Inventions & Innovations

Killing Breast Cancer in the Dark

{image_1}An Israeli–American research team has stumbled onto a new and interesting find—a non-radiation-based therapy that may provide relief for an aggressive and hard to treat breast cancer cell known as HER2+, but which could also have wider applications for treating all kinds of cancer.

NASA Launches Israeli Technology

{image_1} The American National Aeronautics and Space Administration launched its first Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in its Vision for Space Exploration plan in June, using technology that was developed by an Israeli company. Sital Technology—headed by founder Ofer Hofman, CEO and General Manager Nir Hamzani, and Marketing and Sales VP Duli Yariv—was first contacted by NASA four years ago, shortly after the company's Web site was launched.

“De-clawing” Plutonium

{image_1}“It is easier to denature [change the nature of] plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man,” Albert Einstein once said. Einstein’s rueful sentiment may, in fact, be proven true by engineers at Ben-Gurion University (BGU) of the Negev who have developed a denaturing technique that could help combat the evils of nuclear proliferation.

An Underwater Pharmacy

{image_1} For anyone with a compromised immune system, fungal infections are a serious problem. They may sound like harmless ailments, but they can beat the best of the world’s antibiotics, and for many, contracting a fungal infection can be deadly.

Trees Send a Text Message “I’m thirsty!”

{image_1}It sounds like a fantasy, but Israeli scientists have developed a new device that taps into the stem of a tree, and when water levels are low, the tree can text a message, e-mail the farmer, or turn on the irrigation tap to water itself.

A 21st-Century Stretcher

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Since WWI, the stretcher has been the most effective method of transporting wounded soldiers from the battlefield. Updating it for the 21st century, Herzliya’s Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies has designed MedUAV, an unmanned air vehicle that can hover, land, and take off vertically without needing a runway or landing pad.

Piston-less car gets 100 MPG!

{image_1} Electric cars offer promise, but switching over still has limits. An entirely new solution may come by way of an Israeli company—Agam Energy Systems—which has developed a piston-less turbine engine, featuring a new kind of compressor. American automakers are already taking notice, the company reports.

A “Snake” Performs Surgery

{image_1} While Israel’s Dr. Alon Wolf was working as a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University in America, he—along with his American colleague Professor Howie Choset and Italian Professor Marco Zenati—designed CardioARM, a robotic snake small enough, strong enough, and flexible enough to fit inside the human body. “It cuts down the need for any ‘open’ surgery,” explains Wolf, now based at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa.

Artificial Fibre Heals Wounds

{image_1} Plastics, sheep gut, silk, and metal wire—The materials that doctors have used to stitch wounds together on the battlefield and in the clinic have changed over time, but none of the solutions are perfect. Researchers from the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa have “spun” together something brand new, a kind of fiber, which can be applied like a dressing to help a body stitch together wounds.

Translating the Web

{image_1} Even though the Internet has democratized the way people communicate and receive news and product information, it remains Western-focused and ignores 70% of the world that can’t read English—about 1 billion people online. However, a new Israeli company Alfabetic is taking a major leap towards changing the way the non-English world consumes content, creating new business opportunities for content owners.