Nerdy Science Blog

Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak outlined the 2010 Budget Speech on 23th October 2009, Friday.  This is the first Budget of  Datuk Seri Najib since he became the Prime Minister of Malaysia.  I quoted few sections involving the development of science and technology in Malaysia National Budget 2010.

INTENSIFYING RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND COMMERCIALISATION

34. Currently, expenditure on R&D activities is at 0.6% of GDP, well below the United States at 3%, South Korea 3.5% and Taiwan 2.4%. To Shift towards a high-income economy, we need a strong foundation in research, development and commercialisation (R&D&C) activities. Therefore, to strengthen R&D&C activities, the Government will undertake the following measures:

First: Rationalising all research funds and grants to be more effective to achieve set targets;

Second: Establishing a National Innovation Centre supported by a network of innovation excellence centres under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and in collaboration with the Ministry of Higher Education;

Third: Integrating R&D activities with patents, copyrights and trademarks registration to ensure R&D&C processes are implemented more effectively. The cooperation between patent and research agencies will expedite the commercialisation of research findings; and

Fourth: Providing small and medium enterprises with tax deduction on expenses incurred in the registration of patents and trademarks in the country.

…

DEVELOPING GREEN TECHNOLOGY

54. Green technology has the potential to become an important sector in economic development. Towards this, the Government launched the National Green Technology Policy in August. The objective of the policy is to provide direction towards management of sustainable environment. To further promote the development of green technology activities, the Government will:

First: Restructure the Malaysia Energy Centre as the National Green Technology Centre tasked with formulating a green technology development action plan. This Centre will function as the focal point to set standards and promote green technology. To intensify green awareness activities and practise environment-friendly lifestyle, an allocation of RM20 million will be provided;

Second: Organise an international exhibition on green technology in April 2010. The exhibition is expected to attract internationally renowned companies and experts in green technology.

Third: Develop Putrajaya and Cyberjaya as pioneer townships in Green Technology, as s showcase for the development of other townships; and

Fourth: Give priority to environment-friendly products and services that comply with green technology standards in Government procurement.

55. To promote green technology, the Government will establish a fund amounting to RM 1.5 billion. This fund will provide soft loans to companies that supply and utilise green technology. For suppliers, the maximum financing is RM50 million and for consumer companies RM10 million. The Government will bear 2% of the total interest rate. In addition, the Government will provide a guarantee of 60% on the financing amount, with the remaining 40% by banking institutions. Loan applications can be made through National Green Technology Centre. This scheme will commence on 1 January 2010 and is expected to benefit 140 companies.

…

ENHANCING HIGHLY SKILLED HUMAN CAPITAL

59. High quality human capital is a prerequisite to support the national development agenda. Therefore, the Government will ensure human capital development is implemented comprehensively, encompassing efforts to increase skills and knowledge. Apart from this, measures will be taken to develop intellectuals in science and technology, groom entrepreneurial capabilities as well as nurture positive and progressive values.

You can download the full speech of Malaysia Budget 2010 Speech here.

At first blush it may seem that qualitative and quantitative research are similar endeavors, but in fact these two fields of study are worlds apart. In order to understand the differences between these two important forms of research it is a good idea to define each one, then contrast how quantitative and qualitative research would approach a similar subject.

What is Qualitative Research?
Qualitative research seeks to determine the causes of human behaviors, from life choices which result in shortened lives and unhappy marriages to the complex behaviors related to wars and other conflicts. Qualitative research is all about getting to the root of the problem and trying to determine what causes these kinds of destructive behaviors.

In order to achieve its goal qualitative research uses a number of powerful tools, including focus groups, in depth interviews and questionnaires. The data collected using these methods is then analyzed and studied in an attempt to determine why people act the way they do. The reports generated by qualitative research may touch on abstract concepts like metaphors, symbols and other descriptive language.

What is Quantitative Research?
Quantitative research, on the other hand, is focused on hard facts and figures and with data which can be objectively analyzed and quantified. The objective of this kind of research is to use mathematical models in an attempt to provide real data, with numbers that can be crunched and results that can be verified.

For example, a quantitative research study may report on the number of Arizona households who are living below the poverty line, while a qualitative research study may rely on focus groups, interviews and other techniques to determine the main factors that cause those households to be impoverished.

Likewise a quantitative study may report the number of workers whose incomes are more than a third below the average for their communities, while a qualitative study of the same subject would focus on factors such as educational level, intelligence, race and gender in an effort to determine why those workers are earning substandard wages.

by beconrad

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Research is all about getting a right kit and do it right way; even a non-technical person also can get the result right.

If not all, most.

Knowledge-based economy; the use of knowledge to produce economic benefits has been long implemented in developed countries. It’s good to know that Malaysia, a developing country is heading towards that direction, especially in the field of scientific research. INBIOSIS is one of the research organizations leading the nation towards the development of scientific research. A brainchild of UKM academics & researchers, INBIOSIS functions as a multidisciplinary research and its current focus is on discovering the network of processes by which secondary metabolites are produced by tropical plants. INBIOSIS is looking forward to forging smart partnerships with the biotechnology industries.

For more details, visit:

INBIOSIS in Utusan malaysia (article in Malay)

INBIOSIS Website

Read this from kj’s blog, a fellow blogger I’d know for sometime through online. He was asking why are we (Malaysia) cannot be down-to-earth in sciences, in respond to one of our previous posts, Malaysian Cabinet Really Wanted To Send Another Space Traveller, wrote by WTJ.

I attended a seminar talking about the management and policy in science area. Too bad I don’t have management background to understand all the management and policy terms/thingy, I can barely understand what were they talking about. Otherwise I would have share it.

But the Q&A section was pretty fun, some of the audiences pointed out certain general issues that have long bothering us.

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Research and Markets – Scrip Yearbook 2008: 24th edition:

Scrips annual review of the year, Scrip Yearbook 2008 is your guide to all the key facts, events and issues of the last 12 months from across the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.Collected and organised from coverage in Scrip World Pharmaceutical News, the respected source of biopharmaceutical industry news, this new updated report provides a complete and concise tool, covering all levels of the industry and recent developments.

Scrip Yearbook 2008 will help you to:
- Identify which significant mergers and acquisitions were completed
- Analyse the strategic and financial performance of your competitors
- Track the latest clinical developments and key product launches across all therapeutic areas
- Review the latest industry regulations imposed on the industry
- Gain insight from leading industry analysts and commentary from senior editors
- Keep abreast of global healthcare initiatives and market movements

Stempeutics Research is investing RM30 million (~USD10 million) on stem cell research and therapy so that stem cell therapy will be available and affordable to everyone.

Stempeutics Research, which is part of the India-based Manipal Education and Medical Group, became the first foreign company to set up a stem cell research and therapy centre here.

Stempeutics Research Malaysia Sdn Bhd will promote stem cell activity locally and focus on cutting edge research, therapeutics and therapy in the field of regenerative medicine.
Manohar said the Manipal Group would be investing about RM30 million in the next three to four years on the centre, to be located at the Technology Park Malaysia in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur.

(news)

Would you demand your lab members have their own blog? Rosie Redfield, an evolutionary biologist at the University of British Columbia, had all her lab members to have a blog.

Anyway, it turns out that Rosie makes it a requirement for her lab members to maintain a blog. This was primarily to act as an appendum lab book, and a place to reflect on the experiments carried out recently.

I would love to see every lab members have a blog, but when it comes to the matter of competitors, I don’t think much researchers would write much about their researches before they get their articles published. As some scientists said, why help your competitors?

(link)

This article written by Dr. Rowan Gilmore is worth to read.

Where is research in the list, one might ask? It’s buried in there, but many businesses appear to have forgotten to ask the question. Evidence presented by the ABF at the discussion forum indicated that levels of collaboration between innovating businesses and the research sector in Australia are only 2 per cent, compared with 6-7 per cent in similar economies like Ireland, Sweden, and Denmark, and a phenomenal 26 per cent in Sweden. With only one Australian firm in fifty working with the research sector, the question of relevance needs to be raised. Levels of collaboration with customers are no better in Australia and stand at only 12 per cent, compared with typical values of 25-28 per cent for similar economies. Collaboration with suppliers is equally poor.

(link)

I am doing yeast (S. cerevisiae) transformation, one of the magic ingredients is salmon sperm DNA, which work as DNA carrier. We had good laugh over this name.

“Sperm? Haha! What is the sperm doing in the experiment?”

“Human one can arr? Ask him (our cute lab technician) to donate to you lah~!”

“Yewww~~~”

No doubt, my lab mates also get excited by the name of the ingredient.
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