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.
Jul 02, 2015...
Prof. Emeritus Jonathan Gressel
Professor Emeritus Jonathan Gressel of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, said during a visit to St. Louis last week that he sees merit in the recently released papal encyclical by Pope Francis, which said man-made climate change is a major issue that must be addressed worldwide.
Gressel, a native of Cleveland who was born in 1936, earned his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1962. He immigrated to Israel in 1950 and joined what is now the Department of Plant and Environmental Science at the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Jan 31, 2018...
Large-scale, semi-arid forests could cool the planet. (photo credit: WEIZMANN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE)
Planting the “right kinds” of forests extensively in areas that have mostly been neglected in forestation efforts − semi-arid regions in Africa and Australia − could have a measurably positive influence on the climate and help offset a significant portion of human-induced global warming.
This was discovered recently by Weizmann Institute of Science researchers led by Prof. Dan Yakir of the earth and planetary sciences department who used an Israeli forest as a model. The research was published in the journal Scientific Reports.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/warming-will-nudge-storms-towards-the-poles/
Nov 13, 2017...
As the climate changes, storms such as this one in the Gulf of Alaska will meander poleward. Norman Kuring/NASA Ocean Color Web
In a warmer climate, storms that start to build over the oceans at mid-latitudes will both form and reach peak strength closer to the poles, potentially bringing harsher weather to some heavily populated areas.
Earth’s mid-latitudes commonly experience cyclonic storms, which are large-scale, low-pressure systems that can produce strong gales, thunderstorms and, unlike tropical cyclones, rapid drops in temperature. To determine how the tracks of these storms might change in a warmer world, Talia Tamarin-Brodsky and Yohai Kaspi at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, compared historical climate model simulations for 1980–1999 with projections for 2080–2099.
Aug 21, 2014... At this TEDx event at the Weizmann Institute, planetary scientist Prof. Oded Aharonson takes on climate change by asking two questions: to what extent is climate change about what we do the earth, and to what extent is it about what the itself earth does (by moving, etc.)? After all, Earth's rotation around the sun is not static. Neither, of course, are we unpredictable humans.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/coral-on-a-chip-cracks-coral-mysteries/
Mar 16, 2016...
The mouth of a coral polyp (center): Symbiotic algae are labeled in red; pathogenic bacteria that enter through this region are labeled in blue
We know that human-induced environmental changes are responsible for coral bleaching, disease, and infertility. Loss of the world’s stony coral reefs – up to 30% in the next 30 years, according to some estimates – will mean loss of their services, including sequestering some 70–90 million tons of carbon each year and supporting enormous marine biodiversity. Yet despite many advances, we are still far from understanding the causes and processes contributing to the corals’ demise. Weizmann Institute of Science researchers have developed a new experimental platform for studying coral biology at microscale resolutions, which is already providing new insights into this complex problem. The work was published in Nature Communications.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/just-rolling-along/
Sep 21, 1997... A smooth, friction-free future may be in the offing—for machinery, that is. Prof. Reshef Tenne and his team in the Materials and Interfaces Department have created a new kind of lubricant that promises to cut friction in half. The synthetic material is made of inert, round molecules of tungsten disulfide. Says Prof. Tenne: "They just roll against each other and against the machinery parts, and don't stick to anything, like Teflon."
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/water-protection-modeling-and-management/
Jun 01, 2008... Looking at the blue expanses wrapping the globe, one can hardly imagine that a planet covered mostly by water could experience water shortages. Yet 97 percent of Earth’s water is too salty for drinking or irrigation, and much of the rest is locked up deep underground or in ice caps. Meanwhile, a burgeoning world population leads to increasing water consumption. By 2025 at least 40 percent of Earth’s population may face serious health and economic problems if it relies solely on natural freshwater resources. In a survey conducted by the International Council for Science in more than 50 countries, environmental experts ranked freshwater scarcity as a 21st-century issue second only to global warming. Water experts believe that to meet the soaring demand, humankind must find smarter ways of using its water supply. Weizmann Institute researchers are developing scientific approaches to efficient and sophisticated water management.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/deadly-floods-will-be-the-new-normal/
Nov 13, 2017...
Global warming will bring deadly storms to Britain and the United States by 2100, a study has found. In warming climates, mid-latitude storms will travel further toward the poles before they reach their maximum intensity
Global warming will bring deadly storms to Britain and the United States by 2100, a study has found.
In warming climates, mid-latitude storms will travel further toward the poles before they reach their maximum intensity - and this, scientists say, will be the ‘new normal’.
Nov 14, 2017...
Storm. (photo credit:ILAN SHOCHAT)
For decades, the Earth’s climate zones have shifted toward the poles due to global warming – and they will continue to do so.
This according to researchers at Rehovot’s Weizmann Institute of Science, who recently published their findings in Nature Geoscience.
Under global climate change, the dry, semi-arid regions are expanding into higher latitudes while the temperate, rainy regions are migrating towards the North and South Poles.
Oct 13, 2015...
Charred 10,000 year-old fava beans. An amount like that would have been extremely difficult to gather from wild plants, indicating the legume had been domesticated. Credit: Jacob Vardi, Israel Antiquities Authority
Israelis mix them into their hummus. Egyptians eat them mashed for breakfast. It turns out both are following a proud tradition: A new study strongly suggests that humans living in the Galilee first domesticated fava beans more than 10,000 years ago, eating them as a staple well before grain began to be cultivated in the area.
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