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.
Apr 01, 2020...
JERUSALEM — Teams of epidemiologists and computer scientists on three continents have started mass population surveys to try to get ahead of the coronavirus and ensure that scarce diagnostic tests, and even scarcer ventilators, are sent where they can do the most good.
More than two million people in Britain and 150,000 Israelis have already completed simple questionnaires, and many are updating their answers daily. Analysts of the data — including symptoms of Covid-19 and test results, as well as risk factors and demographics — say they have been able to identify incipient outbreaks days ahead of the authorities.
Jan 17, 2007... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—January 17, 2007—An injury to the brain can be devastating. When brain cells die, whether from head trauma, stroke or disease, a substance called glutamate floods the surrounding areas, overloading the cells in its path and setting off a chain reaction that damages whole swathes of tissue. Glutamate is always present in the brain, where it carries nerve impulses across the gaps between cells. But when this chemical is released by damaged or dying brain cells, the result is a flood that overexcites nearby cells and kills them.
Mar 25, 2020... Israel is suffering a shortage of coronavirus tests, and the Weizmann Institute – working with the Ministry of Health – has transformed scientific facilities into medical facilities in order to conduct more testing. Institute leadership expects that the labs should be able to run 4,000 tests per day.
Mar 02, 2010...
Prof. Yoram Salomon (left) and Prof. Avigdor Scherz (right)
By combining three individually innocuous components, Weizmann Institute of Science researchers Prof. Yoram Salomon of the Department of Biological Regulation and Prof. Avigdor Scherz of the Department of Plant Sciences have created a toxic combination that destroys solid tumors. This cancer therapy, which is the result of nearly 20 years of collaboration between the two scientists, is being studied as a frontline treatment for prostate cancer. However, the strategy may work for other types of cancer as well. "In principle, right now, every solid tumor is potentially a target for this treatment," says Prof. Salomon.
May 19, 2019...
James Gertler, trustee of The Zuckerman Institute, and Richard Lester, associate provost for International Activities at MIT, launch the the MIT-Israel Zuckerman STEM Fund, May 2019 (The Zukerman Institute)
A fund launched by the Mortimer Zuckerman STEM Leadership Program seeks to match faculty members from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US and seven Israeli academic institutions in an effort to promote the “next generation of groundbreaking research” in sciences and technology.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/xenon1t-team-sets-limits/
May 30, 2018...
Inside the XENON1T water shield
Dr. Ran Budnik and his team at the Weizmann Institute of Science joined 165 researchers from 27 research institutes around the world working on the XENON1T experiment. This experiment is the most sensitive by far to search for dark matter, and the results they reported this week set a stringent limit on the possible mass of particles that could make up the elusive dark matter. Following these results, based on research that utilized a tank containing over a ton of liquid xenon and on data collected for almost a year, the scientists are planning an even larger, more-sensitive experiment – XENONnT – for 2019.
Apr 21, 2013...
A Lite-Trac four-wheeled self-propelled crop sprayer spraying pesticide on a field. photo credit: Lite-Trac/Wikipedia Commons
The Green Revolution may have saved a billion people from starvation, according to common wisdom, but the expansion of agricultural technology came at a price: A sharp increase in the use of pesticides and chemicals. These technologies have made it possible for farmers to grow the food needed for an ever-growing population, but they have wreaked havoc on the environment, with chemicals seeping into the groundwater and entering the food chain — setting off who-knows-what consequences in the long-term.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/light-exchange/
Sep 04, 2018...
Prof. Barak Dayan and his quantum optics lab group. From l-r: Gabi Guendelman, Dor Korn, Niv Drucker, Tal Ohana, Prof. Dayan, Moran Netser, Ziva Aqua, Ori Mor, and Dr. Adrien Borne
The quantum computers of the future will be able to perform computations that cannot be done on today’s computers. These may likely include the ability to crack the encryption that is currently used for secure electronic transactions, as well as the means to efficiently solve unwieldy problems in which the number of possible solutions increases exponentially. Research in the quantum optics lab of Prof. Barak Dayan at the Weizmann Institute of Science may be bringing such computers one step closer by providing the “quantum gates” required for communication within and between such quantum computers.
Jun 26, 2012...
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—June 26, 2012—The Weizmann Institute of Science has announced the launch of two new applications for iPad and Android tablet devices – one for its quarterly Hebrew magazine Hamachon, and another for its online Interface magazine (English). These are among the very first digital magazines in Israel.
These easy-to-read quarterly magazines are geared toward the general public, featuring cutting-edge news and discoveries from the Weizmann Institute of Science, including a diverse range of topics, from cancer to genetics, astrophysics, alternative energy, computer science, archaeology and more.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/colder-and-colder/
Dec 17, 2017...
HEALTH & SCIENCE. (photo credit: JPOST STAFF)
When investigating atoms, scientists face a challenge – at room temperature, individual atoms in a gas have kinetic energy and spin about at high velocities. Temperature is, in essence, the measurement of the relative movement between atoms; thus the goal of getting the atoms to have small relative velocities involves freezing them to extremely cold temperatures.