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.
Aug 10, 2012...
An archaeological dig in Tel Tzafit, the hometown of biblical giant Goliath. Photo by Richard Whiskin
Gath, the capital city of the Bible's bad guys as well as the hometown of Goliath, is known today as Tel Tzafit. Not far from Kiryat Gat, Tel Tzafit has been excavated for 16 years now by Prof. Aren Maeir of Bar-Ilan University.
But while thousands of artifacts and vessels have been unearthed, including a four-horned altar, as well as just this year, huge fortifications, doctoral candidate Yotam Asher of the Weizmann Institute is concentrating on a few faded white patches of rock.
May 21, 2018...
A cattle farm in Mato Grosso, Brazil. 60% of all mammals on Earth are livestock. Photograph: Daniel Beltra/Greenpeace
Humankind is revealed as simultaneously insignificant and utterly dominant in the grand scheme of life on Earth by a groundbreaking new assessment of all life on the planet.
The world’s 7.6 billion people represent just 0.01% of all living things, according to the study. Yet since the dawn of civilisation, humanity has caused the loss of 83% of all wild mammals and half of plants, while livestock kept by humans abounds.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/using-science-to-feed-the-world/
Mar 19, 2019...
We humans are overrunning our planet and its limited resources, with no end in sight: the UN says that “roughly 83 million people” are born each year, adding another billion in just the next 20 years. Our current population of 7.6 billion alone is already putting a tremendous strain on Earth’s limited water, energy, land, and other resources.
And now, for the third year in a row, there has been a rise in world hunger. The U.N. says that “821 million people – one in nine – still go to bed on an empty stomach each night. Even more – one in three – suffer from some form of malnutrition.” These statistics are concerning for reasons beyond the human suffering; for example, malnourished children often have lifelong health problems and difficulty learning.
Oct 22, 2018...
Dead tree in Heletz Forest, Negev Desert Credit: Eliahu Hershkovitz
Israel’s forests have been declining for years, and now a groundbreaking study has found a correlation between increasing tree mortality and the mounting incidence of drought.
During arid periods, the study pointed out, not only are forest fires more frequent: the trees are also more vulnerable to harmful insects.
The study, “A nationwide analysis of tree mortality under climate change” was published in the Elsevier journal Forest Ecology and Management. The research was conducted Dr. Tamir Klein of the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, with members of the Jewish National Fund and Prof. Gabriel Schiller of the Volcani Institute for Agricultural Research.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/science-tips-june-2014/
Jun 13, 2014...
Convective clouds forming over the Amazon in a blanket of smoke. Photo credit: Prof. Ilan Koren, Weizmann Institute of Science.
Understanding how clouds affect the climate has been a difficult proposition. What controls the makeup of the low clouds that cool the atmosphere or the high ones that trap heat underneath? How does human activity change patterns of cloud formation? The research of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Prof. Ilan Koren suggests we may be nudging cloud formation in the direction of added area and height. He and his team have analyzed a unique type of cloud formation; their findings, which appeared recently in Science, indicate that in pre-industrial times, there was less cloud cover over areas of pristine ocean than today.
Aug 05, 2019...
JERUSALEM, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) – Researchers from Israel, China, the United States and Switzerland have found that water accumulated in an ancient aquifer in the south part of the Israel is 360,000 years old, the Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), located in central Israel, reported on Sunday.
The findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), help expose global climate change processes.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/when-the-earth-shakes/
Sep 01, 2003...
How many people can say that their job is directly related to those long, glorious days of childhood, when the only responsibility you had was to be home in time for dinner? Dr. Einat Aharonov is one of the lucky ones. Throughout her youth, she enjoyed long hikes, and contemplating the forces that shaped the mountains, rocks, and land that she loved.
"As a child, I was fascinated by how mountains were once under the sea and that you could find seashells on mountain sides," she says. "I wanted to understand the large forces of nature that could do that."
Jul 13, 2006...
NASA scientists have determined that the formation of clouds is affected by the lightness or darkness of air pollution particles. This also impacts Earth's climate.
In a breakthrough study published today in the online edition of Science, scientists explain why aerosols -- tiny particles suspended in air pollution and smoke -- sometimes stop clouds from forming and in other cases increase cloud cover. Clouds not only deliver water around the globe, they also help regulate how much of the sun's warmth the planet holds. The capacity of air pollution to absorb energy from the sun is the key.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/using-science-to-save-our-oceans/
Jul 18, 2019...
It’s the height of summer – time to hit the beach, whether for an afternoon or a week or two. People love the ocean and have always been drawn to it, but as much as it affects us, we affect it, too.
The ocean's health is crucial to the planet’s health – and ours. That’s why the devastating impacts from climate change are so concerning: as the temperatures warm, glaciers melt, and seawater becomes more acidic, as fish and mammals are overfished, the oceans are dying.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/marine-green-slime-to-save-the-planet/
Oct 03, 2012...
The expedition in the north Atlantic Ocean. Photo by Assaf Vardi
As the northern hemisphere sweltered in summer, more than 30 scientists, led by an Israeli biologist, were spending the month of June on a ship in the north Atlantic Ocean. Their mission: to find green slime. Or more specifically — blankets of phytoplankton: single-cell algae that grow in masses on the ocean’s surface. These blankets can grow to thousands of square kilometers.
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