It’s the height of summer – time to hit the beach, whether for an afternoon or a week or two. People love the ocean and have always been drawn to it, but as much as it affects us, we affect it, too.
The ocean's health is crucial to the planet’s health – and ours. That’s why the devastating impacts from climate change are so concerning: as the temperatures warm, glaciers melt, and seawater becomes more acidic, as fish and mammals are overfished, the oceans are dying.
Summer is here! But more fun in the sun also increases our risk for skin cancer, including its deadliest form, melanoma. In the seventh episode of Weizmann in Focus, CEO Dave Doneson highlights a melanoma research breakthrough by Prof. Yardena Samuels, which could lead to “the ultimate personalized cancer therapy.”
In a remarkable breakthrough, Prof. Michal Irani has created a photo-editing technique that uses “deep internal learning” to edit photos – without training. The method, called Double-DIP, mimics human vision.
July 10, 2019
Meet Dr. Efi Efrati, a member of the Department of Physics of Complex Systems. Dr. Efrati speaks about his research on “geometric frustration,” a physical state that could help us understand a host of phenomena—from the behavior of plastics to how living tissue remodels itself. His work may lead to the design of new materials, improved surgical procedures, and more. Find out why Dr. Efrati believes the Weizmann Institute is “the best place to do science in Israel … perhaps in the world.”
Manas Seal, a postdoc in Prof. Daniella Goldfarb’s lab, writes in The Hindu about leaving his native India to attend the Weizmann Institute, where his new colleagues made the change surprisingly easy. As many Weizmann scientists do, he says: “I am in the right place here.”
June 29, 2019
Technology can make our lives easier, but it also leaves us vulnerable to hackers. In the sixth episode of Weizmann in Focus, CEO Dave Doneson explores how Weizmann scientists are leading the way in cybersecurity. In a recent breakthrough, renowned cryptographer Prof. Adi Shamir exposed a major weakness in the “Internet of Things,” the growing world of smart devices that connect online. His groundbreaking work could result in better methods for keeping our private information safe.
As Chemistry World reports, Weizmann’s Ilya Averbukh and colleagues at the University of British Columbia have “been able to control the spatial orientation of chiral molecules with light.” The group built an optical centrifuge to achieve this feat, which can help scientists control molecular dynamics in new ways.
June 20, 2019
An international team, including Weizmann astrophysicists, has shown that a red sun “only” 12 light years away has two planets that may be in the “inhabitable zone,” thus supporting life. The Jerusalem Post reports.
June 19, 2019
“Size is not everything,” proclaims a Nature press release today. “Some smaller institutes are punching above their weight.” This statement arises from a new ranking conducted within the framework of the Nature Index 2019 – a normalized ranking that adds a new perspective to the relative contributions of each institute, and has placed the Weizmann Institute of Science in the top three, globally.
June 19, 2019
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