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.
Aug 24, 2016...
Credit: Thomas Fuchs
Compared with other bodily excretions, tears are vastly understudied. Collecting the salty drops is tedious – weepy donors are rare, men hardly ever sign up and tears must be “fresh” for their makeup to be properly analyzed. As a result, researchers lack a consensus about the purpose of a basic human behavior. Is crying a primal way to communicate that many species share, as some chemists hypothesize? Or is it, as psychologists have put forth, a uniquely human key to social bonding? Israeli neurobiologist Noam Sobel has a plan to advance the field: he has perfected a way to flash-freeze tears and is now working to create a “tear bank” for researchers around the world.
Jan 12, 2018...
Bats have helped to decipher how we map the movements of ourselves and others. Credit: Weizmann Inst. of Science.
The brain’s navigation system — which keeps track of where we are in space — also monitors the movements of others, experiments in bats and rats suggest.
In a study published in Science on 11 January, neuroscientists in Israel pinpoint individual brain cells that seem specialized to track other animals or objects. These cells occur in the same region of the brain — the hippocampus — as cells that are known to map a bat’s own location. In a second paper, scientists in Japan report finding similar brain activity when rats watched other rats moving.
Jul 24, 2006...
After a hard day’s work, Rick Allen of Aptos, Calif., can’t wait to jump in his car and zone out to the music on his iPod.
“Rather than listening to the radio, I listen to my iPod because it’s my music,” he said. “There are no news or commercial interruptions, so I get to be in my own little world.”
Allen is among millions of users of Apple Computer iPods and other MP3 digital devices who depend on their tiny music players as a prime means of escape from the cares of the day.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/keeping-up-the-pressure/
Feb 13, 2017...
Brain tissue from genetically engineered mice. Neurons that express CRFR1 appear in green and those that release the neurotransmitter CRF are in red. The image was obtained with fluorescence microscopy
In addition to the classic stress response in our bodies – an acute reaction that gradually abates when the threat passes – our bodies appear to have a separate mechanism that deals only with chronic stress. These Weizmann Institute of Science findings, which recently appeared in Nature Neuroscience, may lead to better diagnosis of and treatment for anxiety and depression.
Jul 22, 2014...
How do you smell after a drink? Quite well, it turns out. A modest amount of alcohol boosts your sense of smell.
It is well known that we can improve our sense of smell through practice. But a few people have also experienced a boost after drug use or brain damage. This suggests our sensitivity to smell may be damped by some sort of inhibition in the brain, which can be lifted under some circumstances, says Yaara Endevelt of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/learning-doesn-t-stop-when-you-re-asleep/
Aug 27, 2012...
Chris Gash
People can learn new associations between scents and sounds in their sleep, according to a new study in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
Researchers had sleepers wear masks into which pleasant and unpleasant odors were pumped: shampoo and perfume, or carrion and rotting fish. The smells were accompanied with different tones.
When the sleeping subjects were exposed to a bad smell, they breathed shallowly. When they were exposed to a good smell, they inhaled deeply. They eventually responded this way to smell-associated tones regardless of whether the smell was present.
Jun 19, 2013...
What does it take to be a leader? It turns out you have to be somewhat social. At least that's one possible takeaway from a mouse study conducted by neurobiology researchers in Israel's Weizmann Institute.
The researchers monitored the social behavior of mice by filming them "Big Brother" style. What they discovered about the development of social hierarchies may shed light on human as well as mouse behavior.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/the-importins-of-anxiety/
Dec 11, 2018...
In genetically engineered mice lacking the protein importin alpha-5 (right), a molecule called MeCP2 (red), known to affect anxiety behaviors, stayed on the outside of the nuclei (blue) of brain neurons, instead of getting inside the nuclei as it does in regular mice (left). Images were obtained with a confocal microscope and displayed using computational reconstruction.
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—December 11, 2018—According to some estimates, up to one in three people around the world may experience severe anxiety in their lifetime. In a study published in Cell Reports, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have revealed a previously unknown mechanism underlying anxiety. Targeting this biochemical pathway may help develop new therapies to alleviate the symptoms of anxiety disorders.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/scientists-map-mouse-personality/
Nov 07, 2019...
Some mice are curious and explore every new hiding place. Others are more anxious and prefer to stay in their nest. ©MPI f. Molecular Genetics
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, Germany, together with colleagues at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have developed a computational method to objectively measure the personality of mice living in a semi-natural, group environment.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/brain-circuits-that-suppress-memory-found/
Jan 14, 2008... This article can be viewed by downloading the PDF.
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