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/news-media/news-releases/300-000-year-old-hearth-found/
Jan 27, 2014... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—January 27, 2014—Humans, by most estimates, discovered fire over a million years ago. But when did they really begin to control fire and use it for their daily needs? That question — one which is central to the subject of the rise of human culture — is still hotly debated. A team of Israeli scientists recently discovered in the Qesem Cave, an archaeological site near present-day Rosh Ha’ayin in the Central District of Israel, the earliest evidence — dating to around 300,000 years ago — of unequivocal repeated fire building over a continuous period. These findings not only help answer the question, they hint that prehistoric humans already had a highly advanced social structure and intellectual capacity.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/science-on-tap-2014/
Apr 08, 2014...
Weizmann Institute scientists will be at 55 bars and cafés in Tel Aviv chatting — in language all can understand — about the open questions and latest findings at the forefront of science.
It is all happening on Wednesday, April 30, at 8:30 p.m.
Dozens of leading scientists and outstanding graduate research students will be in bars and cafés in the city for informal talks with patrons about open questions in the scientists’ fields, on the feeling they get when they discover something, and on life working at the frontiers of science.
Jan 16, 2013...
What do you see as the Weizmann Institute of Science’s main aims and objectives?
The Weizmann Institute of Science has two aims. The first is to educate the next generation of scientists in Israel at the highest possible level. We want them to be able to contribute to all parts of Israeli society: industry as well as academia and education. This is a particularly important objective for us, as Israel’s economy is heavily dependent on scientific and technological innovation. Our second aim is to produce the best possible body of knowledge in all areas of science, for the benefit of humanity. We believe the best way to achieve this aim is to recruit top scientists and allow them the freedom to think. Our job is to provide them with the best possible scientific environment and infrastructure. These two objectives are clearly linked; it is impossible to achieve one without the other.
Feb 28, 2018... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—February 28, 2018— The question of nature vs. nurture extends to our microbiome – the personal complement of mostly friendly bacteria we carry around with us. Study after study has found that our microbiome affects nearly every aspect of our health, and that the composition of our microbes, which varies from individual to individual, may hold the key to everything from weight gain to mood. Some microbiome researchers had suggested that this variation begins with differences in our genes, but a large-scale study conducted at the Weizmann Institute of Science challenges this idea and provides evidence that the connection between microbiome and health may be even more important than we thought.
Nov 04, 2010...
A fragrance that sends one woman into a pleasure-swoon might make another hold her nose. What creates the perfect match is a stroke of alchemical luck.
We may be drawn to a perfume for many reasons: because it reminds us of a garden—or a person—we once loved; because we hope it will reduce all men who cross our path to helpless, love-struck fools. It’s difficult to imagine reaching for a scent thinking, Here is a fragrance that will put people off. Yet a quick glance at the discussion boards on juice-junkie sites such as Nstperfume.com or Basenotes.net will verify that a perfume that sends one person into raptures of delight is practically guaranteed to be someone else’s eau no. Just as some will linger in the wake of a cigar with noses aloft while others flee its acrid aftermath, we all experience scent differently.
Feb 28, 2018... In just the past few years, understanding of the microbiome has transformed how we perceive diet and nutrition, and is already altering how we take care of ourselves. Weizmann Institute scientists from a range of disciplines – just some of which are immunology, neuroscience, biology, genetics, chemistry, machine learning, mathematics, and computer science – have led the way in microbiome research, regularly producing headline-making discoveries. Several of these researchers are also medical doctors, and their experience in working with patients helps move therapies more quickly from the lab to you.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/saccharin-solution/
Sep 20, 2014... Diet Coke is one of science’s great miracles. Ordinary Coca-Cola relies on lashings of sugar to achieve its trademark sickly sweetness – 15.9 grams per can, or about a third of the total daily intake recommended for women by Britain’s National Health Service. A can of Diet Coke, by contrast, contains no sugar at all. It owes its sweetness to aspartame and acesulfame-K, a pair of chemicals that are far sweeter than ordinary sugar, but which provide the body with no energy at all.
May 14, 2018...
Students at Israel’s Hakfar Hayarok International School preparing bacteria experiments. Photo courtesy of Weizmann Institute of Science
The 6,000 miles between them made no difference when 200 students in Israel and in the Boston area jointly created evolution in test tubes. The 10-day science experiment helped them understand how antibiotic-resistant bacterial “superbugs” evolve.
The teens designed their experiments on Google Sheets, and these instructions were automatically carried out by a robot in a lab at the University of Massachusetts.
Jul 29, 2013...
A hungry dinosaur at the Clore Garden of Science, Weizmann Institute of Science. Photo by Daniel Chechik
The dinosaur exhibition at the Weizmann Institute of Science does not ignore the circus attraction of the huge, lost creatures, but it is meticulously faithful to scientific knowledge.
When the principal curator of the Natural History Museum in London was asked to guess how long it took to set up the exhibition "Dinosaurs — the Giants of the Past, the Science of the Future" in the Clore Garden of Science at the Weizmann Institute, she was somewhat hesitant. Finally she told her Israeli colleague, Dr. Naama Charit-Yaari, that from her familiarity with Israeli purposefulness she guessed that setting up such a complicated project took only two years in Israel.
Mar 19, 2020... Dr. Noam Stern-Ginossar of the Weizmann Institute’s Department of Molecular Genetics provides an overview – complete with helpful cartoons – of basic questions: what is a virus? Why is coronavirus worse than the flu? (One reason – it’s new and so we have no immunity.) What are the issues related to developing a vaccine? (Mostly it’s time; otherwise, we know what to do, she reassures us.)