Israel Active

The University of Haifa has dedicated Israel’s first Green Roofs Ecology Research Center. Planting gardens on roofs can lower air-conditioning and heating consumption. It can also provide an urban living space for animals and increase the amount of photosynthesis occurring within a city.

Students at the Ariel Academic Center have designed a unique ecological home, based on hydrogen gas. The structure produces energy, using only sunlight and water. Architect Matithyahu Avsalomov said safe hydrogen storage technology has progressed massively in recent years.

(Thanks to Israel21c) 15 New Yorkers did exactly that, with the Westchester chapter of the American Jewish Committee (AJC). Keshet: The Center for Educational Tourism in Israel took them to see behind many of the Start-up Nation’s cutting-edge technology organisations.

NASA’s Ames Research Center has begun work on a futuristic rapid transport system to be piloted in Israel. Two-person modules will drive along a guide rail suspended from existing power lines. Magnets in the vehicle lift the vehicle and glide it at 60 miles per hour on a cushion of air.

(Thanks to Israel21c) The Israeli start-up Minit has launched an app that allows users to share one-minute videos from their smartphones and then send back video comments. The app is branded as “voicemail for video”. It has commercial potential, such as to collect feedback on a business idea or product.

Israeli start-up eDealya enables brands to engage with customers that follow them on Facebook and Twitter. eDealya spots and analyse their social communities’ activities and intentions and responds with a personalised targeted offer in real-time and real-context.

A substantial donation from an Anglo-Jewish sponsor has boosted Israel’s prospects of landing a spacecraft on the lunar surface. The SpaceIL project’s mission is to make Israel only the third country ever to complete a successful moon landing.

The age of the replicating robot has almost arrived. Israeli printing technology is such that a printer is now able to produce components of itself. Given enough machines of sufficient power and 3D printers can produce almost anything —cars, planes or even limb prosthetics.

(Thanks to Israel21c) The White House and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has turned to Waze, the Israeli app that offers real time traffic navigation updates, to help New Jersey residents suffering from fuel shortages. It directs users to stations that have fuel.

This Israeli technology has been around for a while but is worth reporting here. Israel’s Bio-Sense Technologies has a dog-alarm that can alert you when your dog senses that an intruder is approaching. It can also be used to tell you if your dog is unwell. Maybe even if it wants to go “walkies”?