Showcasing the “Faces of Israel”

Now that we’ve received some responses from potential “Faces of Israel,” we’ve begun to assemble our list of 60 Israelis to represent the full spectrum of Israeli society. Biographical details and pictures are available on the 60Israelis website.

You, too, can be part of the 60Israelis project. Have a look at our previous article on the subject.

Israelis Help India Bloom

As a country that is about half desert, Israelis understand the need to sustain agriculture even under the harshest of circumstances. Israel has been known for many years as a leader in agricultural technology and for its willingness to share its knowledge abroad. Along those lines, the Times of London reports that Israeli scientists are now off to India to help bolster their crop production. In the long run, they hope to start another “green revolution” in India and stave off future food crises.

Research Sheds New Light on Stem Cells

While it has long been known that embryonic stem cells have the ability to develop into any kind of tissue-specific cells, the exact mechanism as to how this occurs has heretofore not been demonstrated. Now, researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and elsewhere have succeeded in graphically revealing this process, resolving a long-standing question as to whether the stem cells achieve their development through selective activation or selective repression of genes.

The collaborative research group, which included Dr. Eran Meshorer of the Department of Genetics at the Silberman Institute of Life Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has revealed that the embryonic stem (ES) cells express large proportions of their genome “promiscuously.” This permissive expression includes lineage-specific and tissue-specific genes, non-coding regions of the genome that are normally “silent,” and repetitive sequences in the genome, which comprise the majority of the mammalian genome but are also normally not expressed. Continue reading Research Sheds New Light on Stem Cells…

Balloon Project in Tel Aviv

A few young Israelis get creative and take to the streets in Tel Aviv for a unique experiment! With dozens of balloons attached, they send a video camera into the sky to take aerial footage of Tel Aviv, then bring it back to earth. Watch this video to see the entire process!

Solar Power Reaches New Heights

One of the biggest challenges that stands in the way of solar energy is the large spaces needed to set up arrays of solar collectors. Now, researchers at the Technion in Haifa have come up with a way around that barrier–by making solar collection balloons! These contraptions could hover at a height of a few hundred meters and could provide as much energy as a much larger solar panel. Check out the full details of this bright idea on Reuters.

If Our Cup is Full, Then Let it Overflow

Here some news to flex our envirofinanceexportaqua muscles…

From HAARETZ:

Hi-tech Israeli water companies shoot for world market

After decades of developing water technologies aiming to “make the desert bloom”, Israel has shifted focus to selling its products abroad with a goal of doubling exports in the sector to e2 billion by 2010.

From ultra-violet light technology to purify water to a recycling system using millions of small, plastic rings to breed bacteria and break down organic waste, Israeli innovations are finding buyers abroad. If a United Nations goal of improving sanitation by 2015 is to be achieved, the global market would be worth about e10 billion a year.

Daniel Wild, senior analyst at Zurich-based Sustainable Asset Management (SAM), an independent asset management group managing 8.5 billion Swiss francs (e8.3 billion) in assets, said Israeli technology is leading in two main segments — irrigation and desalination — because it was one of the first countries to develop efficient technologies.

“When it comes to water scarcity, Israel had to have a closer look very early,” Wild said.

About two-thirds of Israel is desert, spurring it to become one of the world’s leaders in water recycling. Seventy-five percent of waste water in Israel is re-used, mostly for agriculture, said Oded Distell, director of international investments at the Industry and Trade Ministry.

Soon after Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, declared in the 1950s that the future of the Jewish state depended on “making the desert bloom”, engineer Simcha Blass teamed up with a kibbutz farming collective in the Negev desert to form Netafim, a company that introduced to the world a water-sparing process known as drip irrigation.

Continue reading If Our Cup is Full, Then Let it Overflow…

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