Tag Archive for Science & Technology

| June 29, 2014
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Israeli ‘wearable robot’ gets FDA approval to allow paraplegics to walk

The FDA has approved Israel’s ReWalk, a set of motorized leg braces that is sometimes described as a robotic exoskeleton,for home use in the United States.

 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a wearable support device produced by Yokne’am-based ReWalk Robotics that can help some people with spinal cord injuries to walk again.

ReWalk electric powered exoskeletal suit.

ReWalk electric powered exoskeletal suit. – Reuters

ReWalk, a set of motorized leg braces that is sometimes described as a robotic exoskeleton, was approved in the United States for home use only.

The braces support the wearer’s legs and lower torso, while the motors provide movements to the knees, thighs and ankles, enabling some paraplegics to sit, stand and walk.

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Category: Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| June 21, 2014
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Israel’s nanosatellite will locate lost travelers despite no cellular reception

Israeli high-school students designed a ‘mini’ satellite that can precisely identify travelers’ location in global areas where there’s no cellphone reception.

 

Good things come in nano-packages: Israeli high-school students launched on Thursday night Israel’s first nanosatellite, which will aid stranded travelers worldwide to pinpoint their location, JNS reported.

Duchifat-1 nanosatellite

Duchifat-1 nanosatellite – Photo: Royroy903

The satellite, an 860-gram cube measuring 10 centimeters in each dimension, was designed and built by teens studying at the Herzliya Science Center, sponsored by the Israel Space Agency and the Herzliya Municipality.

Wikicommons

Duchifat (Hoopoe): Israel’s national bird – Photo: Wikicommons

Called Duchifat-1, after Israel’s petite national bird, the device was launched into space from the Yasny Airbase in Russia. Continue Reading »

Category: Innovations & Discoveries, Jewish News | Tags: , , ,
| June 17, 2014
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New emergency app being developed in Israel to help tackle kidnapping

In light of recent kidnapping, smart-phone technology reportedly being engineered to enable emergency distress button to alert authorities, without having to place call.

By JPOST.COM STAFF

 

 

A new smartphone app to help people from getting kidnapped is currently being developed in Israel, Channel 2 reported Monday.

smartphone

Smartphone. – Photo: REUTERS

As Israeli police and security forces search for three missing Israeli teenagers, believed to be kidnapped in the West Bank – the Shomron Regional Council is working on an app that will enable people in danger to report their location to authorities, without actually picking up the phone and placing a call. Continue Reading »

Category: Innovations & Discoveries | Tags: , , ,
| May 29, 2014
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SEEKING: Ride to the Moon for One Torah

 

The Israel based ‘Torah on the Moon’ project has commissioned the European Space Agency to carry a special capsule designed to protect the Torah for at least 10,000 years.

By

 

 

The European Space Agency has been commissioned to participate in a project to carry a Torah scroll to the moon, according to New Scientist magazine.

Scribe completes Torah scroll

An ultra-Orthodox scribe completing a Torah scroll. Combining all five books together revolutionized Hebrew printing. – Photo: AP

The commission, which was confirmed by the agency’s engineering arm in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, came from a Tel Aviv-based group called, appropriately, the Torah on the Moon project.

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Category: Israel News, Jewish News | Tags: , , , ,
| May 7, 2014
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Haifa University: Salt helps stave off depression

Feeling blue? New Israeli research shows people may crave salt because it helps avert depression.

By Andrew Tobin

 

 

Humans consume more sodium than any other animal. Scarcely a meal is eaten without salt, anywhere in the world. But unlike the other basic tastes – sweetness, sourness and savoriness – we seek out saltiness at a level that doesn’t come close to being explained by the mineral’s known benefits.

The link between salt and the blues: The hormone system that regulates salt appetite also regulates depression.

The link between salt and the blues: The hormone system that regulates salt appetite also regulates depression. – Photo: Alex Levac

Now, researchers at the University of Haifa’s Department of Psychology say that people may crave salt party because its main component, sodium, helps fight depression. Continue Reading »

Category: Innovations & Discoveries | Tags: , ,
| April 10, 2014
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Casino tycoon Adelson donates $16.4 million for Israel space project

 

SpaceIL, reports to building the world’s smallest spacecraft, is participating in the prestigious Google Lunar X Prize competition.

By

 

 

Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his wife have donated $16.4 million to SpaceIL, a nonprofit organization aiming to land the first Israeli spacecraft on the moon.

SpaceIL

SpaceIL is participating in the Google Lunar X Prize competition. – Photo: Screenshot

SpaceIL, a participant in the prestigious Google Lunar X Prize (GLXP) competition, announced the donation in a press release on Wednesday.

“Sheldon and I are very excited to be supporting SpaceIL in an effort to land the first Israeli spacecraft on the Moon,” said Dr.

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Category: Innovations & Discoveries, Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| March 9, 2014
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Israel sends dishwasher-sized spacecraft to the moon

 

Israel’s unmanned craft is small, weighing only 140 kilograms (310 lb.), & will be fitted with 9 computers and 8 cameras.

If successful, the landing of the first private craft on the moon will win the Israeli group SpaceIL, a $20 million Google LunarX Prize.

By Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff

 

It’s only the size of a dishwasher and weighs as much as giant panda, but its inventors are hoping this spacecraft will go where no other Israeli vessel has gone before — to the moon.

SpaceIL co-founders Yariv Bash, Kfir Damari and Yonatan Winetraub – Photo: Reuters

Working on a shoestring budget, the Israeli scientists and engineers building the shuttle — temporarily named “Sparrow” — believe it will land on the moon by the end of 2015, a feat only the United States, Russia and China have managed so far.

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Category: Innovations & Discoveries, Israel News | Tags: , ,
| February 6, 2014
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Israeli research proves ‘kangaroo care’ advances development in preemies

A Bar Ilan University study shows direct & constant physical contact with a premature newborn baby improves brain development well into its childhood.

By

 

A simple form of skin-to-skin contact between mothers and premature babies right after birth enhances the babies’ brain development until age 10, according to research conducted at Bar-Ilan University.

Baby

Technology is no substitute for a mother’s touch.- Photo: AP

The touch-based treatment, called “kangaroo care,” was first developed in 1978 in Bogotá, Columbia, in the absence of costly incubators. The new study shows that kangaroo care has profound effects on the development of preemies in affluent societies as well.

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Category: Innovations & Discoveries | Tags: , , , ,
| January 23, 2014
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Germany places restrictions on science & high-tech grants on settlement funding

Foreign ministry in Jerusalem hopes to nix clause that would complicate renewal of scientific and academic research agreement.

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The German government is conditioning continued grants to Israeli high-tech companies, as well as the renewal of a scientific cooperation agreement, on the inclusion of a territorial clause stating that Israeli entities located in West Bank settlements or East Jerusalem will not be eligible for funding. Israel fears the German move will lead other European Union member states to follow suit.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, near Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, January 22, 2014. – Photo by AP

The German decision represents a significant escalation in European measures against the settlements. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
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