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.
Feb 13, 2019...
Clouds have a key role in Earth’s energy balance and water cycle, but difficulties in assessing them can lead to great errors in climate prediction. Israeli and German scientists are now trying to overcome this problem, inspired by the most human form – bodily organs.
Their idea is to perform “CT scans” on clouds. Like human CTs that scan and map the interior of a patient, the researchers plan on using CloudCT, a space mission of 10 tiny satellites, to reveal detailed images of clouds’ external and internal 3D structures and properties.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/the-tree-that-survives-the-desert/
Jan 16, 2019... Tu B’Shevat, a Jewish holiday commemorating the importance and sanctity of trees, could not be more fitting in this day and age. Undoubtedly, it’s not easy to be a tree these days. Extended drought periods induced by climate change make it more and more difficult for those that need water to survive. Add to this the constant increase in pests and invasive species, one gets an idea of the grim reality in which many tree species are forced to survive the rapid and extreme changes.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/a-fistful-of-dust/
Jan 06, 2011... On May 26th, 2008, Germany turned red. The winds of change, though, were meteorological, not political. Unusual weather brought iron-rich dust from Africa to Europe, not only altering the colour of roofs and cars on the continent but also, according to recent calculations by Max Bangert, a graduate student at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, making the place about a quarter of a degree colder for as long as the dust stayed in the air.
Jul 21, 2014...
Image via Shutterstock.com
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—July 21, 2014—We have heard that eating beef is bad for the environment, but do we know its real cost? Are other animal or animal-derived foods better or worse? New research at the Weizmann Institute of Science, conducted in collaboration with scientists in the U.S., compared the environmental costs of various foods and came up with some surprisingly clear results. The findings, which appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), will hopefully not only inform individual dietary choices, but those of governmental agencies that set agricultural and marketing policies.Dr. Ron Milo of the Institute’s Department of Plant Sciences, together with his research student Alon Shepon and in collaboration with Tamar Makov of Yale University and Dr. Gidon Eshel in New York, asked which types of animal-based food one should consume, environmentally speaking. Though many studies have addressed parts of this issue, none have done such a thorough, comparative study that gives a multi-perspective picture of the environmental costs of food derived from animals.
Jan 09, 2018... Prof. Milo speaks at London’s how to: Academy about plants’ ability to metabolize CO2 and how it can help us.
Jan 11, 2015... Prof. Dan Yakir studies a forest in the desert, and how it could potentially mitigate climate change. By investigating the rate of change of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, he hopes to be able to predict future changes.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/looking-back-looking-forward/
Apr 11, 2016... In a place that fosters curiosity and the pursuit of "what if," where scientists come to work every day with the knowledge that anything can happen, astounding discoveries are realized on a regular basis. That place is the Weizmann Institute of Science, where accomplishments are so remarkable and varied that, at times, we need to pause and take it all in. The beginning of a new year is just such a time.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/solar-powered-vision-of-the-future/
Feb 19, 2006...
Sitting in his book-lined office, Professor Jacob Karni likes to quote the French novelist Jules Verne.
"Yes, my friends," says Prof Karni, director of the Centre for Energy Research at the Weizmann Institute of Science, quoting from Verne's 1874 novel The Mysterious Island.
"I foresee that in the future, water will be used as fuel... water will be the coal of the future." The professor enthuses about the French author's vision 130 years ago that the world's reliance on fossil fuels is unsustainable. But he disagrees with Verne, famous for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, in one fundamental respect. Whereas the French writer saw water as the fuel for the future, the Israeli scientist says the future lies with solar energy.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/science-tips-february-2011/
Feb 10, 2011...
Two new studies support a novel approach based on Weizmann Institute scientists’ research
Much of the devastation of stroke and head trauma is due to damage caused by the overproduction of a substance in the brain called glutamate. Preventing this damage has been impossible, until now, as many drugs don’t cross the blood-brain barrier, and those that do often don’t work as intended. But a method originally devised at the Weizmann Institute of Science may, in the future, offer a way to avert such glutamate-induced harm.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/saving-reefs-one-polyp-at-a-time/
Jun 01, 2016...
CORAL HUG: Two polyps of the reef-building coral Pocillopora damicornis imaged with fluorescence microscopy, showing the coral’s GFP, the chlorophyll of its symbiotic algae (red) and cilia-driven motion of microscopic particles (blue)ORR SHAPIRO AND ASSAF VARDI, WEIZMANN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE
Crucial habitats in underwater ecosystems, and harbingers of the damage inflicted by global warming on the world’s oceans, coral reefs epitomize the beauty – and the fragility – of marine life. But they’re also notoriously difficult to study.
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