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/news-media/in-the-news/a-black-hole-where/
Mar 02, 2017...
A hole may be an empty space, but a black hole – the heart of darkness – is anything but.
Appearing in a variety of science fiction stories and usually surrounded by an aura of mystery, myths and surprising theories – black holes have engaged the imagination since the idea of their existence arose in the 18th century. Here we take a look at what actually creates a black hole, what effects are created near black holes, what types of black holes exist in the universe, and what other rumors, theories and myths revolve around them.
Jun 27, 2017... This computer-simulated image shows a supermassive black hole at the core of a galaxy. The black region in the center represents the black holes event horizon, where no light can escape the massive objects gravitational grip. The black hole’s powerful gravity distorts space around it like a funhouse mirror. Light from background stars is stretched and smeared as the stars skim by the black hole. Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Coe, J. Anderson, and R. van der Marel (STScI)
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/earth-mass-planet-right-next-door/
Aug 26, 2016...
Artist’s impression of the newly-discovered planet, Proxima Centauri b. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—August 26,2016—An international team announced in Nature that a planet with a mass similar to that of Earth has been observed orbiting the star Proxima Centauri – the closest star to our Sun, just over four light years (about 40 trillion km) away. The project, known as the “Pale Red Dot,” involves scientists from nine countries; led by Dr. Guillem Anglada-Escudé of the Queen Mary University of London, the collaboration includes the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Dr. Aviv Ofir, who is in the group of Prof. Oded Aharonson in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/star-being-shredded-produces-unusual-super-flash/
Dec 15, 2016...
In just the right conditions, the destruction of a star in a black hole’s gravitational tide should produce an unusual flash of light
When astronomers and astrophysicists observe flashes of light in the dark sky, they assume they have seen a supernova. Possibly a star has burnt up its supply of nuclear fuel and collapsed, throwing off its outer layers into space; or maybe a dense white dwarf siphoned off material from a companion star until it exploded from excess weight. But a flash of light observed on June 14, 2015 did not fit any of the usual models.
Dec 12, 2012...
Dr. Komargodski is one of three promising young theoretical physicists to be awarded the New Horizons in Physics Prize.
The 2013 New Horizons in Physics Prize, awarded by the Fundamental Physics Prize Foundation, has been given to three promising young researchers, including the Weizmann Institute’s Dr. Zohar Komargodski. Each of the laureates will receive $100,000. The Foundation also announced that leaders of the ATLAS experiment, one of the two experimental groups at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN to have discovered a particle that appears to be the Higgs boson, will split a Special Fundamental Physics Prize (which totals $3,000,000) with those of the second experimental group, CMS, together with the head of the LHC accelerator project. Several Weizmann Institute researchers have played prominent roles in the ATLAS experiment, along with physicists from the Technion and Tel Aviv University. Last year, one of the inaugural Fundamental Physics Prizes went to Prof. Nathan (Nati) Seiberg, a Weizmann alumnus who is at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/how-to-make-electrons-behave-like-a-liquid/
Feb 22, 2016... New work shows that interactions of electrons in graphene lead to viscous current flows, creating tiny whirlpools that cause electrons to travel in the direction opposite to the applied voltage – in direct violation of standard electrical theory. White lines show current streamlines, colors show electrical potential, and green arrows show the direction of current, for viscous (top) and normal (ohmic) flows. Courtesy of the researchers
Feb 07, 2016...
Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who accepted the recommendation of the Israel Prize jury, headed by Prof. Itamar Willner. Credit: Alex Kolomoisky
The Israel Prize laureates in chemistry and physics for 2016 are Prof. Meir Lahav and Prof. Leslie Leiserowitz of the Weizmann Institute of Science. The announcement was made last Thursday by Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who accepted the recommendation of the prize jury, headed by Prof. Itamar Willner.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/ants-in-the-lead/
Jul 30, 2015...
Longhorn crazy ants cooperating to transfer an item much too heavy for one to move alone. Image: Drs. Ehud Fonio and Ofer Feinerman
Anyone who has ever watched a group of ants scurrying to carry a large crumb back to their nest has probably wondered how these tiny creatures manage the task. New research at the Weizmann Institute of Science, which appeared recently in Nature Communications, explains how a balance of individual direction and conformist behavior enables ants to work together to move their food in the desired direction.
Nov 12, 2015...
Physicists suspect that dark matter, whatever it is, makes up most of the universe, including most of the Veil Nebula, seen herein thanks to the Hubble telescope. Credit: NASA, Reuters
What is dark matter? We don't know, for all that physicists think there's about five times more of it than "normal" matter, which is mostly the atoms we all know and love. Now a new international collaboration in which European, Israeli, American and Arab scientists are taking part, XENON1T, is starting in the hope of tracking down and proving the existence of the mysterious beast.
https://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.
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