Archaeologists’ evidence of Israelite settlement in the Land of Canaan and the foundation of a magnificent biblical Kingdom of David is being called into question. According to a new Cornell University study of radiocarbon testing in the southern Levant, what little organic material researchers have unearthed that was believed by scientists to have originated at the dawn of the Israelite settlement, may not have been dated properly. Blame it on the weather: The recently published paper, which takes into account Israel’s notably long summers, casts doubt on methods of dating ancient organic materials in Israel, southern Jordan and Egypt.
June 07, 2018
Dr. Ran Budnik and his team at the Weizmann Institute of Science joined 165 researchers from 27 research institutes around the world working on the XENON1T experiment. This experiment is the most sensitive by far to search for dark matter, and the results they reported this week set a stringent limit on the possible mass of particles that could make up the elusive dark matter. Following these results, based on research that utilized a tank containing over a ton of liquid xenon and on data collected for almost a year, the scientists are planning an even larger, more-sensitive experiment – XENONnT – for 2019.
May 2018
Treating inflammatory diseases of the bowel is extremely challenging: genes, gut microbes, and disrupted immune function all contribute. Weizmann Institute of Science researchers are proposing a way around this complexity. In a study in mice, published in Cell Reports, they have found a way to trigger a natural defense mechanism that prompts the body itself to alleviate intestinal inflammation.
May 2018
In the course of writing his doctoral thesis, Emanuel (Emil) Eidin, a student in the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Science Teaching, started thinking about the people he would like to thank in the acknowledgements section. He decided that some of the people to whom gratitude was due were the PERACH mentors who had helped him as a child.
May 2018
The Center for World University Rankings, initiated in Saudi Arabia and headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, has ranked the Weizmann Institute of Science among the top 50 degree-granting institutions in the world. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University were also ranked in the top 100, placing at 61 and 85, respectively. The Technion-Israeli Institute of Technology ranked 147th, while Ben-Gurion University of the Negev ranked 394th. Bar-Ilan University and the University of Haifa rounded out the list of Israeli universities, ranking at 492 and 620, respectively.
May 29, 2018
Humankind is revealed as simultaneously insignificant and utterly dominant in the grand scheme of life on Earth by a groundbreaking new assessment of all life on the planet. The world’s 7.6 billion people represent just 0.01% of all living things, according to the study. Yet since the dawn of civilisation, humanity has caused the loss of 83% of all wild mammals and half of plants, while livestock kept by humans abounds.
May 21, 2018
May is Melanoma/Skin Cancer Detection and Prevention Month: the perfect time to learn more about the disease – and what the Weizmann Institute of Science is doing to help.
Did you know that skin cancer is the most common cancer in America? And that it’s been on the rise for more than 30 years?
The single most significant cause of skin cancer is the sun. That’s certainly true when it comes to melanoma – the deadliest of all skin cancers – with the Skin Cancer Foundation citing research that shows that 86% of melanomas are linked to UV radiation. Thus, prevention – such as wearing a high-SPF sunblock or protective clothing anytime we go outside, even on overcast days – and early screening are the most important tools in our skin-cancer-defeating arsenal.
The 6,000 miles between them made no difference when 200 students in Israel and in the Boston area jointly created evolution in test tubes. The 10-day science experiment helped them understand how antibiotic-resistant bacterial “superbugs” evolve. The teens designed their experiments on Google Sheets, and these instructions were automatically carried out by a robot in a lab at the University of Massachusetts.
May 14, 2018
Squeeze through or go around? Phys.org covers research from the lab of Dr. Ofer Feinerman that provides insight into how ants collaborate to bring food home to the nest.
May 10, 2018
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