The Technion’s story has been intertwined with Israel’s for more than a century, from laying the foundations for a new nation to shaping its future.
U.S. astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams splashed down to Earth on Tuesday after more than nine months in space. But now, they have a new mission: recovery. Why it matters: Muscle atrophy, bone density loss and even vision changes are expected side effects of long-duration space missions. And while some of the impacts of a layover hundreds of miles above Earth are quickly reversible, others can persist. Wilmore and Williams splashed down Tuesday evening after undocking from the International Space Station early that morning. Zoom in: One prominent effect of extended time in microgravity is muscle atrophy…
Noam Azran is a real live cowboy. He spent a decade on horseback patrolling the vast cattle ranches of California and Argentina. And now he heads an Israeli tech startup that uses drones — instead of traditional cowboys — to monitor the welfare of millions of cows. BeeFree Agro has just delivered its first fleet of “autonomous flying cowboys” to a paying customer. They’re the eyes in the sky that will transform the way the world’s beef cattle are farmed, says Azran. “I find it hard to believe in 10 years from now there will be commercial livestock growers who…
Unlike artificial language models, which process long texts as a whole, the human brain creates a “summary” while reading, helping it understand what comes next. In recent years, large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Bard have revolutionized AI-driven text processing, enabling machines to generate text, translate languages, and analyze sentiment. These models are inspired by the human brain, but key differences remain. A new Technion – Israel Institute of Technology study, published in Nature Communications, explores these differences by examining how the brain processes spoken texts. The research, led by Prof. Roi Reichart and Dr. Refael Tikochinski from the…
Pop star Katy Perry and journalists Gayle King and Lauren Sanchez, who is also billionaire Jeff Bezos’ fiancée, are set to blast off into space on a Blue Origin rocket, marking the first all-female flight crew in more than six decades. The New Shepard rocket, a 59-foot tall (18-meter) suborbital spacecraft, will carry the crew to the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space, Bezos-owned Blue Origin said in a statement. Passengers will experience a few minutes of microgravity before returning to Earth via parachute-assisted landing in the West Texas desert. NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics researcher Amanda…
Without a crystal ball, it’s impossible to predict with absolute certainty the outcome of any legal process. But AI is getting pretty close. A startup in Israel has developed an algorithm that is currently 85 percent accurate in assessing liability and in predicting how a case will conclude. That number will only increase as the AI handles more cases. “Litigation is a very unknown territory,” says Yariv Lissauer, CEO at Haifa-based Canotera and a former lawyer with vast experience in the startup world. “There are a lot of unknowns, a lot of complications, a lot of regulations and decrees. But…
Unlike artificial language models, which process long texts as a whole, the human brain creates a “summary” while reading, helping it understand what comes next. In recent years, large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Bard have revolutionized AI-driven text processing, enabling machines to generate text, translate languages, and analyze sentiment. These models are inspired by the human brain, but key differences remain. A new Technion – Israel Institute of Technology study, published in Nature Communications, explores these differences by examining how the brain processes spoken texts. The research, led by Prof. Roi Reichart and Dr. Refael Tikochinski from the…
Imagine a future where technology allows us not only to see and hear each other from great distances but also to feel – examining a sick patient or tucking in a grandchild from across the globe. Techion Professor Lihi Zelnik-Manor is on a mission to hone technologies that will realize these possibilities. “I love thinking about […]
Frankly, I think 100 years is too far to look into the future because we will see dramatic new scientific areas emerge 20 years from now. My grandfather immigrated to Israel in 1946 from Holland to be a Technion student in civil engineering. At that time, civil engineering and mechanical engineering were the most prestigious […]
The world of dairy farming has come a long way since Anna Baldwen from New Jersey patented her “Hygienic Glove Milker” in 1879. The cows hated it and would often kick over the milk bucket. But her rudimentary handheld mechanized pump heralded a new era in technology. Farmers today are braced for another revolution. Large herds of cows are, for the first time, being milked by robots, thanks to Afimilk, based at Kibbutz Afikim, northern Israel. In 1979, Afimilk launched the world’s first “milk meter” – which measures the yield of each individual cow, senses when the milking is over,…
The time is 4 a.m. The night watchman at the commercial center in Herzliya, which is half abandoned even in the middle of the day, is surprised to see the unusual gathering: a large group of children and their parents are excitedly lining up to enter the building. The location may be drab, opposite a beauty parlor, and a floor above a spy products shop, but what is taking place between the walls of the building is nothing short of revolutionary. It is here that the scientists of SpacePharma developed the new global technological frontline in medical experimentation—an innocent-looking box…
Israeli space company SpaceIL signed an agreement with the United Arab Emirates to cooperate on a joint mission to the moon in 2024, according to the Technion UK. The mission, called Beresheet 2 in a reference to the Book of Genesis, is one of many new collaborations between the two countries following the signing of the Abraham Accords normalization agreement. It follows the original Beresheet spacecraft launch in 2019, which failed when the craft crash-landed. SpaceIL called the Beresheet 2 mission “the first scientific-technological project to create a common history for the two peoples: the flags of Israel and the…
The first test flight of Blue Origin’s huge New Glenn rocket could have major implications for long-term economics of the space industry, say experts. The launch marked a major milestone for Blue Origin, which was started by Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos in 2000. While the company’s New Shepard spacecraft has made multiple launches, sending space tourists to the edge of space, New Glenn takes Blue Origin into the new territory of orbital space missions. Taller than the Statue of Liberty at more than 320 feet tall, New Glenn is one of the largest space vehicles ever built. By comparison, NASA’s…