Israel Active

Israel’s Defense Ministry and US Strategic Command (USSTATCOM) have signed a new cooperation arrangement to prevent satellites and other objects colliding in space. The agreement will ensure safe spaceflight operations.

Many readers will have seen the C-MUSIC directed infra-red countermeasures (DIRCM) system from Israel’s Elbit that repels terrorist missiles launched at commercial airliners. Recent international demand for the system is simply phenomenal.

Israel’s Evogene has used its computational discovery platform to identify microbial genes with insecticidal properties. EvoGene will now validate the genes’ insect control properties against some of the world’s worst agricultural pests.

Ben Gurion University of the Negev has received an EU Horizon 2020 grant to develop a “Zero Plus” system that preserves energy in buildings. BGU will then implement four projects across Europe to turn Net Zero Energy (NZE) buildings into NZE communities.

The WSCI 2015 World Science Conference Israel in Jerusalem not only had 15 Nobel Prize winners under one roof, it also featured Magic, Science, Technology and lots of inspiration.

It took Israel’s NRGene just 3 months to map out the genome for wild Emmer wheat – a task that had eluded dozens of scientists from 55 countries. It will now be easier to develop hardy varieties of wheat that will thrive in drier, hotter climates and help relieve world hunger. And related article by Sharon.

Enlight Renewable Energy (part of Israel’s Eurocom Group) has just closed a deal worth 24 million Euros to build a 14MW windfarm in Ireland and more are planned. Ireland is aiming to generate 40pc of all its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

Israel releases a new stamp on Oct 10 to celebrate the 2013 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Israel’s Arieh Warshel, one of the joint laureates for Computational Chemistry, was the key researcher who deciphered the role of the protein rhodopsin - the biological pigment in retina cells.

Only in Israel would a startup develop an app that connects people who want help with those who wish to give help. Angels Nearby uses a search engine to connect people based on the type of help needed, “trust level” (everyone, Facebook friends only, friends of friends), and location.

Tens of thousands of Israelis have used the Israeli developed app Polly to park their cars in Tel Aviv. It is now being expanded to Jerusalem. Polly uses GPS, crowdsourcing, municipal information and its own algorithm to guide drivers to streets where spaces are more likely to be available.