About Us
Founded in 1944, the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science develops philanthropic support for the Weizmann Institute in Israel, and advances its mission of science for the future of humanity.
Jan 06, 2011...
When we cry, we may be doing more than expressing emotion. Our tears, according to striking new research, may be sending chemical signals that influence the behavior of other people.
The research, published on Thursday in the journal Science, could begin to explain something that has baffled scientists for generations: Why do humans, unlike seemingly any other species, cry emotional tears?
In several experiments, researchers found that men who sniffed drops of women’s emotional tears became less sexually aroused than when they sniffed a neutral saline solution that had been dribbled down women’s cheeks. While the studies were not large, the findings showed up in a variety of ways, including testosterone levels, skin responses, brain imaging and the men’s descriptions of their arousal.
Aug 04, 2009... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—August 3, 2009—Biomolecular computers, made of DNA and other biological molecules, only exist today in a few specialized labs, remote from the regular computer user. Nonetheless, Tom Ran and Shai Kaplan, research students in the lab of Prof. Ehud Shapiro of the Weizmann Institute's Biological Chemistry, and Computer Science and Applied Mathematics Departments have found a way to make these microscopic computing devices "user friendly," even while performing complex computations and answering complicated queries.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/science-tips-november-2014/
Nov 18, 2014... Satellite image of Olympus Mons on Mars, the largest volcano in the solar system at about three times the height of Mount Everest. Around 3.5 to 4 billion years ago, the release of volcanic gases, especially the greenhouse gas sulfur dioxide, may have warmed the surface of Mars episodically, melting the ice and thereby explaining the presence of geomorphological features indicative of the flow of water on the planet’s ancient surface.
Oct 29, 2014... It's a good thing he is giving his presentation at the Global Gathering's Partners in Innovation session in the morning, says Dr. Gad Asher, because that's when our ability to pay attention is at its peak. He explains his research on our circadian clocks – also called biological clocks – and how they are connected to metabolism. Prof. Israel Bar-Joseph introduces Dr. Asher.
Apr 20, 2020...
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—April 20, 2020—The Israel Institute for Biological Research and the Weizmann Institute of Science will join efforts in advancing research designed to develop ways to combat the coronavirus. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two Institutes on this matter has been signed in recent days.
The neighboring Institutes are characterized by their unique excellence in their respective fields, and collaboration between the two is likely to promote synergy and accelerate the process that scientists hope will lead to a medical solution to the coronavirus. The Institute for Biological Research’s Director General, Prof. Shmuel Shapira, and the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Vice President for Technology Transfer, Prof. Irit Sagi, say that signing the MoU is an important milestone among the broad range of joint activities established between the two Institutes.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/the-self-synthesizing-ribosome/
Apr 20, 2020... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—April 20, 2020—As the cell’s protein factory, the ribosome is the only natural machine that manufactures its own parts. That’s why understanding how the machine itself is made could unlock the door to everything from understanding how life develops to designing new methods of drug production. An intensive research effort at the Weizmann Institute of Science has now demonstrated the self-synthesis and assembly of the small subunit of a ribosome – 30S – on a surface of a chip. The findings were published in Science Advances.
Jun 02, 2020... In this special update from his home in New York City, CEO Dave Doneson discusses the Weizmann Institute’s remarkable coronavirus response. Dave shares how the Institute has rapidly shifted its focus to address the pandemic, transforming into one of the world’s leading hubs of COVID-19 research. Weizmann scientists are fighting this disease on a variety of fronts, offering hope and optimism for us all.
Jun 15, 2020... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—June 15, 2020—During the pandemic lockdown, as couples have been forced to spend days and weeks in one another’s company, some have found their love renewed while others are on their way to divorce court. Oxytocin, a peptide produced in the brain, is complicated in that way: a neuromodulator, it may bring hearts together or it can help induce aggression. That conclusion arises from unique research led by Weizmann Institute of Science researchers in which mice living in semi-natural conditions had their oxytocin-producing brain cells manipulated in a highly precise manner. The findings, which were published in Neuron, could shed new light on efforts to use oxytocin to treat a variety of psychiatric conditions, from social anxiety and autism to schizophrenia.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/which-came-first/
Jun 22, 2020... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—June 22, 2020—What did the very first proteins – those that appeared on Earth around 3.7 billion years ago – look like? Prof. Dan Tawfik of the Weizmann Institute of Science and Prof. Norman Metanis of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have reconstructed protein sequences that may well resemble those ancestors of modern proteins, and their research suggests a way that these primitive proteins could have progressed to forming living cells. Their findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/do-probiotics-actually-do-anything/
Jun 28, 2020...
There is an invisible universe hidden inside your body, it’s called the gut microbiome - a vast array of trillions of intestinal bacteria, hundreds of different species. They help digest your food in exchange for a warm, safe place to live. And we are only now starting to discover the gut microbiome plays a much larger role in our lives than we ever imagined.
Some of those bacteria found inside us are replicated in commercially manufactured mixtures called “probiotics.” You see them on grocery and pharmacy shelves, and they're recommended by your friends and often, by doctors like me.
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