KUCHING: Cancer patients will suffer less pain after undergoing chemotherapy when a nuclear-produced sago gel hit the Malaysian market soon, Deputy Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Fadillah Yusuf said yesterday.
“The sago gel gives a soothing effect on a patient’s skin after chemotherapy and it can also be applied on cuts and fresh operation scars,” he told reporters after launching Bank Islam’s ‘Pintar’ programme at SK Matang Jaya near here.
Fadillah, who is Petra Jaya member of parliament, said during his visit to the Atom and Nuclear Agency in Dengkil, Selangor recently, the sago gel had been undergoing research and development (R&D) for quite a while.
“It’s ready to be marketed soon by the private sector,” he added.
He said the public often had negative perception on nuclear as they linked it to bombs.
“We already have local experts at the agency who currently carry out many R&D but we have yet to go all out commercially with the findings,” he said.
To a question, Fadillah said it was a matter of time before the people could accept the proposal to have a space university in the country.
“If we want to take a leading role in the world, we need to take the lead in space as well so that we can better understand our own world,” he said, adding that his ministry would carry out a thorough study on the matter.
He said Malaysia would be able to attract more foreign space experts if the country were to have its own space university and this would naturally further enrich the literature in the field and produce more R&D work in the area. Currently, there are three space universities in the world in America, Russia and France.
Fadillah said the ministry would be working closely with the Ministry of Youth and Sports through the Rakan Muda programme to unearth new talents in innovation and creation among youths.
“We’re planning to hold competitions at school and university levels because we want more youths to be interested in science and technology so that they will be our future creators,” he said.
He said the ministry would also continue its effort to close the digital gap between urban and rural dwellers including those in Sabah and Sarawak with more broadband coverage in the rural areas.
