Israel Active

Rotem Shemesh is Head of Research at Israel’s Carmel Olefins. She is developing plastic that are easier to recycle. Another product is antimicrobial plastic packaging to prolong the shelf life of food. And she is determined to remove the plastic particles responsible for that “new car smell”.

Israel’s Weizmann Institute and the Israel Space Agency are to build ULTRASAT - a next-generation satellite with a telescope that will observe the universe in UV light. It will investigate black holes, neutron stars, stars with possible habitable planets and much more.

I reported previously on the CMOS image sensor from Israel’s TowerJazz aboard the NASA Parker Solar Probe. The high-resolution images of the Sun’s corona taken during the first two fly-pasts have exceeded all expectations. A third encounter with the Sun will take place imminently.

I reported previously when scientists from Israel’s Technion Institute produced a Hebrew Bible the size of a sugar grain.  Now Hebrew University of Jerusalem scientists and Tanaor Jewelry have embedded a nano-sized Bible into a jewel that can be worn around the neck.

Researchers from Israel’s Ben Gurion University have used radio-krypton dating to map the history of the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer system, which lies beneath Israel’s Negev desert.  It has also identified the climate conditions that produced it thousands of years ago.

There have been many preventable deaths and injuries at construction sites.  SafetyFirst, Safeguard, SiteAware, SiteWatch and INTSITE are just five Israeli startups helping to prevent work-related accidents. It’s the first appearance in my newsletter for all of these.

Ben Gurion University researchers have determined that Mankai, a high-protein aquatic plant strain of duckweed, has significant potential as a superfood. It provides glycemic control needed after carbohydrate consumption. After two weeks, participants had much better glucose levels and felt more full.

This video features six innovative Israeli drone technology startups.  I’ve featured five of them previously, except for Civdorne, which develops a device that turns drones into land surveying, measuring, and marking machines for construction sites.

Israeli agronomist and viticulturalist, Michal Akerman, has worked with the Society for the Preservation of Nature in Israel to make the vines at her Tabor vinyards friendlier to biodiversity. Her efforts have encouraged storks, otters, lizards, rabbits, chameleons and wild boar to return to the area.

Jerusalem Municipality has begun to replace its current recycling facilities whereby residents were required to sort waste into paper, bottles, glass, plastic etc. In future, sorting will be done centrally, by GreenNet situated in the Atarot Industrial Area, north of Jerusalem.