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Double Attack on Cancer
Posted by Weizmann Science Writer on February 7, 2013 New research at the Institute may offer a sliver of hope for treating “triple-negative” breast cancer. “Triple-negative” refers to the fact that the breast cancer cells are missing the three different receptors targeted by the currently available drugs, for instance Herceptin and steroid hormone blockers. This type of cancer also tends to be fairly aggressive,…
Touching on Physics
Posted by Weizmann Science Writer on January 28, 2013 What happens when a former physics-student-turned-documentary-director is invited to create a video clip for the first ever physics reunion? The answer is below. You may not learn anything new about physics by watching it, but you will note that Weizmann President Prof. Daniel Zajfman and VP Prof. Israel Bar-Joseph are featured, along with others.…
DiGeorge Syndrome Demystifed
Posted by Weizmann Science Writer on January 17, 2013 Does your face reveal what’s in your heart? It might – even more than you know. Take, for instance, a common group of birth defects – forms of a disorder called DiGeorge syndrome. Around one in 4000 is born with this syndrome, which arises from a deletion of a short segment of chromosome 22. Among…
Physics Prize to Weizmann Researcher
Posted by Weizmann Science Writer on December 11, 2012 At the beginning of the year, we published an interview with Dr. Zohar Komargodski on this blog. Apparently we were not the only ones impressed by Komargodski’s accomplishments: The Fundamental Physics Prize Foundation has announced that he will be one of three recipients of a New Horizons in Physics Prize. This prize is given to…
It’s a Quasicrystal! It’s a Topological Insulator! In 1-D!
Posted by Weizmann Science Writer on December 10, 2012 Is anyone old enough to remember the ad in which two people walking down the street while snacking accidently bump into each other and discover peanut butter on a chocolate bar? Well, it turns out that when physics students run into each other on the street, the result is a quasicrystal with topological properties. The…
What’s that Smell?
Posted by Weizmann Science Writer on November 22, 2012 Weizmann Institute scientists have created a “white smell.” Think about white light or white noise: Each mixes a bunch of different waves together from various parts of the visual or audible spectrum. Those wavelengths combine such that we perceive that unobtrusive light or sound we call “white.” How do smells fit into this scenario? Prof.…
A Computer That Learns to See Like a Baby
Posted by Weizmann Science Writer on November 18, 2012 The idea of “seeing the world through the eyes of a child” takes on new meaning when the observer is a computer. Institute scientists in the Lab for Vision and Robotics Research took their computer right back to babyhood and used it to ask how infants first learn to identify objects in their visual field.…
What a Rat Feels
Posted by Weizmann Science Writer on November 5, 2012 We have been told what it’s like to be a bat or a bird; now Prof. Ehud Ahissar and Dr. Avi Saig are getting people to experience what it’s like to be a rat. Specifically, they want the participants in their studies to learn what it’s like to locate things in the dark by twitching…
Getting into the Fray
Posted by Weizmann Science Writer on October 22, 2012 “The public, blog-fueled controversy over the utilization of arsenate instead of phosphate in bacteria was, in the end, a demonstration of what is truly right with scientific quests,” says Prof. Dan Tawfik. “The original findings (that certain bacteria can use arsenate instead of phosphate) may have been overhyped. The research itself may have been underwhelming.…
Chemistry of the Quantum Kind
Posted by Weizmann Science Writer on October 12, 2012 Today’s post is about some cool chemistry – very cool. About 0.01°Kelvin, as a matter of fact (that is, one hundredth of a degree above absolute zero). Physics experiments conducted at such temperatures are already old hat, but chemistry is another story, altogether. Scientists have been attempting to produce chemical reactions at ultra-low temperatures for…