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://weizmann-usa.org/blog/is-your-new-year-s-resolution-to-lose-weight/
Jan 23, 2019...
You might be surprised at which foods are healthy for you, thanks to the makeup of your gut biota
More than one-third of Americans are overweight or obese. And, every year, around 40% of us make New Year’s resolutions. As you can tell from the resolve-dampening wait for the ellipticals at your suddenly popular gym, or the news-making lines at the salad place, these two statistics have come together, yet again, in that noble annual goal: lose weight and be healthier.
Sep 06, 2018...
Our guts stop most probiotics from colonizing, according to a study. Shutterstock
Probiotics are packed into all sorts of pills and products promising to keep our guts healthy. But not only do most of the bugs not stick around in our bodies, they could, in fact, be harming us, researchers believe.
As many as 3.9 million adults in the U.S. take prebiotic or probiotic supplements, according to recent estimates cited by the authors of two studies published back-to-back in the journal Cell. Users pop the pills in the hope of easing everything from gastrointestinal problems to fortifying the immune system, defending against infectious disease and preventing cardiovascular disease.
Mar 09, 2020...
Electrons spin. It's a fundamental part of their existence. Some spin “up” while others spin “down.” Scientists have known this for about a century, thanks to quantum physics.
They've also known that magnetic fields can affect the direction of an electron’s quantum spin, flipping it from up to down and vice versa. And it doesn't take much: Even a bacterial cell can do it.
Researchers at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science have found that protein “wires” connecting a bacterial cell to a solid surface tend to transmit electrons with a particular spin.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/how-a-bacterial-cell-recognizes-its-own-dna/
Apr 13, 2015...
Image of a phage, an invasive virus that attacks bacteria.
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—April 13, 2015—It may come as a bit of a surprise to learn that bacteria have an immune system – in their case, to fight off invasive viruses called phages. And like any immune system – from single-celled to human – the first challenge of the bacterial immune system is to detect the difference between “foreign” and “self.” This is far from simple, as viruses and bacteria – in fact, all living things – are made of DNA and proteins. A group of researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science and Tel Aviv University has now revealed exactly how bacteria do this. Their results were published online in Nature on April 13.
Jan 28, 2013...
Chaim Weizmann. He foresaw the energy crisis and proposed an economical way of making fuel. Photo by Weizmann Institute of Science
Chaim Weizmann is primarily known as a leader of the Zionist movement and the first president of the State of Israel. However, before his success in statesmanship and politics, Weizmann became famous during World War II for inventing a new method of producing acetone, which was needed for manufacturing explosives.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/science-tips-october-2014/
Oct 21, 2014... When we talk about global carbon fixation – pumping carbon out of the atmosphere and “fixing” it into organic molecules by photosynthesis – proper measurement is key to understanding the process. By some estimates, almost half of the world’s organic carbon is fixed by marine organisms called phytoplankton – single-celled photosynthetic organisms that account for less than one percent of the total photosynthetic biomass on Earth.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/scientists-identify-a-viral-communication-system/
Jan 20, 2017...
FLICKR, NATURALISMIS
The viruses that attack Bacillus subtilis may decide whether to kill or simply infect their hosts through quorum sensing, according to study published this week (January 18) in Nature. Researchers isolated the peptide that the viruses appear to be using to communicate, and named it “arbitrium.” If confirmed, the results of the study would be the first description of a molecular communication system between viruses, and potentially open the door to therapies that target the viral communication system.
Oct 07, 2019...
Transplanting vaginal fluids from one woman to another could help tackle severe cases of a common bacterial condition, a study has suggested.
Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is thought to affect up to a third of women of reproductive age. It is caused when the balance of microbes in the vagina – known as the vaginal microbiome – becomes disturbed, with a drop in lactobacilli while other bacteria take over.
Jan 25, 2018...
Phi3T bacteriophages attacking Bacillus subtilis, ROTEM SOREK
Bacteria have been defending themselves from phages—viruses that attack bacterial cells—for billions of years, and unlocking the immune mechanisms they use to protect themselves has led to the development of powerful molecular biology tools such as restriction enzymes and CRISPR-Cas9. Now, researchers report in Science today (January 25) that they have discovered 10 more immune systems that bacteria use to protect themselves against phages and plasmids, opening up the possibility to add new tools to the molecular biology toolbox.
Sep 06, 2018...
Probiotics, hailed by some as a cure for all kinds of digestive ailments and recommended by many GPs alongside antibiotics, may not be as universally beneficial for gut health as previously thought.
The gut microbiome is the sum total of all the micro-organisms living in a person’s gut, and has been shown to play a huge role in human health. New research has found probiotics – usually taken as supplements or in foods such as yoghurt, kimchi or kefir – can hinder a patient’s gut microbiome from returning to normal after a course of antibiotics, and that different people respond to probiotics in dramatically different ways.
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