Every summer since 1969, an international migration takes place as around 80 highly talented teens flock to the Weizmann Institute’s park-like campus.
Their destination: the Dr. Bessie F. Lawrence International Summer Science Institute (ISSI), a highly competitive program that enables high-school grads, over the summer before they start university, to take part in hands-on research alongside world-renowned scientists.
Extraterrestrial scientists landing in a football stadium would be struck by the sight of the crowd suddenly standing up and shouting in unison. In a similar manner, since the 1990s, researchers have observed a special pattern of neuronal activity in rodents: tens of thousands of nerve cells firing in unison in a part of the brain called the hippocampus. But, like alien scientists, the researchers have not been able to understand the “language” of the rodents’ minds when these mysterious synchronous bursts occurred. Recently, however, Weizmann Institute of Science researchers succeeded in recording these rapid bursts of activity – called “hippocampal ripples” – in the human brain, and were able to demonstrate their importance as a neuronal mechanism underlying the engraving of new memories and their subsequent recall. These findings appeared in Science.
August 15, 2019
Weighing in at just about 160 kg (around 353 lbs), a new type of scientific satellite is planned to be built in Israel over the next four years, with a projected launch date of 2023. The satellite, known as ULTRASAT, will carry a telescope designed to observe the universe as it has never been seen before. The satellite will operate in a range of light that is normally invisible to us – ultraviolet, or UV – and have a very large field of view.
August 12, 2019
The Times of Israel reports on ULTRASAT, the new ultra-light satellite that will use the UV light range to gain novel insight into elements such as black holes. Weizmann’s Prof. Eli Waxman heads the project, and says that it will help answer “some of the big questions in astrophysics.”
August 12, 2019
As Xinhua news agency reports, Weizmann archaeologists used a new method to date water found in a reservoir in a Negev “fossil aquifer,” showing that it is orders of magnitude older than previous tests showed.
August 05, 2019
When cells make mistakes – such as misfolding proteins – diseases like Alzheimer’s and cancer can result. Weizmann scientists have now shown where and how such mistakes happen. Xinhua reports.
August 02, 2019
Haaretz profiles Dr. Hagar Landsman-Peles, a particle physicist who is part of the search for dark matter – and is skilled at explaining what that means.
August 01, 2019
Oxytocin is the feel-good hormone that helps us bond with loved ones, and yet is not wholly understood. Now, China’s Xinhua news agency reports that Weizmann scientists have found how oxytocin levels are renewed.
July 30, 2019
Tech expert Hillel Fuld writes in The Jerusalem Post about BiondVax, the company developing Prof. Ruth Arnon’s universal flu vaccine.
July 25, 2019
©2019 American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science
