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/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.
Oct 29, 2014... Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, one of today's most engaging science communicators and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning ""The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer,"" managed to compress the whole history of cancer studies, from primitive to sophisticated, as well a look to the future, into a few comprehensible, enjoyable minutes.
Jan 10, 2019...
As we take a moment to reflect on 2018, one thing is clear: the world needs science now more than ever. The past year was a time of flux, which makes us all the more grateful for Weizmann’s unchanging mission of “science for the benefit of humanity.” Scientific progress holds the promise of a better world – and here are just some of the breakthroughs from 2018 that inspire hope:
Prof. Ruth Arnon, renowned co-developer of Copaxone®, one of the world’s leading multiple sclerosis drugs, has developed a universal flu vaccine. The vaccine, which entered Phase III clinical trials in 2018, could protect people against all strains of the virus, for many years, in a single shot.
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/in-the-news/the-many-moons-theory/
Jan 09, 2017...
Our planet may once have had dozens of small moonlets, which welded together over the millennia into the object that’s visible today. PHOTOGRAPH BY THE PRINT COLLECTOR / GETTY
Unbeknownst to most earthlings, the moon is experiencing a crisis. Geophysicists will tell you that it’s a “compositional” crisis—a crisis regarding the stuff of which the moon is composed. But it’s also an identity crisis, as much for the scientists as for the object they study.
Apr 25, 2016...
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences has announced the election of 213 new members, including six Israeli academics – four from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and two from the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Prof. Tamar Flash. (photo credit: Weizmann Institute of Science)
The Israeli members will join the 236th class of distinguished members in the academy, which includes some of the world’s most accomplished scholars, scientists, artists, business and philanthropic leaders.
Mar 19, 2020... In this videoconference, the Weizmann Institute’s Dr. Ron Diskin of the Department of Structural Biology, an expert in animal-borne viruses such as coronavirus, shares his insights on the current pandemic. A Q&A session with participants follows.
Mar 02, 2016...
Rock Stars of Cryptography. Courtesy RSA Conference
During a panel at the RSA cybersecurity conference yesterday in San Francisco, Adi Shamir, a cryptographer at the Weizmann Institute of Science and co-inventor of the RSA public-key cryptographic standard that became a widely used method to send encrypted messages, sided with the FBI in the ongoing fight about whether Apple must unlock the iPhone of Syed Rizwan Farook, a shooter in the December 2015 San Bernardino attack. His comments sparked a polite but pointed debate about privacy versus security among some of the most distinguished figures in cryptography, including Ron Rivest, who collaborated with Shamir on the groundbreaking RSA work. Also taking part were Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman, who minutes earlier had been named recipients of the $1 million Turing Award for 1976 cryptography work that helped pave the way for secure Internet communication, and Moxie Marlinspike, who founded the company that developed the popular open-source encryption tool Signal.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/when-you-finally-figure-it-out/
Dec 17, 2015...
One day, you finally figure it out. It might happen out of nowhere or something might have caused it to happen.
I wouldn’t say that I’ve figured it all out, but I have definitely figured out a step or two of it.
A few summers ago, my friend asked me to go to an “um, I think it has something to do with farming in Colorado” overnight camp. Of course I said yes, even though I didn’t really know what I was going to be doing at said camp.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/in-search-of-the-wild-fava-bean/
Dec 07, 2016...
14,000-year-old faba seeds contain clues to the timing of the plants’ domestication.
Like all food crops, the faba, or fava, bean – a nutritious part of the diets of many cultures – had a wild ancestor. Wild faba is presumed to be extinct, but Weizmann Institute of Science researchers have now identified 14,000-year-old remains of seeds that offer important clues as to the time and place that this plant grew naturally. Understanding the ecology of the wild plants’ environment and the evolution they underwent in the course of domestication is crucial to improving the biodiversity of the modern crop. The findings were reported in Scientific Reports.