Israeli entrepreneurship is the key to the future

In June 2012, "Haaretz" published an article whose subtitle stated: "Science subjects in Israel are in collapse: the age of teachers has increased in the last decade by tens of percent and the number of study hours has decreased

In the early 60s, American President John F. Kennedy set a very high bar for the American space agency: landing the first man on the moon by the end of that decade. In those years, electronic computers were only in their infancy, and the Intel Corporation for the production of computer chips had not yet been born. The real mission was political, to put the first American on the moon, and to do it before the Soviets.

Credit: spaceIL

Since then the moon was almost forgotten, but the imagination of an entire generation was sparked: thousands of people began to study science and technology. In the 60s, universities all over the world, including in Israel, received thousands of scientists and researchers, new faculty members, whose work changed the world from the edge.

In June 2012, "Haaretz" published an article whose subtitle stated: "Science subjects in Israel are in collapse: the age of teachers has increased in the last decade by tens of percent and the number of study hours has decreased." The article shows a decrease of more than 25% in the number of students studying mathematics in the scope of 5 study units, that the number of study hours in chemistry decreased by 33% and in computer science by 42%. The age of physics and math teachers is increasing and many of them are approaching retirement - and there are no replacements.

Three engineers, young entrepreneurs, once again raise their faces to the moon in the hope that it will rekindle the youth's enthusiasm for the study of science and engineering. Bash's rival, Jonathan Weintraub and Kafir Demari, founded spaceIL, a non-profit association, to participate in the Google-sponsored X-Prize to the Moon competition. The initiative swept hundreds of volunteers, industrial companies, engineers, teachers, lawyers and teenagers who want to fulfill the dream - to place the Israeli flag on the moon and donate the prize money for scientific-technological education in Israel. The interview we conducted with Yariv Bash, in the "Spotlight" section (page 26), brings many examples of creativity and innovation that characterize Israeli thinking.

This entrepreneurship led many to call the State of Israel the start-up nation. And even perusal of the pages of this issue will allow you to find examples that will demonstrate this. The official futurist of the hardware giant, Intel's Brian David Johnson, for example, chose to point out in an interview he conducted for the international edition of Scientific American, that many of Intel's chip designers work in Israel.

The development of a bionic eye that can restore sight to people whose retinas have been damaged by disease is one of the developments presented in the article dealing with the future of medicine (page XX). The article chooses to focus on companies abroad, but in the meeting we held with the VP of the Israeli company Nano-Retina, Kobi Kaminitz, we heard how his company is developing an even better product.

These are just a few examples of Israeli entrepreneurship and creativity that we must preserve at all costs, through the restoration of scientific-technological-mathematical-engineering education in Israel. If we strive for existence, in the Middle East and in the world that is changing before our eyes, we have no other choice.

Scientific American Israel, celebrating ten years with the publication of this issue, is also published, by Ort Israel, non-profit and with the same sense of mission - to bring the best of global scientific writing to the youth in Israel, to their teachers and to their families in order to encourage the youth Apply for science and technology studies and join the Israeli entrepreneurship and innovation community.

This turnaround will only happen if quality teachers with knowledge and skills and a sense of mission teach science, math and technology in schools. This is a national task that the government should lead in order to maintain the economic and security strength of the State of Israel.