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/bad-smells-impair-learning/
Dec 09, 2011...
Performance usually improves with practice, but not if training is arotten time. A new study shows that people's ability to identify noisesdeclines when the sounds are paired with putrid smells–a phenomenon thatmay allow our brain to detect danger more quickly.
In a study published in May in Nature Neuroscience,neurobiologist Rony Paz of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot,Israel, and his colleagues exposed volunteers to auditory tonespresented with no other stimuli or immediately followed by a rancid orfragrant odor delivered through a nose mask.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/science-tips-august-2007/
Aug 28, 2007...
A Computer Simulation Shows How Evolution May Have Speeded Up
Is heading straight for a goal the quickest way there? If the name of the game is evolution, suggests new research at the Weizmann Institute of Science, the pace might speed up if the goals themselves change continuously.
Nadav Kashtan, Elad Noor, and Prof. Uri Alon of the Institute’s Molecular Cell Biology and Physics of Complex Systems Departments create computer simulations that mimic natural evolution, allowing them to investigate processes that, in nature, take place over millions of years. In these simulations, a population of digital genomes evolves over time towards a given goal: to maximize fitness under certain conditions. Like living organisms, genomes that are better adapted to their environment may survive to the next generation or reproduce more prolifically. But such computer simulations, though sophisticated, don’t yet have all the answers. Achieving even simple goals may take thousands of generations, raising the question of whether the three-or-so billion years since life first appeared on the planet is long enough to evolve the diversity and complexity that exist today.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/resolving-a-lymphatic-riddle/
May 20, 2015...
Zebrafish embryos with fluorescent “glow in the dark” blood vessels helped solve the mystery of the origin of the lymphatic system
For more than a century, scientists have debated the origins of the lymphatic system – a parallel system to blood vessels, and which serves as a conduit for everything from immune cells to fat molecules to cancer cells. This issue has now been resolved by Dr. Karina Yaniv of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Biological Regulation. In a study reported in Nature, she and her team revealed how the lymphatic system develops in the embryo and – in a world’s first – managed to grow lymphatic cells in the lab.
Aug 28, 2010...
Stress is one of life’s universal experiences – everyone is familiar with it, regardless of who they are, where they live, or what they do. But while stress is common, it is hardly simple. Prof. Alon Chen of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Neurobiology is working to clarify the biological underpinnings of stress and elucidate the brain’s mechanisms for coping with the condition.
Prof. Chen defines stress as the result of any demand or challenge to homeostasis – our internal balance system – and says it is important to remember that stress can be real or perceived, current or anticipated, physiological or psychological, or a mixture of these. In addition, the perception of and response to stress are very individual, and both genetic and environmental factors play a role in how a person copes. Many scientists believe that stress is left over from early human existence, when challenging situations required an instinctive “fight or flight” response. Today, people have more choices; however, when confronted with stress, the body still automatically activates a series of coordinated responses organized to protect homeostatic equilibrium and, thus, enhance the probability of survival.
Mar 15, 2016...
On March 23, at the Gordon Research Conference on Lymphatics in Ventura, CA, LE&RN Spokesperson and Academy Award-winning actress Kathy Bates will present LE&RN's 2016 Wendy Chaite Leadership Award to Dr. Karina Yaniv of the Weizmann Institute. (Dr. Yaniv is pictured at right with her team at the Weizmann Institute.)
LE&RN received multiple nominations for this prestigious award. Dr. Yaniv was ultmately chosen for the honor based on her significant contributions to lymphatic research.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/the-science-of-crying/
Mar 16, 2016...
Michael Trimble, a behavioral neurologist with the unusual distinction of being one of the world’s leading experts on crying, was about to be interviewed on a BBC radio show when an assistant asked him a strange question: How come some people don’t cry at all?
The staffer went on to explain that a colleague of hers insisted he never cries. She’d even taken him to see Les Misérables, certain it would jerk a tear or two, but his eyes stayed dry. Trimble was stumped. He and the handful of other scientists who study human crying tend to focus their research on wet eyes, not dry ones, so before the broadcast began, he set up an email address – nocrying10@gmail.com – and on the air asked listeners who never cry to contact him. Within a few hours, Trimble had received hundreds of messages.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/ants-in-the-lead/
Jul 30, 2015...
Longhorn crazy ants cooperating to transfer an item much too heavy for one to move alone. Image: Drs. Ehud Fonio and Ofer Feinerman
Anyone who has ever watched a group of ants scurrying to carry a large crumb back to their nest has probably wondered how these tiny creatures manage the task. New research at the Weizmann Institute of Science, which appeared recently in Nature Communications, explains how a balance of individual direction and conformist behavior enables ants to work together to move their food in the desired direction.
Feb 05, 2019...
Illustration via Shutterstock.com
Comparing human brains to monkey brains reveals that our more evolutionarily advanced brains may be more efficient but are also less robust, according to new research from Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science.
Neurobiology Prof. Rony Paz explains that our brains are like modern washing machines – technologically sophisticated but more vulnerable to breakdown and costly disorders.
Apr 12, 2007... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—April 11, 2007—Muscle fibers are large cells that contain many nuclei. They begin, like all animal cells, as naive embryonic cells. These cells differentiate, producing intermediate cells called myoblasts that are now destined to become muscle. New myoblasts then seek out other myoblasts, and when they find each other, they stick together like best friends. In the final stage of muscle fiber development, the cell membranes of attached myoblasts open up and fuse together, forming one large, unified cell.
Nov 04, 2019... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—November 4, 2019—We might refer to someone’s personality as “mousy,” but in truth, mice have a range of personalities nearly as great as our own. Prof. Alon Chen and members of two groups he heads – one in the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Neurobiology and one in the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, Germany – decided to explore personality specifically in mice. This would enable the scientists to develop a set of objective measurements for this highly slippery concept. A quantitative understanding of the traits that make each animal an individual might help answer some of the open questions in science concerning the connections between genes and behavior. The findings of this research were published in Nature Neuroscience.
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