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Enriching Education
A Year of Achievements and Advances
E-news, January 2017
Looking back at 2016 reveals an exceptional year at the Weizmann Institute, one chock-full of major developments from unprecedented insight into our universe to better understanding of our modern world to truly life-changing – and life-saving – breakthroughs in cancer and medical research. Here are some highlights.
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Improving Health & Medicine
Siri Has Nothing on Us: How Do Brain Cells Tell Us Where We're Going?
Salon
The lab of Prof. Nachum Ulanovsky revealed that brain cells can guide us to our destination, even when we can't see it. Scientific American's Moheb Costandi reports on the research in Salon, also addressing related findings from other institutions and the question of whether the Ulanovsky cells are new types of cells, or represent more flexibility in other cells than previously suspected.
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Improving Health & Medicine
Bats Remember Directions
Bats - and humans - can find their favorite fruit stand (or coffee shop) even when it's hidden behind a screen or buildings. How? Prof. Nachum Ulanovsky and team have now identified the neurons that point bats in the right direction, even when their destination is obscured. This could shed light on Alzheimer's and other disorders.
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Exploring the Physical World
A Multiple-Impact Origin for the Moon
While the predominant theory for the Moon's existence was a single, massive impact with Earth, our satellite's origins were still mysterious. Now, complex computer simulations by Prof. Oded Aharonson show that the more likely explanation is multiple impacts of varying sizes that produced many moonlets; over time, these joined to form the Moon we know today.|
January 09, 2017
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Exploring the Physical World
The Many-Moons Theory
The New Yorker
The New Yorker's Alan Burdick reports on the recent findings from Prof. Oded Aharonson's lab, which revealed that our moon was likely formed by multiple collisions, rather than the single-impact theory that prevails today.
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Protecting Our Planet
Life in a Drop of Water: Prof. Assaf Vardi and Nivi Alroy on Oceanic Plants
January 05, 2017
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Improving Health & Medicine
It's All About Balance: Prof. Alon Chen on Stress and the Brain
January 05, 2017
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Exploring the Physical World
Symphony of Particles: Dr. Shkima Bressler on What Makes Up the Universe
January 05, 2017
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Improving Health & Medicine
""We Base the Most Important Decisions of Our Lives on Smell""
Haaretz
Haaretz interviews Prof. Noam Sobel about his intensive research into the sense of smell, which - it turns out - informs every area of our lives, from what we eat to whom we love. Among other innovative studies, he is investigating whether odors can help people trust robots and whether smell is involved in repeated miscarriages.