Newsroom – Page 6 – Australian Friends of Tel Aviv University

Crushing the Longtime Myth of Masada

Written by AUFTAU on 10 September 2024. Posted in Newsroom.

Researchers from the Sonia & Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University used various modern technologies, including drones, remote sensing, and 3D digital modeling, to generate the first objective, quantified analysis of the Roman siege system at Masada. Findings indicate that contrary to the widespread myth, the Roman army’s siege of Masada in 73 CE lasted no more than a few weeks.

The study was conducted by the Neustadter expedition from TAU’s Sonia & Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, headed by Dr. Guy Stiebel, together with Dr. Hai Ashkenazi (today Head of Geoinformatics at the Israel Antiquities Authority), and PhD candidates Boaz Gross (from Tel Aviv University and the Israeli Institute of Archaeology) and Omer Ze’evi-Berger (today at the University of Bonn). The study is part of the expedition’s extensive mission, implementing advanced tools and posing fresh questions, to attempt a new understanding of what really happened at Masada. The paper was published in the Journal of Roman Archaeology.

Dr. Guy Stiebel

New Tech Reveals Old Secrets

Dr. Stiebel: “In 2017 my expedition renewed, on behalf of TAU’s Sonia & Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, excavations at Masada – a world-famous site explored extensively since the early 19th century and throughout the 20th century. Our expedition sets forward several new questions and implements many novel research tools that were not available to previous generations of archaeologists. In this way, we intend to obtain fresh insights into what actually happened there before, during, and after the Great Jewish Revolt. As part of this extensive project, we devote much scholarly attention to the site’s surroundings. We use drones, remote sensing, and aerial photography to collect accurate high-resolution data from Masada and its environs, emphasizing three aspects: the water systems, the trails leading to and from the palatial fortress, and the Roman siege system. The collected information is used to build 3D digital models that provide a clear and precise image of the relevant terrains. In the current study, we focused on the siege system, which, thanks to the remote location and desert climate, is the best-preserved Roman siege system in the world”.

3D model of Tower 7 and the circular feature to its left, view to the west. Photo Credit: The Neustadter Masada Expedition, taken from the Journal of Roman Archaeology.

Dr. Stiebel adds: “For many years, the prevailing theory that became a modern myth asserted that the Roman siege of Masada was a grueling three-year affair. In recent decades researchers have begun to challenge this notion, for various reasons. In this first-of-its-kind study, we examined the issue with modern technologies enabling precise objective measurements”.

3D model of the ramp/staircase, view to the southwest. Photo Credit: The Neustadter Masada Expedition, taken from the Journal of Roman Archaeology.

The researchers used drones carrying remote sensors that provided precise, high-resolution measurements of the height, width, and length of all features of the siege system. This data was used to build an accurate 3D digital model, enabling exact calculation of the structures’ volume and how long it took to build them.

What Really Happened at Masada?

Dr. Ashkenazi: “Reliable estimates are available of the quantity of earth and stones a Roman soldier was able to move in one day. We also know that approximately 6,000-8,000 soldiers participated in the siege of Masada. Thus, we were able to objectively calculate how long it took them to build the entire siege system – eight camps and a stone wall surrounding most of the site. We found that construction took merely about two weeks. Based on the ancient historical testimony it is clear that once the assault ramp was completed, the Romans launched a brutal attack, ultimately capturing the fortress within a few weeks, at the most. This leads us to the conclusion that the entire siege of Masada lasted no more than several weeks”.

Tower 10 and the wall abutting it. Photo Credit: The Neustadter Masada Expedition, taken from the Journal of Roman Archaeology.

The Truth Behind Masada’s Brief Siege

Dr. Stiebel: “The narrative of Masada, the Great Jewish Revolt, the siege, and the tragic end as related by Flavius Josephus, have all become part of Israeli DNA and the Zionist ethos, and are well known around the world. The duration of the siege is a major element in this narrative, suggesting that the glorious Roman army found it very difficult to take the fortress and crush its defenders. For many years it was assumed that the siege took three long years, but in recent decades researchers have begun to challenge this unfounded belief. In our first-of-its-kind study, we used objective measurements and advanced technologies to clarify this issue with the first data-driven scientific answer. Based on our findings we argue that the Roman siege of Masada took a few weeks at the most.”.

“As empires throughout history have done, the Romans came, saw, and conquered, quickly and brutally quelling the uprising in this remote location. Our conclusion, however, detracts nothing from the importance of this historical event, and many baffling questions remain to be investigated”- Dr. Stiebel.

He continues: “For example: Why did the Romans put so much effort into seizing this remote and seemingly unimportant fortress? To answer this and many other intriguing questions we have initiated a vast, innovative project in and around Masada – collecting data and analyzing it thoroughly in the labs of TAU’s Sonia & Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, in collaboration with other researchers, to ultimately shed new light on the old enigma: What really happened at Masada?”

ERC 2024 Awarded to 11 TAU Researchers

Written by AUFTAU on 8 September 2024. Posted in Newsroom.

Congratulations to 11 TAU Researchers on the Prestigious ERC Starting Grant 2024.

The European Research Council (ERC) announced the winners of the ERC Starting Grant for 2024. Among the winners are eleven researchers from Tel Aviv University from various research fields. The grant is aimed at promising early-career scientists, enabling them to achieve their research goals, work independently, promote cooperation and take initial steps in the commercialization of technology.

Prof. Dan Peer, TAU Vice President for Research and Development and Head of the Laboratory of Precision NanoMedicine: “We at Tel Aviv University take pride in our researchers being at the forefront of the international science community, contributing to the development and promotion of research and development of applied and commercialized technologies in a variety of different research fields.

“I am excited to see so many of our researchers on the list of winners this year, as well as the wide range of research fields. It is wonderful to see the recognition our researchers are receiving” – Prof. Peer.

The winners of the ERC Starting Grant from Tel Aviv University:

Prof. Yasmine Meroz, School of Plant Sciences and Food Security, and Center for the Physics and Chemistry of Living Systems

Photo Credit: Naomi Meroz.

Prof. Yasmine Meroz is a physicist whose research focuses on the physical processes underlying plant computation and behavior, enabling them to adapt to changing environmental conditions. Plants do not have a brain or a nervous system, yet they know how to grow strategically according to changing stimuli from the environment, such as light. The research for which Prof. Meroz received the grant elucidates the physical mechanisms enabling plants to perform complex computations in a distributed manner, from the microscopic level to the organismal level, and unravels how they use these computational abilities to navigate an unknown and unstructured environment that changes over time.

Dr. Nadav Cohen, Blavatnik School of Computer Science

Photo Credit: Aric Hoek.

Dr. Nadav Cohen focuses in his research on mathematical theories for Neural networks (NNs). NNs are delivering groundbreaking performance in various machine learning frameworks: from the basic framework of supervised learning to the powerful and challenging framework of control (also known as reinforcement learning). The success of NNs has led to immense interest in developing mathematical theories behind them. Recent years witnessed breakthrough results in the theory of NNs for supervised learning. On the other hand, from a theoretical perspective, much less is known about NNs in the powerful framework of control. Consequently, implementation of NNs in control is predominantly heuristic (much more than in supervised learning), and this hinders their use in control application domains where safety, robustness and reliability are critical, for example manufacturing, healthcare and aerospace. The overarching goal of the research is to develop a mathematical theory of NNs for control, providing explanations to mysterious empirical phenomena, as well as breakthrough practical techniques that promote safety, robustness and reliability.

Dr. Tomer Shenar, School of Physics & Astronomy

Photo Credit: Tel Aviv University.

Today, it is known that massive stars in the Milky Way galaxy – those that collapse into black holes and neutron stars at the end of their lives – tend to live their lives in pairs, which affects their development in a dramatic way. Dr. Shenar’s research aims to check for the first time whether this fact is also true in the ancient and distant universe, which is now at the forefront of space exploration. Although the early universe is too distant to observe its massive stars, it is possible to analyze massive stars in neighboring galaxies whose conditions resemble those of the early universe. In his research, for which he received the grant, Dr. Shenar proposes to test this by using some of the largest and most sophisticated telescopes on Earth and in space.

Dr. Lior Medina, School of Mechanical Engineering at the Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering

Photo Credit: Tel Aviv University.

Dr. Lior Medina’s research focuses on developing a new class of smart structures, called micro-meta-structures. With the entrance of AI and the Internet-of-Things, sensory input in integrated systems is expected to increase, thus increasing the load on CPUs. As such, systems will be required to become efficient in terms of size and energy, as well as becoming autonomous. The new microstructures are expected to achieve that, while taking micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) based sensors to their next evolutionary step, granting them new abilities such as multistability, non-volatility, and reconfigurability. These new features will not only foster further miniaturization and simplify design processes but also unlock new possibilities in sensor technology. Indeed, a recent breakthrough has shown that meta-structures can achieve multiple stable states, paving the way for a new class of mechanical sensors with new capabilities such as mechanical-based built-in computation and in-memory programming. However, that discovery was just the beginning, since multistability has the potential to create a cornucopia of new MEMS applications, from multivalued non-volatile mechanical memories to multivalued sensors with integrated logical gates. These advancements promise to revolutionize the field, enabling mechanical sensors to perform computations independently with reduced reliance on traditional CPUs, thereby supporting distributed and parallel edge computing, reversible computing, and beyond.

Dr. Aldema Sas-Chen, Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research

Photo Credit: Shauli Lendner.

Dr. Aldema Sas-Chen’s research focuses on the regulation of gene expression by RNA-based mechanisms in health and disease. A major aspect of her work addresses the profiling and functional characterization of ribosomes, which are responsible for all protein production in cells. In her current research, for which she received the grant, Dr. Sas-Chen investigates the involvement of ribosomes in the regulation of cancer progression. Her research will focus on mapping the natural heterogeneity in ribosomal composition during cancer progression and will uncover unique ribosomal patterns that contribute to metastasis formation. The research will answer cardinal questions regarding general functions of the ribosome and will provide clinical insights into its involvement in disease progression.

Dr. Roy Barkan, Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences

Photo Credit: Tel Aviv University.

Dr. Roy Barkan is a physical oceanographer specializing in geophysical turbulence. His winning grant will focus on the oceanic mixed layer, which is the near-surface layer of the ocean that comes in direct and continuous contact with the atmosphere. Consequently, the physics of the mixed layer determines the exchange of heat and carbon dioxide between the atmosphere and the deep sea. To date, the underlying physical processes that determine the oceanic mixed-layer depth and the exchange rate of properties at its base remain poorly constrained, posing one of the greatest uncertainties in climate models. The research will include detailed numerical modeling and field measurements of the various physical processes that govern mixed-layer dynamics, to develop new theories that can improve the representation of the mixed-layer processes in climate models and therefore improve climate projections.\

Dr. Ayala Lampel, Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research

Photo Credit: Tel Aviv University.

Dr. Ayala Lampel, a biotechnologist, focuses on the regulation of catalytic processes within engineered microenvironments constructed through the phase separation of biomolecules. The primary research question her project addresses is how the chemical composition, physical, and material properties of these compartments affect reaction rate, conversion, and reactivity. The project is expected to lead to new green chemistry technologies, including innovative tools for regulating organic reactions and enabling cell-free drug synthesis in aqueous environments, free from organic solvents. The long-term vision is to develop micro-factories for targeted drug synthesis within living tissues.

Dr. Arseny Finkelstein, School of Medical and Health Sciences and Sagol School of Neuroscience

Photo Credit: Nina Travitsky.

Dr. Arseny Finkelstein is a neuroscientist who focuses his research on memory formation. How are memories formed? A central hypothesis in neuroscience posits that changes in the patterns of connections between neurons enable the brain to learn from experience and create new memories. To test this hypothesis, he will employ innovative optical methods that allow us to ‘read’ changes in connectivity and neural activity over time in the learning brain – at unprecedented scales, involving tens of thousands of individual neurons. He will also test fundamental constraints of memory formation by creating artificial memories via the direct ‘writing’ of new information into the brain. This research is expected to address long-standing questions about the physical basis of information storage in the brain and uncover the essential building blocks of learning and memory.

Dr. Roee Levy, Eitan Berglas School of Economics

Photo Credit: Tel Aviv University.

Dr. Roee Levy is an economist who studies the impact of social media, news consumption, and political outcomes such as polarization and the rise of populism. In the research for which he received the grant, Dr. Levy studies the slant of news (its political leading). Previous studies have measured the slant of news outlets (for example, the New York Times site versus Fox News). However, nowadays consumers no longer get all their content from one or two outlets but are exposed to many articles from various sources through social media. Dr. Levy and his research partners will fine-tune a large language model to estimate the slant of millions of articles and use this data to estimate the extent to which people are exposed to and consume like-minded news. The research will examine whether people reside in online echo chambers and what influences those echo chambers: the consumers’ choice to avoid content they disagree with, social media algorithms, or the tendency of outlets to produce more biased content.

Dr. Shani Danieli, School of Physics & Astronomy

Photo Credit: Chen Zirinski.

Dr. Shany Danieli is an astrophysicist specializing in observational cosmology and astrophysics. She studies galaxies to gain insights into various physical phenomena in the universe. As part of the ERC grant-funded project, Dr. Danieli will focus on faint and low-mass galaxies, which are nearly impossible to detect using traditional telescopes and methods. These galaxies are particularly important for studying dark matter – a mysterious substance that makes up over 80% of the matter in the universe, but whose nature and properties remain unknown. Dr. Danieli will use advanced telescopes on Earth and in space to discover and study faint galaxies beyond the Milky Way. This study has the potential to provide answers to important questions such as: How common are low-mass galaxies beyond the Milky Way? What are their compositions and the physical processes responsible for their formation and evolution? And what is the relationship between dark matter and visible matter in galaxies? Answers to these questions could shed light on the nature of dark matter, its impact on galaxy formation, and the evolution of the universe.

Dr. Dominik Maximilian Juraschek, School of Physics & Astronomy

Photo Credit: Oren Sarig.

Dr. Dominik Maximilian Juraschek is a physics and astronomy researcher. He studies hidden states of matter that can be induced in quantum materials through light-induced dynamical and in particular vibrational (phononic) processes. His current research focuses on chiral phononics: An electric current flowing through a conducting coil produces a magnetic field, an effect that is at the heart of electromagnetic induction. Similarly, the circular vibrational motion of atoms in a solid also called a chiral phonon, can produce microscopic currents that act as atomistic electromagnetic coils and produce effective magnetic fields. The ERC Starting Grant project CHIRALPHONONICS investigates how this mechanism can be utilized to control the functional properties of materials, to develop ultrafast switches for magnetic and topological properties that may form the basis of a new generation of electronics.

Just Like Us: Retired Eagles Like to Stay In

Written by AUFTAU on 8 September 2024. Posted in Newsroom.

A new Tel Aviv University study, the first of its kind, has revealed that vultures, much like humans, experience changes in movement habits and social relationships as they age. Young vultures frequently move between roosting sites and “hang out with friends”. During adolescence, they spend about half their nights at a permanent roosting site (“home”) and the other half at other sites. In old age, however, vultures scale back on socializing, preferring to “stay home”. The study, which involved 142 Eurasian Griffon Vultures (Gyps fulvus) in Israel, is among the few to shed light on the behavioral changes in aging animals in the wild.

The study, led by Dr. Marta Acácio as part of her post-doctoral research in Dr. Orr Spiegel’s laboratory at Tel Aviv University’s School of Zoology, was conducted in collaboration with Prof. Noa Pinter-Wollman of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and several other researchers. The findings were published in the prestigious journal PNAS.

ד"ר מרתה אקסיו

Dr. Marta Acácio.

ד"ר אור שפיגל בזמן שחרור נשרים בכרמל. צילום: טובל'ה סולומון

Dr. Orr Spiegel. releasing tagged vultures (Photo credit: Tovale Solomon).

The Eagle Has Landed

Dr. Spiegel explains: “Vultures are a locally endangered species in Israel, with only about 200 individual vultures remaining. They are closely monitored to determine the best possible conservation methods. We thought about what else could be gleaned from the extensive database we have accumulated over the years and agreed it would be interesting to explore how vultures age. Tracking the same individuals in the wild over many years is often very challenging. However, the transmitters we use to monitor the population provided a rare opportunity to observe the aging process in vultures specifically and in animals generally”.

The researchers utilized a database accumulated over 15 years from GPS devices attached to 142 vultures that tracked them for periods of up to 12 years. The vulture, a social bird, sleeps in roosts on cliffs. By cross-referencing the vultures’ ages with the GPS data on their roosting sites, the researchers discovered that as the vultures aged, they increasingly preferred to stay at the same roosting site.

Aging vulture being monitored (Photo credit: Tovale Solomon).

Home Sweet Home

Dr. Spiegel: “It turns out that aging vultures behave a bit like humans and are more inclined to stay at home. When they’re young, vultures like to explore new sites and frequently move between places; the likelihood that a young vulture will sleep at the same site two nights in a row is low. When they reach adolescence at the age of five, this behavior stabilizes, and as adults they spend 50 percent of their nights at the same site and the other 50 percent at other sites. When they are old, from the age of 10 onwards, they no longer have the energy to be ‘out and about’, and return consistently to the same site. Furthermore, when adult vultures do change sites, they do so in a predictable pattern: for example, one night in Ein Avdat, the next in the Small Crater, and the next in Nahal Golhan, following a fixed order. Of course, it could be argued that older vultures move less not because they are old, but because they avoid taking risks in the first place, which is how they reached the age they did. But here we are talking about the exact same individual birds: those who were adventurous at the age of five became more sedentary by age ten”.

Elder Eagles’ Poisoning

According to Dr. Spiegel, these fascinating findings on the aging of birds also have very practical implications for conservation efforts. “This new study can help us better protect vultures’ roosting sites in the wild. Additionally, we have now seen that older vultures have fewer social connections, which can help us to prevent poisoning. The transmitters are connected to a system that sends an alert to the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, and to us by phone, if the vulture is not moving or has landed in a dangerous place, indicating that it may have been poisoned.

איסוף נשרים מתים בעקבות הרעלה ברמת הגולן על ידי פקחי רשות הטבע והגנים. צילום: רשות הטבע והגנים

Collecting dead vultures following poisoning in the Golan Heights by Nature and Parks Authority rangers (Photo credit: Nature and Parks Authority).

Unfortunately, this happens frequently. The danger arises when a vulture descends on a poisoned goat carcass, not knowing that a farmer has poisoned the carcass in order to kill stray dogs. Being social birds, vultures do not come down alone, leading to the risk of dozens of vultures dying at once. Understanding how wide the poisoned vulture’s social circle is will significantly help in mitigating the damage”.

It is important to note that vultures play an important ecological role in the disposing of carcasses. Studies have shown that the extinction of vultures ultimately leads to the loss of human lives, due to the rise of diseases such as rabies. In India, for example, a recently published study revealed that the extinction of vultures due to poisoning resulted in the deaths of half a million people over the course of five years.

Free vs. Paid Real Estate: The Pricing Difference

Written by AUFTAU on 5 September 2024. Posted in Newsroom.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University found that there may be a cost to the zero-price effect: statistically identical homes that were published in free service ads on the Israeli “Yad2” online classified service received fewer clicks, sold more slowly, and at a lower price than identical homes that were published in paid service ads – adding up to an average net loss of about 3.5%–3.8% of the average transaction price. This is equivalent to about $12K–$13K when the price of the paid service amounted to a total of about $70.

The surprising results were part of a study that was conducted by Prof. Danny Ben-Shahar, Director of the Alrov Institute for Real Estate Research at Tel Aviv University’s Coller School of Management and Dr. David Ash, a research associate at the institute. Its article reporting the results was recently accepted for publication in the journal Real Estate Economicsof the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association.

Prof. Danny Ben-Shahar

“We study behavioral economics in the real estate market and, in particular, the effects of biases in decision-making,” explains Prof. Ben-Shahar. “We know for quite some time that people do not always make rational decisions, and one of the more interesting questions is whether there is a price paid for those irrational decisions. Here we examined a bias called the ‘zero-price effect’. This effect makes people overvalue products or services offered at zero price. For example, if we lower the price of a product from $2 to $1, demand may increase slightly, but if we lower its price by $1 to zero – demand will increase dramatically, which cannot be explained by a rational cost-benefit approach. We wanted to test this effect not in an experimental setting of the laboratory, but through real data of choices made in the ‘real world’ – and more importantly, to test whether there is an economic cost to this bias towards a zero price”.

Zero Price Bias: The Hidden Costs of Free in Real Estate Ads

In the first part of the study, the researchers examined commercial properties that were offered for rent on the “Yad2” online platform. In July 2019, the platform canceled the option to post ads for renting out commercial properties, and at the same time to charge more for the premium service – which both highlights the ad and displays it at the top of the search.

“This update allowed us to conduct a quasi-natural experiment, with the participation of real people who have to spend real money to rent out real properties,” says Prof. Ben-Shahar. “When the free service became fee-based and the premium service became even more expensive, we saw that a significant mass of owner, seeking to rent out their property, opted for the premium ad service – even though it became considerably more expensive. The cheaper option had lost appeal as soon as it stopped being completely free”.

Then Prof. Ben-Shahar and Dr. Ash demonstrated, for the very first time, the heavy price consumers pay for their zero-price bias. They did this by sampling over 15,000 ads of properties that private homeowners offered for sale on the “Yad2” platform, all of which are without brokerage, over the three years between 2014 and 2016.

“It’s important to realize that selling a home is the largest and most important deal in most people’s lifetime, averaging at $350K to $500K for the sellers in our sample,” says Prof. Ben-Shahar.

“’Yad2’ offers these private sellers to publish their ads in a free basic service, or in a premium service at a negligible total cost of about $70. However, about 95% of the sellers preferred the free ad service. Controlling for the difference in the characteristics of the assets, we found that the premium service increased the chance of selling the property by 10% to 18% daily, increased the number of clicks on the ad by 117% to 130%, and the clicks on the sellers’ phone number by 108% to 122%. In other words, those who paid for the premium service attained a higher demand and a faster sale. Most importantly: they sold their properties at higher prices. Statistically identical homes offered in the paid-premium service were sold for 3.5% to 3.8% higher price than homes provided in the free service, a difference of about $12K–$13K per sale”.

Eilat’s Sponges’ Unique Way to Deter Predators

Written by AUFTAU on 5 September 2024. Posted in Newsroom.

A new study at Tel Aviv University found that sponges in the Gulf of Eilat have developed an original way to keep predators away. The researchers found that the sponges contain an unprecedented concentration of the highly toxic mineral molybdenum (Mo). In addition, they identified the bacterium that enables sponges to store such high concentrations of this precious metal and unraveled the symbiosis between the two organisms. The study was led by PhD student Shani Shoham and Prof. Micha Ilan from TAU’s School of Zoology. The paper was published in the leading journal Science Advances.

שני שוהם ורז מרום מוסקוביץ'

Two Ph.D. candidate Shani Shoham (right) and Raz Marom (Moskovich) happy to finally collect a sponge sample (in the bag) after several dives.

The researchers explain that sponges are the earliest multicellular organisms known to science. They live in marine environments and play an important role in the earth’s carbon, nitrogen, and silicon cycles. A sponge can process and filter seawater 50,000 times its body weight daily. With such enormous quantities of water flowing through them, they can accumulate various trace elements – and scientists try to understand how they cope with toxic amounts of materials like arsenic and molybdenum.

The Hidden Shine of the Sponge

PhD student Shani Shoham: “20 to 30 years ago, researchers from our lab collected samples of a rare sponge called Theonella conica from the coral reef of Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean and found a high concentration of molybdenum. Molybdenum is a trace element, important for metabolism in the cells of all animals including humans, and widely used in industry. In my research, I wanted to test whether such high concentrations are also found in this sponge species in the Gulf of Eilat, where it grows at depths of more than 27 meters. Finding the sponge and analyzing its composition I discovered that it contained more molybdenum than any other organism on earth: 46,793 micrograms per gram of dry weight.”

ככה זה נראה תחת מיקרוסקופ אור: אגירת מוליבדן בחיידק Entotheonella, ניתן להבחין בצבע הכחול בוקואולות (צילום: שני שהם)

Here’s what it looks like under a light microscope: Molybdenum accumulation in the bacterium Entotheonella. You can see the blue in the vacuoles. (Photo: Shani Shoham).

Shoham adds: “Like all trace elements, molybdenum is toxic when its concentration is higher than its solubility in water. But we must remember that a sponge is essentially a hollow mass of cells with no organs or tissues. Specifically in Theonella conica, up to 40% of the body volume is a microbial society – bacteria, viruses, and fungi living in symbiosis with the sponge. One of the most dominant bacteria, called Entotheonella sp., serves as a ‘detoxifying organ’ for accumulating metals inside the body of its sponge hosts. Hoarding more and more molybdenum, the bacteria convert it from its toxic soluble state into a mineral”.

“We are not sure why they do this. Perhaps the molybdenum protects the sponge, by announcing: “I’m toxic! Don’t eat me!”, and in return for this service the sponge does not eat the bacteria and serves as their host”

Sponge Bling: The Search for Molybdenum

Molybdenum is in high demand, mostly for alloys (for example, high-strength steel). Still, according to Shoham, it would be impracticable to retrieve it from sponges. The concentration is very high, but when translated into weight we could only get a few grams from every sponge, and the sponge itself is relatively rare. Sponges are grown in marine agriculture, mostly for the pharmaceutical industry, but this is quite a challenging endeavor. Sponges are very delicate creatures that need specific conditions”.

Shoham continues: “On the other hand, future research should focus on the ability of Entotheonellasp. bacteria to accumulate toxic metals. A few years ago, our lab discovered huge concentrations of other toxic metals, arsenic (As) and barium (Ba), in a close relative of Theonella conica, called Theonella swinhoei, which is common in the Gulf of Eilat. In this case, too, Entotheonellawas found to be largely responsible for hoarding the metals and turning them into minerals, thereby neutralizing their toxicity. Continued research on the bacteria can prove useful for treating water sources polluted with arsenic, a serious hazard which directly affects the health of 200 million people worldwide”.

פרופ' מיכה אילן

Prof. Micha Ilan.

TAU Ranks 7th Globally for Graduate Entrepreneurship

Written by AUFTAU on 5 September 2024. Posted in Newsroom.

Tel Aviv University shines once again in the 2024 PitchBook university rankings. According to the data, the university’s graduates impressively rank 7th globally in entrepreneurship, among the top 100 institutions worldwide, for the number of graduates who founded companies and raised capital.

This achievement highlights Tel Aviv University as the first non-U.S. institution to rank so highly in terms of alumni-founded startups and securing venture capital funding, and it stands as the only university outside the U.S. to make it into the top 10. Additionally, the MBA program at the Coller School of Management ranks 13th globally for producing the highest number of alumni founders.

This marks the third consecutive year that Tel Aviv University graduates have maintained their leadership in global entrepreneurship. A total of 814 alumni with undergraduate degrees from Tel Aviv University have founded 677 companies, collectively raising $26.5 billion in funding.

PitchBook’s annual university rankings, compiled by the renowned business information firm, compare schools by counting the number of alumni founders who have raised venture capital over the past decade.

Tel Aviv University’s graduate degree alumni are ranked 13th, with 354 founders who have launched 336 startups and raised $9.1 billion.

TAU Top Ranking in Female Entrepreneurs:

it ranks 21st globally for female undergraduate alumni and 17th globally for female graduate alumni who have founded companies and secured funding.

The rankings, conducted annually by PitchBook, are dominated by U.S. elite institutions, with Berkeley (1), Stanford (2), Harvard (3), and MIT (4) taking the top spots. Tel Aviv University outranks prestigious schools like Yale (11), UCLA (12), and Columbia (13).

According to PitchBook, three other Israeli universities made the prestigious list: The Technion is ranked 16th, Hebrew University 30th, Reichman University 42nd, and Ben Gurion University 47th.
Read the full 2024 ranking list here >>

Can Parkinson’s Treatment be Enhanced by AI Tech?

Written by AUFTAU on 1 September 2024. Posted in Newsroom.

Researchers at TAU’s Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences invited the international community of machine learning researchers to participate in a contest devised to advance their study and assist neurologists: developing a machine learning model to support a wearable sensor for continuous, automated monitoring and quantification of FOG (freezing of gate) episodes in people with Parkinson’s disease. Close to 25,000 solutions were submitted, and the best algorithms were incorporated into the novel technology.

The study was led by Prof. Jeff Hausdorff from the Department of Physical Therapy at the Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences and the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University, and the Center for the Study of Movement, Cognition, and Mobility at the Tel Aviv Medical Center, together with Amit Salomon and Eran Gazit from the Tel Aviv Medical Center. Other investigators included researchers from Belgium, France, and Harvard University. The paper was published in Nature Communications and featured in the Editors’ Highlights.

Prof. Hausdorff, an expert in the fields of gait, aging, and Parkinson’s disease, explains: “FOG is a debilitating and so far unexplained phenomenon, affecting 38-65% of Parkinson’s sufferers. A FOG episode can last from a few seconds to more than a minute, during which the patient’s feet are suddenly ‘glued’ to the floor, and the person cannot begin or continue walking. FOG can seriously impair the mobility, independence, and quality of life of people with Parkinson’s disease, causing great frustration, and frequently leading to falls and injuries”.

Amit Salomon adds: “Today the diagnosis and tracking of FOG are usually based on self-report questionnaires and visual observation by clinicians, as well as frame-by-frame analysis of videos of patients in motion. This last method, currently the prevailing gold standard, is reliable and accurate. Still, it has some serious drawbacks: it is time-consuming, requires the involvement of at least two experts, and is impracticable for long-term monitoring in the home and daily living environment. Researchers worldwide are trying to use wearable sensors to track and quantify patients’ daily functioning. So far, however, successful trials have all relied on a very small number of subjects”.

TAU’s AI Challenge Advances FOG Tracking

In the current study, the researchers collected data from several existing studies, relating to over 100 patients and about 5,000 FOG episodes. All data were uploaded to the Kaggle platform, a Google company that conducts international machine learning competitions. Members of the worldwide machine learning community were invited to develop models that would be incorporated into wearable sensors to quantify various FOG parameters (e.g. duration, frequency, and severity of episodes). A prize of $100,000, funded by Kaggle and the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, was offered for the best solutions. 1,379 groups from 83 countries rose to the challenge, ultimately submitting a total of 24,862 solutions. The results of the best models were very close to those obtained through the video analysis method, and significantly better than previous experiments relying on a single wearable sensor.

Moreover, the models led to a discovery: an interesting relationship between FOG frequency and the time of day. Co-author Eran Gazit notes: “We observed, for the first time, a recurring daily pattern, with peaks of FOG episodes at certain hours of the day, that may be associated with clinical phenomena such as fatigue, or effects of medications. These findings are significant for both clinical treatment and continued research about FOG”.

Prof. Hausdorff: “Wearable sensors supported by machine learning models can continuously monitor and quantify FOG episodes, as well as the patient’s general functioning in daily life. This gives the clinician an accurate picture of the patient’s condition at all times: has the illness improved or deteriorated? Does it respond to prescribed drugs? The informed clinician can respond promptly, while data collected through this technology can support the development of new treatments. In addition, our study demonstrates the power of machine learning contests in advancing medical research. The contest we initiated brought together capable, dynamic teams all over the world, who enjoyed a friendly atmosphere of learning and competition for a good cause. Rapid improvement was gained in the effective and precise quantification of FOG data. Moreover, the study laid the foundations for the next stage: long-term 24/7 FOG monitoring in the patient’s home and real-world environment”.

BOG 2024: The Selwyn-Cameron Laboratory Opens Doors

Written by AUFTAU on 29 August 2024. Posted in Newsroom.

The new neuro-engineering lab has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of the brain and create new possibilities for medical and technological advancements.

Tel Aviv University inaugurated the Selwyn-Cameron Laboratory for neuro-engineering during its 2024 international Board of Governors meeting. The Lab will serve as a dynamic hub that brings together young researchers from diverse disciplines, ranging from engineering and life sciences to psychology. Its inauguration was made possible by the support of the Selwyn and Cameron families from the Victorian chapter of Tel Aviv University’s Australian Friends Association. The project was co-ordinated in Australia by Rosie Potaznik who was then the President of the Victorian chapter.

Located in the ground-breaking Roman Abramovich Building for Nano and Quantum Science & Technology, the lab is headed by Prof. Yael Hanein, an electrical engineer and nanoscientist renowned for her work on artificial retinas. Hanein’s research focuses on restoring vision to people with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), by using electrodes that interact with the nervous system. The Lab was already awarded a prestigious 2.5 million euro grant from the European research community, demonstrating its excellence in the field.

“I am amazed by the devotion of the members of the Australian Friends to Tel Aviv University, and more generally, to Israel,” said TAU President Prof. Ariel Porat at the opening ceremony. The President spoke briefly about each of the donors and their history of philanthropy.

Eva Selwyn

The Selwyn family’s enduring legacy at Tel Aviv University spans over three decades, marked by their remarkable generosity and commitment to philanthropy in the realms of infertility treatment and engineering.

Following the passing of Ada and Alan Selwyn, their daughter Eva, a longstanding Governor, has admirably carried on their vision, steadfastly supporting the university through various initiatives and programs.

Amidst the challenges brought by the Covid pandemic, Eva demonstrated her unwavering support by bolstering the Walter Kastelan scholarship fund.

More recently, she has championed the funding for the Nano building laboratory under the leadership of Prof. Yael Hanein. Hanein’s research in artificial retinas deeply resonated with Eva. “This important project made me feel like I was making a significant difference to people’s lives in helping them to retain their sight,” she said, commenting on her gift.

When faced with the tragic events of October 7 and the ensuing war in Gaza, Eva reached out to inquire about further ways she could contribute. Her concern for the students at TAU impacted by the war led to a collaborative effort to provide substantial funding to PTSD clinics, aiding returning reservists and members of the public in recovering from the trauma they have suffered.

In the past, Eva has called to update her donations during times of need, reflecting her genuine commitment.

“We are immensely grateful for Eva’s unwavering support, recognizing and applauding not only her philanthropy but also her steadfast loyalty to the state of Israel,” said President Porat.

Australian Friends visiting the new Lab (Photo: TAU)

The Late Wallace S. Cameron

Passed away suddenly in February this year aged 79, Mr. Cameron is survived by his wife Joan and his three children.

Having come from humble beginnings, the late Mr. Cameron worked hard to improve himself through education. He graduated from Melbourne University with a Bachelor of Laws, Bachelor of Commerce, Master of Business Administration, and Master of Letters.

His early career was as a barrister practicing in Victoria. He subsequently developed a significant pathology company called Gribbles, which provided services primarily to general practitioners by setting up a large number of pathology laboratories to service their needs. Some of his colleagues described him as a visionary, particularly for his foresight in molecular biology research and his recruitment of star scientists to the company.

A zealous philanthropist, Wallace Cameron contributed to and supported the Jewish community in many ways. Sadly, Wallace did not get to see his latest project to its fruition, but his family carries on his commitment, knowing that this is what Wallace would have wanted.

The inauguration ceremony concluded with closing remarks from the Lab’s head, Prof. Yael Hanein. “Dear Australian Friends, I’m deeply grateful for your contribution to this endeavor. Your belief in our vision and your commitment to advancing scientific research is critical in allowing us to pursue new discoveries and innovations,” she said.

Building Bridges Through Cuisine

Written by Hilary on 21 August 2024. Posted in Newsroom.

Aliya Fastman, the founder and owner of Citrus&Salt cooking studio in Tel Aviv, is a California native who has made a significant impact on the city’s culinary landscape. A graduate of Tel Aviv University’s International MA in Conflict Resolution and Mediation, Fastman now calls Tel Aviv home, where she combines her love for cooking with her dedication to building connections between people through the shared experience of food.

In our interview, Aliya Fastman shares her journey and insights on how cuisine can serve as a powerful medium for promoting understanding and unity.

From Conflict Resolution to Culinary Diplomacy

I first came to Israel for a year abroad. After finishing school, I came back for the army, left again, then came back for my master’s degree. I’ve been here ever since.

I finished my master’s degree in Conflict Resolution and Mediation at TAU in 2016, and I thought I wanted to go into traditional diplomacy, but instead, I found myself, like many, needing to have a job. So I went into public relations in the high-tech sector, where I worked for several years. I really liked it, and it was a good learning experience.

But on nights and weekends, I started building a business called Citrus and Salt, which was originally intended to teach Israeli cooking and other local cuisines to tourists. It started out of my home, and then I got a bigger home, so I had more students. Now we’re actually on to our second brick-and-mortar studio.

At our current studio, we offer both cooking classes and different cultural events.

With fewer tourists now, we have started offering cuisines that locals are interested in. I am passionate about traveling to places like Thailand, India, and Italy to learn from chefs there, getting to know their culture through their kitchen and bringing those cuisines and flavors back to Israel.

In addition, we have an initiative that I hope to grow, which is cultural nights for cross-cultural awareness through food. Our first Indian night was sold out with a waiting list – it was with a family of Olim from Mumbai who shared their story. I’d love to replicate this with Ethiopian culture, Arab-Israeli culture, and more.

Connecting People Through Food

In a way, although I didn’t realize it in the beginning, what we do is very much diplomacy through food. Essentially, as we learned in our degree, whenever you gather people together in a shared activity, it helps them get to know each other and helps create good relations. There’s almost no activity that’s better for that than cooking.

Our business has brought together people from many countries, including Germany, Uruguay, Hong Kong, the United States, and South Africa. They cook together and share their stories.

Regarding Israel, which is my passion, our studio provides a safe and calm space for people who are visiting Israel and who have heard a lot about it, to ask me questions about the culture, the conflicts, the food, and everything in between.

I don’t think any questions, if they’re coming from a good place, are unpleasant. People want to be informed and understand more. This has allowed me to be a bit of an advocate for Israel through the kitchen.

Showcasing Israeli and Diaspora Cuisines

Our classic Israeli menu has falafel, hummus, perfectly puffy handmade pita, shakshuka, and smoked eggplant with tahini, and Israeli salad. It’s vegetarian-friendly and accommodating to a range of dietary needs.

We also offer Moroccan, Iraqi, and Yemenite dishes to introduce our visitors to diaspora cuisines.

Personally, I love North African Moroccan cuisine, like tagine and couscous. The way the spices simmer together is unlike anything I experienced in the United States.

During my year at TAU, I traveled to Morocco with friends from the program for a couple of weeks and we were able to dive more into the culture there.

Citizen’s Kitchen: Bringing Comfort to Soldiers and Families

From October 9, we opened a war kitchen out of our cooking studio, and have made over 65,000 meals since then, feeding soldiers, families of hostages, displaced people, and families of reservists. It’s very much a community initiative where people from around the world and local Israelis came together to cook.

We rely on donations from international volunteers and donors to fund Citizen’s Kitchen, and we also have a GoFundMe.

The initiative emerged during rocket fire, at a time of great trauma, so we started also offering some therapy and different Shabbat community events to help create a foundation for people, while also doing a public service.

As locals go back to work, we’re inviting groups from Europe and the United States to volunteer. We’re pushing forward with both the volunteer and the regular studio activities in tandem.

We’ve gotten a lot of praise for our food, with soldiers saying it’s the best food they’ve had. We believe that if we’re doing this, the food should be tasty and of good quality.

Our ethos is comfort through food.

In the beginning, we made a lot of schnitzel. Our chefs really put together a fabulous recipe with the chicken marinated in coconut milk and spices overnight.

Now we’ve been making a lot of sandwiches because we’ve been sending them to the North and in armored vehicles to soldiers in Gaza. We try to do really nice ones, such as freshly baked ciabatta rolls with teriyaki chicken and a crisp cabbage salad.

For families, we make dishes like stuffed onions and grape leaves, roast chicken, egg noodles with grilled vegetables and sesame seeds, fresh watermelon, baked food, and Israeli salad. Sometimes, we also send smoked eggplant with tahini, different cabbage salads, or meatballs in fresh tomato sauce.

More important than even the food is the fact that we’re here as an international community of Jews and allies, supporting the soldiers on the frontline and the survivors, saying that it’s not over.

Although a lot of kitchens have had to close, and we’re not at the same capacity we were, cooking just twice a week now, each meal counts and each partnership counts. We’re still cooking because they’re still fighting.

We’re also sending letters to soldiers from our international volunteers just to emphasize that we support them: “We have your back. You’re not alone in this.”

Looking Back on Studying at TAU

My degree taught me to communicate with different cultures, which is vital for my work even though it’s not formal diplomacy.

I loved the advanced mediation course—diving into it and doing the simulations really helped me.

It’s proved invaluable with some problematic situations and in dealing with students and volunteers of different cultural backgrounds.

Every culture has its particularities, and I need to be able to bring all students together around the table. For example, Americans love little spoons to taste what they’re making, while Israelis use their hands.

Being aware of cultural differences is almost more important than how the food tastes because that leaves people feeling understood and having a nice experience.

I also found it absolutely wonderful to be able to study from people who were instrumental in making history. Professor Daniel Reisner, for example, was involved in creating some of the laws and deals and offered us a refreshing perspective on them.

I’m a true believer in the fact that everything you do is a building block, whether it’s my waitressing after the army, or my job in PR.

This applies to my formal education as well—I didn’t know it would lead me here, but it’s definitely something that I needed, and I’m glad I did it.

I still have great friends from the course who stayed in Israel and we always speak about how it has helped us.

Connecting Education, Israel, and Global Advocacy

From my personal experience, I loved the education and the experience at TAU. It has been valuable for me and other alumni that I’ve spoken to.

I think that it’s very special to come and study in Israel and to be able to maintain connections here.

First and foremost, Jews need to be in a safe place. I think coming to strengthen the state here is very important. I also find great inspiration in Eylon Levy’s citizen spokesperson initiative to find people who are able to speak to Western audiences. Even if it doesn’t help the person you’re talking to, it might help the people on the sidelines.

The more well-educated, articulate, and well-informed internationals are in getting our message out there, to their communities, the better.

It does make a difference, and I believe there is hope for people who don’t necessarily have antisemitic beliefs, but simply follow the crowd.

Photos courtesy of Aliya Fastman and Citrus&Salt

The Reason Behind the Dancing Sunflowers

Written by Hilary on 21 August 2024. Posted in Newsroom.

As they grow, sunflowers “dance” to avoid blocking each other’s sunlight

Flowers have long fascinated scientists and nature enthusiasts alike, not just for their beauty, but also for their subtle, almost imperceptible movements. Over a century ago, Charles Darwin was the first to observe that plants, including flowers, exhibit a kind of cyclical movement as they grow. This movement, seen in both stems and roots, puzzled researchers: Was it just a byproduct of growth, or did it serve a crucial purpose?

A new study by Tel Aviv University, in collaboration with the University of Colorado, Boulder, discovered that plants that grow in dense environments, where each plant casts a shadow on its neighbor, find a collective solution with the help of random movements that help them find optimal growth directions. In this way, the study sheds light on the scientific enigma that has occupied researchers since Darwin, namely the functional role of these inherent movements called circumnutations.

The research was conducted under the leadership of Prof. Yasmine Meroz from the School of Plant Sciences and Food Security at the Wise Faculty of Life Sciences at Tel Aviv University, in collaboration with Prof. Orit Peleg from the University of Colorado Boulder in the USA. The research team included Dr. Chantal Nguyen (Boulder), Roni Kempinski and Imri Dromi (TAU). The research was published in the prestigious journal Physical Review X.

Do flowers have a sense of direction?

Prof. Meroz explains: “Previous studies have shown that if sunflowers are densely planted in a field where they shade each other they grow in a zigzag pattern – one forward and one back – so as not to be in each other’s shadow. This way they grow side by side to maximize illumination from the sun, therefore photosynthesis, on a collective level. Plants know how to distinguish between the shadow of a building and the green shadow of a leaf. If they sense the shadow of a building – they usually don’t change their growth direction, because they ‘know’ that will have no effect. But if they sense the shadow of a plant, they will grow in a direction away from the shadow”.

According to the researchers, Darwin was the first to recognize that all plants grow while exhibiting a kind of cyclical movement known as “circumnutation”, which is observed in both stems and roots. However, until today—except for a few cases, such as climbing plants that grow in large circular movements to find something to grab onto—it was unclear whether this was an artifact or a critical feature of growth. Why would a plant invest energy to grow in random directions?

In the current study, the researchers examined how sunflowers “know” to grow optimally—maximizing sunlight capture for the collective—and analyzed the growth dynamics of sunflowers in the laboratory, where they exhibit a zigzag pattern. Prof. Meroz and her team grew sunflowers in a high-density environment and photographed them during growth, taking pictures every few minutes. The photographs were then combined to create a time-lapse movie. By tracking the movement of each sunflower, the researchers observed that the flowers were “dancing” a lot.

Shake your Tail Petal

Prof. Meroz stated, “As part of our research, we conducted a physical analysis that captured the behavior of each sunflower within the collective, revealing that the sunflowers ‘dance’ to find the optimal angle, ensuring that each flower does not block the sunlight of its neighbor. We quantified this movement statistically and demonstrated through computer simulations that these random movements are used collectively to minimize shadowing. It was also surprising to find that the distribution of the sunflowers’ ‘steps’ was very wide, ranging over three orders of magnitude, from nearly zero displacements to movements of up to two centimeters every few minutes in various directions”.

In conclusion, Prof. Meroz adds: “The sunflower plant takes advantage of its ability to use both small, slow steps and large, fast ones to find the optimal arrangement for the collective. If the range of steps were smaller or larger, the arrangement would result in more mutual shading and less photosynthesis. It’s somewhat like a crowded dance party, where individuals move around to create more space: if they move too much, they’ll interfere with the other dancers, but if they move too little, the crowding problem won’t be solved, leaving one corner of the square overcrowded and the other empty. Sunflowers exhibit a similar communication dynamic—a combination of responding to the shade of neighboring plants and making random movements regardless of external stimuli”.

Crushing the Longtime Myth of Masada

ERC 2024 Awarded to 11 TAU Researchers

Congratulations to 11 TAU Researchers on the Prestigious ERC Starting Grant 2024.

The winners of the ERC Starting Grant from Tel Aviv University:

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