Lag B’Omer bonfires seem to be an inherent part of the holiday festivities, however, that was not always the case, and may not remain so in the future. Prof. Hizky Shoham, of BIU’s Program for Hermeneutics & Cultural Studies, elucidates why we really celebrate Lag B’Omer, shedding light on its vague origins and how the minor holiday was shaped in three different ways.
More than a decade before he was appointed President of the University, Prof. Arie Zaban led groundbreaking research while serving in Bar-Ilan University’s Department of Chemistry. His research led to the development of a “metal-air” green energy-based technology that provides the infrastructure for the production of a new, aluminum-based battery for electric vehicles.
Scientific studies rarely focus on long non-coding RNA molecules (lncRNAs), even though they potentially regulate several diseases. The role of several lncRNAs in anti-viral inflammatory response regulation has recently been reported.
Isi Leibler was a world statesman and State of Israel advocate who devoted his life to addressing the challenges facing the Jewish nation at every historic crossroad – from securing the liberation of Soviet Jewry to BDS. In 2016 the University awarded Leibler an honorary doctorate for his tireless activism.
The outbreak of COVID-19 has revealed the widespread effects a pandemic can have on all spheres of life from health, to social life, to the economy. The main thrust of efforts to control the spread has been to decrease the reproduction rate to flatten the curve of the total number of infected individuals per day in order to reduce overload on the health system. The most widely implemented response to the exponential growth of the infection has been widespread quarantine and lockdown.
BIU’s Azrieli Faculty of Medicine opened a Teddy Bear Hospital on Monday, May 3. Children aged 3-7 were invited to bring a favorite teddy bear or doll, and to ask questions about illness, injuries or medical care. Azrieli Faculty students and doctors spoke to the children, suggesting medical treatment for their dolls and teddy bears, and answering questions.
The mobile clinic of the School of Optometry and Vision Science, in BIU’s Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, recently arrived in Beit Shemesh to perform vision tests at a nursing home as well as for local welfare recipients.
Coral reefs are one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on earth. In the northern Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba corals also have exceptionally high tolerance to increasing seawater temperatures, now occurring as a consequence of global warming. This characteristic led coral reef scientists to designate this region as a potential coral reef refuge in the face of climate change – a reef where corals may survive longer than others that are being lost at an alarming rate due to human pressures.
Prof. Orna Sasson-Levy, of the Faculty of Social Sciences, and advisor to the BIU President on gender equity, notes that women today figure prominently among Israeli university students and graduates. However, they are underrepresented among academic faculty (especially in the sciences), among the higher academic ranks, and in academic management. This situation, she says, is related to the academic career structure (predicated on post-doctoral research abroad, which is particularly difficult for women), and pre-conceived notions about women's scientific capabilities.
