Anxious people have long been classified as “hypersensitive” — they’re thought to be more fearful and feel threatened more easily than their counterparts. But new research from Tel Aviv University shows that the anxious may [...]
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The Disappearance of the Elephant Caused the Rise of Modern Man
Elephants have long been known to be part of the Homo erectus diet. But the significance of this specific food source, in relation to both the survival of Homo erectus and the evolution of modern [...]
Beating Superbugs with a High-Tech Cleanser
According to the World Health Organization, antibiotic-resistant bacteria are one of the top three threats to human health. Patients in hospitals are especially at risk, with almost 100,000 deaths due to infection every year in [...]
Blasting Cancer from the Inside Out
Even when surgical tumor removal is combined with a heavy dose of chemotherapy or radiation, there’s no guarantee that the cancer will not return. Now researchers at Tel Aviv University are strengthening the odds in [...]
Relaxing Can Make You Fatter
Conventional wisdom says that exercise is a key to weight loss — a no-brainer. But now, Tel Aviv University researchers are revealing that life as a couch potato, stretched out in front of the TV, [...]
Designing a city for safe protests
Tel Aviv — Civil protests, from peaceful sit-ins at the Pentagon to violent riots in Cairo, nonetheless share some common characteristics. To study how protests evolve in public spaces, Dr. Tali Hatuka, an architect and head of Tel Aviv Unive…
World’s first skyscraper was a monument to intimidation
Tel Aviv — Discovered by archaeologists in 1952, a 28-foot-high stone tower discovered on the edge of the town of Jericho has puzzled scientists ever since. Now, eleven centuries after it was built, Tel Aviv University archaeologists at the…
Running on a faster track
What matters for commuters is not just if the train will be on time, but how long the journey will take. It’s an important factor in public transportation and can make the difference in helping commuters choose mass transit over more polluting and c…
Ancient teeth raise new questions about the origins of modern man
BINGHAMTON, NY — Eight small teeth found in a cave near Rosh Haain, central Israel, are raising big questions about the earliest existence of humans and where we may have originated, says Binghamton University anthropologist Rolf Quam. Part of…
Roaches inspire robotics
Tel Aviv — Ask anyone who has ever tried to squash a skittering cockroach — they’re masters of quick and precise movement. Now Tel Aviv University is using their maddening locomotive skills to improve robotic technology too.
Prof. Amir Ayal…
The science of bike-sharing
Tel Aviv — The new environmentally-friendly concept of municipal “bike-sharing” is taking over European cities like Paris, and American cities like New York are also looking into the idea. It allows a subscriber to “borrow” a bike from one of hun…
Keeping your digital secrets safe
Privacy in the digital age is a sensitive issue for both governments and individuals, as recent news about WikiLeaks and Facebook proved. A new research project at Tel Aviv University may better educate citizens of the virtual world about their pr…
The ‘Spaser’ heats up laser technology
Lasers have revolutionized the communications and medical industries. They focus light to zap tumors and send digital TV signals and telephone communications around the world.
But the physical length of an ordinary laser cannot be less than one h…
Secrets of an ancient Tel Aviv fortress revealed
Tel Qudadi, an ancient fortress located in the heart of Tel Aviv at the mouth of the Yarkon River, was first excavated more than 70 years ago ― but the final results of neither the excavations nor the finds were ever published. Now, resear…
When the black hole was born
Most galaxies in the universe, including our own Milky Way, harbor super-massive black holes varying in mass from about one million to about 10 billion times the size of our sun. To find them, astronomers look for the enormous amount of radiation em…
Back to the dead (sea, that is)
They’ll drill through four ice ages, epic sandstorms, mankind’s migration from Africa to the New World, and the biggest droughts in history. Tel Aviv University is heading an international study that for the first time will dig deep beneath th…
Widening our perceptions of reading and writing difficulties
Milan, Italy, 8 December 2010 — Learning to read and write are complex processes, which can be disrupted in various ways, leading to disorders known as dyslexia and dysgraphia. Two new studies, published in a recent special issue of Elsevier’s Cor…
From the brain of a locust
Tel Aviv – In the human brain, mechanical stress — the amount of pressure applied to a particular area — requires a delicate balance. Just the right force keeps neurons together and functioning as a system within the body, and proper nerve fun…
Monitoring wear in helicopters — and hips, knees and ankles, too
Tel Aviv — Ferrography, a practice used by the American and Israeli air forces to monitor the condition of machinery, extracts tiny iron particles from lubricants such as oil and grease to analyze wear in machines. Determining whether a syste…
Breaching the breech protocol
Most babies are delivered head-first, but in about 4% of all deliveries babies are “born breech” ― with their buttocks or feet first. Doctors usually exercise caution and use caesarean sections (C-sections) as the delivery method of choice for…
Gambling on bacteria
When it comes to gambling, many people rely on game theory, a branch of applied mathematics that attempts to measure the choices of others to inform their own decisions. It’s used in economics, politics, medicine — and, of course, Las Vegas. But re…
A tracking device that fits on the head of a pin
Optical gyroscopes, also known as rotation sensors, are widely used as a navigational tool in vehicles from ships to airplanes, measuring the rotation rates of a vehicle on three axes to evaluate its exact position and orientation. Prof. Koby Scheue…
How safe is your swipe?
Used in a variety of products from credit cards to satellite televisions, secure chips are designed to keep encoded data safe. But hackers continue to develop methods to crack the chips’ security codes and access the information within.
Thi…
Outsmarting killer bacteria
Antibiotics can work miracles, knocking out common infections like bronchitis and tonsillitis. But according to the Center for Disease Control, each year 90,000 people in the U.S. die of drug-resistant “superbugs” ― bacteria like Staphylococcu…
Avoiding an asteroid collision
Though it was once believed that all asteroids are giant pieces of solid rock, later hypotheses have it that some are actually a collection of small gravel-sized rocks, held together by gravity. If one of these “rubble piles” spins fast enough, …
‘Greening’ your flat screen TV
Electronic products pollute our environment with a number of heavy metals before, during and after they’re used. In the U.S. alone, an estimated 70% of heavy metals in landfill come from discarded electronics. With flat screen TVs getting bigg…
Gene Responsible For Anemia (Type CDA-1) Discovered
A combined effort between Israeli scientists has led to the discovery of a gene responsible for a type of anemia primarily found in a number of Bedouin families, called congenital dyserythropoietic anemia-1 (CDA-1). The findings, published the December issue of The American Journal for Human Genetics, could lead to effective detection and eventually treatment of the disease. In addition, understanding the role of this gene?s protein product in the body could provide important clues to other types of anemia, as well as to the general mechanisms of blood cell formation.
Bedouin illness may provide insight into anemia
Research out of Israel has led to the discovery of a gene responsible for a type of anemia primarily found in a number of Bedouin families, called congenital dyserythropoietic anemia-1 (CDA-1). The findings, published the December issue of The American Journal for Human Genetics, could lead to effective detection and eventually treatment of the disease. In addition, understanding the role of this gene?s protein product in the body could provide important clues to other types of anemia, as well as to the general mechanisms of blood cell formation.