Israel Active

Israel’s Seeds Technologies DM of Kfar Ruth has developed the “black galaxy” tomato variety. The colour was derived from blueberries and introduced into the species. The pigment provides the tomato with a high concentration of antioxidants and vitamin C.

In a continuing effort to reach the goal of 10% renewable power by 2020, Israel has recently been issuing a slew of new solar licences, including a 120 MW thermal solar plant that will be built outside Kibbutz Zeelim and a 60 MW thermal solar plant to be constructed outside Kibbutz Mashabei Sadeh, both located in the Negev Desert and estimated to be operational by 2014.

Israel’s Elbit Systems has unveiled a hyper-spectral electro-optics imaging payload with revolutionary intelligence capabilities that will soon allow the IDF to better identify enemy targets hidden by camouflage.

Veteran of three space shuttle missions, NASA’s Col. William McArthur met cadets at the Israel Air Force Flight Academy when he arrived in Israel for the Seventh International Ilan Ramon Space Conference. Col. McArthur also gave lectures to students all over Israel.

The huge investment by foreign hi-tech companies in Israel has boosted the demand for Israeli computer experts, engineers and scientists. 46 percent of all companies here are multinational ones, compared to only 5% in Japan. Apple recently announced a new R&D centre here, following in the footsteps of Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Texas Instruments and others.

Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz and Minister of Science and Technology Prof. Daniel Hershkovitz have agreed on a huge rise in Israel’s investment in space technologies. The Jewish state will invest 165 million shekels in the space program in the next two years – up from about 10 million shekels for the previous two year period.

Amazing Israeli recognition technology - When you see something interesting on TV, just point your iPhone at the screen. TvTak instantly detects what show or commercial you're watching. You can then send program recommendations to friends or use the data to buy advertised products.

(Thanks to NoCamels) Clothing-size company Upcload was co-founded by Asaf Moses, an Israeli living in Germany. It has been named as German Start-up of the Year for its technology that allows Internet users to comfortably measure their body dimensions at home, using a standard webcam. The details can then be automatically passed on to clothing websites the users want to purchase from.

(Thanks to NoCamels) Israeli start-up Appliz has developed a a free iPhone app called 4Singles that locates a potential partner using common interests and their current location. The app has over 30,000 registered users – about half Israeli and the rest from the United States and Europe.

Israel’s Technion is developing 3 unique “nano-satellites”, each less than 6kg. They will be launched in 2015 and remain in close formation. Professor Pini Gurfil said the experiment will boost the miniaturisation of electronic components, efficient processing and movement in space and advance a variety of other civilian applications. The Technion launched an 84kg satellite in 1998 that worked for 21 years.