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/news-releases/science-tips-april-2011/
Mar 31, 2011...
When we suddenly get the answer to a riddle or understand the solution to a problem, we can practically feel the light bulb click on in our head. But what happens after the “aha!” moment? Why do the things we learn through sudden insight tend to stick in our memory?
“Much of memory research involves repetitive, rote learning,” says Kelly Ludmer, a research student in the group of Prof. Yadin Dudai of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Neurobiology, “but in fact, we regularly absorb large blocks of information in the blink of an eye and remember things quite well from single events. Insight is an example of a one-time event that is often well-preserved in memory.”
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/a-3d-compass-in-the-brain/
Dec 03, 2014... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—December 3, 2014—Pilots are trained to guard against vertigo: a sudden loss of the sense of vertical direction that renders them unable to tell up from down, and sometimes even leads to crashes. Coming up out of a subway station can produce similar confusion, as for a few moments, you are unsure which way to go – until regaining your sense of direction. In both cases, the disorientation is thought to be caused by a temporary malfunction of a brain circuit that operates as a three-dimensional (3D) compass.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/what-s-new-in-brain-research-at-weizmann/
Jun 10, 2019...
Weizmann Institute researchers from across the disciplines are pursuing topics in neuroscience, approaching this crucial field from a number of angles. That’s because understanding our brains – in both health and disease – benefits everyone on this planet.
From Alzheimer’s to autism, Parkinson’s to mental health, memory to aging and beyond, here are just some of the Institute’s neuroscience advances over just the past year:
Feb 10, 2014...
Schwartz’s research questions assumptions about the central nervous system.
Imagine being able to inhibit or reverse a universal affliction – brain degeneration – and specific diseases or physical injuries that cause its sudden onset. This is precisely what Prof. Michal Schwartz has spent the last two decades studying, with revolutionary results.
Schwartz is far from the stereotypical “mad scientist.” Pretty and petite, with a cascade of curls, she rushes down the hallway of her office and adjacent laboratory more like a student late for a class than an international award-winning powerhouse whose research has turned pre-existing dogma about the central nervous system on its head.
May 04, 2014... This three-minute video tells the story of Weizmann Institute researcher Prof. Nachum Ulanovsky, who studies free-flying bats to explore the brain's ability to work in three dimensions. His work with bats has considerable implications for human neuroscience.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/mapping-the-social-landscape/
Jan 11, 2018... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—January 11, 2018— Whether we’re playing a team sport or just strolling through the park, we’re continually aware of the positions of those around us – and where each is heading. Scientists have, in recent decades, pinpointed neurons called “place cells” in our brains that encode our own location in the environment, but how our brains represent the positions of others has been a mystery. Published in Science, new Weizmann Institute of Science research in bats reveals a sub-population of neurons that encode the specific locations of other bats that are flying nearby.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/the-enzyme-that-sharpens-memories/
Apr 22, 2012...
Imagine never forgetting a single detail of your life — what you got for your 14th birthday, or the phone numbers of every one of your romantic interests. New science from Israel shows that this might be in the realm of possibility. The big question is: Would it be good for us?
The breakthrough Israeli-US research project, for the first time anywhere, has found a compound in the brain to enhance memory. Whether the enzyme responsible could ever be made into a "super pill" (like the one imagined in the science-fiction flick Limitless to boost brainpower) is quite speculative, says Reut Shema from Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/understanding-alzheimer-s/
Jun 28, 2010... One in 10 Americans over the age of 65 has Alzheimer's disease, a debilitating neurological disorder that slowly destroys memory and cognitive function and for which there is no cure. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), because the risk of developing the disease increases with age and more people are living longer, the number of people suffering from Alzheimer's is likely to grow dramatically over the next few decades. Despite years of research by scientists all over the world, Alzheimer's is still poorly understood.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/bats-remember-directions/
Jan 12, 2017...
Egyptian fruit bat. In a new issue of Science, Prof. Sarel et al. report on a new functional class of hippocampal neurons in bats, which encode the direction and distance to spatial goals – suggesting a novel neural mechanism for goal-directed navigation.
Navigating to a destination, whether you are a human or a bat, requires a complex set of calculations and interactions among brain cells. Weizmann Institute of Science researchers, working with bats, have now revealed the network of cells that encode the direction of one’s destination. Among other things, their findings may help explain how memory loss and “getting lost” tend to go together in Alzheimer’s patients.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/memory-machine/
Aug 16, 2007... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—August 16, 2007—What happens in our brains when we learn and remember? Are memories recorded in a stable physical change, like writing an inscription permanently on a clay tablet? Prof. Yadin Dudai, Head of the Weizmann Institute’s Neurobiology Department, and his colleagues are challenging that view. They recently discovered that the process of storing long-term memories is much more dynamic, involving a miniature molecular machine that must run constantly to keep memories going. They also found that jamming the machine briefly can erase long-term memories. Their findings, which appear today in the journal Science, may pave the way to future treatments for memory problems.
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