Although over the centuries we have learned much about our physical world, from the earth below to the stars above, there are still many mysteries to uncover.
Weizmann Institute of Science researchers have uncovered physical laws explaining why cracks in materials break their symmetry while spreading. These findings lay the groundwork for the design of more resilient materials which could have significant implications for...
A new Weizmann Institute method reveals how lasers can instantly alter the properties of matter. Instantly turning a material from opaque to transparent, or from a conductor to an insulator, is no longer the stuff of science fiction. For several years now, scientists...
In a new Weizmann Institute of Science experiment just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), cooperation was shown to work out better for ants than for humans. Anyone who has dealt with ants in the kitchen knows that ants are highly...
Modelling a tiny worm’s feeding process at the Weizmann Institute of Science has revealed the power of mathematics and computer science when exploring the complexity of biological organisms. The throat of the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans might seem like an odd...
A Weizmann Institute study of super-tough organisms reveals strategies for creating more sustainable, resilient human-made materials. Humans are by no means alone in the search for more sustainable materials. Nature, too, has been 'working' on the problem of...
How are humans affecting the Northern Hemisphere’s wind patterns? A new Weizmann Institute of Science study shows how. The summer of 2024 was the hottest on record and was unfortunately no surprise. Summers have been getting hotter and drier around the world,...
A new Weizmann Institute of Science ceramic could replace lead-based electronic components. Produced in the Weizmann lab or Professor Igor Lubomirsky’s this material seems too good to be true. It belongs to a class of materials that are the backbone of many essential...
The creation of a strange, ‘long-distance’ molecule revealed in a recent physics experiment at the Weizmann Institute of Science sheds light on chemical reactions taking place near absolute zero. When two particles collide, they normally fly off in opposite...
A Weizmann Institute study of photons in quantum computing has made a surprising discovery: When photons collide, they create vortices. Vortices are a common physical phenomenon. You find them in the structure of galaxies, tornadoes and hurricanes, as well as in a cup...
Weizmann Institute of Science researchers have established absolute chronology for Kingdom of Judah’s Jerusalem. Jerusalem has been inhabited continuously for thousands of years, serving as both a center of religious significance and a seat of power for kingdoms, yet...
Humankind has long turned to the skies in search of answers. Accounts of supernovae – exploding stars – go back thousands of years, but while we know today that these events create the building blocks of life itself, the conditions that cause a star to explode still...
A newly discovered binary celestial system via special data analysis led by the Weizmann Institute of Science, may advance our understanding of planet and star evolution under extreme conditions. The search for exoplanets – planets that orbit stars located beyond the...
The journey to Jupiter has begun. The European Space Agency’s unmanned spacecraft JUICE (short for JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) recently launched (13 April) from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. JUICE’s voyage, the ESA’s most ambitious mission to date, will be...
NASA will launch Israel’s first space telescope – the Ultraviolet Transient Astronomy Satellite, or ULTRASAT – into high-Earth orbit in early 2026, as part of a newly signed partnership between United States’ NASA and Israel's Ministry of Innovation, Science and...
Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have produced the first global estimate of the combined weight of all land insects and related arthropods. Arthropods crawl and buzz around us in the wild and on farmlands, on the street and at home, under our floors...
Why do Earth’s hemispheres look equally bright when viewed from space? Weizmann Institute scientists offer a solution to this 50-year-old mystery. When looking at the Earth from space, its hemispheres – northern and southern – appear equally bright. This is...
NASA’s first-ever interception of an asteroid happened in full view of researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, who documented the collision’s debris last Tuesday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKVhQmZYBgE&feature=emb_imp_woyt DART impact as...
They say that where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and Weizmann Institute of Science researchers are working hard to investigate that claim, or at least elucidate what constitutes ‘smoke’. In an article published this week in PNAS, the scientists reveal an advanced,...
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is up there with the rings of Saturn and the blue marble of Earth for solar system icon status. In a study published this week in Science, Weizmann Institute of Science researchers and their collaborators on NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter,...
The GMTO Corporation has welcomed the Weizmann Institute of Science into its international consortium of distinguished universities and research institutions building the Giant Magellan Telescope. The new partnership reinforces that completing the largest and most...
A new research pilot by Weizmann Institute scientists uses artificial intelligence to unravel the mysteries of colliding particles “Our work is similar to inspecting the remains of a plane crash where we’re trying to reconstruct what colour pants the passenger from...
Weizmann Institute scientists have revealed how gigantic cyclones remain stable at both of Jupiter’s poles. Until recently, before NASA’s Juno space probe entered its orbit around the planet Jupiter, no one knew that powerful cyclones, approximately the size of...
A study recently published in PNAS looks at an important chapter in our anthropological evolution and suggests that Homo sapiens and Neanderthals were far from strangers. The Boker Tachtit archaeological excavation site in Israel’s central Negev desert, is a place...
Around 2.5 billion years ago, our planet experienced what was possibly the greatest change in its history: According to the geological record, molecular oxygen suddenly went from non-existent to becoming freely available everywhere. Evidence for the ‘great oxygenation...