UNICEF Innocenti's Report Card 17 explores how 43 OECD/EU countries are faring in providing healthy environments for children. Beyond children’s immediate environments, over-consumption in some of the world’s richest countries is destroying children’s environments globally. This threatens both children worldwide and future generations. To provide all children with safe and …
THE Danish dragger ship "Skandia" is illegally dumping toxic waste from the Israeli fertiliser company Haifa Chemicals in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea, according to Greenpeace. Interestingly, the Danish Law on Protection of the Sea prohibits its ships from dumping wastes at sea anywhere in the world. Greenpeace reports …
an israeli ship Aribelwas recently intercepted while pumping toxic wastes into international waters off Haifa, Israel. The dumped material is very acidic and contains heavy metals such as zinc, cadmium and mercury. The environmental pressure group, Greenpeace, has appealed to the government of Israel to stop regular dumping of toxic …
israel , Jordan and Palestine have reached a consensus to protect the Dead Sea basin. In the last 50 years, the level of the Dead Sea has gone down by nearly 40 metres. According to Ayman Rabi, director of EcoPeace, a non-government orga- nisation, about one-third of the basin has …
Garlic protects against disease-causing micro-organisms. But till recently, no one knew how it performs the germ-killing function. David Mirelman of the Wiezmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, has discovered that garlic contains a peptide called allicin which attacks proteins rich with amino acids. When the researcher exposed Entamoeba histolytica parasites …
Electric charges are known to come in integral multiples of the smallest charge called electron. But in certain cases, these charges are also found in fractional units. Scientists in Israel and France have separately confirmed the quantum Hall effect. According to the law, when electrons are restricted to flow in …
A team of researchers led by Ehud Ahissar of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, says that the brain always keeps track of changing frequencies of neurones like a Frequency Modulator (FM) radio. Information is passed in form of electrical pulses to the processing centre in the cortex. …
THE COMPLETE PICTURE: Televisions all over the world display only 88 per cent of the image broadcast by TV stations. Now, Korean-based electronics company, Samsung is developing televisions that will display the missing 12 per cent. Called HiTron TV sets, these televisions are 2.5 centimetres wider than usual. Conventional TV …
a solid lubricant has been developed in Israel that does not lose its lubrication properties even in humid conditions. R Tenne and his colleagues, at the Department of Mechanics and Control, Centre for Technological Education, Holon and Department of Materials and Interfaces and Chemical Services Unit, Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, synthesised …
in the recent months, water has become a major bone of contention between Israel and Jordan. Recently, a ceremony to inaugurate a peace park on the border between the two countries was cancelled because Jordan insisted that Israel should fulfil its commitment, under the 1994 Jordan-Israel peace treaty, to supply …
A nasal vaccine for influenza, containing inactivated viruses, has proved effective in trials on 51 volunteer medical students in Israel. Although the medical students were exposed to the illness on a daily basis during their work, none of the immunised students caught flu. Developed by Zichira Zakey-Romes of the Hebrew …
Researchers in Israel say that the tendency to abuse heroin arises partly from one's genes. According to them, a handful of genes playa role in a wide variety of addictions and that there is a link between a specific gene mutation and opiate addiction. Richard Ebstein of the Sarah Herzog …
the rivalry between mongooses and snakes is legion. What has always puzzled researchers has been the mongoose's ability to counter deadly snake-venom. Now a team of scientists in Israel has discovered that it is not the quick reflexes of these mammals that saves them from the lethal bite of snakes …
fresh water might become a reality for Israelites with the recent discovery of three salty springs beneath the Sea of Galilee. The sea mainly receives its water from the river Jordan which carries very little salt, but water coming out from springs makes the sea water saline. By sealing these …
In the last decade pan evaporation measured at the Southern Dead Sea has significantly increased. Wind, temperature and humidity measurements at the Dead Sea starting in the 1930s as well as 3-D model simulations all seem to indicate a statistically significant change in the local climate of the Dead Sea …
robots will have yet another dimension added to them to enhance the various capacities in which they can serve humans. If scientists at Israel's Weizmann Institute have their way, robots will be fitted with three-dimensional vision soon, allowing them to carry out tasks that require a perception of depth. The …
The Beit She:n Valley in northern Israel has witnessed a miracle of sorts. A small rainwater collection plan in this valley has expanded into a massive network of chennels, carrying some 9,000 cu m of water an hour. The 200-sq- km flatland records an annual rainfall of 300 mm. The …
Cheap, solar-generated electricity has now become a reality with the successful testing of a prototype solar device at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. It produces sufficient hot air from the sun's rays to drive the turbines of a 50 kw power station. The funnel-shaped device focuses the energy through …
A CURIOUS dichotomy in the development of higher animals (plants are exceptional in this respect) has come to light following recent research. During the course of embryogenesis, a fertilised egg goes through a series of multiplications that, along with growth, are responsible for a tremendous increase in the number of …
Farming in desert, and that too fish farming, would seem an impossible task to most. But a team of enterprising farmers led by Yitzhak Levy has developed a super intensive technique to produce yields which are not only profitable but also much higher than those of fish ponds in favourable …
THIS is a carefully researched study of the extent of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the Jordan river waters. The subject has been examined in a non-partisan manner not only in the context of its historical'setting, but also of the dimensions of problems in water sharing between all countries situated in …
