Tag: Earth Sciences

Like Teenagers on Vacation

Written by AUFTAU on 3 November 2021. Posted in Newsroom.

A joint study conducted by researchers from Tel Aviv University and the Open University of Israel revealed that exposing male crickets to artificial light at night (ALAN) can impair their activity cycles. According to the researchers, nocturnal chirping is the male’s way of calling females to come and mate with him, and its disruption can interfere with reproduction processes and even endanger the entire species. Previous studies worldwide have shown that light pollution is harmful to many species of animals and plants. The researchers call for reducing ALAN as much as possible to enable coexistence in the night environment.

Humans are Driving Away the Darkness

Keren Levy of the School of Zoology and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History at Tel Aviv University explains: “The distinction between day and night, light and darkness, is a major foundation of life on earth. But humans, as creatures of the day who fear the dark, disrupt this natural order: they produce artificial light that drives away the darkness and allows them to continue their activities at night.”

Levy explains that today, more than 80% of the world population live under light pollution, and the overall extent of artificial light at night rises by 5% every year. This negatively impacts the environment and affects natural behaviors that have developed over millions of years of evolution. The artificial light at night affects the length and quality of sleep of many animals, leads to high mortality, and changes the activity cycles of many creatures. For example, dung beetles, that navigate using the Milky Way, lose their way when light pollution increases; sea turtles hatchlings seek the brightest surface in sight – supposedly the sea, and reach the nearby promenade instead; to mention just two of many examples.

Off-Tune Crickets

In the current study the researchers examined the impact of light pollution on the field cricket, a nocturnal insect whose chirping can be heard during the nights of late summer – when males call for females to mate with them.

Prof. Amir Ayali, also from TAU’s School of Zoology and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, explains, “In nature, crickets exhibit a very regular cycle of activity. Chirping behavior, calling for females, occurs at sunset and during the night, ending in the morning. We exposed field crickets to different levels of lifelong ALAN and observed its impact on two fundamental behaviors: chirping and locomotion.”

The researchers monitored dozens of crickets that were exposed throughout their lives (from egg to adult stage) to four types of light conditions. They found that crickets whose light-dark cycle is disrupted behave like teenagers on vacation: active or asleep according to their own inner clock or lacking any rhythm whatsoever.

“In fact,” adds Keren Levy, “light pollution induced by humankind impacts the field cricket and evokes loss of synchronization within the individual, on the population level, and between the population and the environment. Our findings on ALAN-induced changes in calling song patterns may possibly impair female attraction and reproduction in this species. Our results are in accord with many other studies demonstrating the severe impacts of low levels of ALAN on nature.”

Levy urges us all to help protect our environment and surroundings by turning off the lights in our backyards, on the terrace, in parking lots, and wherever possible: “Help us bring the night and the milky way back into our lives and enable nightly coexistence with the creatures around us.”

The study was led by Prof. Amir Ayali and Keren Levy of the School of Zoology and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History at Tel Aviv University and Prof. Anat Barnea of the Department of Natural and Life Sciences at the Open University. Yoav Wegrzyn from Prof. Ayali’s laboratory and Ronny Efronny also took part in the study. The paper was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, and also mentioned in Nature.

Featured image: Prof. Amir Ayali and a small friend (Photo: Jonathan Blum)

Seahorses – Slow, but Fierce

Written by AUFTAU on 7 October 2021. Posted in Newsroom.

Seahorses are not exactly Olympic swimmers, in fact they’re considered to be particularly poor swimmers. Despite being relatively slow, however, they are adept at preying on small, quick-moving animals. In a new study conducted at Tel Aviv University, researchers have succeeded in characterizing the incredible preying capability of seahorses, discovering that they can move their head up at the incredible speed of 0.002 seconds. The rapid head movement is accompanied by a powerful flow of water that snags their prey right into the seahorse’s mouth. How was this spring mechanism formed? When did it develop? The researchers hope the recent study will lead to further studies designed to help solve the riddle of spring fish.

The study was led by Prof. Roi Holzman and the doctoral student Corrine Jacobs of the School of Zoology at The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History at Tel Aviv University, and was conducted at the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in Eilat. The study was published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Springing to Action

The researchers explain that seahorses are fish that possess unique properties such as male ‘pregnancy’, square tail vertebrae, and of course the unique eating system. For most of the day, seahorses are anchored with their tail to seaweeds or corals with their head tilted downward, close to their body. However, when they detect prey passing over them, they lift their head at incredible speed and catch it. According to Prof. Holzman, while preying, seahorses turn their body into a kind of spring: using their back muscles, they stretch an elastic tendon, and use their neck bones as a ‘trigger’, just like a crossbow. The result is faster than even the fastest muscle contraction found anywhere in the animal world.

However, until now it was not clear how the spring-loaded mechanism enabled seahorses to actually eat. Just as anyone who tries to remove a fly from a cup of tea knows, water is a viscous medium and the fish needs to open its mouth to create a flow that draws the prey in. But how do seahorses coordinate snagging in prey with their head movement?

In their recent study, researchers from Tel Aviv University succeeded in characterizing and quantifying seahorse movement by photographing their attack at a speed of 4,000 images per second, and using a laser system for imaging water flows. This measurement showed that the ‘crossbow’ system serves two purposes: facilitating head movement and generating high velocity suction currents – 10 times faster than those of similar-sized fish. These advantages enable seahorses to catch particularly elusive prey.

Evolution of the Spring Mechanism

The new measurements also help shed light on the ecology of various species of seahorses, distinguished from each other by the length of their noses. “Our study shows that the speed of head movement and suction currents are determined by the length of a seahorse’s nose”, Prof. Holzman added. “From the evolutionary aspect, seahorses must choose between a short nose for strong suction and moderate head raising, or a long nose for rapid head raising and weaker suction currents. This choice, of course, corresponds to the available diet: long-nosed species catch smaller, quicker animals whereas short-nosed species catch heavier, more ponderous ones.”

Prof. Roi Holzman hopes the recent study will lead to further studies to help solve the riddle of spring fish

According to Prof. Holzman, seahorses are not the only instance of the impressive spring mechanism. Actually, seahorses are counted among the family of fish bearing the appropriate scientific name Misfit Fish, including species such as alligator pipefish, shrimpfish, and cornetfish or flutemouths.

“These fish are called that because of their odd shape which enables stretching their body into a spring. The big question applies to the evolution of the spring mechanism, how it was formed and when it developed. I hope our recent study will lead to further studies designed to help solve the riddle of spring fish”.

Why Do We Squabble Over The AC?

Written by AUFTAU on 5 October 2021. Posted in Newsroom.

Why do women typically bring a sweater into work while their male counterparts feel comfortable wearing short sleeves in an air-conditioned office? Researchers at Tel Aviv University’s School of Zoology offer a new evolutionary explanation for the familiar scenario and can share that this phenomenon is not unique to humans, with many male species of endotherms (birds and mammals) preferring a cooler temperature than the females. The researchers propose that males and females feel temperature differently, explaining that this is a built-in evolutionary difference between the heat-sensing systems of the two sexes, related, among other things, to the reproduction process and caring for offspring.

The study was led by Dr. Eran Levin and Dr. Tali Magory Cohen from the School of Zoology and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History at Tel Aviv University, Yosef Kiat from the University of Haifa, and Dr. Haggai Sharon, a pain specialist from Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Tel Aviv Sourasky Tel Aviv Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital). The article was published in the Journal Global Ecology and Biogeography.

Separation During Breeding Season

The new study included an in-depth statistical and spatial analysis of the distribution of dozens of bird and bat species living in Israel, along with a comprehensive review of the international research literature on the subject.

A study of the research literature reveals several examples of a similar phenomenon observed in many species of birds and mammals. In migratory bird species, males spend the winter in colder areas than females (it should be noted that in birds, the segregation between the sexes takes place outside of the breeding season, since the males participate in the raising of the chicks).

Amongst many mammals, even in species that live in pairs or in mixed groups all their lives, the males prefer shade whereas the females prefer sunlight, or the males ascend to the peaks of mountains while the females remain in the valleys.

Following the literature review, the researchers conducted their own research. They sampled information collected in Israel over the course of nearly 40 years (1981-2018) on thousands of birds from 13 migratory bird species from 76 sites (data from Birdlife Israel and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History) and 18 species of bats from 53 sites (data from the researchers and the Society for the Protection of Nature.) In total, the study included more than 11,000 individual birds and bats, from Mount Hermon in the north to Eilat in the south.

The reasoning behind the choice of birds and bats for the study is the fact that they fly and are therefore highly mobile, and the researchers hypothesized that the spatial separation between the sexes – sometimes extending to different climatic zones – would be particularly clear in these groups. Moreover, Israel’s significant climate diversity allowed them to study individual animals of the same species that live in very different climatic conditions.

Illustrative Photo: Bats in Cave

The findings of the study clearly demonstrated that males prefer a lower temperature than females, and that this preference leads to a separation between the sexes at certain periods during the breeding cycles, when the males and females do not need, and may even interfere, with each other.

Dr. Levin: “Our study has shown that the phenomenon is not unique to humans; among many species of birds and mammals, females prefer a warmer environment than males, and at certain times these preferences cause segregation between the two species. In light of the findings, and the fact that this is a widespread phenomenon, we have hypothesized that what we are dealing with is a difference between the females and males’ heat-sensing mechanisms, which developed over the course of evolution. This difference is similar in its essence to the known differences between the pain sensations experienced by the two sexes, and is impacted by differences in the neural mechanisms responsible for the sensation and also by hormonal differences between males and females.”

Dr. Levin, who among other things studies the physiology and behavior of bats, noted in his previous studies that during the breeding season males and females tend to segregate, with the males inhabiting cooler areas. For example, entire colonies in caves on the slopes of Mount Hermon are composed of only males during the breeding season, while in the warmer area of the Sea of Galilee there are mainly females, who give birth and raise their pups there.

Dr. Magory Cohen notes that this difference has a number of evolutionary explanations. First, the separation between males and females reduces competition over resources in the environment, and keeps away males who may be aggressive and endanger the babies. Furthermore, many female mammals must protect their offspring at a stage when they are not yet able to regulate their body temperature on their own, so they developed a preference for a relatively warm climate.

Giving Each Other Some Space

The phenomenon can also be linked to sociological phenomena observed in many animals and even in humans; in a mixed environment of females and males the females tend to have much more physical contact between themselves, whereas males maintain more distance and shy away from contact with each other.

It appears the difference in thermal sensation did not come about so we can argue with our partners over the air conditioning. Rather, we are meant to give each other some space so that each person can enjoy some peace and quiet. Question is, who gets the couch?

A House is Not a Home Without a Pet

Written by AUFTAU on 4 October 2021. Posted in Newsroom.

TAU law students are helping elderly citizens and their pets move to senior homes.

Many senior citizens have to part with their beloved pets just when they need them the most: when they leave their homes and transition to live in public housing for the elderly. In many of these governmental institutions, pets are still not allowed – and when they are, the policy is not always implemented. This can cause a painful situation which may harm the mental and physical wellbeing of senior citizens, and affect the welfare of the animals (often senior as well) that find themselves homeless and separated from their loving caretakers.

We have some positive news: There are good people out there who are pro-actively seeking to protect the rights of pet caretakers, as well as the pets’.

Who? Students of The Buchmann Faculty of Law who work through the Clinic for Environmental Justice and the Protection of Animal Rights, an integral part of the The Coller-Menmon Animal Rights and Welfare Program, Israel’s leading and most comprehensive academic program on animal law, at the Faculty of Law. We do realize that’s a mouthful and warrants some further explanation…

Protecting Animals’ Rights

The Clinic for Environmental Justice has been handling a range of environmental issues since 2001. In 2017, it expanded its operations to include the protection of animals’ rights. Through their work at the Clinic, law students get to practice drafting applications, precedents and position papers, closely accompanied by top academics and clinical facilitators from Israel’s legal system.

Dr. Orit Hirsch-Matsioulas researches human-animal relations. She is a post-doctoral fellow of The Coller-Menmon Animal Rights and Welfare Program and one of the founders of The Community for Human-Animal Studies Israel (HASI). Together with Adv. Amnon Keren, Program Coordinator and Clinical Instructor at the Clinic, she made the rights of the elderly and their pets one of the Clinic’s lead projects.

Both Granny and Kitty Benefit

The project was significantly accelerated when the Clinic decided to handle the appeal of a group of senior citizens who were told they were not allowed to bring their pets to their public housing apartments. “The rights of elderly people were violated,” says Dr. Hirsch-Matsioulas. “Some of them decided against moving because they did not want to part with their pets. Noah, the umbrella organization for Israel’s animal protection associations, contacted us, and we got in touch with the Ministry of Construction and Housing to change the existing policy.”

Dr. Hirsch-Matsioulas presented the Ministry with academic studies on emotional, cognitive and health-related benefits of pet relationships for senior citizens. Moreover, she brought a new element to the attention of the Ministry officials, namely the effect of the relationship on the animals.

“We built a multidisciplinary team of people from the fields of law, social sciences, social work, gerontology (i.e. the multidisciplinary study of aging, including physical aspects as well as mental, social and societal implications) and civil society organizations, and we’re working together with the Ministry of Construction and Housing,” explains Dr. Hirsch-Matsioulas.

A temporary policy was established, allowing for the entry and keeping of pets in all public senior homes, called בתי גיל הזהב, under the responsibility of Israel’s Ministry of Construction and Housing. It was widely agreed that this temporary right should eventually become permanent, however this is a lengthy process.

Kitty and Milo also have rights. Photo: Vika Minkowitz Mualem

Focusing on Solutions

While we’re excited to share that this undertaking is, in fact, a global precedent, the process of implementing the policy has not been a smooth ride. Due to Covid restrictions, the team has not been able to enter the senior housing buildings to teach the staff about the new guidelines for successful implementation. “The doors have been opened. Now, we must focus on ensuring the optimal execution,” says Dr. Hirsch-Matsioulas.

Dr. Hirsch-Matsioulas is compiling a report with all the issues that do or may arise. She will then proceed to examine the appropriate solutions for every listed problem, through consultation with relevant professionals. The aim is to come up with suitable solutions for the preservation of the elderly’s right to good health and a dignified life, as well as the preservation of the rights of the animals. Once completed, she will present the list to policy makers to advance the legislation, with the aim that the Ministry of Construction and Housing can adopt the law on a permanent basis.

The arrived upon solutions will be offered, and hopefully adopted, by additional countries as well.

Emotional, cognitive and health benefits enjoyed by both parties. Photo: Vika Minkowitz Mualem

Across Generations and Species

“We intend to visit senior homes, observe and learn, and then to provide cultural programs with positive and educational messages on how to co-exist in a community with multiple living species,” offers Dr. Hirsch-Matsioulas.

“Education is central for promoting change, and we would like to cultivate a new atmosphere on ground through a series of lectures. Children and youth are oftentimes leading agents of change, and we may end up including the grandchildren in this effort.”

“Beyond our firm conviction that the elderly shouldn’t have to part with their pets, that are to them like family members for all intents and purposes, the Clinic also makes sure that the animals’ interests are represented. Forced removal of an animal from a warm and loving home can cause him or her great suffering, especially in old age,” adds Adv. Keren.

“In recent years, there’s been a growing recognition in Israel of animal rights and their welfare, as key considerations in decision-making pertaining to them. We will continue to develop this trend, whereby the animal is regarded as a subject with his or her own rights, each animal representing a world of his or her own and worthy of protection in and by him- or herself.”

Dr. Orit Hirsch-Matsioulas and her good friend, Shenef.

Featured image: Family and flatmates. Photo: Noah Toledano

Fighting Pollution With Seaweed

Written by AUFTAU on 13 September 2021. Posted in Newsroom.

Nitrogen is a common fertilizer for agriculture, but it comes with an environmental and financial price tag. Once nitrogen reaches the ocean, it disperses randomly, damaging various ecosystems. As a result, the state local authorities spend a great deal of money on reducing nitrogen concentrations in water, including in the Mediterranean Sea.

A new study by Tel Aviv University and University of California, Berkeley suggests that establishing seaweed farms in areas where freshwater rivers or streams meet the oceans, or so-called “river estuaries”, significantly reduces nitrogen concentrations and prevents pollution in marine environments.

As part of the study, the researchers built a large seaweed farm model for growing the ulva sp. green macroalgae in the Alexander River estuary, hundreds of meters from the open sea. The Alexander River was chosen because the river discharges polluting nitrogen from nearby upstream fields and towns into the Mediterranean Sea. Data for the model were collected over two years from controlled cultivation studies.

The study was headed by doctoral student Meiron Zollmann, under the joint supervision of Prof. Alexander Golberg of the Porter School of Environmental and Earth Sciences and Prof. Alexander Liberzon of the School of Mechanical Engineering at The Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering, Tel Aviv University, and was conducted in collaboration with Prof. Boris Rubinsky of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley. It was published in the prestigious journal Communications Biology.

“My laboratory researches basic processes and develops technologies for aquaculture,” explains Prof. Golberg. “We are developing technologies for growing seaweed in the ocean in order to offset carbon and extract various substances, such as proteins and starches, to offer a marine alternative to terrestrial agricultural production. In this study, we showed that if seaweed is grown according to the model we developed, in rivers’ estuaries, they can absorb the nitrogen to conform to environmental standards and prevent its dispersal in water and thus neutralize environmental pollution. This way, we actually produce a kind of ‘natural decontamination facility’ with significant ecological and economic value, as seaweed can be sold as biomass for human use.”

Profitable and Environmentally Friendly

“Our model allows marine farmers, as well as government and environmental bodies, to know in advance what the impact will be and what the products of a large seaweed farm will be – before setting up the actual farm,” adds Meiron Zollmann. “Thanks to mathematics, we know how to make the adjustments also concerning large agricultural farms and maximize environmental benefits, including producing the agriculturally desired protein quantities.”

“The whole world is moving towards green energy, and seaweed can be a significant source,” adds Prof. Liberzon, “and yet today, there is no single farm with the proven technological and scientific capability. The barriers are also scientific: We do not really know what the impact of a huge farm will be on the marine environment. It is like transitioning from a vegetable garden outside the house to endless fields of industrial farming. Our model provides some of the answers, hoping to convince decision-makers that such farms will be profitable and environmentally friendly. Furthermore, one can imagine even more far-reaching scenarios. For example, green energy: If we knew how to utilize the growth rates for energy in better percentages, it would be possible to embark on a one-year cruise with a kilogram of seaweed, with no additional fuel beyond the production of biomass in a marine environment.”

“The interesting connection we offer here is growing seaweed at the expense of nitrogen treatment,” concludes Prof. Golberg. “In fact, we have developed a planning tool for setting up seaweed farms in estuaries to address the environmental issue while producing economic benefit. We offer the design of seaweed farms in river estuaries containing large quantities of agriculturally related nitrogen residues to rehabilitate the estuary and prevent nitrogen from reaching the ocean while growing the seaweed itself for food. In this way, aquaculture complements terrestrial agriculture.”

Featured image: The cultivation reactor that was used as the base of the model

Where Have All the Birds Gone?

Written by AUFTAU on 11 August 2021. Posted in Newsroom.

A new study from Tel Aviv University and the Weizmann Institute revealed that over the last 20,000-50,000 years, birds have undergone a major extinction event, inflicted chiefly by humans, which caused the disappearance of about 10%-20% of all avian species. The vast majority of the extinct species shared several features: they were large, they lived on islands, and many of them were flightless.

The main cause for extinction of species by humans today has evolved from being hunting to the destruction of the animals’ natural habitats, but the researchers hope their findings will serve as warning signals regarding bird species currently threatened with extinction.

The study was led by Prof. Shai Meiri of the School of Zoology at The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History at Tel Aviv University, and Amir Fromm of the Weizmann Institute of Science. The paper was published in the Journal of Biogeography.

Human-Inflicted Extinction

Prof. Meiri: “We conducted a comprehensive review of scientific literature, and for the first time collected quantitative data on the numbers and traits of extinct species of birds worldwide. Those that became extinct in the last 300 years or so are relatively well known, while earlier species are known to science from remains found in archaeological and paleontological sites worldwide. Altogether we were able to list 469 avian species that became extinct over the last 50,000 years, but we believe that the real number is much higher.”

The researchers believe that the vast extinction was caused primarily by humans who hunted the birds for food, or by animals brought to islands by humans – that fed on the birds and/or their eggs. This assumption is based on the fact that the greater part of bird remains was found on human sites, apparently belonging to birds consumed by the inhabitants, and in most cases the extinctions occurred shortly after the arrival of humans.

Coveted Targets for Hunters

Most extinct species shared three major features:

About 90% of them lived on islands – When humans arrived on the island, the birds were hunted by them, or fell victim to other animals introduced by humans, such as pigs, rats, monkeys, and cats.
Most extinct bird species were large, some very large – The body mass of the extinct species was found to be up to 10 times as large as that of surviving species. The larger birds provided humans with a great quantity of food, thus they were a preferred target for hunters. Previous studies have found a similar phenomenon among mammals and reptiles, especially lizards and turtles that lived on islands: the larger ones were hunted by humans and became extinct.
A large portion of the extinct bird species were flightless, and often unable to escape their pursuers – The study found that the number of flightless bird species that became extinct is double the number of flightless species still existing today; all in all, 68% of the flightless bird species known to science became extinct. One of the better-known examples is the moa bird in New Zealand: 11 species of moa became extinct within 300 hundred years, due to hunting by humans

Prof. Meiri: “Our study indicates that before the major extinction event of the past millennia, many more large, even giant, as well as flightless avian lived on our globe, and the diversity of birds living on islands was much greater than today. We hope that our findings can serve as warning signals regarding bird species currently threatened with extinction, and it is therefore important to check whether they have similar features. It must be noted, however, that conditions have changed considerably, and today the main cause for extinction of species by humans is not hunting but rather the destruction of natural habitats.”

Featured image: Bird species at the Zoological Garden

Tel Aviv Bats Have More Fun

Written by AUFTAU on 22 July 2021. Posted in Newsroom.

Urbanization processes tend to lead animals to leave the city, but some animals are able to thrive in an urban domain. A new Tel Aviv University study found that fruit bats, just like humans, are able to adapt to a variety of environments, including the city and the countryside.

Prof. Yossi Yovel: “How animals cope with urbanization is one of the most central and important questions in ecological research today. Understanding the ways in which animals adapt to urban areas can help us in our conservation efforts. The urban environment is characterized by much fragmentation, and we currently have little understanding of how animals, especially small animals, like the bats, move and fly in such areas.”

The City Bat and the Country Bat

The urban environment is fundamentally different from the rural environment in terms of the diversity and accessibility of food. Although the city has a larger variety of trees per area, there are many challenges that bats have to face, such as buildings and humans. In rural areas, on the other hand, most of the trees are concentrated in orchards without barriers, but have less diversity – the trees are mostly of one type.

Because of the environmental differences between the city and the country with regards to the distribution and variety of fruit trees, the nature of the bats’ movement when foraging in these areas differs as well. In this new study, the researchers compared the nature of the movement of rural bats and city bats as they foraged for food, using tiny GPS devices to track the bats to see if the way they moved while searching for food was affected by their living environment, or the environment in which they were foraging.

The study was led by research student Katya Egert-Berg, under the guidance of aforementioned Prof. Yossi Yovel, head of Tel Aviv University’s Sagol School of Neuroscience and a faculty member of the School of Zoology in The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences and The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, as well as a recipient of the 2021 Kadar Family Award for Outstanding Research. The study was published in the journal BMC Biology.

Enjoying their Meals in the Big City

The researchers found that the fruit bats hunting for food in the city are much more exploratory, enjoy the abundance of the urban environment, visit a variety of fruit trees every night, and feed from a wide a variety of trees. In contrast, the rural bats focus on only one or two fruit trees each night. Moreover, the researchers found that among the rural bats who rest in the countryside, there were many who left their rural homes every night in search of food in the city, and then flew back to the country after their meal. During their stay in the city, such bats share the same flight patterns as those of the bats that live in the city around the clock.

The study’s findings led the researchers to assess that even bats that live in rural environments their entire lives will be able to orient themselves in an urban, industrialized environment. They explain that there are animal species that are flexible – for them, the ability to adapt to a new and unfamiliar environment such as an urban settlement is an acquired skill. Such species, of which the fruit bats are an example, will in many cases be able to adapt to life in urban areas.

Featured image: A Tel Aviv bat in action. Photo: S. Greif

TAU Medical Student to Swim for Israel at Summer Olympics

Written by AUFTAU on 16 July 2021. Posted in Magazine, Newsroom.

Andi Murez enhances her athletic performance at the Sylvan Adams Sports Institute.

“Most people tell me I’m crazy to be a professional swimmer and medical student, but I couldn’t give either up, so I tried to do both, not knowing whether I would succeed at either,” says Andrea “Andi” Murez during a break between training sessions at the University’s Sylvan Adams Sports Institute and the neighboring Sports Center. “I’m proud that I’ve given it a shot and prevailed.”

A Balancing Act

In 2017, California native Murez enrolled at TAU in the Sackler School of Medicine New York State/American Program. She has since completed her first two years in the MD Program that offers English courses for students from North America.

This will be 29-year-old Murez’s second Olympics; she previously represented Israel in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. With the Games in sight, the Israeli national record-holder in the 100-meter and 200-meter freestyle has taken a temporary break from her studies to focus on her Olympic aspirations. Following Tokyo, she will return to medical training and begin two years of clinical rotations at TAU-affiliated hospitals.

Training at TAU

Murez’s grueling routine in the final stretch to Tokyo consists of regular sessions at TAU facilities, including performance analyses at the Sylvan Adams Sports Institute, alongside teammates from Israel’s Olympic delegation and its national swim team.

Established in 2018, the Institute focuses on improving athletic capabilities in endurance sports: swimming, running, cycling, and triathlon. The Institute houses a state-of-the-art flume (counter-current) pool that helps swimmers improve their craft by testing factors such as limb function, movement symmetry and muscle fatigue.

Murez trains at the flume pool at TAU’s Sylvan Adams Sports Center (Photo: Moshe Bedarshi)

“Having Andi and other members of the Olympic team at the Institute is a realization of the Sylvan Adams Sports Institute’s mission, which is to enhance the abilities of Israel’s top athletes and nurture Olympic-level champions,” says the Institute’s Director, Prof. Chaim Pick of TAU’s Department of Anatomy & Anthropology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine.

“In a sport where every hundredth of a second matters, training sessions such as those performed at the Sylvan Adams Sports Institute—which could not have been done elsewhere in Israel—are vital for high-level swimmers such as Andi to evaluate and fine-tune their technique,” he adds.

WATCH: Murez trains at the flume pool at TAU’s Sylvan Adams Sports Center

For her part, Murez appreciates the variety of performance building options available at TAU. “Some people perform better in the flume pool, some in the open pool,” she says. “It’s great to have both for a holistic approach.”

Diving into Israel

In addition to her Olympic aims, Murez hopes to inspire other women along with potential olim to realize their dreams in Israel, particularly when it comes to athletics and higher education.

“Growing up, I never thought I’d swim for Israel—but it’s been great,“ says Murez.

Andi Murez is making waves in the pool and the classroom (Photo: Moshe Bedarshi)

The 17-time Maccabiah Games medalist credits formative experiences at the so-called “Jewish Olympics” for connecting her to Israel. Murez decided to make aliya following the 2013 Maccabiah, where a local counterpart drove home the exciting potential of living and swimming in Israel.

After undergraduate studies at Stanford University, she accepted a spot on the Israeli National Swimming Team and made aliya in 2014. Murez encourages others to follow similar paths. “It was a very welcoming experience,” she enthuses.” I love it here.”

She views swimming and medicine not as disparate endeavors, but as parallel tracks with many similarities. “The medical path is a long and rigorous journey, which takes patience and delayed gratification—two things I have experienced as a swimmer. When I was stressed in the classroom, I had swimming to fall back on,” she says. “When I’m stressed by swimming, I can focus on school to help me feel better.”

“The TAU faulty supported my passion for swimming and allowed me to take two years off of school to train for the Tokyo Olympics,” she notes. “I feel very fortunate that I found a great medical program to continue my studies.” Murez also nods to her classmates for their support. “In our program, I often studied in groups with classmates. If I fell behind on the material because of trainings, they would help me catch up,” she recounts. “They even came to a few swim meets to cheer me on!”

Following the 2021 Olympics, Murez plans to stay in Israel and pursue her professional swimming career alongside working as a physician. We wish Andi good luck and will continue to root for her in all her endeavors!

Murez will swim for Israel at the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan (Photo: Moshe Bedarshi)

Featured image: TAU medical student and Olympic contender Andi Murez poolside at the University’s Sports Center (Photo: Moshe Bedarshi)

Care for A Glass of Tel Aviv Air?

Written by AUFTAU on 24 June 2021. Posted in Newsroom.

The best things in life are allegedly free, and a first-of-its-kind study in the world conducted at Tel Aviv University supports this belief. Researchers have found that nature’s very own champagne, generated from the air in the heart of an urban area, the city of Tel Aviv, complies with all of the strict drinking water standards set both by the State of Israel and by the World Health Organization. Have we finally found a solution to the global drinking water scarcity?

Like the Air that We Breathe

The constantly growing global shortage of clean drinking water requires thinking outside the box – and developing new technologies for producing potable water. The Earth’s atmosphere is a vast and renewable source of water, which may be an alternative drinking water resource. Our atmosphere contains billions of tons of water, 98% of which is in a gaseous state – that is, water vapor.

The study was conducted by a team of experts from the hydrochemistry laboratory at the Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Tel Aviv University, led by graduate student Offir Inbar and supervised by Prof. Dror Avisar, Head of TAU’s Moshe Mirilashvili Institute for Applied Water Studies. Also participating in the study was Watergen’s research and development team, Prof. Alexandra Chudnovsky, and leading researchers from Germany. The study’s results were published in two leading journals: Science of the Total Environment and Water.

Wind Flavored Water

Offir Inbar explains that this is the first study in the world to examine air pollution through its effect on drinking water generated from the air. No filtration or treatment system was installed in the device used in the study; the water that was produced was the water that was obtained from the air. The researchers performed a wide range of advanced chemical analyses of the water, and found that in the vast majority of cases, including during different seasons and at different times of the day, the water extracted from the air in the heart of Tel Aviv was safe to drink. In addition, with the help of a variety of innovative technologies for monitoring the composition of the atmosphere and by applying advanced statistical methods, for the first time the researchers were able to quantitatively link the process the air goes through in the days leading up to the point of water production and the chemical composition of the dew.

Tel Aviv – a source of clean drinking water?

Offir Inbar explains: “The study showed that wind direction greatly affects water quality. When the wind comes from the desert, we find more calcium and sulfur – residues of desert dust aerosols – in the water. When the wind comes from the direction of the sea, we find higher concentrations of chlorine and sodium. We also found that the distant sources of the air, prior to when it reached the point of water production, can be identified in the water. Thus, water produced from air coming from the Sahara region differs in composition from water produced from air coming from Europe.”

Water quality is also affected by anthropogenic pollution from transportation and industry. “Using advanced methods, we found a direct link between the concentrations of ammonia, nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide in the air and the concentration of their decomposition products in water,” says Inbar. “We found low concentrations of copper, potassium, and zinc in the water, which probably come from manmade pollution.

Minerals Should be Added

The chemical link we found between the meteorological parameters and the composition of the water makes it possible for the first time to study the atmosphere using water extracted from it. This link allows us to know what minerals should be added to water extracted from air in order to provide people with quality drinking water. In general, we found that potable water from air does not contain enough calcium and magnesium – and it is advisable to add these minerals to the water, just like they are added to desalinated drinking water in some countries.”

A significant portion of the water we drink in Israel today is desalinated seawater – a solution which Inbar says is only a partial solution, and not one that can provide drinking water to the vast majority of the world’s population. “In order to desalinate seawater, you need a sea. The sea, however, is not accessible from every place in the world,” says Inbar. “After desalination, a complete infrastructure must be built to carry the desalinated water from the waterfront to the various towns, and large parts of the world don’t possess the engineering and economic means for that. Water from the air can be produced anywhere, with no need for expensive transport infrastructure and regardless of the amount of precipitation. From an economic perspective, the higher the temperature and humidity, the more cost-effective the production of water from the air is.”

Devices for generating water from the air that include water purification and treatment systems are already in use in a lot of countries, and provide quality drinking water to people living in distressed areas. “The concern in this case was that water produced from air in the heart of an urban area would not be suitable for drinking. We have proved that this is not the case,” Inbar concludes. “We are currently expanding our research to other areas in Israel, including the Haifa Bay and agricultural areas, in order to investigate in depth, the impact of various pollutants on the quality of water extracted from the air.”

Featured image:Offir Inbar enjoys a glass of Tel Aviv atmosphere derived water in the lab

Bats ‘Social Distance’ Too

Written by AUFTAU on 6 June 2021. Posted in Newsroom.

The Covid-19 pandemic has introduced us to expressions such as ‘lockdown’, ‘isolation’ and ‘social distancing’, which became part of social conduct all over the world. And while bats have been widely assumed to be source of coronavirus, apparently they too maintain social distancing, which might help prevent the spread of contagious diseases. Researchers from Tel Aviv University demonstrate that sick bats, just like us humans when we are sick, prefer to stay away from their communities. This is probably a means for recovery and possibly also a measure for protecting others. The study was conducted by postdoctoral researcher Dr. Kelsey Moreno and PhD candidate Maya Weinberg at the laboratory of Prof. Yossi Yovel, Head of the Sagol School of Neuroscience and a researcher at the School of Zoology at the George S. wise Faculty of Life Sciences. The study has been published in Annals of the New York Academy of Science.

“If we protect them, they will also protect us”

The study monitored two colonies of Egyptian fruit bats – one living in an enclosure and the other in its natural environment. To examine the behavior of bats when they get sick, the researchers injected several bats in each group with a bacteria-like protein, thereby stimulating their immune response without generating any real danger to the bats. Tests revealed symptoms such as a high fever, fatigue and weight loss, and the ‘ill’ bats’ behavior was tracked with GPS. The researchers discovered that the ‘sick’ bats chose to keep away from the colony. In the first group, they left the bat cluster of their own accord and kept their distance. In the second group the ‘ill’ bats likewise moved away from the other bats in the colony, and also stayed in the colony and did not go out in search of food for two successive nights. Research student Maya Weinberg explains that this social distancing behavior is probably caused by the need to conserve energy – by avoiding the energy-consuming social interactions in the group. Weinberg emphasizes, however, that this behavior can also protect the group and prevent the pathogen from spreading within the colony. Moreover, the fact that sick bats don’t leave the cave, prevents the disease from spreading to other colonies. “The bats’ choice to stay away from the group is highly unusual for these animals. Normally these bats are extremely social creatures, living in caves in very crowded conditions,” says Weinberg. “In fact, the ‘sick’ bats’ behavior is very reminiscent of our own during recovery from an illness. Just as we prefer to stay home quietly under the blanket when we are ill, sick bats, living in very crowded caves, also seek solitude and peace as they recuperate.” Prof. Yovel adds that the study’s findings suggest that the likelihood of bats passing pathogens to humans under regular conditions is very low, because sick bats tend to isolate themselves and stay in the cave. “We observed that during illness bats choose to stay away from the colony and don’t leave the cave, and thus avoid mixing with other bats. This suggests that in order to encounter a sick bat, people must actually invade the bats’ natural environment or eliminate their habitats. In other words, if we protect them, they will also protect us.”

Tag: Earth Sciences

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