What makes us reluctant or willing to leave our social comfort zones? Prof. Alon Chen and his team in the Department of Neurobiology found that a molecule that helps the brain cope with stress appeared to act as a ""social switch"" in mice, causing them to either increase interactions with ""friends"" or seek to meet ""strangers."" Since a similar system exists in the human brain, the findings may help explain why some people are better at making new friends, and shed light on the social difficulties experienced by those with autism, schizophrenia, and more.
July 19, 2016
What makes us reluctant or willing to leave our social comfort zones? Prof. Alon Chen and his team in the Department of Neurobiology found that a molecule that helps the brain cope with stress appeared to act as a ""social switch"" in mice, causing them to either increase interactions with ""friends"" or seek to meet ""strangers."" Since a similar system exists in the human brain, the findings may help explain why some people are better at making new friends, and shed light on the social difficulties experienced by those with autism, schizophrenia, and more.
July 19, 2016
The 37th Annual Telly Awards, a highly-respected international competition recognizing outstanding films and videos, has awarded the American Committee with a Bronze Telly for its film ""Project-Based Fundraising.""
July 18, 2016
Three years ago, the Schwartz/Reisman Science Education Centre, Rehovot, opened at the Institute to give local high-schoolers the opportunity to study physics at a higher level. On June 29, the Centre's first class of students graduated, in the presence of Institute President Prof. Daniel Zajfman and other leaders. ""When you learn physics,"" Prof. Zajfman said, ""you are learning a way of thinking.""
June 30, 2016
We may be one step closer to the technology of the future, thanks to bowtie-shaped nanoparticles created at the Weizmann Institute. A team led by Prof. Gilad Haran designed these nanostructures made of silver. Their work may advance the development of quantum devices, which will be exponentially more powerful than today's machines.
June 30, 2016
NASA's Juno spacecraft will soon enter orbit around Jupiter – and the Weizmann Institute's Dr. Yohai Kaspi will be ready. He and other Institute researchers are part of a team of scientists who hope to answer pressing questions about the solar system's largest planet. Using tools Dr. Kaspi has developed, the team will have the opportunity to measure the differences in Jupiter's gravitational fields accurately and precisely – for the first time.
June 30, 2016
New research from the Institute demonstrates that, in mice, disrupted immunity in the fetal brain is linked to neurodevelopmental disorders. The multi-department study revealed that when a pregnant female is attacked by external factors such as viruses, the brain of the fetus does not develop as it should, resulting in autistic and schizophrenic behavior.
June 27, 2016
The process of carbon fixation is crucial to life on earth – and yet it puts too much harmful carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. Prof. Ron Milo's lab has engineered carbon-fixing bacteria to create sugar – fuel – from CO2. The team hopes that, in the future, their insights could lead to ways of storing energy or growing crops with higher yields, better suited to the coming world.
June 23, 2016
Weizmann Wonder Wander, the Institute's popular-science website, is now in its fourth generation. Tablet- and mobile-friendly, the Wonder Wander includes more than 3,000 articles on scientific discoveries, galleries of scientific images, an archive of all Institute press releases ... and much more!
June 20, 2016
