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/news-releases/300-000-year-old-hearth-found/
Jan 27, 2014... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—January 27, 2014—Humans, by most estimates, discovered fire over a million years ago. But when did they really begin to control fire and use it for their daily needs? That question — one which is central to the subject of the rise of human culture — is still hotly debated. A team of Israeli scientists recently discovered in the Qesem Cave, an archaeological site near present-day Rosh Ha’ayin in the Central District of Israel, the earliest evidence — dating to around 300,000 years ago — of unequivocal repeated fire building over a continuous period. These findings not only help answer the question, they hint that prehistoric humans already had a highly advanced social structure and intellectual capacity.
Jan 16, 2013...
What do you see as the Weizmann Institute of Science’s main aims and objectives?
The Weizmann Institute of Science has two aims. The first is to educate the next generation of scientists in Israel at the highest possible level. We want them to be able to contribute to all parts of Israeli society: industry as well as academia and education. This is a particularly important objective for us, as Israel’s economy is heavily dependent on scientific and technological innovation. Our second aim is to produce the best possible body of knowledge in all areas of science, for the benefit of humanity. We believe the best way to achieve this aim is to recruit top scientists and allow them the freedom to think. Our job is to provide them with the best possible scientific environment and infrastructure. These two objectives are clearly linked; it is impossible to achieve one without the other.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/better-energy-for-a-brighter-future/
Mar 23, 2016... Population growth and rising standards of living worldwide are driving a rapid increase in demand for energy. In fact, says Prof. David Cahen of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Materials and Interfaces, “the prediction is that 25 years from now we’ll need double the amount of energy we currently need.” However, he adds, “dearth of funding had, by 2006, created a situation of several decades of few new ideas in basic research that would help address this energy issue.”
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/a-deep-dive-to-retrieve-and-fortify-memories/
Mar 08, 2011...
For years scientists have dreamed of developing a genuine memory booster, a drug that could tune the brain's biological search engine so that it's better at retrieving not only recently learned facts, like last night's dinner menu, but details that seem all but lost in the fog of time, like childhood classmates' names and antics.
Such a substance would have obvious appeal — for people at risk of dementia, to name just one group — but the search has been very slow going. Stimulants like caffeine and nicotine can sharpen the memory, but like other temporary enhancers, they need to be taken when the information is learned or retrieved to make a difference.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/how-malaria-tricks-the-immune-system/
Dec 07, 2017... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—December 7, 2017— Global efforts to eradicate malaria are crucially dependent on scientists’ ability to outsmart the malaria parasite. And Plasmodium falciparum is notoriously clever: it is quick to develop resistance against medications and has such a complex life cycle that blocking it effectively with a vaccine has thus far proved elusive. In a new study reported in Nature Communications, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science, together with collaborators in Ireland and Australia, have shown that P. falciparum is even more devious than previously thought: not only does it hide from the body’s immune defenses, it employs an active strategy to deceive the immune system.
Jan 06, 2011...
When we cry, we may be doing more than expressing emotion. Our tears, according to striking new research, may be sending chemical signals that influence the behavior of other people.
The research, published on Thursday in the journal Science, could begin to explain something that has baffled scientists for generations: Why do humans, unlike seemingly any other species, cry emotional tears?
In several experiments, researchers found that men who sniffed drops of women’s emotional tears became less sexually aroused than when they sniffed a neutral saline solution that had been dribbled down women’s cheeks. While the studies were not large, the findings showed up in a variety of ways, including testosterone levels, skin responses, brain imaging and the men’s descriptions of their arousal.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/signs-of-aging-even-in-the-embryo/
Nov 21, 2013...
A mouse embryo that has been stained in blue to show the areas where senescent cells, which simply stop dividing, occur even during fetal development. Clockwise, from left: the embryo at 11.5 days, a close-up of the senescent cells on the limbs at that time, and the cells at 14.5 days. Mekayla Storer
In 1961, two biologists named Leonard Hayflick and Paul Moorehead discovered that old age is built into our cells. At the time, many scientists believed that if healthy human cells were put in a flask with a steady supply of nutrients, they would multiply forever. But when Dr. Hayflick and Dr. Moorehead reared fetal human cells, that’s not what they found. Time and again, their cells would divide about 50 times and then simply stop.
Jul 25, 2018...
The endangered Red Panda has a wild population of less than 10,000 mature individuals Image: REUTERS/Rebecca Naden
Most of us, including scientists, are blind to the full scope of the living world. This was illustrated by an informal survey which asked biologists and ecologists from elite universities two questions. In terms of mass, is the living world mostly composed of animals, plants or bacteria? And is there more global biomass on land or in the oceans? The majority of them answered both questions incorrectly.
Jul 01, 2002... Rehovot, Israel—July 1, 2002—Corn harvests on experimental plots and in farmers' fields in four East and Southern African countries have yielded striking results in long-term trials of an innovative witchweed-fighting technology developed by a Weizmann Institute scientist in collaboration with researchers at CIMMYT (the Spanish acronym for The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center). The new technology will be presented to seed producers, government representatives, regional scientists, and regulatory agencies at a CIMMYT-sponsored meeting in Kisumu, Kenya, on July 4–6, 2002.
Apr 27, 2020... On May 2, 1986, while visiting my long-term colleague and friend Richard O’Reilly, the head of bone marrow transplantation at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, I received a strange phone call. It was from Richard Champlin, who worked at the Bone Marrow Transplant Center at UCLA. He tended to speak very fast, so it took me some time to understand from his over-excited voice that he was about to leave the next day for Moscow.
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