The winners of the regional competition will participate in a scientific communication workshop led by Malcolm Law (Great Britain) and Assaf Peretz (Israel)
In the science communication competition of the British Council, which was held at the Bloomfield Science Museum in Jerusalem on April 3.4.08, XNUMX, three young scientists who are studying science for advanced degrees at the various universities made it to the finals:
Yifat Ofir, a master's student in genetics at the Hebrew University and the Weizmann Institute, told about interdisciplinary research that is taking place in an attempt to apply the mechanisms of inhibiting fertilization in plants, to the reproduction mechanism of cancer cells in the human body.
Alexey Amontes, a PhD student in biochemistry at Tel Aviv University, told the judges and the audience about searching for means to develop alternative energy, while studying and observing the efficient way of the chlorophyll mechanism in plants that produce energy from sunlight.
Adi Yaniv, a master's degree student in dentistry at the Hebrew University raised the question of whether the tyrannosaurus we all remember from the movie Jurassic Park was a carnivore or a scavenger? (According to the size of the teeth and the position of the eyes - yes, but according to the size of the bones in the leg he would not have run fast enough. The dilemma is still not resolved....)
Maya Schwarzman is a PhD student in biochemistry at the Hebrew University. Maya is the fourth candidate chosen as a backup to the three. For 3 minutes, Maya lectured on the connection between eating and aging:
In the process of breaking down food into energy, our body uses oxygen. As part of the process, free radicals are formed that damage tissues. Studies have revealed a direct relationship between reducing the amount of food and extending the rats' lives.
All four will participate in a two-day science communication workshop led by Malcolm Law (Great Britain) and Asaf Peretz (Israel) followed by the national competition that will be held in Tel Aviv at the Hamada Science Center on May 5.5.08, XNUMX.
The winner of the national competition will win a laptop, participate in the science festival in Cheltenham, UK and in a workshop for all participants of the competition in Europe that will be held in Istanbul.
FameLab is an international science communication competition of the British Council. This is the second year that the competition is held in Israel and Europe. The competition, which seeks the new voices in the field of science communication, encourages young scientists to present scientific topics in an accurate and professional manner, but at the same time entertaining, fascinating and understandable to the general public. The competition was developed several years ago in the UK to encourage young scientists to bring the general public closer to science and to excite people's imaginations about different scientific ideas.
