Physics worth rapping about
Filed under: Medical Breakthroughs, Music, Science
Can physics be fun? Ask any high school student who’s had to wrack his brain to remember the details of matter, motion and space-time, and you’ll either find a fanatic or a fatalist.
Some folks in the physics department at Tel Aviv University have decided on a different approach. They’ve created a rap about the work of Dr. Eshel Ben-Jacob and Itay Baruchi are doing on creating nothing less than the first steps towards a “cybrid” – kind of the opposite of a cyborg which is a human being with added technological components. A cybrid starts with the computer and adds living elements.
It’s a long way off – some of the necessary technology hasn’t even been invented yet – but the two have managed to imprint rudimentary memories onto a network of neurons interfaced with a computer.
Did you follow that? If not, check out the video on YouTube. It’s not the most professional (and the beat boxing might make you cringe). But here’s the crazy thing. It’s gone sort-of viral with over 108,000 downloads.
Foto Friday – Ben Gurion’s University
Filed under: coexistence, education, Foto Friday, General, Israeliness, Medical Breakthroughs, Picture of the Week, Technology
The first semester of Israel’s 2010-2011 academic year opened this past week. There were little to no threats of a faculty or student strike for once — that pleasure was left to the Union of Local Authorities of Israel — and 293,000 students began studying on time at Israel’s 66 institutions of higher learning.
Of these, 228,740 young persons entered into or continued their first degree studies. More significantly, of this number, 88,500 are studying at colleges (35 academic and 23 teacher training colleges); this is the first time that this number exceeds registration at the seven universities where 75,200 students are registered for Bachelor’s degrees.
Ben Gurion University of the Negev stands out with more than 19,000 students, including 4,650 new ones. The number of students enrolled for a first degree rose, particularly in humanities and exact sciences; this may be due to new study tracks that allow for interdisciplinary studies — not an unusual notion for North Americans but a new concept here. Here’s a glimpse into the little university that has become the number one choice for undergraduates both Jewish and Arab from all over the country due in part to its research and development capabilities…
It’s ultramodern campus, shining like a beacon in the desert…
Its medical school, affiliated with Columbia University and Soroka Medical Center, which provides medical care to all populations throughout the region…
Encouragement of innovation…
And fulfillment of David Ben Gurion’s vision of the Negev as a testbed for science and R&D.
More photos by Dani Machlis can be found at BGU – The Year in Pictures. Information about the University is available on its website. And check out the BGU YouTube channel to see more amazing R&D, like these wall climbing robots developed at the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
An Israeli prize for a Canadian author
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, education, General, Politics, Social Justice
We’ve got royalty visiting Israel this week – at least royalty of the literary kind. Famed Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood has arrived to receive a 2010 Dan David Prize, an award from Tel Aviv University that promotes “the scientific, technological and humanistic achievements that advance and improve our world.”
Founded in 2002, the prize is awarded in three categories: Past, Present and Future. Atwood is the recipient in the Present category, which “recognizes achievements that shape and enrich society today.” She, along with the other ‘Present’ recipient, Indian-Bengali novelist Amitav Ghosh, will receive a $1,000,000 prize.
An outspoken human rights activist and head of the writers’ human rights organization PEN, Atwood had received pressure from pro-Palestinian groups to boycott the ceremony this week and refuse to accept the prize, but Atwood, whose books include The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Oryx and Crake (2003), and The Year of the Flood (2009), said that she wasn’t interested in boycotts.
“We don’t do cultural boycotts,” Atwood told Bloomberg News’ Gwen Ackerman before the awards ceremony on Sunday. “I would be throwing overboard the thousands of writers around the world who are in prison, censored, exiled and murdered for what they have published.”
When asked if her visit to the region might inspire a new novel, Atwood responded: “You never know what may happen. The thing about creativity is that your mind does have to be open, because otherwise nothing will come into it. It certainly is a crash course in the very complex Middle East political situation. It is like being heaved into it.
“A lot of people with no vested interest just turn it off. They feel there is nothing they can do. They don’t understand it. They want people to resolve it, and they wonder why that isn’t happening: Why can’t there be a breakthrough?”
Welcome to the neighborhood, Margaret.
Foto Friday – Yoram Reshef’s pride of researchers
Filed under: Art, Business, Environment, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, Medical Breakthroughs, Profiles, Technology
Yoram Reshef heads a commercial photography studio that produces images for some of Israel’s leading brands. “I love taking pictures in factories,” he says. “The encounter with machinery, the steel, the noise is exciting to me. I’m very proud of Israeli industry which creates and produces a world of its own, just as I, as a photographer, produce photos and images for my clients.” Reshef also takes pride in the work he does for institutions such as Tel Aviv University (TAU), producing portraits of scientists and academics working on technology’s cutting edge.
For example, marine biologist Prof. Yehuda “Hudi” Benayahu, a world-renowned expert in the taxonomy, ecology and biology of soft corals. Benayahu has warned that coral extinction could mean a global environmental catastrophe.
Or archeologist Yifat Thareani-Sussely, whose doctoral dissertation focuses on the pottery of the 7-8th centuries BCE. Don’t be fooled by the antiquities around her: TAU’s Department of Archaeology includes a Laboratory for Comparative Microarchaeology, an Archaeobotany Lab, Pottery Restoration Lab and other high-tech methods used for exploring the ancient world.
Biochemist Prof. Gali Prag researches proteins, specifically ubiquitin, a dynamic regulatory signal that can affect protein activity. A former researcher at NIH, he was recruited to head his own lab and the university has high hopes for his future research.
Adv. Liat Golan is the professional director of the Alfred Akirov Institute for Business and Environment. An environmental lawyer by trade, she trains the next-generation of business leaders to meet the threats and opportunities created by rapidly changing environments, both natural and corporate.
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Tel Aviv University alumnus Chemi Peres, managing general partner and co-founder of venture capital firm, Pitango Venture Capital, continues to be involved by serving on the Board of Directors of Ramot, the commercial arm of the university that focuses on technology transfer with some very nice success stories to its credit.
By the way, Peres also chairs the advisory board of TAU’s Faculty of Management — as well as serving on the boards of the Weizmann Institute of Science and the IDC- Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya. More about those fine institutions another day.
Back to school daze
280,000 students started attending classes this week at universities and colleges throughout Israel. No strikes this year, which comes as a pleasant surprise.
An article in Yediot Aharonot over the weekend offered some interesting facts and stats about the the face of Israeli higher education which might be eye-opening for some, such as…
– There are 66 institutions of higher learning in the country, including 34 academic colleges (or junior colleges as they’re called Stateside) and 24 vocational schools.
– Tel Aviv University boast the biggest student body of the nation’s eight universities with 25,800 students, followed by Hebrew University with 23,000, Bar-Ilan University with 22,00, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev with 20,600, University of Haifa with 18,000, the Technion with 13,000, Ariel College with 11,000 and the IDC in Herzilya with 5,200 students. Evidently the Weizmann Institute – the home of recent Israeli Nobel prize winner Ada Yonath is considered a ‘research institute’ and not listed as one of the country’s universities.
– Out of the 221,000 students studying for a bachelor’s degree, 55% are women, and out of those studying for a master’s, 57% are women.
– Onto more important matters, the university cafeteria with the least expensive sandwiches for sale is Tel Aviv University, with a basic sandwich going for only 3 shekels (not sure what’s in that one, maybe just two slices of bread. While the most costly cafeteria sandwich is found at the Technion for 12 shekels (must be organic brain food).
– For a full meal, Bar-Ilan University tips the scales as the most expensive at 27 shekels ($7) with the University of Haifa trailing the field by offering some entrees at 15 shekels.
– Prices of dormitories also fluctuate with Hebrew University costing the most (between 900-1,300 shekels a month) and the Technion being the cheapest at 360-790 shekels.
With tuition becoming more costly each year, students and their parents are sure to be looking at these extra costs in deciding which institution to apply for. My daughter joined the ranks of the 280,000 students as she began classes this week at the instructional college Muzik, a Tel Aviv-based music school. I know that we’ll be urging her to eat meals in her apartment as much as possible.
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