Researchers find neurons that orient bats toward destination
Navigating to a destination, whether you are a human or a bat, requires a complex set of calculations and interactions among brain cells. Weizmann Institute of Science researchers, working with bats,...
View ArticleMaking spines from sea water
Some sea creatures cover themselves with hard shells and spines, while vertebrates build skeletons out of the same minerals. How do these animals get the calcium they need to build these strong mineral...
View ArticleCrystallization made crystal clear
Crystallization is a very basic chemical process: School children can witness it with their own eyes. But scientists had not, until now, been able to observe this process on the molecular level - that...
View ArticleSeeds from a site in Northern Israel are the ancestors of today's fava beans
Like all food crops, the faba, or fava, bean - a nutritious part of many the diet of many cultures diets - had a wild ancestor. Wild faba is presumed to be extinct, but Weizmann Institute of Science...
View ArticleNew model can predict drug interactions and side effects even between a large...
Drug cocktails such as those for treating cancer, like the alcoholic versions offered at the local bar, are best when the proper ingredients are mixed in the right proportions. And like the cocktails...
View ArticleProgrammed proteins might help prevent malaria
Despite decades of malaria research, the disease still afflicts hundreds of millions and kills around half a million people each year - most of them children in tropical regions. Part of the problem is...
View ArticleA rusty green early ocean? Lab recreates one mechanism by which today's ore...
Though they may seem rock solid, the ancient sedimentary rocks called iron formations - the world's chief economic source of iron ore - were once dissolved in seawater. How did that iron go from a...
View ArticleFirst oceans may have been acidic
One way to understand how ocean acidity can change, for example, in response to rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, is to look to the history of seawater acidity. Dr. Itay Halevy of the Weizmann...
View ArticleGene analysis adds layers to understanding how our livers function
If you get up in the morning feeling energetic and clearheaded, you can thank your liver for manufacturing glucose before breakfast time. Among a host of other vital functions, it also clears our body...
View ArticleNew neural mechanism is found to regulate the chronic stress response
In addition to the classic stress response in our bodies - an acute reaction that gradually abates when the threat passes - our bodies appear to have a separate mechanism that deals only with chronic...
View ArticleWeakening communication between two parts of the brain in mice reduced their...
Erasing unwanted memories is still the stuff of science fiction, but Weizmann Institute scientists have now managed to erase one type of memory in mice. In a study reported in Nature Neuroscience, they...
View ArticleResearchers identify 6,500 genes that are expressed differently in men and women
Men and women differ in obvious and less obvious ways—for example, in the prevalence of certain diseases or reactions to drugs. How are these connected to one's sex? Weizmann Institute of Science...
View ArticleNew, water-based, recyclable membrane filters all types of nanoparticles
Separation technology is at the heart of water purification, sewage treatment and reclaiming materials, as well as numerous basic industrial processes. Membranes are used to separate out the smallest...
View ArticleRestoring cardiac function with a matrix molecule
Heart disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide, yet the few available treatments are still mostly unsuccessful once the heart tissue has suffered damage. Mammalian hearts are actually able...
View ArticleHow to reduce shockwaves in quantum beam experiments
The tiny cone-shaped "skimmers" used in experiments looking for exotic chemical-quantum phenomena resemble the intake mechanisms of aircraft engines, and they perform similar functions: Each directs...
View ArticleJerusalem tower younger than thought
Gihon Spring, just downhill from the ancient city of Jerusalem, was crucial to the survival of its inhabitants, and archaeologists had uncovered the remains of a massive stone tower built to guard this...
View ArticleThe dust storm microbiome
Israel is subjected to sand and dust storms from several directions: northeast from the Sahara, northwest from Saudi Arabia and southwest from the desert regions of Syria. The airborne dust carried in...
View ArticlePigments made by beets may help boost resistance to disease and the nutrition...
Color in the plant kingdom is not merely a joy to the eye. Colored pigments attract pollinating insects, they protect plants against disease, and they confer health benefits and are used in the food...
View ArticleThe lining of our intestines uses an approach known to business to quickly...
Every time we swallow food, cells that line the intestines must step up their activity in a sudden and dramatic manner. According to a new study by Weizmann Institute of Science researchers, reported...
View ArticleThe unexpected role of a well-known gene in creating blood
One of the first organ systems to form and function in the embryo is the cardiovascular system: in fact, this developmental process starts so early that scientists still have many unresolved questions...
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