science

Before the Aliens, the Amino Acids

Before the Aliens, the Amino Acids

A Weizmann-led team has proposed a simple but powerful new method for detecting traces of alien biology, whether on Jupiter’s icy moons, in meteorites or in Martian samples. Before any wrinkled, wide-eyed creature from a distant civilisation asks to be taken home, the...

Pandemic in Fast Forward

Pandemic in Fast Forward

Israeli and Czech scientists have recreated the coronavirus’ evolutionary journey in a test tube – revealing the conditions that can produce highly contagious variants. A key step in the origin of many pandemics occurs when an animal-borne virus infects humans and...

Facing Danger with Maturity

Facing Danger with Maturity

Weizmann Institute of Science and Hebrew University of Jerusalem scientists have discovered that stem cell maturation can also serve as an immune defence mechanism. We all begin life as a collection of embryonic stem cells that have a remarkable ability to mature into...

How Yeast Find the Perfect Match

How Yeast Find the Perfect Match

A mass mating event in a Weizmann Institute of Science lab has revealed how yeast cells choose partners – and what predicts the success of their offspring. While humans often struggle to find a partner who is both physically attractive and a reliable co-parent, yeast...

A Simple Explanation for a Cosmic Puzzle

A Simple Explanation for a Cosmic Puzzle

20.10.2025 A new, first-time, model from the Weizmann Institute of Science is solving the mystery of opposite winds on giant planets. Blasting around the equators of the solar system’s giant planets – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune – are fierce jet streams...

Sensing Fat

Sensing Fat

New research from the Weizmann Institute of Science reveals that the nervous system can sense fat tissue and that blocking this ability protects mice from metabolic disorders. Popular belief holds that our senses gather information only about the external world, but...

When the Light Particle Saw the Light

When the Light Particle Saw the Light

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...