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.
Jun 15, 2015...
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Many thunderstorms in Saturn’s atmosphere could be driving the gas giant’s vast polar cyclones, according to new simulations inspired by observations from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. What’s more, this research could help astronomers study large-scale atmospheric phenomena on exoplanets light-years away.
For decades, the powerful, swirling hurricane-like features at Saturn’s poles have been a mystery – what drives these storms and why do they persist for so long? Associated with these vortexes are “hot-spots” as observed by Cassini.
Mar 26, 2018...
(l-r) Dr. Alon Shepon and Prof. Ron Milo
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—March 26, 2018—About a third of the food produced for human consumption is estimated to be lost or wasted globally. But the biggest waste, which is not included in that estimate, may be through dietary choices that result in the squandering of environmental resources. In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science and their colleagues have now found a novel way to define and quantify this second type of wastage. The scientists have called it “opportunity food loss,” a term inspired by the “opportunity cost” concept in economics, which refers to the cost of choosing a particular alternative over better options.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/the-active-life-of-coral-visualized/
Jul 04, 2014...
Particle paths are shown in gold and green; coral polyps are pink and purple Vicente Fernandez
You are looking at a sea of small-scale activity surrounding a reef-building coral. The intricate, swirling patterns in the water are made by cilia: hair-like appendages which move in unison as the corals breathe, feed and clean themselves. To understand how corals engineer their environment, researchers from MIT's Environmental Microfluidics Group and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel examined the cilia-filled valley between two 3mm-wide cauliflower coral polyps under a microscope; they then added powdered food to the water to see how the cilia affect its flow. “This project helps us understand how corals might respond to changes in their environment,” says engineer Vicente Fernandez, a postdoctoral associate at the MIT lab. "It demonstrates that these vortices are not ephemeral and can substantially affect the coral environment."
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/in-the-news/recipe-unearthed-for-mystery-clouds/
Jul 18, 2017...
‘Mystery clouds’ of the type studied at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. Photograph: Ilan Koren
The weather forecast had predicted a cloudless day, but when Ilan Koren, an atmospheric scientist, looked up he saw small “cotton wool” clouds dotted across the bright blue sky over Israel.“Mystery” clouds like these are common on hot sunny days along humid sub-tropical shores, like those along the Mediterranean. Yet classical physics suggests these clouds shouldn’t exist. Now scientists think they might have finally solved the puzzle of how mystery clouds are made.Convection is the usual process that creates clouds on a hot sunny day. Warm air rises above warm regions of land (such as macadamed car parks, ploughed fields and coniferous forests). As the parcel of air rises it cools and its ability to hold moisture decreases. Eventually, if it rises high enough, it cannot hold any more water so droplets form and a fluffy cloud appears.But the clouds that Koren saw were a puzzle because they occurred below the predicted 100% humidity level. To understand these mystery clouds, Koren, based at the Weizmann Institute of Science, with his colleagues observed clouds and made regular measurements of changes in temperature and humidity at different altitudes. This was done over a 92-day period in the summer of 2011.Using these measurements they simulated the likely atmospheric mixing, and discovered that the mystery clouds were caused by variations in humidity not at ground surface but a few hundred metres up, perhaps where moist ocean air was mixing with dry land air. Normally cumulus clouds are caused by temperature variations on the ground surface.Writing in the journal Environmental Research Letters the scientists estimated that these previously misunderstood clouds could be responsible for reflecting up to 4 watts per square metre – equivalent to the local warming effect from greenhouse gases.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/the-dust-storm-microbiome/
Jun 27, 2017...
Dust storm in Timna Park, Israel
Israel is subjected to sand and dust storms from several directions: northeast from the Sahara, northwest from Saudi Arabia, and southwest from the desert regions of Syria. The airborne dust carried in these storms affects the health of people and ecosystems alike. New research at the Weizmann Institute of Science suggests that part of the effect might not be in the particles of dust but rather in bacteria that cling to them, traveling many kilometers in the air with the storms.
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.
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