Photo: Getty Images

Israel has been an important commercial center for thousands of years (it didn’t all start with hi-tech), especially in ports like Yaffo. This weekend, a lifeguard found some pretty neat remnants of these early traders, some of whom, it seems, had some interesting superstitions. The AP has the whole story and discusses some of the other interesting relics from the area.

Photo source: Wikimedia Commons
Used under Creative Commons License

When it comes to letting you know about environmental problems, these plants tell it like it is. JPost reports that scientists at Bar-Ilan University have figured out a way to get algae to produce sound. The algae produce different sounds if water is contaminated or clean, so scientists can know whether the water is safe for public use. “Sounds” like this discovery could be of great use to lots of different places around the world who need assistance in monitoring their water supplies.

With gas prices soaring high lately, you’re probably looking for ways to cut down on the bill at the pump (short of buying a new car). As covered in Haaretz, Traffilog, an Israeli company, has one answer–change your driving habits. Research has shown that driving more smoothly raises gas mileage and also makes for safer driving. So, the logic dictates, getting more people to drive better should result in a huge energy savings. Simple, no?

Photo: Getty Images

these articles.)
But sometimes it’s cool to watch these things in action. So we bring you this video courtesy of Infolive and ynet that covers how to generate solar energy from an on-site interview in the Negev.

Photo: Yan Nasonov, Wikimedia Commons
Used under Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

The City of Jerusalem has a new and monumental entranceway. Officials today inaugurated a new bridge designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava during a public gala ceremony. Dignitaries from the Mayor of Jerusalem to government ministers were on hand and the crowd was entertained by orchestras, dancers, and other cultural groups.
The bridge is part of the Jerusalem’s new rail system (coming soon) that will evenutally provide rapid public transportation around the city.

Photo:Israel Ministry of Tourism

The story: Israeli scientists find a 2,000-year-old seed from an extinct species on Masada. They get it to grow, effectively bringing back to life a species of tree not seen alive in 1,500 years!
The carbon dating process, completed this week, confirmed the tree’s age. Read more from Reuters.

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.

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.

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.

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!