Like water

Shifaa Mahamid, a student at Umm Al-Fahm High School, won third prize in the young scientists competition for work she performed under the guidance of the institute's scientists

 
Right: Shifaa Mahamid, Dr. Elisabetta Boerto, and Amani Kamal Mahamid. following curiosity
What is the age of the groundwater in the mountain aquifer? This is the question that preoccupied Shifaa Mahamid, a high school student in Umm al-Fahm. Research she carried out with the aim of answering this question won her third prize in the "Young Scientists Competition in Israel" on behalf of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports. Following the win, she was sent to Sweden, where she participated in a competition of works on various topics on behalf of the European Union.
"Physics fascinates me", she says simply. "At a certain point I wanted to try research work in this field. Not in theory, but in a practical way, doing experiments, entering laboratories. And since water is an essential resource without which it is impossible to exist, I decided to focus on this issue. Ancient water can mix with new water, which can make it very difficult to determine the age of the water in the aquifer. But nevertheless I decided to face this challenge".
"To estimate the age of water in an underground reservoir, the concentration of the carbon 14 isotope found in it must be measured. In the first step, we took a water sample from the unsaturated layer in the soil, and tried to understand the ratio of the content of carbon 14 in the water. In this way it is possible to study the content rate of this isotope in the water before it enters the aquifer. This amount is compared to the amount of the isotope that was present in the water when it reached the aquifer. Since the radioactive isotope decays at a known rate, comparing the two quantities expresses the amount of time that has passed since the water arrived in the aquifer until today. This is how you can determine the age of the groundwater." Initially, Shifaa began visiting and studying at the Center for Physics Studies in the city of Umm al-Fahm. Interested students come to this center after school hours in high school. Here they meet the teacher Abu Sameh (Mohammed Yusuf Jabrin), who encourages them to explore and deepen the fields that speak to their hearts. When she progressed in the research work, the teachers decided to direct her to continue the research under the guidance of Dr. Elisabetta Boarto from the Department of Environmental Sciences and Energy Research, and the director of the Carbon 14 Documentation Laboratory at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Shifaa: "At first I was afraid, but the researchers at the Weizmann Institute welcomed me and helped me with my research. We came to the institute many times during the year to take measurements and discuss the results. Working with the researchers at the institute gave me self-confidence, thinking tools, and a language - the language of scientific work. I learned how to read the measurements, use the books. This research is actually my transition stage from the high school period to the academic period." Her family and friends also encouraged her and supported her throughout the period.
Dr. Elisabetta Boerto: "It's all thanks to Israel Karmi, who ran the institute's dating laboratory until he retired a few years ago, and is currently doing a doctorate at Tel Aviv University. There he became aware of the program of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports to 'encourage young scientists'. Naturally, Shifaa's dating research caught his attention, and he directed it to the dating laboratory of the Weizmann Institute of Science." Israel Karmi, Dr. Buarto and Dr. Ruth Yam met with Shifaa, taught her to measure the amount of the carbon 14 isotope in various samples, and helped her advance her research. Success, as they say, leads to more success. And so, following Shifaa's success, Amani Kamal Mahamid, also from Umm al-Fahm, became interested in the same subject. It focused on determining the age of water in sources (springs and wells) in the Judean Mountains and Jerusalem. Amani: "For the purpose of this work, we actually formed a research team: Dr. Elisabetta Boerto, Dr. Yosef Yehiali from the Geological Institute, our teacher Maum al-Fahm, Abu Sameh, and myself. We collected samples of water from four springs in the Jerusalem mountains, then we did the measurements in the laboratory. We found the amount of tritium and the amount of carbon 14 in the water, and thus we knew that the age of the water in these sources is 40-50 years.
This year, Hanin Mahamid will continue the tradition, which will focus on "dating ancient trees". This work will be carried out in collaboration with the National Fund for Israel. "The girls are serious, curious, listen and ready to learn," says Dr. Buarto. "They are pulling the work forward, and we hope they will continue to move forward." Shifaa and Amani are already marking the "next goal" - medical studies.   

Amani Kamal Mahamid collects water samples in the field