Saudi astronauts Rayyanah Barnawi and Ali Al Qarni have a jam-packed schedule during their eight-day stay on the International Space Station, including science experiments around cancer research.
They are the first Saudi citizens in space since 1985, with the kingdom hoping that their mission inspires young Arabs into science, tech, maths and engineering subjects.
Ms Barnawi, 33, a research scientist, and Mr Al Qarni, 31, a fighter pilot, arrived at the orbiting outpost on Monday.
Their trip also means that researchers across Saudi Arabia had the opportunity to send crucial experiments on health sciences and weather technology with the astronauts, so they could be tested in microgravity conditions.
Mishaal Ashemimry, special adviser to the chief executive of the Saudi Space Commission, spoke to The National on Monday about the astronauts' activities.
“We have 11 scientific experiments and three outreach experiments, so a total of 14,” she said.
“Six of those experiments are focused on human health, and trying to understand the effect of microgravity and a short stay mission on the nervous system on a cellular level, tissue level and on an organ.
“Four experiments are going to be focused on inflammatory responses, which has implications to cancer.
“And then one of the experiments is kind of unique in the fact that it is the first to look at artificial rain or cloud seeding in microgravity.”
Cancer research in space
Ms Barnawi has nearly a decade of experience in cancer stem-cell research and will be using her expertise on the station.
She will be taking part in a study called Modelling Tumour Organoids that could help develop stem cell models that help predict and prevent cancer.
The research involves monitoring breast cancer cells to study immune dysfunction and drug challenges.
It is hoped the experiment will help improve the detection of and therapies for pre-cancer, cancer and a variety of other diseases.
Researchers at the Space Stem Cell Orbital Research programme, in partnership with Sanford Stem Cell Institute, the JM Foundation and Axiom Space, have sent the experiment.
Studying human immune cells
Another life sciences experiment involves investigating the inflammatory response of human immune cells in microgravity.
Ms Barnawi will study the changes in mRNA decay, a process that regulates gene expression changes in cells and can influence the effects of inflammation.
Researchers from the Saudi Arabia's King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre have sent a type of white blood cells to the ISS that will be treated with a substance that stimulates an inflammatory response.
It will be carried out in parallel with experiments on the ground, to help scientists measure the difference in results.
Findings could help researchers better understand the immune system and develop potential therapies for inflammatory diseases in space and on Earth.
Cloud seeding experiments
Mr Al Qarni will be carrying out a physical science experiment that involves cloud seeding, or artificial rain.
This is the first time cloud seeding will be studied in microgravity conditions.
“The goal of this experiment is to essentially look at the potential to create water droplets by using the same methods for cloud seeding, which is introducing silver iodide into moisture, and to see if it can create nucleation and produce water droplets,” Ms Ashemimry said.
This could help create artificial rain in lower-gravity areas like the Moon and Mars, she said.
Mr Al Qarni will mix moist air and salt crystals in a reaction chamber to see if water droplets form.
The experiment has been sent by the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, the Saudi Space Commission and Nanoracks, a US company that helps its customers launch experiments and technology to space.
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
Cases of coronavirus in the GCC as of March 15
Saudi Arabia – 103 infected, 0 dead, 1 recovered
UAE – 86 infected, 0 dead, 23 recovered
Bahrain – 210 infected, 0 dead, 44 recovered
Kuwait – 104 infected, 0 dead, 5 recovered
Qatar – 337 infected, 0 dead, 4 recovered
Oman – 19 infected, 0 dead, 9 recovered
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Monster Hunter: World
Capcom
PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
THE APPRENTICE
Director: Ali Abbasi
Starring: Sebastian Stan, Maria Bakalova, Jeremy Strong
Rating: 3/5
MATCH INFO
Qalandars 112-4 (10 ovs)
Banton 53 no
Northern Warriors 46 all out (9 ovs)
Kumara 3-10, Garton 3-10, Jordan 2-2, Prasanna 2-7
Qalandars win by six wickets
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Iran's dirty tricks to dodge sanctions
There’s increased scrutiny on the tricks being used to keep commodities flowing to and from blacklisted countries. Here’s a description of how some work.
1 Going Dark
A common method to transport Iranian oil with stealth is to turn off the Automatic Identification System, an electronic device that pinpoints a ship’s location. Known as going dark, a vessel flicks the switch before berthing and typically reappears days later, masking the location of its load or discharge port.
2. Ship-to-Ship Transfers
A first vessel will take its clandestine cargo away from the country in question before transferring it to a waiting ship, all of this happening out of sight. The vessels will then sail in different directions. For about a third of Iranian exports, more than one tanker typically handles a load before it’s delivered to its final destination, analysts say.
3. Fake Destinations
Signaling the wrong destination to load or unload is another technique. Ships that intend to take cargo from Iran may indicate their loading ports in sanction-free places like Iraq. Ships can keep changing their destinations and end up not berthing at any of them.
4. Rebranded Barrels
Iranian barrels can also be rebranded as oil from a nation free from sanctions such as Iraq. The countries share fields along their border and the crude has similar characteristics. Oil from these deposits can be trucked out to another port and documents forged to hide Iran as the origin.
* Bloomberg
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Hometown: Pontefract, West Yorkshire in the UK
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
COMPANY PROFILE
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Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
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Jeff Buckley: From Hallelujah To The Last Goodbye
By Dave Lory with Jim Irvin
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
if you go
The flights
Air France offer flights from Dubai and Abu Dhabi to Cayenne, connecting in Paris from Dh7,300.
The tour
Cox & Kings (coxandkings.com) has a 14-night Hidden Guianas tour of Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. It includes accommodation, domestic flights, transfers, a local tour manager and guided sightseeing. Contact for price.
Terminator: Dark Fate
Director: Tim Miller
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Mackenzie Davis
Rating: 3/5
It Was Just an Accident
Director: Jafar Panahi
Stars: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr
Rating: 4/5
Roger Federer's record at Wimbledon
Roger Federer's record at Wimbledon
1999 - 1st round
2000 - 1st round
2001 - Quarter-finalist
2002 - 1st round
2003 - Winner
2004 - Winner
2005 - Winner
2006 - Winner
2007 - Winner
2008 - Finalist
2009 - Winner
2010 - Quarter-finalist
2011 - Quarter-finalist
2012 - Winner
2013 - 2nd round
2014 - Finalist
2015 - Finalist
2016 - Semi-finalist
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- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
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What are the main cyber security threats?
Cyber crime - This includes fraud, impersonation, scams and deepfake technology, tactics that are increasingly targeting infrastructure and exploiting human vulnerabilities.
Cyber terrorism - Social media platforms are used to spread radical ideologies, misinformation and disinformation, often with the aim of disrupting critical infrastructure such as power grids.
Cyber warfare - Shaped by geopolitical tension, hostile actors seek to infiltrate and compromise national infrastructure, using one country’s systems as a springboard to launch attacks on others.
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
