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.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/brain-in-a-box/
Feb 22, 2012...
D. BALIBOUSE/REUTERS
Henry Markram wants €1 billion to model the entire human brain. Sceptics don't think he should get it.
It wasn't quite the lynching that Henry Markram had expected. But the barrage of sceptical comments from his fellow neuroscientists — "It's crap," said one — definitely made the day feel like a tribunal.
Officially, the Swiss Academy of Sciences meeting in Bern on 20 January was an overview of large-scale computer modelling in neuroscience. Unofficially, it was neuroscientists' first real chance to get answers about Markram's controversial proposal for the Human Brain Project (HBP) — an effort to build a supercomputer simulation that integrates everything known about the human brain, from the structures of ion channels in neural cell membranes up to mechanisms behind conscious decision-making.
Feb 03, 2017...
Renowned Israeli cryptographer Adi Shamir. (YouTube screen capture)
An Israeli computer scientist was among three winners of the 2017 Japan Prize, an award honoring achievement in science and technology, for his work in the field of cryptography.
Adi Shamir, a professor at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, was recognized for his “[c]ontribution to information security through pioneering research on cryptography,” according to the prize’s website. The Japan Prize Foundation announced the awards Thursday.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/video-gallery/rsa-conference-the-cryptographers-panel-2018/
Apr 18, 2018... The Weizmann Institute’s Prof. Adi Shamir, along with Ron Rivest (the S and R in “RSA”) and an international panel of cryptographers, discuss the state of cryptography today.
Jun 12, 2018...
A team from the University of Washington has developed a way to bring soccer matches to the world of augmented reality. (Photo: Konstantinos Rematas / YouTube)
Future games to decide who hoists the World Cup of soccer may one day play out not on your smartphone or television, but on any flat surface in your home.
A team of researchers from the University of Washington have created a machine-learning algorithm that can convert 2D YouTube clips into 3D reconstructions. Experienced through an augmented reality headset like the Microsoft HoloLens or the HTC Vive Pro, the system places a virtual representation of the match on any real-world flat surface. Those viewing the simulation can then walk around or move in close to see key pieces of the action.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/ai-can-edit-photos-with-zero-experience/
Jul 10, 2019...
Images: The Weizmann Institute of Science
Imagine showing a photo taken through a storefront window to someone who has never opened her eyes before, and asking her to point to what’s in the reflection and what’s in the store. To her, everything in the photo would just be a big jumble. Computers can perform image separations, but to do it well, they typically require handcrafted rules or many, many explicit demonstrations: here’s an image, and here are its component parts.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/why-light-bulbs-may-be-the-next-hacker-target/
Nov 03, 2016...
The Internet of Things, activated through apps, promises tremendous convenience to homeowners. But it may also prove irresistible to hackers. Credit: Carlos Gonzalez for The New York Times
SAN FRANCISCO — The so-called Internet of Things, its proponents argue, offers many benefits: energy efficiency, technology so convenient it can anticipate what you want, even reduced congestion on the roads.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/cancer-at-a-breaking-point/
Dec 16, 2012...
Drs. Yotam Drier (left) and Gad Getz at the Broad Institute
Like police detectives using DNA fingerprinting in their effort to eradicate crime, cancer researchers are building a DNA profile of malignancy in an attempt to eradicate cancer. One of their greatest challenges is that they are not dealing with a single criminal: There are at least 200 forms of cancer, and many more subtypes. The goal is to “fingerprint” each one of these subtypes so that, ultimately, people with cancer can be treated with genetically matched personalized therapies.
Jan 07, 2019...
Let’s say you’re strolling through an art museum, stopping every few feet to admire a work you’re particularly fond of. A Picasso on the left, a Matisse on the right.
But something stops you before you step away from Picasso. It’s almost like it’s ... running off the frame, about to leap into your purse.
You think your eyes are deceiving you. You knew Picasso’s art was a little ... other-worldly ... but this? What is this sorcery? Am I at an art museum, or the fifth dimension?
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/eran-segal-computing-expression/
Feb 01, 2008... This article can be viewed by downloading this PDF.
Jul 23, 2015...
Six of eight atomic ions trappedin a quantum state in the lab of Dr. Roee Ozeri
As large objects, we’re limited to existing in one place, and one state, at a time. Quantum particles have a much more interesting existence: According to quantum theory, they can be in different places, in different states, doing different things – all at the same time.
Computers based on quantum mechanics might complete, reasonably quickly, calculations that would take today’s computers a million years. One necessary step to creating such a quantum computer is to design a switch that can be in two states at once (i.e., zero and one). Scientists in the Institute’s Faculty of Physics are on the cutting edge of this field. Prof. Ady Stern has invented a method to check whether a type of system based on the movement of composite particles – arising from the collective behavior of electrons in a magnetic field – can be one such switch, called a topological quantum switch.
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