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.
Oct 07, 2020...
Finally, some positive news about climate change: Even small groves in your backyard or city park help fight the effects of rising temperatures, drought and greenhouse gases.
“Urban orchards and green spaces can contribute to a range of ecosystem services,” writes Weizmann Institute of Science postdoctoral researcher Rafat Qubaja in a soon-to-be-published paper.
Those “services” include storing carbon, reducing air pollution, regulating the urban microclimate, cooling and shading, retaining rainwater and soil moisture, recharging groundwater and more.
Apr 16, 2021...
While Earth Day is 51 years old this year, the Earth is 4.54 billion years old – “plus or minus about 50 million years,” says the National Geographic Society. And yet in less than 200 years, the blink of an eye, humankind has thrown a wrench into our small planet’s carefully tuned systems.
Since the Industrial Age, our remarkable advances have had a flip side: chemicals, pharmaceuticals, fossil fuels, and the like have fouled our water, land, and climate. We have increased Earth’s temperature, causing mass extinctions, stronger storms, devastating wildfires, flooding, and food shortages – consequences that will only increase. And while we can all take personal steps, there is ultimately one hope for mitigating human impacts on the planet: science.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/blog/finding-hope-in-and-for-coral/
May 11, 2021...
In late 2020, a team of marine scientists investigating Australia’s Great Barrier Reef came across a remarkable sight: a “detached coral feature that rises from the seabed to a height of nearly one-third of a mile,” reported The New York Times. It is “the first large new element of Australia’s famous reef system to be identified in more than 120 years.”
Coral is, in many ways, our environmental canary in a coal mine. Sensitive to changes in acidity, temperature, currents, and the like, these animals are early warning systems of climate change and its damage. Until the new finding, it felt like news about coral ranged from “depressing” to “even more depressing.” For example, in spring 2020, scientists reported that over half of the Great Barrier Reef’s corals had died since 1995, largely due to climate change-induced mass bleaching.
Aug 11, 2021...
Over the last 50,000 years, humans have caused the extinction of 10-20 percent of all avian species, a new study reveals.
This includes at least 469 known species of birds, though the actual figure is believed to be much higher.
The study was led by Prof. Shai Meiri of the School of Zoology and Steinhardt Museum of Natural History at Tel Aviv University, and Amir Fromm of the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Oct 23, 2021... When you find the time to walk on a trail through a forest, it can be breathtaking to look upwards to the top of a towering tree and feel so small by comparison. In fact, trees hold some of the most impressive records in the natural world with regard to their age and their height. And just like many natural and ecological marvels, a threat to highly valued trees creates a cause for concern as they are typically viewed as a unique mark of environmental pride.
May 26, 2022... REHOVOT, ISRAEL – May 26, 2022 – About 30 massive, intricate computer networks serve the scientists who stand at the forefront of climate change research. Each network runs a software program comprised of millions of lines of code. These programs are computational models that combine the myriads of physical, chemical, and biological phenomena that together form the climate of our planet. The models calculate the state of Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, land, and ice, capturing past and present climate variability and using the data to predict future climate change. These results are analyzed by leading research institutes across the globe, including the Weizmann Institute of Science, and then incorporated into the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment report. Policymakers rely on the IPCC report when they form adaptation and mitigation strategies for climate change, one of our generation’s greatest crises.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/video-gallery/a-sustainable-future-our-vision/
Sep 07, 2022... Researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science — with their pioneering spirit and a profound sense of urgency — are working to achieve transformational scientific breakthroughs and forge a path toward sustainability with innovative solutions to global warming, alternative energy, conservation, carbon reduction, food security, and much more.
Sep 09, 2022...
The climate crisis, its effects and ways to prepare for it will become a central topic of research, as per the Council on Higher Education's upcoming five-year program.
Israel's Council of Higher Education will for the first time allocate hundreds of millions of shekels over the next five years for research into the climate crisis and sustainability, Haaretz has learned.
The council's upcoming five-year program, the main principles of which were formulated over the past few months, represents a major step forward for Israeli climate research — an area of study extremely lacking in resources, especially compared to the enormous investments and research in these academic fields in other countries.
Nov 10, 2022...
Justine Karst, a mycologist at the University of Alberta, feared things had gone too far when her son got home from eighth grade and told her he had learned that trees could talk to each other through underground networks.
Her colleague, Jason Hoeksema of the University of Mississippi, had a similar feeling when watching an episode of “Ted Lasso” in which one soccer coach told another that trees in a forest cooperated rather than competed for resources.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/building-better-enzymes-by-breaking-them-down/
Jan 13, 2023... REHOVOT, ISRAEL— January 12, 2023—Enzymes have the potential to transform the chemical industry by providing green alternatives to a slew of processes. These proteins act as biological catalysts, and with the help of molecular engineering, they can make naturally occurring reactions shift into turbo mode. Tailor-made enzymes could, for example, lead to nonpolluting drug manufacture; they could also safely break down pollutants, sewage and agricultural waste, and then turn them into biofuel or animal feed.
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