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/in-the-news/bad-smells-impair-learning/
Dec 09, 2011...
Performance usually improves with practice, but not if training is arotten time. A new study shows that people's ability to identify noisesdeclines when the sounds are paired with putrid smells–a phenomenon thatmay allow our brain to detect danger more quickly.
In a study published in May in Nature Neuroscience,neurobiologist Rony Paz of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot,Israel, and his colleagues exposed volunteers to auditory tonespresented with no other stimuli or immediately followed by a rancid orfragrant odor delivered through a nose mask.
Apr 07, 2016... The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) now states that about 1 in 68 children has an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and that ASDs are five times more common in boys (1 in 42) than girls (1 in 189). ASDs are a group of developmental disabilities characterized by impairment in thinking, feeling, language, and ability to relate to others. The condition’s cause or causes are still unclear, and seem to be multiply determined – for example, a combination of genetic and environmental factors could be to blame.
Jul 02, 2015...
It may be possible to diagnose autism by giving children a sniff test, a new study suggests.
Most people instinctively take a big whiff when they encounter a pleasant smell and limit their breathing when they encounter a foul smell.
Children with autism spectrum disorder do not make this natural adjustment, said Liron Rozenkrantz, a neuroscientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and one of the researchers involved with the study.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/tears-are-a-turnoff/
Apr 04, 2011... When we cry – a universal human behavior – we clearly send all sorts of emotional signals. Now, Institute scientists have shown that some of those emotional signals are chemically encoded in the tears themselves: In research that recently appeared in Science, they demonstrated that merely sniffing a woman's tears – even when the crying woman is nowhere in the vicinity – reduces sexual arousal in men.
Oct 29, 2014... Prof. Noam Sobel introduces the sensory into the science and dance program: while all our senses are involved in any experience, it is the brain that lets us smell, or hear, or touch. His studies on the brain mechanism behind the sense of smell could lead to early diagnosis of diseases. His dancers are both mechanical and fluid, conveying the way the brain works – and not.
Mar 06, 2001... Rehovot, Israel—March 6, 2001—Weizmann Institute scientists have succeeded in stopping the progressive loss of eyesight in animals with a glaucoma-like disease. Their innovative study, reported in the March 6, 2001 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that Copaxone®, a drug developed at the Weizmann Institute of Science to treat multiple sclerosis, may also stop, or at least slow down, the loss of eyesight in people with chronic glaucoma.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/the-science-of-crying/
Mar 16, 2016...
Michael Trimble, a behavioral neurologist with the unusual distinction of being one of the world’s leading experts on crying, was about to be interviewed on a BBC radio show when an assistant asked him a strange question: How come some people don’t cry at all?
The staffer went on to explain that a colleague of hers insisted he never cries. She’d even taken him to see Les Misérables, certain it would jerk a tear or two, but his eyes stayed dry. Trimble was stumped. He and the handful of other scientists who study human crying tend to focus their research on wet eyes, not dry ones, so before the broadcast began, he set up an email address – [email protected] – and on the air asked listeners who never cry to contact him. Within a few hours, Trimble had received hundreds of messages.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/shedding-light-on-the-secrets-of-autism/
Apr 13, 2017... Despite the fact that autism is more prevalent today than ever, its causes are still unknown – though research indicates that there are likely a number of contributing factors: environmental, genetic, neurological, biological. And while Weizmann Institute scientists have made significant contributions to the understanding of autism, developing means of diagnosis, and creating potential treatments, much remains to be done – which is why their research continues at a rapid pace and approaches the condition from multiple angles.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/battling-glaucoma/
Sep 02, 2003...
One in every hundred adults in the Western world suffers from chronic glaucoma, a disease that causes blindness. In most cases the disease results from increased pressure inside the eye, caused by defective drainage of the transparent liquid that bathes the eye. Yet reducing the pressure does not always solve the problem.
Prof. Michal Schwartz, working in the Weizmann Institute's Neurobiology Department, came up with a novel idea. She suggested that toxic substances triggered by the initial damage are responsible for the ongoing nerve degeneration. These substances spill out of the damaged nerve cells and adversely affect healthy neighboring cells. Schwartz suggested activating the immune system—known to defend the body against external invaders such as bacteria—to combat the body's own toxic substances. She showed that in complete contrast to the generally accepted concept of autoimmunity (i.e., activity against the self) as inherently harmful, it can serve as a defense mechanism against damaging self-compounds. Autoimmune disease results when control of this mechanism breaks down.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/science-tips-march-2007/
Mar 26, 2007... Breaking down bone is a tough job. Yet, our bones undergo remodeling every day of our lives, as old material is cleared away so that new bone can form. In diseases such as osteoporosis, an imbalance in this process is responsible for the characteristic bone loss. New research at the Weizmann Institute of Science, which recently appeared in the on-line journal PLoS ONE, has revealed, in unprecedented detail, how the roving cells whose job is to digest bone seal off their work area as they get down to business.
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