Archive for Innovations & Discoveries

| May 28, 2012
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Archaeologists find rare ancient jewelry at Megiddo

Stash of 3,000-year-old jewelry unearthed by archaeologists near site of biblical Armageddon in northern Israel. Co-director of dig says ‘jewelry offers glimpse into Canaanite high society’

 

Israeli archaeologists have discovered a rare trove of 3,000-year-old jewelry, including a ring and earrings, hidden in a ceramic jug near the ancient city of Megiddo, where the New Testament predicts the final battle of Armageddon.

Archaeologists who unearthed the jug during excavations at the site in 2010 left it in a laboratory while they waited for a molecular analysis of what was inside. When they were finally able to clean it, pieces of gold jewelry – a ring, earrings, and beads – dating to around 1,100 BC poured out. Continue Reading »

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| May 28, 2012
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More Israeli women choose to freeze their eggs

New regulations allow women to freeze eggs without medical justification; demand for procedure is rising in spite of doctors’ hesitation

 

 

The fertility revolution has reached Israel: Hundreds of Israeli women wishing to preserve their chances of having children later in life have chosen to freeze their eggs over the past year, and demand for the procedure is growing rapidly.

Fertility Treatments Photo: Shutterstock

Fertility Treatments - Photo: Shutterstock

The Ministry of Health approved a policy in September of 2010 that permits women to freeze their eggs for reasons other than medical ones. Previously, the process was only allowed in cases involving illness, for example cancer, which requires aggressive treatment. Continue Reading »

Category: Innovations & Discoveries |
| May 26, 2012
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Israel’s Arava power to build 8 solar fields

Company secures $204 million in funding, largest financial closing in history of Israel’s solar power industry

 

Israel’s Arava Power said on Tuesday it secured 780 million shekels ($204 million) in funding to build eight medium-sized solar energy fields – the largest financial closing in the country’s solar power industry.

A solar facility in the Arava Photo: Yossi Dos-Santos

A solar facility in the Arava - Photo: Yossi Dos-Santos

Much of Israelis covered by desert with favorable conditions for harnessing the sun’s energy, and while Israeli firms have developed a number of pioneering technologies used around the world, the country has yet to invest heavily in solar fields at home. Continue Reading »

Category: Innovations & Discoveries | Tags: ,
| May 24, 2012
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Israeli researchers score success in lung cancer treatment

The researchers find that introduction of BKT140 leads to the death of cancerous lung tumor cells and a reduction in the size of the growths.

Israeli researchers have identified a material that could help remedy lung cancer. In tests conducted by researchers at Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Kerem on cell samples and laboratory mice, the material shrank tumors by about 50 percent, and when it was used in conjunction with radiation therapy and chemotherapy, the pace of cancerous cell growth was reduced by about 90 percent.

Researchers Ori Wald , left, and Oz Shapira in their lab on Wednesday.

Researchers Amnon Peled, left, and Oz Shapira in their lab – Photo by Shiran Granot

The study was conducted by Dr. Continue Reading »

Category: Innovations & Discoveries | Tags: ,
| May 24, 2012
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Israel’s Technion improves microscope resolution 10-fold

“Breakthrough” uses computational method to improve resolution of microscopes and imaging systems.

 

 

Haifa’s Technion-Israel Institute of Technology has registered a patent for a new technique that improves tenfold the performance of any type of sophisticated microscope and imaging system without making hardware changes.
Scientist at work (illustrative) - Photo: Marretao22/Wikimedia Commons
Scientist at work (illustrative) – Photo: Marretao22/Wikimedia Commons

The discovery, which has just been published in the Nature Materials journal, has aroused great interest in the scientific world and industry, being described as a “breakthrough with the potential to change” these fields.

Their innovative method substantially improves the resolution – the ability to distinguish between details – of images seen through microscopes.

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| May 23, 2012
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Electric car network gets first test in Israel

Better Place: To wean the world from oil and eliminate the biggest hurdles to environmentally friendly electric cars

 

ROSH HAAYIN, Israel –  Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi has begun rolling out the world’s first nationwide electric car network. Now, will the drivers come?

After more than $400 million in outlays and months behind schedule, dozens of electric cars have hit the road in Israel, the test site Agassi chose for his Better Place venture. Four stations where the cars can get a new dose of juice when their batteries run out are operating, and the plan is to ramp that number up within months.

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| May 22, 2012
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Fantastic voyage to fight colon cancer

 

GE is investing in an Israeli-designed imaging capsule that can help detect colorectal cancer as it travels through the intestines.

Only a few years ago it would have belonged to the realm of science fiction: A tiny capsule that travels through the intestines, snapping 360-degree X-ray images and continuously transmitting information to a wrist-worn data receiver reporting on the prevalence of polyps, the precursors of colorectal cancer.

Thanks to the ingenuity of Israel’s Check-Cap, all you’ll have to do is swallow a tiny capsule containing a miniaturized X-ray source and several imaging sensors. No colonoscopy, no hospital visit.

The Check-Cap capsule as it looks passing through the colon.The Check-Cap capsule as it looks passing through the colon.
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Category: Innovations & Discoveries |
| May 22, 2012
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Landau: Natural gas for cars can free us from oil

Energy and water minister says Israeli natural gas discoveries open window to fight “addiction to black gold.”

Rather than continuing to heavily pollute the air and fund Arab governments by using fuel oil, more Israelis will soon be able to turn to natural gas to power their automobiles, the Energy and Water Ministry said on Monday.

Tamar holds 240 billion cu.m. of gas - Photo: Courtesy

Tamar holds 240 billion cu.m. of gas - Photo: Courtesy

“Citizens of the Western world, and we among them, suffer from an addiction to black gold, which pollutes the environments, and some of whose revenues stimulate Islamic terrorism,” Energy and Water Minister Uzi Landau said.

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Category: Innovations & Discoveries, Israel News | Tags: ,
| May 22, 2012
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Google Donates NY Office Space to Israel’s Technion Institute

Google is planning to provide office space to the new applied science program of Cornell University and Technion Institute of Technology.

Google is planning to provide 22,000 square feet of its New York City headquarters to the new applied science graduate school of Cornell University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.

Mayor Bloomberg at Google press conference

Mayor Bloomberg at Google press conference - Reuters

Google CEO Larry Page and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the partnership at a news conference on Monday at the company’s headquarters in the heart of Manhattan’s high-tech zone.

Officials at Google estimated the market value of the space, which will be provided to the joint venture between Cornell and Technion, at between $10 million and $12 million. Continue Reading »

Category: Innovations & Discoveries, Israel News | Tags: ,
| May 19, 2012
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Hebrew University Scientists Create ‘Sight’ Method for Blind

Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed a device that enables blind people to “see.”

Dr. Amir Amedi of the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences and the Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada at the Hebrew University, and PhD student Ella Striem-Amit used in the research a sensory substitution device (SSD) called “The vOICe,” developed by Dr. Peter Meijer of Holland.

The device converts images from a minature camera into soundscapes, allowing the user to listen to and then interpret the visual information coming from the camera. It also enables those using the system to “read” an eye chart with letter sizes smaller than those used in determining the international standard for blindness. Continue Reading »

Category: Innovations & Discoveries | Tags:
| May 19, 2012
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Help Us Protect And Promote Israel

170 Jewish Nobel Prize Winners

Albert Einstein

Nobel Prizes are awarded by the Nobel Foundation of Sweden to men and women who have rendered the greatest service to humankind.

Between the years 1901 and 2011, around 850 laureates have been awarded Nobel Prizes.

 Of the 850 laureates, at least 170 are Jews.

Less than half of one percent of the world’s population is Jewish.

In 2011, five Jewish laureates were awarded a Nobel Prize:

Daniel  Schechtman
Saul  Perlmutter
Adam Riess
Ralph Steinman
Bruce Beutler

Literature

  • 1910 – Paul Heyse
  • 1927 – Henri Bergson
  • 1958 – Boris Pasternak
  • 1966 – Shmuel Yosef Agnon
  • 1966 – Nelly Sachs
  • 1976 – Saul Bellow
  • 1978 – Isaac Bashevis Singer
  • 1981 – Elias Canetti
  • 1987 – Joseph Brodsky
  • 1991 – Nadine Gordimer
  • 2001 – Imre Kertesz
  • 2005 – Harold Pinter

World Peace

  • 1911 – Alfred Fried
  • 1911 – Tobias Michael Carel
    Asser
  • 1968 – Rene Cassin
  • 1973 – Henry Kissinger
  • 1978 – Menachem Begin
  • 1986 – Elie Wiesel
  • 1994 – Shimon Peres
  • 1994 – Yitzhak Rabin
  • 1995 – Joseph Rotblat

Chemistry

  • 1905 – Adolph Von Baeyer
  • 1906 – Henri Moissan
  • 1910 – Otto Wallach
  • 1915 – Richard
    Willstaetter
  • 1918 – Fritz Haber
  • 1943 – George Charles de Hevesy
  • 1961 – Melvin Calvin
  • 1962 – Max Ferdinand Perutz
  • 1972 – William Howard Stein
  • 1977 – Ilya Prigogine
  • 1979 – Herbert Charles Brown
  • 1980 – Paul Berg
  • 1980 – Walter Gilbert
  • 1981 – Roald Hoffmann
  • 1982 – Aaron Klug
  • 1985 – Herbert Hauptman
  • 1985 – Jerome Karle
  • 1989 – Sidney Altman
  • 1992 – Rudolph Marcus
  • 1998 – Walter Kohn
  • 2004 – Avram Hershko, Aaron Ciechanover, Irwin Rose
  • 2006 – Roger Kornberg
  • 2009 – Ada Yonath
  • 2011 – Daniel Schechtman

Economics

  • 1970 – Paul Samuelson
  • 1971 – Simon Kuznets
  • 1972 – Kenneth Arrow
  • 1973 – Wassily Leontief
  • 1975 – Leonid Kantorovich
  • 1976 – Milton Friedman
  • 1978 – Herbert A.
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Category: Innovations & Discoveries |
| May 19, 2012
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Electric car network gets first test in Israel

Range looks to be biggest challenge as car buyers mull ditching gas guzzlers

 

A "Better Place" electric car outside the company's sales center in Tel Aviv (photo credit: AP/Ariel Schalit)
A “Better Place” electric car outside the company’s sales center in Tel Aviv – Photo: AP/Ariel Schalit
ROSH HAAYIN (AP) — Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi has begun rolling out the world’s first nationwide electric car network. Now, will the drivers come?

After more than $400 million in outlays and months behind schedule, dozens of electric cars have hit the road in Israel, the test site Agassi chose for his Better Place venture. Four stations where the cars can get a new dose of juice when their batteries run out are operating, and the plan is to ramp that number up within months. Continue Reading »

Category: Innovations & Discoveries |
| May 19, 2012
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‘Mooly Eden is one of world’s most brilliant tech minds’

Fortune Magazine names head of Intel Israel one of the 10 most brilliant technological minds in the world alongside Amazon CEO, Apple’s chief designer

 

Mooly Eden, president of Intel Israel, is one of the world’s 10 most brilliant technological minds, Fortune Magazine has decreed.

Under the auspices of its well-known Fortune 500 project, which ranks the 500 biggest-earning US companies, Fortune praised 10 senior directors for their “brilliant technological vision.”

Eden made the list alongside some very well-known names, including legendary Apple designer Jonathan Ive – who gave the iPhone, iPod, and iPad their distinctive look; Andy Rubin, vice-president of Google and the mind behind the Android operating system; Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos; Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs; Barnes and Noble CEO William Lynch; and IBM CEO Virginia Rometty. Continue Reading »

Category: Innovations & Discoveries |
| May 17, 2012
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Gov’t okays adding magnesium to drinking water

Netanyahu, Litzman launch pilot project to restore magnesium to drinking water that is lost in desalination.

Prime Minister and former health minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Deputy Health Minister Ya’acov Litzman decided on Wednesday to launch a pilot project in Ashkelon to restore the magnesium to drinking water that is lost in the process of desalination.

The project, whose extent and time frame will be determined by an inter-ministry team, is regarded as urgent due to the increasing share of purified sea water that is being used for drinking.

Israel has desalinated more of its water supply than any other country in the world.

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Category: Innovations & Discoveries | Tags:
| May 16, 2012
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Burn calories to avoid burnout at work

Working out not only keeps people physically fit but also keeps them happier on the job, according to Israeli university researchers.

If you don’t get enough physical activity, you’re more likely to experience on-the-job burnout and depression, according to research by occupational health expert Sharon Toker of Tel Aviv University and human resources management expert Michal Biron from the University of Haifa.

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The two women discovered that employees who took the time to engage in physical activity were healthier emotionally.  Continue Reading »

Category: Innovations & Discoveries |
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