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 benefit of humanity.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/california-drought-what-would-israel-do/
May 14, 2015...
At Tze’elim reservoir in the Negev, Israeli startup Neotop tests new technology that reduces surface temperatures, algae and evaporation.
From a distance, the reservoir appears topped by a flotilla of rubber duckies.
On closer inspection, the water’s surface is packed with thousands of free-floating, 13-inch plastic balls, clustered to form an undulating cover.
Developed by the Israeli startup Neotop (formerly known as Top-It-Up), the mass of balls serves as a floating cooling tower, reducing surface temperatures, algae and evaporation up to 95 percent. It’s one of many potential water-saving solutions to come out of Israel’s high-tech dream factory.
Feb 07, 2011... In 1896, Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius theorized that adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by burning coal would create a “greenhouse effect” and raise the planet’s average temperature. Most scientists scoffed. How could the puny actions of humans ever seriously alter the natural climate cycles? It wasn’t until 1958 that measurements began to show levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rising and temperatures shifting.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/visualizing-algae-eating-viruses-from-space/
Aug 23, 2014...
Emiliania huxleyi, up close and personal. Alison R. Taylor, CC BY
Algae isn’t just found in your garden pond or local river. Sometimes it explodes into vast “blooms” far out to sea, that can be the size of a small country. Such algal blooms can match even a rainforest at taking carbon out of the air. And then, in just a week or two, they are gone – sometimes consumed by viruses.
Given the scale of blooms and their vital role in both marine ecology and climate regulation we must know more about these viruses. Research conducted with our Weizmann Institute colleague Yoav Lehahn and others and published in the journal Current Biology, is the first attempt to quantify the affect of viruses on large scale algal blooms.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/matthew-modine-it-s-easy-being-green/
Feb 04, 2014...
Matthew Modine
Safe to say Matthew Modine chooses paper over plastic at the checkout counter. The soft-spoken actor, who grew up in front of our eyes in such ’80s classics as Baby It’s You, Private School and Vision Quest, is a big-time environmentalist now. A few years ago the California native literally set the wheels in motion by launching Bicycle for A Day, encouraging people out of their gas-powered cars.
Oct 22, 2018...
Dead tree in Heletz Forest, Negev Desert Credit: Eliahu Hershkovitz
Israel’s forests have been declining for years, and now a groundbreaking study has found a correlation between increasing tree mortality and the mounting incidence of drought.
During arid periods, the study pointed out, not only are forest fires more frequent: the trees are also more vulnerable to harmful insects.
The study, “A nationwide analysis of tree mortality under climate change” was published in the Elsevier journal Forest Ecology and Management. The research was conducted Dr. Tamir Klein of the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, with members of the Jewish National Fund and Prof. Gabriel Schiller of the Volcani Institute for Agricultural Research.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/science-tips-june-2014/
Jun 13, 2014...
Convective clouds forming over the Amazon in a blanket of smoke. Photo credit: Prof. Ilan Koren, Weizmann Institute of Science.
Understanding how clouds affect the climate has been a difficult proposition. What controls the makeup of the low clouds that cool the atmosphere or the high ones that trap heat underneath? How does human activity change patterns of cloud formation? The research of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Prof. Ilan Koren suggests we may be nudging cloud formation in the direction of added area and height. He and his team have analyzed a unique type of cloud formation; their findings, which appeared recently in Science, indicate that in pre-industrial times, there was less cloud cover over areas of pristine ocean than today.
Jul 13, 2006...
NASA scientists have determined that the formation of clouds is affected by the lightness or darkness of air pollution particles. This also impacts Earth's climate.
In a breakthrough study published today in the online edition of Science, scientists explain why aerosols -- tiny particles suspended in air pollution and smoke -- sometimes stop clouds from forming and in other cases increase cloud cover. Clouds not only deliver water around the globe, they also help regulate how much of the sun's warmth the planet holds. The capacity of air pollution to absorb energy from the sun is the key.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/using-science-to-save-our-oceans/
Jul 18, 2019...
It’s the height of summer – time to hit the beach, whether for an afternoon or a week or two. People love the ocean and have always been drawn to it, but as much as it affects us, we affect it, too.
The ocean's health is crucial to the planet’s health – and ours. That’s why the devastating impacts from climate change are so concerning: as the temperatures warm, glaciers melt, and seawater becomes more acidic, as fish and mammals are overfished, the oceans are dying.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/marine-green-slime-to-save-the-planet/
Oct 03, 2012...
The expedition in the north Atlantic Ocean. Photo by Assaf Vardi
As the northern hemisphere sweltered in summer, more than 30 scientists, led by an Israeli biologist, were spending the month of June on a ship in the north Atlantic Ocean. Their mission: to find green slime. Or more specifically — blankets of phytoplankton: single-cell algae that grow in masses on the ocean’s surface. These blankets can grow to thousands of square kilometers.
Nov 17, 2014...
Research suggests that warmth and water flow on ancient Mars (illustration shown) were probably episodic. These temperature changes may have also been related to brief periods of volcanic activity that spewed tons of greenhouse-inducing sulphur dioxide gas into the atmosphere
Evidence of rivers, streams, and lakes suggests that Mars was, at some point, warm enough for liquid water to flow on its surface, according to a new study.
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