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.
Dec 18, 2017...
Just three of the scallop’s 200 marvelous eyes. Credit: Dan-Eric Nilsson, Lund University
Sure, your eyes are lovely. But you only have two. The scallop has up to two hundred. And they’re of an incandescent blue with purple and gold centers; like so much of ocean life, they’re so otherworldly as to seem truly alien.
But as if it weren’t interesting enough that scallops have upper and lower rows of these poppy-seed-sized peepers circling their bodies, recent Weizmann Institute (Israel) and Lund University (Sweden) findings, published in Science, show that the eyes are a “master class in precision engineering,” as The Atlantic put it.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/science-tips-june-2008/
Jun 02, 2008...
Scientists in the Weizmann Institute’s Faculty of Chemistry, together with colleagues in Germany, have made a startling prediction: Simply “taking the temperature” of certain quantum systems at frequent intervals might cause them to disobey a hard and fast rule of thermodynamics.
Thermodynamics tell us that the interaction between a large heat source (a heat bath) and an ensemble of much smaller systems must bring them – at least on average – progressively closer to thermal equilibrium. Now Prof. Gershon Kurizki, Dr. Noam Erez, and doctoral student Goren Gordon of the Chemical Physics Department, in collaboration with Dr. Mathias Nest of Potsdam University, Germany, have shown that ensembles of quantum systems in thermal contact with a heat bath could present a drastic departure from this allegedly universal trend, a prediction they recently reported in Nature.
Oct 19, 2016...
Researchers used wavefront shaping and an optimization algorithm to progressively reduce the background glare to reveal an image of a toy figurine. Image courtesy of Yaron Silberberg/Weizmann Institute of Science
If you’ve ever turned on your car’s high beams while driving through fog, you've seen glare in action. As the extra light reflects off the fog, it becomes even more difficult to see what lies ahead. Fortunately, two research teams have developed innovative methods for counteracting glare and reducing unwanted light similar to how noise-canceling headphones eliminate unwanted sound.
Aug 02, 2012... Ever taken a digital photograph and then found out you had missed the fine details that made the scene so impressive visually? Applying a Photoshop sharpen filter may make the photo appear sharper, but such filters are lossy — they actually reduce the amount of fine detail in the image. Until recently, there was very little you could do to improve the image after the shot. Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have now developed a super-resolution process which pulls unseen details from the nooks and crannies of a single digital photograph. Their process can capture true detail which cannot be seen in the original image — the next "killer app"?
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/new-grant-to-fuel-solar-energy-research/
Oct 24, 2012...
The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust announced a gift of $15 million over three years to fund joint research in solar energy and biofuels between the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology.
The Helmsley program, which will involve dozens of researchers from the two institutions, is unique in several ways. For one, scientists in fields ranging from genetics and plant sciences to chemistry, physics and engineering will be working together toward the common goal of providing renewable energy options to Israel and the world. For another, the researchers anticipate that wedding the basic research approach of the Weizmann Institute to the advanced technical-engineering emphasis of the Technion teams will provide the synergy needed to accelerate discovery and development of innovative energy options that can be the basis for future technologies.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/video-gallery/best-people-best-science/
Jul 06, 2016... The Weizmann Institute's most important asset is its people. That's why the Institute is committed to recruiting and nurturing some of the world's brightest young researchers. Here, six impressive new scientists – Drs. Ronen Eldan, Ofer Firstenberg, Yifat Merbl, Neta Regev-Rudzki, Nir London, and Efi Efrati – share how the Institute is helping them make breakthroughs in areas ranging from malaria to optics.
Jul 25, 2012...
Microscope images of cells (l) with and (r) without temporal focusing
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—July 25, 2012—The imaging potential of cutting-edge microscopes will soon be expanded thanks to Weizmann Institute inventions. A licensing agreement for developing these inventions into commercial products has been signed recently between Yeda, Weizmann’s technology transfer arm, and Intelligent Imaging Innovations (3i) in the United States.
Jul 20, 2018...
JERUSALEM, July 19 (Xinhua) — An Israeli new study on the complexity of the structure of a fish’s eye could help treat kidney stones and gout disease, the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel said Thursday.
The study focused on the sophisticated vision systems and the great precision and complexity of a zebrafish’s eye iris.
The researchers wanted to know how the fish’s eye could block unwanted light, like the humans’, and how it can return the light as a mirror to create camouflage.
May 26, 2016...
(l-r) Weizmann Institute of Science President Prof. Daniel Zajfman, Prof. Victor Malka, and École Polytechnique President Jacques Biot
Jacques Biot, President of École Polytechnique (Palaiseau, France), and Prof. Daniel Zajfman, President of the Weizmann Institute of Science (Rehovot, Israel), signed a cooperation agreement to develop and promote collaboration in higher education and research between the two institutions.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/atoms-feel-new-force/
Oct 19, 2017...
N. Matzliah et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. (2017)
Atoms can be pushed, pulled, and trapped using laser beams. The light imparts an optical force on the atom that can be utilized to manipulate its position. Now researchers have demonstrated a new kind of atom-acting optical force that squeezes a whole cloud of atoms. Such a collective force could give rise to a cloud that traps itself, or it could allow researchers to modify the density distribution of the cloud in such a way that it focuses other laser beams.
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