express News later agreed to broadcast it, and we developed the show there. The inspiration was shows such as Forensic Files, CSI, and Dr. G: Medical Examiner. 

Aliza: How did you manage the scripts for the series, and who helped make complex forensic ideas understandable for TV audiences?

Dr Umair: There are two aspects to this storytelling: one is the scientific expert (my role), and the other is translating the ideas into language that the general audience can understand. I worked with a writer — a good friend who is a poet and lecturer — who could take the forensic concept and craft it into a strong, comprehensible story.

For example, the pilot had an unidentified dead body found at sea; forensic findings showed the person actually died in fresh water, not saltwater, which guided the investigation. Another episode involved a case where a steroid shot had been replaced by insulin, causing a death in the ring. We aimed to combine strong storytelling with accurate forensic detail. 

Aliza: You recently received an award from the Karachi Bar Association for your contribution to scientific awareness through the media. You’ve spoken about justice and corruption in Pakistan. What challenges did you face producing such content, and how did you overcome them?

Dr Umair: It’s not easy in developing countries. We often had to “hide” the truth behind fiction — using fictional stories to convey real messages and to educate without directly confronting sensitive matters. Fiction becomes a protective “loophole” to speak truths. That approach let us address difficult topics while avoiding direct conflict. 

Aliza: At Scientia Pakistan, we’ve published articles on forensic science and trained young writers — how can these writers move into television/film?

Dr Umair: Fewer programs are addressing forensic or scientific aspects on TV. Convincing producers to take on science-focused programs is difficult because of TRP (ratings) concerns. You need to build audience appetite and maintain quality so viewers choose to watch.

Documentary is a powerful medium and is an excellent entry point — short documentaries and docu-series can be very effective. Use digital platforms, like Voice of Sindh and other independent channels, to produce high-quality content and then push it toward broadcasters and festivals. Also, send productions to festivals — we don’t have a strong culture of submitting to international festivals, and that needs to change.

Aliza: You are an elected member of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (IATAS) — the only Pakistani member. How does that feel, and what responsibilities come with that role?

Dr Umair: Membership in the International Academy is a big honor — it’s like the Oscars for television (the Emmy is the major TV award). IATAS promotes and supports quality production worldwide. As a member, we review and judge content, rate productions, and help elevate global standards. I hope to bring more Pakistani members on board and to submit Pakistani content to the International Emmys. Being part of the Academy allows meeting leading figures in world television and advocating for Pakistani work internationally. 

Aliza: What advice would you give to Pakistani creators aspiring to reach platforms like the Emmys? What makes a story globally resonant yet authentically Pakistani?

Dr Umair: Be genuine, produce high quality, and focus on the human factor. Stories must rise above ethnicity and local divisions to touch universal human emotions. Also, send your work to festivals and competitions — we must build a culture of submitting productions for international exposure. 

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Flood Prevention Revolution: Harnessing Karez and Advanced Bio-Ecological Drainage for a Safer Future

Aneesa Zeb Awan
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Flood Prevention Revolution: Harnessing Karez and Advanced Bio-Ecological Drainage for a Safer Future

A report published in Reuters showed that it was the thought-provoking testimony from 2025 flood survivors in Northern Pakistan. What began as seasonal rain resulted in a catastrophic environmental disaster. Climate change is projected to increase flood risks two to five times by 2050. Pakistan stands at the forefront of climate-hit countries, and its socio-economic and geographic conditions make it particularly vulnerable to flooding.

The recent flood disasters in 2022 and 2025 are the harsh foreshadowing of the new normal. Conventional flood management approaches include constructing dams, effective drainage systems, and levees. Such interventions are linked with ecosystem disruption and are unsustainable in the long run. On the other hand, biological interventions focus on mitigating flood risks while leveraging ecological processes. This phenomenon is termed Natural Flood Management (NFM) (Bagheri‐Gavkosh et al., 2025).

Decoding floods

Floods are one of the serious environmental concerns, being exacerbated by urbanization, deforestation, and climate change. Riverine floods are associated with heavy rainfall and snowmelt. Flooding occurs when soil and plants cannot absorb water, and it flows in abundance and enters a zone of land that is not usually underwater. This causes damage to infrastructure, biodiversity, and humans. Causes of flooding include continuous rainfall, deforestation, geological factors, and low soil permeability (Javadinejad, 2022).

The 2025 floods are one of the recent examples that resulted in nearly 1000 human casualties. Several homes and buildings have been swept away in key districts like Buner, Swat, Mansehra, Gilgit, and AJK. These floods are also accompanied by land degradation and crop damage. This would have severe economic consequences, given that more than 60% Pakistanis are dependent on Agriculture. According to a report published in The Express Tribune, roads and bridges are also damaged, impacting the connectivity of several districts with the rest of the country and intensifying the region’s battle with the recent surge in terrorism.

“Roads and bridges are also damaged, impacting the connectivity of several districts of KPK with the rest of the country, intensifying the region’s battle with the recent surge in terrorism.”

How Could Biological Approaches help Flood Management?

Climate change and socioeconomic developments are increasing the frequency and severity of floods. Flood management is widely recognized as an effective way to reduce the adverse consequences, and more resilient and sustainable approaches with effective policies have been implemented globally. One of them, and widely accepted, is the biological approach for effective flood management. Below are some key areas in which this approach is helping to reduce flood risks.

Reforestation and Vegetation

According to Global Forest Watch, Pakistan experienced a 1% decline in forest areas due to the massive flooding in 2022. Trees are beneficial in flood prevention as their roots create channels in the soil, which allows water to infiltrate deep into the ground instead of becoming surface runoff. Roots also stabilize the soil by binding it together and preventing erosion. Additionally, most of the rainwater is intercepted by the leaves and branches, preventing it from reaching the ground (Maqsood et al., 2024).

Thus, it is required to reforest the catchment areas of major rivers, the Indus, Chenab, and Ravi, to reduce the amount of water entering rivers. On the other hand, to prevent urban flooding, green spaces such as parks and urban forests can act as natural sponges. To protect major cities like Lahore, Islamabad, and Karachi from urban flooding, permeable green spaces should be created that could help prevent waterlogging and resulting damage.

Mangrove Reforestation

Mangroves not only act as a physical barrier against coastal flooding but also stabilize shorelines and prevent coastal erosion. These forests also help in the process known as “accretion”, in which roots cause the water to slow down, allowing sediments to settle out.

In this regard “Delta Blue Carbon” project has been launched in Pakistan. This project was carried out in partnership with IUCN and has been hugely successful in restoring the mangrove forests (Mitra et al., 2024). These forests are protecting native communities from environmental atrocities, including flooding. For example, during Cyclone Kyarr (2019), the villages behind mangrove forests suffered less compared to those that lacked any natural barrier.

Flood Management.
The Delta Blue Carbon project has been launched in Pakistan and helped address key issues, including coastal flooding. Source: © 2024 Delta Blue Carbon | All Rights Reserved.

Wetlands

Wetlands are considered natural sponges that absorb excess rainfall and enhance infiltration, thereby reducing surface runoff. Pakistan has nearly 19 wetlands of international importance under the Ramsar Convention. They are found in regions like the Indus Delta, KPK (Tanda Dam), and Gilgit and AJK (Satpara and Sheosar). Their restoration alongside rivers is essential for flood management, so they could act as water storage parks. This could be achieved by connecting river channels with floodplains so the water pressure could be minimized on the main channel. They could also act as distributed water storage parks.

Along with disaster management, they are also beneficial for agriculture. They release stored water during dry spells and recharge aquifers, and ultimately help farmers in irrigation management. For example, Haleji Lake in Sindh is not only a Ramsar site but also an important source of water for nearby farms (Batool et al., 2025).

Soil microbiology

This science deals with the microbes, including bacteria and fungi, that colonize the soil and define soil characteristics. A diverse soil microbiome is a prerequisite for creating a landscape that can withstand and recover from flooding. For example, fungal hyphae help in creating stable soil aggregates that make the soil porous and promote vegetation and plant growth.

Moreover, to protect the soil and prevent flooding in Pakistan, many incentives could be employed, including subsidizing cover cropping and organic amendments in the soil. Especially the salt-affected soil in Punjab (that becomes waterlogged and generates massive runoff) could be treated with organic amendments to promote healthy plant growth within the soil. In this regard, composting and vermicomposting plants should be set up near soil-degraded areas (Humphries, 2020).

Karez System

This system involves slowing down the flow of water, spreading it over a wide area, or sinking it into the ground. The Karez system comprises underground water channels that are connected to the groundwater. In this system, water flow is guided by gravity. Karez acts as a water supply to arid areas and helps the growth of trees and crops, which in turn also improve soil structure and help mitigate flooding by acting as a bio-hydrological regulator (Buriro et al., 2024).

This system is usually found in Baluchistan and KPK mountainous areas, but due to the increasing use of tube wells and other irrigation systems, its use has been declining. However, modern engineering techniques should be incorporated into this system to make its maintenance safer and efficient. Moreover, the Karez system could be introduced in areas like the Potohar region and the Kirthar mountains foothills to prevent the entry of water into the flat plain of Sindh from upstream regions.

Flood Managment
The Karez system could be introduced in areas like the Potohar region and on the outskirts of major cities; Credit: ResearchGate

Bio-ecological Drainage Systems

They integrate biological components with engineering solutions to manage stormwater. This transformative approach helps in managing urban water by leveraging natural processes to prevent flooding. It builds a network of integrated natural features specialized to slow, infiltrate, and store rainwater at its source (Chaplot & Asli Charandabi, 2024). This system consists of various features such as Artificial wetlands, Vegetated channels or bioswales, Permeable pavements, Rain gardens, Artificial ponds, and Green roofs.

Bio-ecological drainage system offers a critical solution to the issue of urban flooding in Pakistan, as it prevents the overloading of traditional, limited drains, and manages rainwater in streets, parks, and houses in urban areas.

Challenges and Policy Recommendations

To implement Natural Flood Management (NFM) in Pakistan, numerous hurdles need to be overcome. First is the lack of coordination among government departments. Separate departments exist for Agriculture, disaster management, and water management. Moreover, there is limited participation of local communities in government-funded afforestation efforts and indigenous water management programs.

Another critical challenge is a shortage of technical capacity for designing and implementing modern bio-ecological drainage systems. These projects also require huge funding and investment, which would demand competition with grey infrastructure funding projects (Ateeb & Zia, 2023).

To overcome these obstacles, it is necessary to make NFM a key part of the national disaster management policy, specifically water and flood management. Water management experts like Dr Taskeen Zahra Buriro and Qammar Un Nisa Jatoi recommend enhanced coordination among government departments.

There is a need to implement economic incentives for farmers to adopt soil-friendly practices and subsidies for urban developers to adopt a bio-ecological drainage system. Local communities should be taken into confidence for the success of indigenous solutions.

Additionally, international funding should be secured from funds like the Green Climate Fund to support NFM projects at the national and provincial levels. Finally, research and collaboration among national and international universities should be strengthened to replicate global NFM projects in Pakistan (Buriro & Un Nisa Jatoi, 2025).

Climate and policy experts recommend that the escalating flooding demand a fundamental shift in management strategy in Pakistan. Under such circumstances, NFM has proven to be a sustainable and resilient pathway. A synergistic approach is required, from afforestation to reviving the Karez system to an advanced bio-ecological drainage system in urban areas, to prevent flooding in Pakistan.

These options are linked with sustainable flood prevention and provide additional ecological benefits like recharging natural aquifers and promoting biodiversity. To implement these solutions effectively, Pakistan needs an integrated approach of combining effective policy-making and allocation of proper funds.

References: 

  • Ateeb, M., & Zia, S. (2023). A Case Study of Pakistan’s 2022 Floods. IC4R-2023, 103.
  • Bagheri‐Gavkosh, M., Panici, D., Puttock, A., Dauben, T., & Brazier, R. E. (2025). Hydrological Analysis and Impacts of Natural Flood-Management Strategies: A Systematic Review. Journal of Flood Risk Management, 18(3), e70112.
  • Batool, A., Parveen, A., Nawaz, M., Razzaq, D., Mukhtar, M., & Mustafavi, N. (2025). Wetlands of the Plains of Pakistan. Wetlands of Tropical and Subtropical Asia and Africa: Biodiversity, Livelihoods and Conservation, 67-83.
  • Buriro, S. A., Abro, A. A., & Abro, A. A. (2024). Sindhi Indigenous Ecological Knowledge: Sustainable Practices for Climate Change Resilience. Journal of Asian Development Studies, 13(3), 734-748.
  • Buriro, T. Z., & Un Nisa Jatoi, Q. (2025). Pakistan’s Flood Management Strategies: A Critical Review of Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Risk Mitigation. Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, 31(4), 84-90.
  • Chaplot, B., & Asli Charandabi, M. (2024). Bio‐Ecological Drainage System (BIOECODS) for Flood Management: Case Study: Maharani Janki Kunwar College, Bettiah. Journal of Hydraulic and Water Engineering, 2(1), 98-111.
  • Humphries, N. H. (2020). Microbiological and geochemical response of biosolid amended soils to flooding, University of Leeds.
  • Javadinejad, S. (2022). Resources, Environment and Information Engineering, 4(1), 173-183.
  • Maqsood, M. H., Mumtaz, R., & Khan, M. A. (2024). Deforestation detection and reforestation potential due to natural disasters—A case study of floods. Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment, 34, 101188.
  • Mitra, B., Rahman, M. M., Khan, A. A., & Rahman, S. M. (2024). Assessing the impact of sea level rise on the Indus delta in Pakistan: A comprehensive analysis of flooded areas and future vulnerabilities. Heliyon, 10(12).
  • https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/pakistan-villagers-say-floods-hit-in-seconds-toll-rises-2025-08-20/
  • https://tribune.com.pk/story/2563380/k-ps-twin-battles-terrorism-and-climate

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