Three candidates from the Technion were chosen this week to advance to the FameLab finals

Victor Chernov, Noa Bachner-Hinenzon and Yaron Fox will participate in the final competition that will take place on May 5, 19:00 PM in Hamada, Tel Aviv along with six others who came from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv

Is there a simple and effective way to eliminate cancer? Do the search engines really crawl millions of websites in a period of seconds? And are the children I gave birth to really be mine?

These and other issues were addressed by the contestants in the FameLab 2008 competition in the northern region, which was held at the Technion on April 1. FameLab is an international competition in scientific communication of the British Council, held in Israel for the second year. The early stages of the competition are held in three centers in Israel, and this year Professor Shimon Gepstein, head of the Center for Science-Seeking Youth, and Roy Cezana, a doctoral student in nanotechnology, took it upon themselves to organize the competition at the Technion. Roy came second in the national FameLab 2007 competition, and decided to bring the competition to the Technion this year as well. Professor Gepstein willingly picked up the gauntlet and soon the competition was born, under the auspices of the British Council. To encourage participation in the competition and to raise the level, the Technion donated a scholarship as first prize in the competition.

As part of the FameLab competition, young scientists take the stage and share with the audience a host of fascinating science stories, each in just three minutes. The topics of the lectures range from unique scientific issues (is it possible to build concrete ships?) to simple topics that we encounter in our daily lives - but never bother to think about them in depth (which curtain should I choose for a TV show?). These and other topics are conveyed with wit and grace, with an enthusiasm that is hard to hide and a strong desire to share with the audience the experience of the lecturers with the world of research and science.

The contestants in the competition at the Technion ran in front of a large audience and a team of skilled judges, who examined the lectures both in terms of scientific accuracy and presentation style. The team of judges included professors from the Technion, alongside experienced media people.

The nine competitors who qualified for the semi-final stage in the evening, spoke on different and diverse topics to the captivated audience.

Tal Daniel, who has a bachelor's degree in computer science, surprised the audience with the question of how internet search engines can scan millions of websites and generate answers for the current user within a few seconds. He explained that in fact the search engines on the net do not scan millions of sites at once, but use a limited index of tens of thousands of sites, which is updated regularly.

Ravid Barak, on track for a master's degree in the Nanotechnology program at the Technion, described how the principle of self-assembly works in nature, and why certain materials are able to connect to each other and create order out of chaos.

Gadi Alexandrovich, who is studying for a master's degree in the Faculty of Computer Science at the Technion, described a mathematical problem taken from the TV shows and showed the danger of blindly relying on intuition versus logical mathematical calculations.

Amit Kenny, a doctoral student in the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the Technion, lectured on the topic: "Why biofuels do not cause increased emissions of greenhouse gases (contrary to what was published by several British scientists)"

Reem Taha, who is studying for a doctorate in medical sciences, revealed to the audience the story of cancer cells and how they become a deadly tumor that threatens the patient's life. She went on to tell about a new way of treatment that may help in the never-ending battle against cancer.

Eran Toch, PhD student and lecturer in the field of information systems, emphasized the problematic nature of the current information network, and explained why a semantic network may be the next technological solution.

The three candidates who qualified for the final:

Viktor Chernov, a doctoral student in the Faculty of Aeronautics and Space Engineering (ranked third among the contestants), demonstrated with words, hand movements and actions how a solar sail moves in the empty expanses of space.

Noa Bachner-Hinanzon, a doctoral student at the Technion in the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering (ranked second among the contestants), explained how the heart works, and revealed that not only does it contract, but it also performs a squeezing action, similar to what we do with a wet floor rag.

Yaron Fuchs, a doctoral student in the Faculty of Biology at the Technion (ranked first among the contestants as well as the 'crowd favorite'), revealed that there is truth in the ancient urban legend, and that mothers can indeed give birth to children who are not their own. The reason for this is that some people contain cells inside their bodies that do not belong to them. They are called 'chimeras', after a creature from Greek mythology whose body was made up of several different animals - a snake, a lion and a goat. Similarly, the reproductive organs of a tiny fraction of human beings are not really their own, but developed from their mothers' cells, which penetrated their bodies in the embryonic stage. As a result, situations can happen where a child born to a certain mother does not contain the genetic load of his mother, but the genetic load of his grandmother. For deciphering this fascinating legend, Yaron was ranked first in a competition at the Technion and won a scholarship to study at the Technion.

At the end of the evening, the crowd dispersed, tired but satisfied. It was an evening of learning and enjoyment, of well-delivered science - with interest, enthusiasm and measure. But the contestants who qualified for the final still have a long way to go. On Monday of next week (April 7.4) they will join the other candidates from around the country who have qualified for the finals and will undergo a prestigious two-day workshop to improve their scientific communication skills with the participation of facilitators from Britain and Israel. The workshop will prepare them for the big challenge they face this coming May - the national finals of FameLab 2008.