Israel Active

Professor Lilac Amirav of Israel’s Technion, has developed nanotechnology and solar energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen with 100% efficiency.  In time for Pesach - Moses would have been proud!

The European Space Agency’s ExoMars mission blasted off from Kazahkstan on 14th March.  Israel’s Rafael Industries made the vital hydrazine thrusters for the Schiaparelli landing module, which on 19th Oct will slow the decent of Schiaparelli to just 2 meters above the Mars surface.

10th grade student Tamar Barbi from Hod Hasharon discovered the new "Three Radii Theorem" whilst studying mathematics at the highest level in Israel. If three or more lines extend from a single point to the edge of a circle, then the point is the center of the circle and the straight lines are the radii.

Israeli startup Magos’s civil security systems won the 3C Smart Cities Challenge in Tel Aviv to develop solutions for Brazilian smart cities.  Second was GreenIQ’s smart management of green spaces.  Third was Pixtier, which develops an engineering system.  The three startups won grants and flights to Brazil.

Israel’s agriculture minister Uri Ariel opened India Water Week in Delhi.  It will feature eleven Israeli companies in the water industry who will demonstrate, through simulations, innovations in irrigation, desalination, water purification, measurement and management for municipalities and farms.

As part of the EU project Fresh Food Corridors (FFC), the first ever “reefer” (temperature-controlled containers) block train loaded with Israeli fruit and veg travelled from the Slovenian port of Koper to Rotterdam. It arrived 6 days earlier than ships direct from Israel.

In the second round of Grand Challenge Israel, ten Israeli companies won government grants of up to half a million shekels for creating technological solutions to health and food security challenges in developing countries.

A team from the Jusidman Science Center for Youth won the Rockwell Collins Innovate Award at the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) - a global robotics competition for young people, held for the first time in Israel.  The Jusidman Team includes religious and secular Jews and Arab Bedouins.

Israel raised the threshold for the six most carcinogenic or toxic substances listed in the Clean Air Law and set values for two other substances.  The values are more stringent than European standards, and don't exist in the U.S., making Israel one of the most advanced countries in terms of environmental regulation.

Israeli and US researchers have made the world’s smallest diode – just one molecule small.  Diodes are electronic elements that allow current to flow in one direction but prevent its flow in the other direction.  They are essential for all electronic devices including smartphones and computers.