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.
Apr 20, 2015...
How does an octopus control eight highly flexible and independent arms so well? By David Frank and James Gorman on April 20, 2015.
The octopus is much celebrated for its intelligence and use of camouflage, but one of its most remarkable achievements is how it moves.
The animal somehow controls eight long, flexible arms with a fluidity that can make it look like animated – and very smart – spaghetti. The problem of controlling this kind of movement is, as scientists say, “not trivial.”
Apr 02, 2017...
Optogenetic research shows promise for erasing memories of fear. Image via Shutterstock.com
Erasing unwanted memories isn’t yet possible. However, Israeli scientists are now reporting that they have succeeded in erasing one type of memory in mice – fear.
This new technique may one day help extinguish traumatic memories in humans – for example, in people with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/rethinking-the-aging-brain/
Oct 01, 2006...
A vaccination for slowing the brain’s aging process is the goal of Prof. Michal Schwartz of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Neurobiology Department. “At face value, it sounds like an impossible mission,” she says.
However, her research suggests that the immune system plays a critical role in maintaining a healthy brain and the renewal of brain cells. Consequently, boosting the immune system via a vaccination may one day help to prevent aging of the brain and perhaps slow down disease progression in the cases of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Apr 23, 2019...
For years, Israeli neurologist Tamar Flash has had a fascination with the octopus, and the way the invertebrate’s eight arms propel it effortlessly through the water.
She’s convinced this has major implications for diagnosing and treating Parkinson’s disease — and possible other disorders as well.
“My major interest is the brain’s representation of movement, or the principles underlying the organization, control, and perception of movement by humans,” she recently told Parkinson’s News Today. The octopus has no bones. It’s totally soft. It’s just made of muscles.”
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/the-scent-of-a-handshake/
Mar 03, 2015...
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—March 3, 2015—Why do people shake hands? A new study from the Weizmann Institute of Science suggests that one of the reasons for this ancient custom may be to check out each other’s odors. Even if we are not consciously aware of this, handshaking may provide people with a socially acceptable way of communicating via the sense of smell.
Not only do people often sniff their own hands, but they do so for a much longer time after shaking someone else’s hand, the study found. As reported today in the journal eLife, the number of seconds the subjects spent sniffing their own right hand more than doubled after an experimenter greeted them with a handshake.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/turning-down-the-brain-to-erase-fearful-memories/
Mar 15, 2017...
An entire mouse brain viewed from above: Neuronal extensions connect the two amygdalas (the brightest green spots on both sides of the brain) with the prefrontal cortex (top)
Erasing unwanted memories is still the stuff of science fiction, but Weizmann Institute of Science researchers have now managed to erase one type of memory in mice. In a study reported in Nature Neuroscience, they succeeded in shutting down a neuronal mechanism by which memories of fear are formed in the mouse brain. After the procedure, the mice resumed their earlier fearless behavior, “forgetting” that they had previously been frightened.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/top-10-israeli-medical-advances-to-watch-in-2014/
Dec 22, 2013...
In our recent “Top 12 most amazing Israeli medical advances”, we promised a top 10 list of the most exciting Israeli medical-device and pharmaceutical developments just around the corner.
Like the top 12, this list was also very difficult to narrow down, because Israeli breakthroughs in this field are a near-daily occurrence. Our top 10 is just the tip of the iceberg.
Watch for new health stories on ISRAEL21c every week for a broader picture of how Israeli ingenuity is changing the face of healthcare worldwide.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/top-10-israeli-advances-in-autism/
Apr 03, 2014...
April is World Autism Awareness Month. Image via Shutterstock.com
In recent years Israel has become a major hub for studies on autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder that is today the second most prevalent among children.
People with autism, which is included in a group of developmental disorders known as the autism spectrum disorders (ASD), have social and communication difficulties that often make it hard for sufferers to leave home and live independently. They often engage in repetitive behavior, and can have intellectual disabilities.
May 08, 2019... Meet visual neuroscientist Dr. Michal Rivlin, the 2019 Life Sciences Laureate of the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists. Dr. Rivlin’s research is making major strides in understanding sight, in particular the retina, the part of the eye where all visual processes begin. She has found that retinal cells, rather than being fixed and hardwired, are malleable and can dramatically change their properties in response to stimuli like light and motion. Her work has implications for retinal disease and blindness, and the development of computer vision technologies. The Blavatnik Awards, presented by The Blavatnik Family Foundation, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities (IASH), recognize early-career scientists and engineers in Israel for both their extraordinary achievements and promise for future discoveries. Of the three 2019 laureates, two were from the Weizmann Institute; the other Weizmann winner was Prof. Erez Berg of the Department of Condensed Matter Physics. Video courtesy of the New York Academy of Sciences.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/the-human-brain-project/
May 01, 2012... Reductionist biology—examining individual brain parts, neural circuits and molecules—has brought us a long way, but it alone cannot explain the workings of the human brain, an information processor within our skull that is perhaps unparalleled anywhere in the universe. We must construct as well as reduce and build as well as dissect. To do that, we need a new paradigm that combines both analysis and synthesis. The father of reductionism, French philosopher René Descartes, wrote about the need to investigate the parts and then reassemble them to re-create the whole.