Uncovering the Secrets of White Cell Power
White blood cells push their way through barriers to get to infection sites 26.01.2017 White blood cell squeezing through endothelial cells (grey) on its way out of the blood vessel walls. The actin cytoskeleton of both cells is exposed; the white blood cell nucleus...
Programmed Proteins Might Help Prevent Malaria
A new approach to stabilizing protein structures could be key to an efficient vaccine 26.01.2017 A malaria vaccine based on stabilized proteins could circumvent today's problems Despite decades of malaria research, the disease still afflicts hundreds of millions and...
Bats Remember Directions
Researchers identify the cells that orient bats – and possibly humans – toward a destination 12.01.2017 Egyptian fruit bat. In today's issue of Science, Sarel et al report on a new functional class of hippocampal neurons in bats, which encode the direction and...
Viruses Overheard Talking to One Another
Viruses that infect bacteria communicate to coordinate infection 18.01.2017 Viruses may be stealthy invaders, but a study at the Weizmann Institute of Science reveals a new, chatty side of some: For the first time, viruses have been found communicating with one...
A Multiple-Impact Origin for the Moon
New simulations challenge the idea that the Moon was born of a single giant collision 09.01.2017 The formation of the Moon has remained something of a puzzle. A leading theory proposes a cataclysmic impact involving a Mars-sized object and a young Earth. But there are...
Very Cold, but Oh-So Sensitive
A nanothermometer is thousands of times better at detecting heat transfer at the atomic level 02.01.2017 Detecting heat transfer in a pristine graphene sample with the new nano-thermometer. Left: Optical image of graphene sample. Right: The thermal image reveals a...
Video year in review 2016
2016 Final Videos Year In Review from Weizmann Institute on Vimeo.
One in a Thousand
Heating up: One ion and thousands of atoms, all at a millionth of a degree above absolute zero 19.12.2016 Fluorescence image of a single trapped Sr+ ion immersed in a cloud of 100,000 trapped Rb atoms. The ion is trapped by radio-frequency fields. The atoms are...
Gene Editing Takes on New Roles
A new combined method may finally give scientists a tool fine enough to probe life’s most nuanced processes 15.12.2016 What combinations of mutations help cancer cells survive? Which cells in the brain are involved in the onset of Alzheimer’s? How do immune cells...
Mystery of Super Flash Solved
The brightest flash of light in the cosmos could be a rare event involving a star and a supermassive black hole 15.12.2016 When astronomers and astrophysicists observe flashes of light in the dark sky, they assume they have seen a supernova. Possibly a star has burnt...