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.
Mar 03, 2016...
People who still believe the outdated notion that mental health conditions are “all in a person’s head” have yet another reason to stop believing the myth: According to a new study in the journal Current Biology, those with anxiety perceive the world differently – and it stems from a variance in their brains.
It all comes down to the brain’s plasticity, or its ability to change and reorganize itself by forming new connections. These inherent changes in the brain dictate how a person responds to stimuli, and researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel found that people diagnosed with anxiety are less likely to be able to differentiate neutral or “safe” stimuli from threatening ones.
Nov 04, 2013...
JERUSALEM — Israel may not be the most obvious place to study pigs, given that religious strictures in both Judaism and Islam forbid their consumption.
But Israeli researchers involved in a lengthy project whose goal is to reconstruct ancient Israel have now established that the pigs here are of European stock, unlike their Middle Eastern counterparts elsewhere in the region, and that they probably arrived with the non-kosher Philistines about 3,000 years ago.
Apr 07, 2016...
Here’s an interesting problem. When it comes to human senses, we’ve found ways to reproduce the look and sound of the real world reasonably accurately. There are even technologies for reproducing the feel of certain experiences, such as flight and car simulators.
But the problem of reproducing smell is much more intractable. The 1960 SmelloVision experiment is a case in point. This involved some 30 odors that were released into the cinema at certain times during a movie. Only one film – Scent of Mystery – ever used the system, which rapidly failed.
Jun 13, 2017...
Thanks to advances in healthcare, sanitation, safety, and nutrition, people today are living longer than ever; in fact, in the West, the fastest-growing demographic is age 85 and up.
Fortunately, Weizmann Institute of Science researchers from across the disciplines have long made it a priority to investigate neurodegenerative and neurological disorders, including those that tend to strike older people; just some of these areas of research include Parkinson’s, glaucoma and advanced macular degeneration (AMD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease), nerve degeneration as a result of trauma or stroke – and, especially, Alzheimer’s disease.
Jun 01, 2017...
Prof. Yoav Soen sounds almost angry when he talks about the evolutionary concept of natural selection – or, more precisely, its total acceptance – suggesting it blinds people to thinking more broadly. Instead, they simply embrace the theory of evolution developed more than 150 years ago by Charles Darwin.
The blind allegiance to natural selection is a worldwide phenomenon, which is reflected in how research is conducted and scientific questions are explained, says the biomolecular scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot.
Dec 14, 2015...
Prof. Oded Aharonson in the observatory at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Nov. 26, 2015. Credit: Eyal Toueg
Prof. Oded Aharonson had a comfortable life in the United States, to which he had moved from Israel when he was 13. At 21, with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in physics from Cornell University, he returned to Israel for two years to serve in the Israel Defense Forces. At 23, he began his Ph.D. in physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As soon as he completed his doctorate he started working at California Institute of Technology in planetary science, his area of specialization.
Jun 07, 2018...
Dr. Elisabetta Boaretto, Head of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s D-REAMS Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory (courtesy)
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.
Aug 05, 2014...
Source: Shutterstock.com
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—August 5, 2014—Laboratory mice are one of the most common animal models used in biological and medical research. Thousands of laboratory mouse strains are produced by artificial selection – the process by which humans breed animals over dozens of generations for particular traits. This has led to the domestication of mice: strengthening specific qualities that make them well-adapted for research under laboratory conditions, such as rapid reproduction, while eliminating characteristics that are not conducive to research, for example, aggression, the desire and ability to escape from danger, and anxiety caused by environmental disturbances.
Mar 25, 2020... In just one week, Profs. Ido Amit and Eran Elinav, both of the Department of Immunology, have built one of the highest-tech labs in the world. They developed a new type of PCR testing that is tremendously fast: if current capabilities test one patient at a time, the new method can test all of Israel simultaneously. The scientists intend to make their method available to anyone who needs it.
Nov 05, 2019...
Photo via Shutterstock.com
Stinky cars — everyone knows them. We’ve all stepped inside vehicles with a lingering scent of cigarette smoke, a forgotten banana peel or other olfactory nastiness.
Car dealers and rental agencies typically spray perfume or air freshener to mask offending smells. But about 30% of people don’t like the smell of perfume. Many others are allergic to various scents.