“Heaven-sent” was the feeling last year as winter rains filled Israel’s reservoirs and the inland lake, the Sea of Galilee.
But 2014 has been a different story, as a severe drought was declared by February.
Israel is 60 percent desert, and for the last 60 years it is has braced itself for dry winters like this one, possibly the driest ever. Yet except for growers of non-irrigated crops, Israel isn’t worried. Since 1948, Israel has planned, forecasted and built infrastructure, policies, research and technologies to withstand drought.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently offered to help California overcome its extreme drought –– affecting about two-thirds of its 38 million residents — using Israeli science, water conservation and desalination technology.
BiondVax Pharmaceuticals – the Israeli company developing a universal flu vaccine – has announced that its universal flu vaccine (M-001) is suited to all six new influenza strains found in recent years in people.
An Israeli flag has been added to the line of flags fluttering outside the CERN Globe of Science and Innovation in Geneva, following Israel’s official welcoming as the 21st member state of the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
Israel is the first new member of the organization since 1999. Israel has been an observer at CERN since 1991.
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A new study shows that it’s profitable to do business with Israeli companies. More than 200 companies with connections to Israel contributed $6.2 billion to the Massachusetts economy last year, reports a study conducted by the consulting firm Stax and supported by Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston.
“Massachusetts has become a home away from home for Israel’s innovation economy,” Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick was quoted as saying by JTA.
The study says the businesses range from information technology to life sciences and software. The companies employed more than 6,600 people in 2012.
Two Israeli physicians, who set out to masculinize a patient with testosterone therapy, ended up discovering a new genetic mutation and pushing the limits of male fertility.
It all started eight years ago, when a young Israeli man walked into the office of Dr. Karen Tordjman, a senior lecturer at Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine. His girlfriend (now his wife) convinced him to find out why his genitals were small and heavily scarred.
Tordjman and her Sackler colleague, Dr. Amnon Botchan, discovered in medical records that two of the patient’s uncles had been diagnosed with androgen receptor insensitivity — a rare condition that results in the body under-responding to the androgen hormones that drive male sexual development.
“There are hundreds of mutations that have been reported in the androgen receptor gene,” Tordjman tells ISRAEL21c. The young Israeli, who had served in a Navy commando unit despite his slight build, had a mutation that had not previously been reported.
Instead of following standard protocol, Tordjman set out on a groundbreaking medical journey that today could change the course of treatment for men with the same condition.
“The treatment was counterintuitive,” she says. “We offered treatment not for his future reproductive capabilities but for his appearance. We didn’t guarantee him anything, but we said we’d try.”
Her research, recently published in the journal Andrologia, may, in coming generations, lead to genetic screening for the newly found mutation of the androgen receptor to identify carriers.
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A team of Tel Aviv University researchers have identified a specific set of molecules called microRNAs that detrimentally regulate protein levels in the brains of mice with Alzheimer’s disease and beneficially regulate protein levels in the brains of other mice living in a stimulating environment.
Read all about the studies and research findings by following the link above!
The Li Ka Shing Foundation (LKSF) has given a $130 million grant to the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology for the establishment of a new academic technological institute in China.
The Technion and Shantou University will join forces to set up the Technion Guangdong Institute of Technology (TGIT) which will focus on the fields of engineering, science and life sciences.
Chinese billionaire Li Ka Shing, chairman of the Hutchison Whampoa corporation, is behind the largest ever donation to the Technion and one of the most generous in the history of Israeli higher education.
The grant money will also strengthen the Technion’s home campus in Haifa, for the benefit of its students and researchers.
Plant biologist Shimon Gepstein did not set out to find a revolutionary technology that has been successfully producing drought-resistant rice, wheat, sugar beets, cotton, millet and other food crops in several countries.
He and his staff were tinkering with the “juvenile” plant hormone cytokinin to see if they could grow tobacco with a longer growth period and shelf life. The experiments worked beautifully — and then they neglected to water the genetically engineered plants for a few weeks. Surprisingly, after being re-watered they bounced back to life.
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The technology is benefiting agriculture everywhere, including in Israel.
To read more about the man behind the #innovation, follow the link above.