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.
Apr 19, 2013...
An Egyptian fruit bat flies in an abandoned quarry near the village of Mammari, west of Nicosia, in March 2007. Alex Mita / AFP - Getty Images file
At a lab at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, fruit bats in a roomy cage flew circles around a metal rig that roughly resembles a tree. Electrodes on their head recorded and wirelessly transmitted a map of the electrical activity in their brain. Bats, like birds, are deviously good at finding their way over long distances. Egyptian fruit bats will fly up to a hundred kilometers from their roosting cave to visit a favorite fruit tree. By studying the brain activity, researchers hoped to uncover clues about how many mammals, not just bats, know where they are — how high up they are when they peek out of a 10th-story window, how far they need to leap so they can make it to the next branch, or how to make back it home once they’ve reached their favorite tree.
Sep 19, 2011...
An Egyptian fruit bat in a laboratory experiment. Research indicates that the bats adjust their sonar system to distinguish food from obstacles. Nachum Ulanovsky
Fruit bats make a clicking sound with their tongues to help themnavigate their way to the fruits they feed on. The clicking produces afan–shaped sonar beam that bounces off an object and returns an echo tothe bat.
Now scientists are reporting that the bats have more control over these echolocation abilities than previously thought.
Jan 28, 2013...
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—January 28, 2013—The European Commission has officially announced the selection of the Human Brain Project (HBP) as one of its two Future Emerging Technologies (FET) Flagship projects. The new project will federate European efforts to address one of the greatest challenges of modern science: understanding the human brain.
The goal of the Human Brain Project: Pull together all our existing knowledge about the human brain and reconstruct the brain, piece by piece, in supercomputer-based models and simulations. Such models offer the prospect of a new understanding of the human brain and the diseases that affect it, as well as advancing completely new computing and robotic technologies. The European Commission supported this vision, announcing that it has selected the HBP as one of two projects to be funded through the new FET Flagship Program, which supports highly innovative technology.
Oct 30, 2019...
Pairs of face images that elicited similar (left column) and different (right column) neuronal activation patterns. Each bar shows the response of one electrode to the face in the photo; the higher the bar and the lighter the red, the stronger the response
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—October 30, 2019—Our brains are so primed to recognize faces – or to tell people apart – that we rarely even stop to think about it, but what happens in the brain when it engages in such recognition is still far from understood. In a new study published in Nature Communications, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have shed new light on this issue. They found a striking similarity between the way in which faces are encoded in the brain and successfully performing artificial intelligence (AI) systems known as deep neural networks.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/four-israeli-women-of-note/
Oct 10, 2006...
Dr. Michal Schwartz, one of Israel’s leading researchers and a senior neurobiologist at Rehovot’s Weizmann Institute of Science, has made such important scientific discoveries that Superman even dropped by to see what she was up to.
The late actor Christopher Reeves, who starred in the Superman movies and became a quadriplegic after a spinal cord injury, came to her lab in 2003. Previously, Schwartz—a leading expert in injury to the central nervous system (CNS)—had gone to his home to report on her experimental technique for treating spinal cord injuries. “I was a very good friend of his,” she recalls sadly. “He was amazed by the high quality of science in Israel and researchers’ urge to be daring.”
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/neural-activity-in-bats-measured-in-flight/
Apr 18, 2013... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—April 18, 2013—Animals navigate and orient themselves to survive — to find food and shelter or avoid predators, for example. Research conducted by Dr. Nachum Ulanovsky and research student Michael Yartsev of the Weizmann Institute's Department of Neurobiology, published today in Science, reveals for the first time how three-dimensional (3D) volumetric space is perceived in mammalian brains. The research was conducted using a unique miniaturized neural-telemetry system developed especially for this task, which enabled the measurement of single brain cells during flight.
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/science-tips-february-2012/
Feb 24, 2012...
The Weizmann Institute is One of Seven “Instruct” Core Centres
Major transformations in biomedical science are on the horizon with the establishment of the world-class Integrated Structural Biology Infrastructure (Instruct) in support of European biomedical research.
The European Strategy Forum of Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) is involved in establishing about 40 such infrastructures, seven of them in biomedical sciences. Instruct is one such biomedical project, whose aim is to provide pan-European user access to state-of-the-art equipment, technologies, and manpower in cellular structural biology. This will allow Europe to maintain a competitive edge and play a leading role in this vital research area.
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.
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