The full list of the 50 selected scientists includes three scientists from Israel
Editors' word
An achievement for scientists, a challenge for the education system
In this issue we bring the list of the 50 selected by Scientific American who made a unique contribution to the advancement of science and technology in 2007. As in previous years, we were pleased to find Israeli scientists again this time, Professors Eshel Ben-Yaakov and Bekah Solomon, and Dr. Itai Baruchi, all three from Tel Aviv University, and Dr. Hanan Deri, a graduate of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Technion, who is currently in a postdoctoral position in the USA B. The spotlight article on page 22 is also dedicated to the unique achievement of Baruchi and Ben-Yaakov.
The experiment conducted by Ben-Yaakov and Baruchi is surprising in its simplicity and boldness. They showed for the first time that it is possible to "recharge" some simple memories in a culture of brain nerves (neurons) in a dish. The memories are kept at the same time for days without being erased or "interfering" with each other. They actually created a prototype of a neural chip built from networks of living cells connected to a computer. The strong media response and excitement caused by the discovery is partly due to the fact that another idea that found its expression in science fiction is about to be realized. This is perhaps a first step towards the creation of a cyborg, a term coined in 1960 by Fred Klein and Nathan Klein to describe a creature that integrally combines man and machine (cybernetic organism) and since then has been a regular hero in science fiction works.
Prof. Becca Salomon has developed an innovative approach to the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, based on human-friendly bacteriophages. The method overcomes the difficulties accompanying other approaches that are being tested these days in clinical trials (Prof. Bekah Solomon's special achievement will be covered in a spotlight article in the next issue of Scientific American Israel).
Dr. Hanan Deri together with his friends invented a scheme of a logic gate that consists of permanent magnets and voltage levels and allows controlling the spin of electrons. Based on their invention, they proposed a computer scheme based on spintronics.
But it is natural that the average Israeli citizen, and not only the science seeker, will be proud and happy about the achievements of our scientists in the international arena, but he will surely also wonder how this is reconciled with the low achievements of our students, in the Israeli Mitzvah tests and the PISA and PIRLS tests the international ones, whose results were published almost at the same time. Israeli governments for generations have always stated the importance of education and the need to develop the country's human capital, but most of them have not allocated the appropriate financial resources for this. In recent years, there have been deep cuts in the budget of the education system, especially in technological and scientific education. And our sages have already said: "If there is no flour, there is no Torah".
It is worth noting the large gaps in the students' achievements in these tests according to the socio-economic level and the various sectors of Israeli society. The polarization that begins in schools is increasing in colleges, universities and places of employment in the Israeli economy, and may harm the social resilience of the country. The US students also did not succeed in the PISA tests, and "took" a disreputable place lower than the average of the 30 member countries of the Organization for "Economic Cooperation and Development" (OECD). The American education system was also severely criticized in light of these findings. Even in the USA, the contradiction between the achievements of its students and the fact that the USA produces the highest number of Nobel laureates stands out. Apparently, the "heterogeneity" of the education system in the USA as a country of immigration, as in Israel in the past, has considerable weight. But while the USA serves as a magnet for outstanding scientists from all over the world, Israel is losing its attraction and its brains are "running away" to the USA and the advanced European countries.
Opposite examples can be used by Scandinavian countries such as Finland, whose students won the first places in the international tests. In these countries, the education systems are more homogeneous and egalitarian, with uniform curricula in all schools. We all know where David Ben-Gurion's dream of uniform and equal state education for all went. This is the challenge for the education system in Israel: reducing educational gaps between the strata and sectors of society on the one hand, and promoting outstanding students on the other. This is the only way we can add to and be blessed with the international achievements of Israeli scientists in future generations.
Technological over-optimism is a danger that always lurks for professionals and hobbyists alike who follow innovations, from artificial intelligence to the flying car. But sometimes new technologies really fulfill even the wildest expectations.
Scientific American's 50 Top 2007 list is full of examples of new machines or materials that approach the true meaning of the word "innovation" in the sense that they are indeed completely new. One of the winners developed a device capable of measuring zepto-liters, meaning volumes of a billionth of a billionth of a milliliter. Another winner found a method that would allow you to charge the mobile phone without connecting it to electricity - all you have to do is sit, with the phone in your pocket, next to a charging coil located in the ceiling. And another innovation promises to pave the way to treat the mysterious and deadly diseases caused by prions such as mad cow disease.
We, at Scientific American Israel, are particularly proud of the inclusion of three Israeli scientists, all from Tel Aviv University, whose discoveries opened new horizons in the study of thinking and the treatment of Alzheimer's disease: Prof. Bekah Salomon, Prof. Eshel Ben-Yaakov and Iti Baruchi.
This year's winners have the ability to contribute much more to human health, consumer electronics and many other fields, than just another antidepressant that "plays" with serotonin levels or another slightly faster tiny processor. What they did was completely new.
Leader of the year in research
1. The Association of Wellcome Foundation Researchers for Comparative Genetic Scanning
Leader of the year in business
2. Omiris Biotechnologies, Emeryville, California
Leader of the year in policy making
3. X Prize Foundation, Santa Monica, California
The other winners are in the fields of research, business and policy making
Connect to a cable-free future
4. Marin Sulejczyk, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (Research)
5. Apple Company (business)
6. Robert Grist, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Wayne DeSilva, Pomona College (Research)
get from here to there
7. Manjunath N. Swamy, Institute of Immune Diseases at Harvard Medical School (Research)
8. Hans Bomans and his colleagues at the Netherlands Organization for Applied Research
fuel alternatives
9. James A. Dumesic, University of Wisconsin-Madison (Research)
10. Radoslav R. Adcik, American National Laboratory at Brookhaven (research)
11. Shelley D. Mintir and Tamara Klotzbach, Saint Louis University (Research)
Fight toxins at home
12. Patricia A. Hunt, Washington State University (Research)
13. American Pharmaceutical Association and US Fish and Wildlife Service (Policy)
measure the smallest
14. Peter W. Sutter and Eli A. Sutter, US National Laboratory Brookhaven (research)
15. Groups of physicists from Hokkaido University, Japan and Bristol University, England (research)
Recruiting mosquitoes to fight malaria
16. Marcelo Jacobs-Lorna, Johns Hopkins University (Research)
17. Bruce A. Hay of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) (Research)
the material world
18. Nancy R. Sotos and Scott R. White, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Research)
19. Benoit Roman and Jose Biko, Institute for Higher Education of Industrial Chemistry and Physics of Paris (research)
20. Robin J. Hicks, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada and Rajaspan Jain, University of Windsor, Ontario (Research)
21. Sergey Demokritov, University of Münster, Germany (Research)
Neurological insights
22. Itai Baruchi and Ashel Ben-Yaakov, Tel Aviv University (research)
For the full article - neurological insights
23. Richard D. Smith, US Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Desmond G. Smith, University of California, Los Angeles (Research)
24. Stina M. Tucker, Esther O. and Juan K. Troncoso, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Research)
25. Bekah Solomon, Tel Aviv University (research)
manipulate light
26. Yuri A. Vlasov, IBM Thomas G. Watson Research Center (research)
27. Takasumi Tanabe, NTT Basic Research Laboratories, Japan (Research)
28. A. Fred Schubert, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (research)
29. Eugene S. Polcik, Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen and Ignacio Sirac, Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, Germany (Research)
Progress in the fight against prions
30. Giovanna R. Malucci, London Institute of Neurology (research)
31. Robert Rohwer, Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center (research)
Solar energy is getting a boost
32. Gregory S. Engel, University of Chicago (Research)
33. Stefan Van Dessel and his colleagues from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (research)
Stem cell control
34. Shinya Yamanaka, Kyoto University (Research)
35. Feidong Yang, University of California, Berkeley, and Bruce R. Conklin, Gladstone Heart Institute, San Francisco (Research)
36. Frank D. McKeon, Harvard Medical School (Research)
37. Kevin Egan, Harvard Stem Cell Institute (research)
Spray and spin
38. Masahiro Furusawa, Seiko-Epson Corporation, Japan (Business)
39. Hanan Deri, University of California at San Diego (research)
restore to perfection
40. Todd A. Kuiken, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (research)
41. Dean Kamen, from the DEKA research and development association (research)
42. Cato T. Lorencin, University of Virginia (Research)
the fastest way
43. Dominik Schultz, University of Karlsruhe, Germany (research)
44. Google (business)
45. IntelliOne (Business)
From penetrating vision to sweeter sleep
46. Brian Shulkin, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
47. Lawrence C. Rome, University of Pennsylvania and Biological Laboratories, Woods Hall (Research)
48. Actelion Pharmaceutical Materials, Ellschwil, Switzerland (business)
49. Connor R. Cafray, University of California, San Francisco (Research)
50. Ilaria Capua, University of Viale, Padua, Italy (Policy)
Neurological insightsBiologists have designed memory on a chip and new ways to treat Alzheimer's disease
How are memories made? To demonstrate the way in which the process occurs at the most basic level, biophysicists at Tel Aviv University recreated it using nerve cells connected to a computer chip. Itai Baruchi and Eshel Ben-Yaakov placed nerve cells taken from rat embryos on a chip and connected 64 electrodes to record the activity of the cells. The researchers saw that the neurons sent signals in a uniform pattern every time they dripped a stimulating substance at the same place on the chip. After a period of time, the neurons began to send the signal pattern even without the chemical stimulus. This is the point where, the researchers believe, the memory is burned. [See an interview with Baruchi and Ben-Yaakov in the Spotlight section on page 22.]
Understanding the differences between proteins produced by healthy brain tissues and proteins produced in diseased tissues may allow a new approach to diagnosis. Richard D. Smith from the American Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Desmond J. Smith from the University of California, Los Angeles have created a complex system for protein analysis that combines advanced instrumentation with sophisticated imaging methods. The system makes it possible to examine cubes of one millimeter from the brain tissue of a pair of healthy mice. The researchers determined the prevalence of 1,028 proteins in the tissues. Future experiments will use the method to compare healthy brain tissue with brain tissue from a neurodegenerative disease.
Better diagnostic methods are especially needed for Alzheimer's disease. Stina M. Tucker, Esther Oh and Juan K. Troncoso of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have developed a diagnostic method that utilizes antibodies that bind to amyloid-beta proteins. These proteins form the harmful plaques in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. The antibodies attached to proteins in the early stage of Alzheimer's-like disease in genetically engineered mice. The findings may lead to testing in humans which, with drugs currently in development, could thwart the disease with preventive treatment.
One option may be to combine the test with treatment using phages - viruses that infect bacteria - to break up the harmful plaques. Becca Solomon of Tel Aviv University presented the first evidence for this possibility by introducing the phages by nasal spray into the brains of 100 genetically engineered mice that developed Alzheimer's-like plaques. After a year of treatment, the treated mice had 80% fewer plaques than untreated mice. [An interview with Becca Solomon will be published in the next issue of Scientific American Israel.]
