The images that the international media
portrays of Israel are so distorted that it seems that the reporters and
editors must have closed their eyes, ears and minds to common sense. Well welcome to the blog that blows away
those false smokescreens and gives a true sense of what this amazing country is
achieving.
The brain controls our senses and the nerve
center of Israeli research is Neuroscience.
A groundbreaking ceremony took place at the site of the Edmond and Lily
Safra Center
for Brain Sciences (ELSC) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The
new building will be home to the largest neuroscience center in Israel and one
of the most ambitious in the world. One Hebrew University Professor, Hagai
Berman, is to receive he Rappaport Prize for Excellence in Biomedical Research
as overdue recognition for his work on Deep Brain Stimulation. Over
100,000 Parkinson’s sufferers have been treated with DBS, one of the
most effective treatments for the ailment.
Researchers over at Israel’s Technion are
working at the forefront of a new Neuroscience category called Optogenetics
where they have discovered a
substitute for damaged retinas. A light-sensitive protein can turn the
ganglion cells in the eye into photoreceptors.
Visual images projected onto these cells stimulate neurons and recreate
the image in the brain. Watch this
space! Meanwhile Bloomberg TV
highlighted Israel’s huge
advances in brain science. The reporter even put on an Israeli Brain
Machine Interface. But it took common
sense to recognize that Alzheimer’s sufferers
would benefit simply from wearing “MediTags” - bracelets that contain medical
and contact details in Hebrew and English in case they get lost.
Turning to the sense of smell, even habitual
slanderers of the Jewish State - the UK
Guardian newspaper and the BBC – recently
hailed the innovative
cancer breath test invented by Israel Technion Professor Hossam
Haick. And you may be able to sense the
aroma of 18,000 tons of freshly
picked apples being exported by Druze farmers in the Golan Heights to
Syria over the next three months. And
what nonsense that the BDS movement promotes the boycott of Ahava’s
fragrant skin care products, given that virtually every tour bus that
comes to Jericho is directed by the Palestinian Authority into the Ahava
Temptation store.
The visual senses are enhanced by the
super-resolution technology from Tel
Aviv-based Sightec. US-based
Pongr has just acquired Sightec to help improve its image and take its
photo-sharing business to a completely new level. And there is no need to take your eyes off the road if you
purchase a Voyager
car phone from Israel’s Accel Telecom. It acts as an extension of your
smartphone, with sensory features especially for drivers. Big, easy to access
keys; noise filtration and cancellation facilities; enhanced volume for clearer
conversations; voice activation and much more.
Israeli musicians are busy making (sound)
waves around the world. If you are
lucky enough to be in Austin Texas, you should visit the South
By South West event where you will get an opportunity to hear
performances from ten of the best Israeli bands. And to follow up on last week’s blog, here is the full video of
Iranian-born Israeli
singer Rita rocking the audience at the United Nations.
It also makes perfect sense that Israel’s
educational activities are attractive to the world. For example, the Chinese Ambassador to Israel visited Israel’s
Technion and explained how the long histories connecting China and Israel
attracts top
Chinese students to study there.
Then, in Washington DC, the new Israel Institute opened its doors with a
novel mission: to advance the
scholarly study of modern Israel in the United States and around the
world. Finally, Israel became a global
player in the educational
games industry when Israeli publisher of children’s and family apps,
TabTable, bought Israeli smartphone educational games company Kids Games Club.
Together they market over 200 educational apps.
Israeli scientists have made so many
medical discoveries that they almost seem to have a sixth sense. No wonder then that a delegation from the UK
HQ of GlaxoSmithKline
visited the Weizmann Institute, Sheba Medical Center, Hadassit in Jerusalem,
Ben-Gurion University, Israel Technion and other institutions. GSK’s leader Dr.
Duncan Holmes said, “We recognize the huge expertise of Israeli academics in
research in this field.”
I’ll conclude this journey through the
physical senses with the news that NASA engineer David Brent will shortly
become an American Israeli. He writes
that he is going up in the world by making Aliya and immigrating to the Jewish
State. He says that in Israel, the laws of physics are
reversed as it is a lot easier to go up, than to go down.
David can sense that he is coming home.
Michael Ordman writes a free weekly
newsletter containing Good News stories about Israel.
For a free subscription, email a request to
michael.goodnewsisrael@gmail.com
