Israel at the Olympics!

Israel has caught the Olympic Fever, with three athletes competing in the Vancouver 2010 Games. Mykhaylo Renzhyn (Alpine Skiing) and Alexandra and Roman Zaretsky (Figure Skating) are proudly representing Israel in the Games. Tune in to the Ice Dance compulsory event on Friday, February 19th at 4:45 PM to cheer on siblings Alexandra and Roman. IOC Exec member Daphne Jackson caught a sneak peek of the event today and promises it will be fantastic! Check out some pictures below of the Israeli duo, see this article at Haaretz newspaper and check online-- for athlete bios and more information!

One of Israel's Biggest Exports: SCIENCE!

Israel is one of the leading producers of scientific achievements in the world, with the 13th most Nobel laureates per capita (three in chemistry, two in economics, one in literature, and three in peace). This is made even more impressive by the fact that while Israel is only 61 years old, the Nobel prizes (with the exception of the prize in economics) have existed since 1901.

As the new year begins, we can look back at 2009 and examine the various contributions made by Israel to science over the previous year. We can begin by mentioning that one third of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2009 was given to Israeli scientist Dr. Ada Yonath of the Weizmann Institute of Science (Rehovot, Israel) ‘for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome’.
In 2009, the Israeli company Nucleix (life science company specializing in forensic DNA analysis) for the first time produced ‘fake’ DNA evidence; a sample of blood using a random DNA indistinguishable from a sample of real blood.

A major breakthrough in robot technology occurred in Israel this year at Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa when engineers produced the robot Virob. Virob is a microbot that can move by applying an external magnetic field, thus eliminating the need to include an internal power source. The engineers plan to eventually deploy this technology in people’s ears to aid people suffering from hearing loss.

After 10 years of development, a fully functional prosthetic hand was developed by a group of researchers from Ireland, Italy, Iceland, Denmark, and Israel. Using this hand, amputees can play the piano, write, type, and do other every-day motions.

This past year, the first artificial black hole analogue was created by researchers at Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. This effort was the culmination of nearly 30 years of effort from people around the globe which began by the prediction of Canadian physicist William Unruh that such a project would be theoretically possible.
The CleanTech group (company which supports clean technology) named Israel as number 5 in the world’s cleanest technology countries for 2009, citing innovative water technology resources.
The Thomson Reuters information agency ranked Israel second in the world with regards to impact in the space sciences (just ahead of Canada, number three) over the periods between 1999 and 2009.

Sources:
Nobel prize in chemistry 2009:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2009/index.html
Nucleix fake DNA:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=lab-creates-fake-dna-evidence-2009-08-18
Technion microbots:
http://t3.technion.ac.il/pdf_files/1220767440.pdf
Prosthetic hand:
http://www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-3803524,00.html
Technion black hole:
http://www.focus.technion.ac.il/Oct09/newsStory1.htm
CleanTech top 10 countries:
http://cleantech.com/news/5127/top-10-cleantech-countries-2009
Thomson Reuter top 20 space science countries:
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=408577&c=1

By Jeff Price, VP Finance IOC