Author: AUFTAU

Meet the women behind the next groundbreaking scientific discovery

Written by AUFTAU on 9 March 2020. Posted in Newsroom.

This year, for International Women’s Day, we’d like to introduce you to some of the amazing women working on the next groundbreaking scientific discovery across the TAU campus.

Fixing the environment

Judy Lax is a doctoral student from the Department of Environmental Studies, who spends her time trying to solve the climate crisis in creative ways.

“For me, the climate crisis is the most important and urgent issue there is,” Lax says. “Every moment of my day I deal with the issue in two ways. First, through my research, led by Prof. Colin Price and Prof. Hadas Saaroni, we examine how the humidity in the air can be utilized to generate and store renewable energy in relatively high humidity areas, based on our knowledge of atmospheric electrical phenomena.

“At the same time, through a special project led by former United States Vice President Al Gore (known for his commitment to environmental issues), I give lectures for the general public, which is my way of passing on knowledge and ecological conviction. The combination of passing on knowledge, together with continuing research and trying to develop crisis solutions, is my way of working for the benefit of my daughters and all of our children, so that they have a cleaner and safer world.”

Bats are our future

What brings an experienced veterinarian like Dr. Maya Weinberg to go back to school and study bats?

“I ended up with the bats accidentally and stayed because they’re unlike anything else I knew before. So much about them is still unknown, and they have some extraordinary qualities,” says Dr. Weinberg, a doctoral student at the School of Zoology, part of Dr. Yossi Yovel’s research group. “It seems like everything about this animal is interesting and unusual: the social aspect, the immune system, their fertility, their healing. My PhD combines my love of bats as a clinician and as a researcher. I study the bats’ immune system in relation to non-harmful bacteria (microbium) and also bacterial disease.

“This is because I find bats to be a very healthy animal, and if there is a dominant disease in them, it comes from bacteria (and not from viruses, which people are used to blaming). I have a good adviser who gives me a lot of guidance when necessary but also a lot of freedom. I’m also a mother of three girls, which shows you can do both. When I grow up, so to speak, I want to be at the center of things, researching and being creative. Which is exactly what I’m doing now. My message is clear: always follow what interests you.”

Engineering with beetles

Dr. Bat-El Pinchasik, of the School of Mechanical Engineering, was fascinated by the creative ways beetles and lizards utilize the water around them, and today she develops biomimetic systems that mimic desert animals’ solutions to water scarcity.

“Insects and lizards that live in areas where water is inaccessible need to collect it from other sources. For example, from the air and morning fogs,” explains Dr. Pinchasik. “At times when temperatures are lower, when there’s higher wind and humidity in the air, the air condenses on their bodies. Evolution has made them ‘smart surfaces’ that spontaneously transport the water that has collected directly into their mouths.”

For example, the Texas horned lizard has three-dimensional trenches on its back that serve as its “pipeline”. With the Namib Beatle beetle, most of the body is hydrophobic (water repellent), but it’s sprinkled with hydrophilic micrometric protrusions, which concentrate the droplets in defined places, and roll them directly into the beetle’s mouth. “Our ambition is to define the laws that make such systems effective, to develop smart materials similar to beetles, and to use advanced 3D-printing technologies to build systems that can change lives in areas where water is inaccessible.”

Over the past week, we’ve shared the stories of these women of science on our LinkedIn page, which you can follow for more interesting stories in the future. For now, we wish you a happy, productive and educational International Women’s Day.

Can blood pressure in your twenties cause cognitive decline in your fifties?

Written by AUFTAU on 6 March 2020. Posted in Newsroom.

High blood pressure, or hypertension, affects everything from your arteries to your kidneys, from eyesight to sexual function. Among older adults, high blood pressure is also associated with cognitive decline as a result of interrupted blood flow to the brain, as well as strokes, heart attacks and impaired mobility.

A new Northwestern University–Tel Aviv University study has revealed that subjects who experienced relatively high blood pressure during young adulthood also experienced significant declines in cognitive function and gait in midlife (approximately 56 years old). The study cohort included about 200 young adults with an average age of 24 at the beginning of the study.

The research was led by Prof. Farzaneh A. Sorond and Dr. Simin Mahinrad of Northwestern University’s Department of Neurology and Prof. Jeffrey Hausdorff of TAU’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine, TAU’s Sagol School of Neuroscience and Tel Aviv Medical Center’s Center for the Study of Movement, Cognition, and Mobility at the Neurological Institute. The study was published in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation on November 21, 2019.

Thirty years of data

“We find that the deleterious effects of elevated blood pressure on brain structure and function begin in early adulthood. This demonstrates the need for preventive measures of high blood pressure even at this early age,” explains Prof. Hausdorff. “We know that poor gait and cognitive function among older adults are associated with and predict multiple adverse health outcomes like cognitive decline, dementia, falls and death. Our study shows that the time to treat high blood pressure and to minimize future changes in gait and cognition is much earlier — decades earlier — than previously thought.”

In addition, the study suggests that gait impairment may be an earlier hallmark of hypertensive brain injury than cognitive deficits.

For the study, the researchers assessed the blood pressure, gait and cognition of 191 participants from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study, a community-based cohort of young individuals followed over 30 years. In the last year of follow-up, gait was assessed using an instrumented gait mat; cognitive function was evaluated using neuropsychological tests; and the level of white matter intensity in the brain, a symptom of cardiovascular disease, was measured using MRIs. The impact of cumulative levels of high blood pressure was found to be independent of other vascular risk factors over the same 30-year period.

High pressure leads to smaller steps

“Higher cumulative blood pressure was associated with slower walking speed, smaller step length and higher gait variability,” Prof. Hausdorff says. “Higher cumulative blood pressure was also associated with lower cognitive performance in the executive, memory and global domains.”

“Our takeaway is this: Even in young adults, blood pressure has significant implications, even at levels below the ‘hypertension’ threshold, and is important to assess and modify for future cognitive function and mobility,” Prof. Hausdorff concludes.

The power of women in 2020

Written by AUFTAU on 3 March 2020. Posted in Newsroom.

International Women’s Day, originally called International Workers’ Day, is marked annually on March 8th. It’s a political statement that calls for the world to pause for a moment and focus on the economic, social and political achievements of women, while drawing attention to the discrimination that still exists against women around the world.

International Women’s Day has been celebrated around the world since the early 20th century. Although we’ve progressed since then, gender inequality still affects most women. Women make up half the world’s population, but hold less than 23% of parliamentary positions worldwide, earning about 30% less on average than men doing the same jobs.

“Discrimination against women in the workforce harms women, their families, businesses, and the economy as a whole,” says Prof. Daphna Hacker, from the Buchmann Faculty of Law and the NCJW Women and Gender Studies program at the Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities at Tel Aviv University.

“Women face discrimination when seeking employment because of the maternal role they play, they aren’t rewarded fairly for the work they do, and they’re affected by the glass ceiling, which prevents them from advancing to management positions. They are hurt because they do not enjoy the best workforce and diversity that women bring with them to the workplace; and the entire economy shuffles around when women are not allowed to exercise in all kinds of professions and occupations.”

Each for Equal

Each year, a theme is selected for International Women’s Day Campaign, and this year the focus stems from the notion of “collective individualism”: our actions, conversations, personal behaviors can affect all of society. Together, we can make change happen.

The campaign says: “Let’s build a gender equal world. Equality is not an issue exclusively for women, it’s a business issue for everyone. Gender equality is essential for economies and communities to thrive. A gender equal world can be healthier, wealthier and more harmonious – so what’s not great about that? The race is on for the gender equal boardroom, a gender equal government, gender equal media coverage, gender equal workplaces, gender equal sports coverage, more gender equality in health and wealth … so let’s make it happen. Let’s be #EachforEqual.”

Building a female professional network

In the world of work, one of the most important strategies for career management in general and job searches in particular is effective networking, which can, among other things, bring about a coveted job, higher pay or quick promotion. Such activity involves developing relationships with others who have the potential to provide work or career advice. For example, joining professional associations, searching for high-visibility assignments, participating in social activities and more. When the data shows that even in 2020, women earn less and there are fewer of them in management positions, some women think that women can use these social tools to fight for their place in a very competitive market.

“Networking is considered especially critical for women because it is a strategy they can use to break the glass ceiling,” explains Meirav Hauben, a personal career consultant at Tel Aviv University’s Career Development Center. “Being able to build relationships with others can help women expand their reach to senior positions in the organization. But various studies show that men and women do not work the same way in establishing and maintaining relationships, and this difference gives men a significant advantage.”

“We see today that women’s participation in the workforce is approaching that of men, but familial obligations are still primarily a woman’s responsibility, and a lot depends on her ability to combine work and family roles. Often, women may experience conflict between these roles. For example, if I want to have lunch with senior managers at the office, but still have the responsibility to leave early and pick up my child from kindergarten – I will not be able to take part in this important networking activity. “

“Women should be encouraged to look at and examine their location on the social networks they build, the value they bring to the network, and how they tend to use it to achieve their professional goals. When seeking work, every woman should proactively create and maintain relationships in a way that serves those professional goals. “It is important that organizations continue to encourage equal opportunities, recruit and promote women to senior positions, where women can be role models and create a network for other women.”

In recent years, we’ve been seeing the beginnings of a welcome trend where employers are encouraging both men and women to give importance to family life and the work-life balance, something that improves job satisfaction and employee productivity. In the Netherlands, for example, the work week is only 29 hours, compared to 40.6 hours in Israel. Denmark and Norway are also on the list of countries with the lowest weekly working hours in the world. Recently, high-tech companies in Israel have begun to allow workers to work from home a few days a week, but we’re still a long way away from finding a good balance between raising children and investing in a career.

^{Can’t do without it – mingling is important for networking and professional success}

Studying and articulating gender

Virginia Wolf said: “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” Prof. Hannah Naveh and Prof. Hannah Herzog of Tel Aviv University thought that a woman needed her own publication as well, and established “Genders” – a series of research and philosophy books in all areas of women’s and gender studies and feminist theory, which they’ve been editing for twenty years.

The character of the mother of the soldier in new Hebrew literature, the preoccupation with dance in childhood and adolescence for girls in Israel, the 19th century female initiation novel and dozens of other subjects around gender and femininity make for a fascinating title list, where any woman can find something of interest. Over thirty books have been published in the series since the year 2000, including breakthrough books and even bestsellers, most of which have become major texts and have shaped critical thinking at Israeli universities. Researchers from Israel presented original and innovative research in “Genders”, among them: Daphna Hacker, Sharon Geva, Roni Halpern, Tova Cohen, Orit Kamir, Michael Gluzman, Nissim Gal and more. You can find all the books on the United Kibbutz Publishing site.

Living online

At Tel Aviv University, women researchers are soaring and paving the way for science and discovery. Want to know more talented female scholars and read about their work? All week, the University’s social networks will put women front and center, in the stories at the telavivuni instagram account, the tau2go Facebook account, and in English on the TAU LinkdIn account, using the #tau_wmn hashtag.

New Dual Degree Program – TAU & Columbia University

Written by AUFTAU on 29 February 2020. Posted in Newsroom.

Cutting-Edge Education Meets Non-Stop Discovery

Tel Aviv University is proud to announce its newly launched new Dual Degree Program with Columbia University.

As part of the Dual Degree Program, students will begin their college education in one of six academic programs at Tel Aviv University, and have the opportunity to immerse themselves in two elite research universities whose academic, social, and cultural environments allow students to take advantage of the best that both cities have to offer.

The Program, which will welcome its inaugural class in the fall of 2020, transcends traditional study abroad opportunities by providing the opportunity to pursue a rigorous undergraduate liberal arts education spanning two continents. Upon completion of the four-year program, graduates earn two bachelor’s degrees, one from each institution.

The program joins the Columbia University School of General Studies’ current portfolio of highly regarded international undergraduate dual and joint degree programs with Sciences Po, Trinity College Dublin, City University of Hong Kong, and List College of the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS). Created in 1954, the joint program with JTS was the first program of its kind to be established at the School of General Studies.

For any information such as admissions, costs & curriculum please visit the joint dual degree website.

TAU researchers discover unique, non-oxygen breathing animal

Written by AUFTAU on 27 February 2020. Posted in Newsroom.

Researchers at Tel Aviv University have discovered a non-oxygen breathing animal. The unexpected finding changes one of science’s core assumptions about the animal world.A study on the finding was published on February 25 in PNAS by TAU researchers led by Prof. Dorothee Huchon of the School of Zoology at TAU’s George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences and Steinhardt Museum of Natural History.The tiny, less than 10-celled parasite Henneguya salminicola lives in salmon muscle. As it evolved, the animal, which is a myxozoan relative of jellyfish and corals, gave up breathing and consuming oxygen to produce energy.

Living without oxygen

“Aerobic respiration was thought to be ubiquitous in animals, but now we confirmed that this is not the case,” Prof. Huchon explains. “Our discovery shows that evolution can go in strange directions. Aerobic respiration is a major source of energy, and yet we found an animal that gave up this critical pathway.”Some other organisms like fungi, amoebas or ciliate lineages in anaerobic environments have lost the ability to breathe over time. The new study demonstrates that the same can happen to an animal — possibly because the parasite happens to live in an anaerobic environment.Its genome was sequenced, along with those of other myxozoan fish parasites, as part of research supported by the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation and conducted with Prof. Paulyn Cartwright of the University of Kansas, and Prof. Jerri Bartholomew and Dr. Stephen Atkinson of Oregon State University.

Reversing what we know about evolution

The parasite’s anaerobic nature was an accidental discovery. While assembling the Henneguya genome, Prof. Huchon found that it did not include a mitochondrial genome. The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell where oxygen is captured to make energy, so its absence indicated that the animal was not breathing oxygen.Until the new discovery, there was debate regarding the possibility that organisms belonging to the animal kingdom could survive in anaerobic environments. The assumption that all animals are breathing oxygen was based, among other things, on the fact that animals are multicellular, highly developed organisms, which first appeared on Earth when oxygen levels rose.

“It’s not yet clear to us how the parasite generates energy,” Prof. Huchon says. “It may be drawing it from the surrounding fish cells, or it may have a different type of respiration such as oxygen-free breathing, which typically characterizes anaerobic non-animal organisms.” According to Prof. Huchon, the discovery bears enormous significance for evolutionary research.“It is generally thought that during evolution, organisms become more and more complex, and that simple single-celled or few-celled organisms are the ancestors of complex organisms,” she concludes. “But here, right before us, is an animal whose evolutionary process is the opposite. Living in an oxygen-free environment, it has shed unnecessary genes responsible for aerobic respiration and become an even simpler organism.”

What’s it like to study at TAU?

Written by AUFTAU on 24 February 2020. Posted in Newsroom.

Petr Pesov, a student at the International B.A. in Liberal Arts program and founder of the Youth Innovation Forum, Petr has found Tel Aviv to be full of surprises.

Where are you from?

I was born in Russia and then moved to Latvia during high school.

What are you studying at TAU?

Currently I’m a third-year International B.A. in Liberal Arts student, majoring in Psychology. I’m also interning in the Boris Mints Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions to Global Challenges. Petr Pesov

Did anything about studying at TAU surprise you?

Israel is really not what it seems, from what you initially hear from people and how they describe it. Especially when it comes to Tel Aviv, which is perhaps one of the most progressive and flourishing places I’ve ever been.

What’s been your favorite class at TAU?

I really enjoyed one of the classes in my first year: Post-Truth, Post-Politics and another class last year – Business Ethics, which were both philosophy classes, but with a real-life application of the philosophy of information flow and the ethical implications of corporations and different schools of ethics.

What do you do when you’re not studying?

I’m the co-founder of a new student-initiative project on campus: the Youth Innovation Forum. YIF encourages the exchange ideas in a variety of academic disciplines in our weekly meetings. We host presentations on various topics (given by experts) to complement the degrees of students who are part of the Forum, and broaden our horizons. We also share various projects with our students and encourage them to start their own, for example we are currently forming a group of students working on an AI household farming project.

What was the first word you learned in Hebrew?

I believe it was “slicha”, which means “sorry” and always comes in handy when you want to pass someone or something in the wonderful and busy streets of Tel Aviv, or when you want to grab someone’s attention.

What’s next for you?

After I finish my BA I’m hoping to do my MA in Conflict Resolution, move to Israel and pursue my PhD, with aspirations towards a mix between an academic and a practical career in the field of Public Policy.

TAU Embraces Australia after Bushfires

Written by AUFTAU on 20 February 2020. Posted in Newsroom.

The University jointly organized a solidarity event for the restoration of nature and wildlife Down Under

As a way of giving back to Australia at its time of need, Tel Aviv University co-sponsored a fundraising concert attended by 1,000 guests. The Australian Bushfire Relief evening, held jointly with the Zionist Federation of Australia, Jewish National Fund Australia (KKL) and the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce, took place on February 3 at Hangar 11, a gig venue at the Tel Aviv Port, a popular outdoor pedestrian area by the sea.

Income from the gathering was donated to the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF), a global NGO focusing on wilderness preservation.

Keynote speaker Prof. Tamar Dayan of TAU’s School of Zoology, who also chairs the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, described the environmental ramifications of the wildfires.

“Only now are we starting to understand the magnitude of this disaster and how it will affect us all,” said Prof. Dayan. “The physical scale of the damage is unprecedented; it is six times bigger than the outcome caused by the big wildfires in California in 2018. It is estimated that one billion animals were killed and others are at a real risk of extinction, meaning all the wildlife preservation efforts to date were reversed all at once.”

According to Dayan, no government can prepare for a natural disaster of this scope, specifically the fires’ duration and reach.

“There are many factors affecting the restoration of nature and wildlife, including the quantities of rain in the coming months and whether or not the drought lasts. The Australians are trying to assess the process of rehabilitating the damaged areas but only time will tell,” she said.

Prof. Tamar Dayan (left) and Meir Buber. Photo: Jorge Novominsky, KKL-JNF photo archive

Prof. Dayan is one of a couple dozen researchers at TAU’s George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences whose expertise in biodiversity, ecology, plant sciences, climate change and other fields are relevant for Australia’s rehabilitation.

“TAU enjoys a warm and longstanding friendship with Australia, its people and the Australian Jewish community,” said Meir Buber, TAU Senior Executive for Resource Development for Australia, who co-organized the event on behalf of the University. Australian organizations and individuals have supported the University generously over the years, especially for environmental causes, he stressed, and added: “Through this event we want to say thank you to the Australians for their deep rooted support for TAU.”

TAU co-organizer Gillian Rosner, Australia Liaison, added: “At the University we’ve had excellent relations with Australian business delegations, with the Australian Embassy, with Ambassador Chris Cannan and with his predecessors for years. For example, Cannan attended the Balfour Declaration centenary we hosted in 2017 at TAU. Now we’re seeing an outpouring of sympathy by Israelis for Australia.”

Vibrant and cheerful atmosphere

Donated for the evening by its owner, Melbourne-born Zev Eizik, the Hangar 11 venue hosted performances by Israeli social singing initiative Koolulam, reality show songstress Hagit Yaso, Israeli trumpet player Arik Davidov and Israeli-Australian musician Savannah Zwi. Comedian Jeremie Bracka, who is actually an Australian-Israeli human rights lawyer, performed stand-up.

Among attendees at the lively event were Ambassador Cannan, many former Aussies who immigrated to Israel, and residents of Israeli towns near Gaza who for years have received Australian support after rocket attacks. The crowd also included the Roim Rahok (“Seeing Far Ahead”) organization and its trainees, youngsters on the autistic spectrum who are prepared for integration into military service.

The book “Frank Lowy: Pushing the Limits” by Jill Margo telling the story of the Australian-born TAU benefactor was sold at the event in benefit of the WWF.

Australian Ambassador Cannan tweeted his appreciation after the fundraiser: “Thank you Israel for showing, in a big way, your support for Australia’s bushfire recovery. An amazing night of comedy, singing and fundraising for the one thousand Israelis there to support their mates from down under at a tough time.”

The crowd singing at the Australian Bushfire Relief event. Photo: Jorge Novominsky, KKL-JNF photo archive

Rethinking our plan(e)t

Written by AUFTAU on 20 February 2020. Posted in Newsroom.

“Plan(e)t”, a new exhibition at the Genia Schreiber University Art Gallery, has turned the gallery space into a colorful landscape of plants, animals, and large mysterious objects. Walking from room to room, you’ll find yourself surrounded by lush fruit trees and fearsome birds of prey, strolling through an arid desert and visiting a field of robotic plants. A view of paradise “Promised Land,” the work of David Burns and Austin Young, which stretches across the walls and first-floor windows of the gallery, offers visitors views to Israeli nature: birds, insects, some from the archives of the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, and the rich and diverse vegetation of Israel’s fruit trees. The photos the exhibition is comprised of were taken across the country by the artists during a period of several months. Visitors are also offered maps, which they can take with them, with the locations of fruit trees across Tel Aviv’s urban landscape.

^{From the “Promised Land”: The gallery walls covered in all the colors of the rainbow. (Photo: Asaf Brenner)} Meet me in the living room The “living room” created by the Onya Collective is a bright, living space intended for resting, reading and taking in the exhibition. This is a growing space, in all senses of the word, where workshops and discussions will take place, and will continue to change and expand as the exhibition continues.

^{A plant environment that’s also an urban environment} Robots in the field Artist Liat Segal, known for her sophisticated use of technology, has created huge stems that respond to the changing light in the gallery space. Like plants in nature, their movement follows the light and adapts to how it changes. The stems of the robotic “plants” are coated with carbon fiber, a material that combines both organic and artificial properties.

^{“Tropism” – giant stalks that illustrate the movement of plants. (Photo by Asaf Brenner)} The weeping stones The final part of the exhibition is the work of the French artist Stephan Teide, “The Weeping Stones”. The giant boulders hanging in the air undermine the laws of gravity, while shedding tears in an arid world, lacking any hint of vegetation. The work presents a “miracle”: the stones seem to produce water by themselves, and the constant dripping produces both a meditative and otherworldly experience.

^{The weeping stones (Photo: Asaf Brenner)} Like nature, the exhibition is expected to change and grow throughout the year, as its living components change, expand, wilt and renew themselves. The exhibition will be open until June 2020, and will include guided tours, lectures and other events open to the public.

Careful, it’s viral

Written by AUFTAU on 18 February 2020. Posted in Newsroom.

Are global preparations for the coronavirus outbreak enough? Is the bad PR bats have been getting justified? And how do you build two brand new hospitals in a few days? Tel Aviv University researchers explain it all.

The usual suspects

Everyone’s looking for someone or something to blame for the outbreak and spread of the deadly coronavirus, and again, as in the Ebola and SARS eruptions years ago, the main suspects are the bats.

Dr. Maya Weinberg of the School of Zoology and a member of the research group of Professor Yossi Yovel, comes to the defense of the winged mammals: “It’s true that there’s a 96% match in the genomes of the coronavirus found in the first patients, to those found in bats. But that’s not enough. First, we like to work with higher match rates, at least 99%. Second, the corona is a multifaceted virus, and I wouldn’t be surprised if today, several weeks since the outbreak, patients are in hospitals with different genetic sequence.”

Could it be that the infection was caused by eating sick bats? “The answer is yes. A sick bat can be contagious. Is it advisable to eat sick animals, whether they are bats or rats or chickens? The answer is no. It’s not advisable to eat any animal before veterinary sanitation,” says Dr. Weinberg.

Although everyone is pointing an accusing finger at bats, they’re not considered an animal that can cause an outbreak. “To be considered an animal that’s spreading disease, two conditions have to be met: the first, that the animal will not die from the virus it carries, and the second – that the virus will replicate in the fluids and organs of the body. This will create viral DNA that can be spread further. Bats don’t meet these two conditions,” she explains. “The bats’ immune system adjusts and constantly “corrects” itself. For example, when they fly at night to look for food, their body temperature rises to 42 degrees (Celsius), which naturally clears their bodies and takes away pathogens. They have the ability to deal with foreign or decomposing DNA, and they also have antiviral proteins that our body expresses only during illness, but are found regularly in the blood of bats.”

^{One good bat on the tree is better than a sick bat on the plate. (Photo: Jonathan Ben Simon)}

The government that built two hospitals within a week

To cope with the growing medical burden, the Chinese government has undertaken a task that seems impossible – setting up two hospitals in a matter of days to provide care to coronavirus patients. The Chinese accomplished the mission within ten very intense days (and nights), with over 10,000 workers working efficiently around the clock. Two new Wuhan hospitals opened, in the region the virus first broke out, and are expected to take in about 1,500 patients each.

Professor Asaf Goldschmidt, from the Department of East Asian Studies, is not surprised. In a recent article, he shows how, a thousand years ago, during the Song Dynasty in the 11th and 12th centuries, the Chinese government addressed the outbreak of plague.

“The Chinese state is organized into bureaucratic organizations, and some deal with public health, medical aid and food distribution. Long before the Westernized bureaucracy, it was already working in China, with the main goal being efficient tax collection. The Chinese already understood what every welfare state advocate says today – to collect taxes, the state has to give something back,” explains Prof. Goldschmidt.

“In China, the Emperor ruled, and some of his status was also derived from the willingness to help the people in times of distress. When events like natural disasters or epidemics happened, the Chinese saw it as a sign that the gods were asking the emperor to improve his behavior, including concern for his people. Even today, the legitimacy of the Communist Party comes partly from concern for the population, “he concludes.

^{Only in China. From a parking lot to a hospital in 10 days.}

From the Far East to the Middle East

Even if you have no plans to visit China, the coronavirus is spreading rapidly and may reach Israel as well. Dr. Bruria Adini is the head of the Department of Emergency Management and Disaster Medicine from the School of Public Health, in which students learn about the various risks facing society in Israel and the world, discuss their implications and contribute through research activities.

“Coping with communicable diseases is a global challenge, and Israel, as part of the international community, is committed to working effectively to address that risk.” Dr. Adini explains. “Appropriate preparation includes formulating protocols and procedures, maintaining equipment inventory, medication and vaccines (if available), and training routinely so that essential steps such as epidemiological investigation, isolation, closure, and medical care can be taken quickly.

The health system in particular, and Israel’s emergency systems in general, have for several decades been dealing with a variety of dangers, including those resulting from the spread of pathogens such as viruses or bacteria (by natural outbreak or as a result of human acts, such as biological terror). When there’s an event that has the potential to impact society in Israel, such as the current coronavirus, defined by the World Health Organization as an emergency event, it’s of course the state’s duty to take precautions and reduce the severity of its impact on society in Israel. To date, most patients are in China, but the possibility of the disease spreading to Israel can’t be excluded.”

Global warming is bad for your health

“It’s important to know that with global warming, more and more new epidemics like the coronavirus and SARS are expected to occur,” Dr. Adini notes. “This is because things like deforestation, expansion of urbanization or agriculture, bring humans closer to nature (animals and plants), which makes them more susceptible to those naturally occurring viruses. For centuries, viruses have survived and evolved in wild animals to not harm the host body, but when they pass from animals to humans, they can quickly cause great damage. The weather can also affect the spread of the virus. For example, the degree of humidity in the air can allow the virus to survive for a longer time (for example, when the person sneezes) compared to drier air, thus actually helping climate conditions to transmit the virus.”

^{Expanding urbanization processes leads nature into our backyard, which can be dangerous}

Is what has been done so far in countries like China to prevent the spread of the virus satisfactory? “One major problem is that in a significant number of countries in the world there’s not a sufficiently well-developed system that can monitor the entire affected population, including early identification of the exposed and infected population. As a result, the total number of carriers and / or patients may be unknown, so all countries have to prepare for a scenario where the scope of the disease is much larger than currently known.

Dealing with an infectious disease, which people contract even before they have obvious symptoms, is a significant challenge, even for large countries. Since the disease doesn’t have a vaccine or drug treatment, it’s important to take steps to contain the event, such as quarantine the affected, isolate patients and restrict movement, to prevent the spread of the virus and minimize its damage. Proper steps are now being taken, but it is unclear whether, at the beginning of the epidemic in China, these actions were taken as quickly as necessary.

Israel is taking precautionary measures, including distributing protective clothing to medical teams and other first responders, creating a policy for isolating patients and people who are suspected of being exposed to the disease. Israel also has a very good ability to provide palliative care to patients.”

Do you think the information currently being distributed about the coronavirus is trustworthy? “It should be based only on reports and guidelines from officials, and take the informal reports with a grain of salt. Fear is a natural state of affairs in these situations, and knowledge reduces anxiety. However, in a state of fear and great uncertainty, social networks are spreading a lot of rumors and “fake news”, which distorts reality and causes tension and anxiety beyond what’s necessary. It’s important to be careful and follow the Ministry of Health’s guidelines for maintaining hygiene and care.”

Who are the 2020 Dan David Prize laureates?

Written by AUFTAU on 14 February 2020. Posted in Newsroom.

The internationally renowned Dan David Prize, headquartered at Tel Aviv University, annually awards three prizes of US $1 million each to globally inspiring individuals and organizations, honoring outstanding contributions that expand knowledge of the past, enrich society in the present, and promise to improve the future of our world. The total purse of US $3 million makes the prize not only one of the most prestigious, but also one of the highest-value prizes internationally. This year’s fields are Cultural Preservation and Revival (Past category), Gender Equality (Present category), and Artificial Intelligence (Future category).

The Laureates

Cultural Preservation and Revival (Past Category)

Lonnie G. Bunch III was the founding director of the Smithsonian’s inspiring National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., which constitutes the most comprehensive and significant project toward the preservation of the full sweep of African American history and its impact on American and world history. With over 40,000 exhibits, the museum has been critically praised for its clear-sighted, unflinching portrayal of the African American experience. An influential curator and prolific author, Bunch serves today as the Smithsonian’s 14^th Secretary – the first historian and first African-American to be appointed to this position. Prof. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett is a distinguished scholar of Performance studies and Jewish Studies at New York University, who led the development of the core exhibition of POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, winner of the 2016 European Museum of the Year Award. The museum is a hub for Jewish historical preservation in Warsaw, tracing the 1000-year history of Polish Jews, in an effort to re-animate a vibrant and culturally rich vanished Jewish world, which she has spent a lifetime exploring – telling the story literally where it took place.

Gender Equality (Present Category)

Prof. Debora Diniz is the Deputy Director of the Rights and Justice Unit for the International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region, where she oversees strategies to promote and protect gender equality, sex, and reproductive rights and health, and to eliminate violence against women and girls in Latin America and the Caribbean region. Her ongoing contributions span her work in sexual and reproductive health rights, social protection, and reframing the Zika virus in relation to social and racial inequalities. Prof. Gita Sen is a pioneering feminist scholar, researcher, and advocate. For decades, she has worked expansively in the fields of population policies, reproductive and sexual health, women’s rights, poverty, labor markets and global governance, combining her academic career with policy advocacy and activism. Her innovative research on disadvantaged populations in low income rural settings, together with her mentorship of young scholars and advocates, has made a significant impact on the field.

Artificial Intelligence (Future Category)

Dr. Demis Hassabis is a pioneer of artificial intelligence and a widely-cited neuroscientist. He is the co-founder and CEO of DeepMind, one of the world’s leading AI research companies, which seeks to combine insights from neuroscience and machine learning with the latest developments in computer hardware, to construct a mechanism for general-purpose learning – ‘artificial general intelligence.’ To date, DeepMind has published nearly 1,000 papers – including multiple Nature and Science publications – and achieved groundbreaking results in challenging AI domains, from self-learning algorithms playing strategy games at a “superhuman” level (DQN and AlphaGo), to protein folding and medical applications. Prof. Amnon Shashua is a machine learning and computer vision researcher at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His work and insights formed the seeds of several startups he has co-founded over the years, including Mobileye (acquired by Intel Corp. in 2017), which develops AI to enable driving assistance systems and autonomous driving technology – to date, more than 55 million cars throughout the world are equipped with Mobileye systems; and OrCam, which harnesses computer vision and natural language processing to assist the visually and hearing impaired.

About the Dan David Prize

The Dan David Prize was established by the late Dan David, an international businessman and philanthropist whose vision is the driving force behind the international Dan David Prize. His aim was to reward those who have made a lasting impact on society and to help young students and entrepreneurs become the scholars and leaders of the future. Previous Dan David Prize laureates include cellist Yo-Yo Ma (2006); former US Vice President Al Gore (2008); novelist Margaret Atwood (2010); filmmakers Ethan and Joel Coen (2011); distinguished economist and recent Nobel Laureate, Esther Duflo (2013); and discoverer of the breast cancer gene, Professor Mary-Claire King (2018). The laureates donate 10% of their award money to scholarships for graduate or post-graduate researchers in their respective fields. Ariel David, director of the Dan David Foundation and son of the prize founder, said: “We are very proud of the unique model the Dan David Prize takes in turning the spotlight on endeavors that often do not fall under traditional prize categories, yet result in outstanding contributions to humanity that define who we are and shape our future.” The Prize’s unique model implements a ‘roving’ formula that rewards achievements in all fields of human endeavor, rather than in a fixed set of categories, and every year, a new theme is selected for each of the three time categories – past, present, and future. The six laureates will be honored at the 2020 Dan David Prize Award Ceremony, to be held in Tel Aviv in May 2020.