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.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/blog/the-art-of-the-visionary-scientist/
Feb 26, 2018...
The beautiful neural cells of chickens. Santiago Ramón y Cajal, c. 1905
For centuries, the brain has been a mystery, a blank-enough slate that scientists, artists, philosophers, and the like could imprint it with their own theories. It was only with the development of microscopes and other imaging and research techniques that the exquisite structure of the brain came into focus.
In the late 1800s/early 1900s, a man equal parts scientist and artist – Santiago Ramón y Cajal – laid the foundation of modern neuroscience through his detailed, meticulous, graphically impeccable drawings of axons, neurons, retinal structure, and other new (at the time) elements.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/blog/learning-is-powered-by-inspiration-but-not-the-kind-you-think/
Mar 27, 2019...
Get inspired! Breathing in helps us solve problems more quickly, says Prof. Noam Sobel and his team. The group also found that our olfactory system can help us learn (including to quit smoking) while sleeping, and even shaped the evolution of our other senses.
It doesn’t matter if we’re in school, from pre-K to postdoc; working; or pursuing hobbies after retiring, we are always learning – and of course we want to learn smarter.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/blog/anxious-who-isn-t-scientists-study-stress-in-the-brain/
Jan 24, 2020... “According to Gallup, in 2018, more Americans were stressed, worried and angry than at any point in the last 12 years. That is extraordinary when you consider that the past dozen years includes the 2008 financial crisis and multiple terrorist attacks. Furthermore, American stress levels are among the highest in the world. Seriously, Americans were as stressed as Iranians and more stressed than citizens of Rwanda, Turkey, and Venezuela,” reports The Washington Post, adding the technically accurate diagnosis: “That’s nuts.”
Jul 19, 2016...
Stress-coping molecule Urocortin-3 (green) and its receptor, CRFR2 (red), expressed in the mouse brain region responsible for social behavior. Viewed under a confocal microscope
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—July 19, 2016—Meeting new people can be both stressful and rewarding. Research at the Weizmann Institute of Science, reported yesterday in Nature Neuroscience, suggests that a molecule involved in regulating stress in the brain may help determine how willing we are to leave the safety of our social group and strike up new relationships.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/firework-memories/
Aug 15, 2019... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—August 15, 2019—Extraterrestrial scientists landing in a football stadium would be struck by the sight of the crowd suddenly standing up and shouting in unison. In a similar manner, since the 1990s, researchers have observed a special pattern of neuronal activity in rodents: tens of thousands of nerve cells firing in unison in a part of the brain called the hippocampus. But, like alien scientists, the researchers have not been able to understand the “language” of the rodents’ minds when these mysterious synchronous bursts occurred. Recently, however, Weizmann Institute of Science researchers succeeded in recording these rapid bursts of activity – called “hippocampal ripples” – in the human brain, and were able to demonstrate their importance as a neuronal mechanism underlying the engraving of new memories and their subsequent recall. These findings appeared in Science.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/scientists-are-developing-robotic-rats/
Feb 11, 2008...
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—February 11, 2008—A new initiative, bringing together nine research groups from seven countries, including teams of robotics and brain researchers from Europe, Israel, and the U.S., has recently been set up with the aim of imitating nature.
Based on principles of active sensing that are widely adopted in the animal kingdom, the multinational team is developing innovative touch technologies, including a "whiskered" robotic rat. The whiskered robot will be able to quickly locate, identify, and capture moving objects. "The use of touch in the design of artificial intelligence systems has been largely overlooked, until now," says Prof. Ehud Ahissar of the Weizmann Institute of Science's Neurobiology Department, whose research team is one of the groups participating in the multinational project.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/science-tips-april-2011/
Mar 31, 2011...
When we suddenly get the answer to a riddle or understand the solution to a problem, we can practically feel the light bulb click on in our head. But what happens after the “aha!” moment? Why do the things we learn through sudden insight tend to stick in our memory?
“Much of memory research involves repetitive, rote learning,” says Kelly Ludmer, a research student in the group of Prof. Yadin Dudai of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Neurobiology, “but in fact, we regularly absorb large blocks of information in the blink of an eye and remember things quite well from single events. Insight is an example of a one-time event that is often well-preserved in memory.”
Apr 01, 2013... More and more children are being diagnosed with autism and related conditions, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimating that about 1 in 88 children has been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). ASDs are a group of developmental disabilities characterized by impairment in thinking, feeling, language, and the ability to relate to others. The reason for this increase is unknown, and scientists and doctors worldwide are trying to help affected persons – primarily girls – and their families. At the Weizmann Institute of Science, researchers from across many disciplines are working together to understand the cause or causes of ASDs and develop new treatments. Examples of the Weizmann Institute’s autism research include:
Sep 27, 2019... Fall is here and school is back in session. In the ninth episode of Weizmann in Focus, CEO Dave Doneson shares a simple tip to help prepare for success this academic year. Weizmann Prof. Noam Sobel, who studies the olfactory system, found that people who inhaled when presented with a problem-solving task performed better than those who exhaled. So, the next time you’re faced with a difficult task, take a deep breath!
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/a-3d-compass-in-the-brain/
Dec 03, 2014... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—December 3, 2014—Pilots are trained to guard against vertigo: a sudden loss of the sense of vertical direction that renders them unable to tell up from down, and sometimes even leads to crashes. Coming up out of a subway station can produce similar confusion, as for a few moments, you are unsure which way to go – until regaining your sense of direction. In both cases, the disorientation is thought to be caused by a temporary malfunction of a brain circuit that operates as a three-dimensional (3D) compass.
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