Israel Active

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.

Israeli entrepreneurs Jonathan Haran and Victor Hajaj are founders of the Sustainable Group. They plan to build the first carbon-negative village in a kibbutz near Mizpe Ramon. They are also developing AI software for cities to manage food, water, energy and waste for humans and the environment.

I reported previously on Israel’s UBQ which is turning garbage into reusable thermoplastic building material. It is shipping 2,000 recycling bins made from UBQ’s material to the Central Virginia Waste Management Authority, for delivery to Virginia residents.

Israeli startup GreenQ uses sensors on garbage trucks and big-data analytics to optimize schedules and routes for trash collection. It helps avoid collecting empty bins or missing overflowing ones. GreenQ says it can save 30-50% of a city’s costs for refuge collection and reduce traffic congestion.

A study of 120 toddlers aged 17 months by researchers at Bar-Ilan and Illinois universities shows that they have a well-developed understanding of social hierarchies and power dynamics. They reacted differently to situations where misbehavior was dealt with compared to when it wasn’t.

I reported previously on Israeli cybersecurity startup ThetaRay. It has just launched Version 4.0 of its advanced analytics platform to help global banks detect and prevent "unknown unknown" cybercrimes that are hard to spot with older cybersecurity products.