Israel Active

Israeli website builder Wix has released a version of its free DIY website builder that supports HTML5. Now Wix’s product will run on any platform from PC to mobile device. Its user-friendly interface allows users to build a professional on-line presence without the need for any coding or design skills.

Yossi Vardi graduated from Israel’s Technion some 40 years ago, and helped to build over sixty hi-tech companies. Yossi remains a strong advocate of the Technion’s vital importance to today’s innovative entrepreneurs – a key ingredient to Israel’s success.

(Thanks to NoCamels) Scientists at Ben Gurion University together with a team from Clarkson University in New York have managed to produce energy from living snails and cockroaches. The quantities are small, but practical applications have already been proposed.

Israel has developed several delicious varieties of the Vietnamese Dragon Fruit. Full of anti-oxidants and vitamins, the Bilu, Venus and Desert King pitaya have a reddish or purple flesh and are sweeter than the original Dragon Fruit. They also have a longer shelf life. Enjoy!

Israeli farmers near the Dead Sea use and modify sophisticated water sensors to ensure their tomatoes and peppers received the optimum benefits from a miniscule water supply.

Tel Aviv researchers have developed protein-based semi-conductors from organic materials found in the human body. They could replace silicon to become the basis of a new generation of nano-sized technologies that are both flexible and biodegradable.

Andrea Morandi from Tel Aviv University is a member of one of the two teams of astronomers using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes to map the distribution of dark matter in galaxy cluster Abell 383, located about 2.3 billion light years from Earth.

Israel’s Weizmann Institute has a new centre that will research Physical Anthropology alongside the Timing of Cultural Change. The centre will make use of a new Mass Spectrometry Accelerator that can detect Carbon 14 isotope in minute quantities and perform more accurate carbon dating.

(Thanks to NoCamels) Why stay up all night filtering and formatting the information for your essay? Israeli startup Skills & Knowledge has launched a free app called “sCoolWork” (great name!) to save hours so you can spend more useful time learning about your subject.

The Hebrew University has launched a permanent photo exhibition “Innovators Way” showcasing 27 Hebrew University researchers whose work led to commercial products in fields such as health, safety, environment and nutrition. Their inventions are a microcosm of those of the Start-up Nation.