Photo by MutlitLock

A new alert system developed by Israel’s MultiLock and Starcom Systems aims to tattletale on thieves – literally.

The WatchLock – a lock enforced with special GPS and cellular chips – allows owners to track its location anywhere in the world, and send them a text message should anyone try to pry it open.

The system is the first of its kind in the world and won the Physical Security Product of the Year at the IFSEC 2012 innovation awards. Held in the UK in mid May, IFSEC is the largest annual security event in Britain and one of the most prestigious in the world.

WatchLock looks like a slightly oversized version of a standard lock, but its unique system sends out its location at any given time.

The system keeps a log of every time the lock is opened and should anything but its key be used, it alerts the owner by SMS or email immediately.

The locator system is not power-dependent, making it ideal for securing remote locations or moving objects, such as trucks or containers.

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Photo by Amit Giron

The opening of the new Herta and Paul Amir Building has recently put the Tel Aviv Museum of Art  front and center as a must-see destination for art lovers from across the globe.

Oil-based pest control is simple and inexpensive

Thin-skinned vegetables such as tomatoes and zucchini are susceptible to insect infestation and fungi, and even new organic pesticides are not completely safe, says Israeli agriculture scientist Samuel Gan-Mor.

He’s got a new approach that could revolutionize the way bugs are kept from crops: a mixture of edible, off-the-shelf canola or rapeseed oil, soybean oil, cottonseed oil and even the slightly more expensive olive oil.

The advanced sprayer is part of the package containing the blend of oils, along with an emulsifier. The product is being marketed as a new organic pesticide alternative that is 100 percent safe, even if used minutes before harvest. Chemical pesticides require a “cooling off” period between application and harvesting because of the health risks involved to people and wildlife.

Smaller farms could share a sprayer machine, and basic materials are cheap – about $1 a liter for the oil, which is heavily diluted with water. All that’s needed besides the solution is access to electricity to run the sprayer.

“The oil blends could be created to match the crop or the insect,” says Gan-Mor, who continues to work on making the agriculture industry less toxic to humankind.

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Dr. Refael Aharon of Applied CleanTech has developed a system capable of turning stinking sewage into a renewable and profitable source of energy. How?

About 99.9% of the drainage which comes out of our homes and flows through pipes is water. The remaining 10% are comprised of solid substances which can be used for the production of cellulose, which is used to produce paper.

Turning toilet paper into writing paper

These substances include food leftovers, used toilet paper and fiber from clothes which flow into the sewage with the laundry water.

So far, these solid substances have been a difficult and expensive nuisance. The process of cleaning the large amounts of processed waste remaining after the wastewater filtration require a lot of money, which pushes up our water tariffs.

Aharon says the process he developed reduces half of the solid substances in the sewage. As a result, the factory needs less electricity and chemicals to purify water – and the money saved may eventually reduce our water bills.

Purifying waste

So how does one turn drain water into paper? After the solid substances are filtered and separated from the wastewater, they undergo a drying and purification process to remove bacteria.

The remaining substance, which includes large amounts of cellulose, can be sold to paper manufacturers. Thanks to the system, which has already been installed in one of the sewage purification facilities in southern Israel, paper has already been produced at much lower costs than regular recycled paper.

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Prof. Emeritus Nathan Citri

It’s a well-established fact that hospital-borne infections are a top killer in the United States and Europe. Use as much antibacterial hand gel as you like, but no one is totally immune from “superbugs” spawned by the overuse or misuse of antibiotics. People with compromised immune systems, newborns and the elderly are especially easy prey for these microbes.

Prof. Emeritus Nathan Citri’s medical kit targets the problem of identifying various bugs fast enough to save lives and stop an outbreak. Currently, patients can wait as long as five days to get an evidence-based treatment, time during which the infection can spread like wildfire. The kit has all the material necessary to test for the presence of superbugs in a urine or blood sample, and almost immediately provides crucial guidelines on how to treat the infection at hand.

What’s extremely novel about the diagnostic kit is that it also provides information on the type of antibiotic that might be useful against the infection, whether it’s in the lower respiratory tract, urinary tract, intestines or abdomen. Armed with information from this kit, doctors will be able to shave days off the decision-making process, and remove guesswork from the clinical setting.

The kits are made to produce a chemical reaction in the presence of beta-lactamases, an enzyme found in all multi-drug resistant bacteria. If the urine or blood contains a kind of bacteria known to destroy the antibiotics located on a certain part of the array, within minutes a warning color change will tell members of the medical team what they need to know.

Yissum’s (The university’s commercial arm) CEO Yaacov Michlin added: “Drug-resistant gut bacteria present the most alarming, imminent threat to our ability to control infectious diseases. In order to contain its spread, a case of multi-drug resistance should be promptly isolated and treated with the one or two last-resort drugs that may still work. This is an extremely important step in our fight against antibiotic resistance.”

Known around the world for its technological innovations and brainpower, Israel placed second in terms of the number of  its academics. Canada, with a population of 34 million people, placed first in the survey.

The OECD ‘Education at a Glance’ report shows that 45 percent of the Israeli population has a post-secondary education. Canada boasts a 50% rating in the same category.

The report shows that the 10 most educated countries in the world are: Canada, Israel, Japan, US, New Zealand, South Korea, Norway, the United Kingdom, Australia and Finland.

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"We must develop water generation equipment from nontraditional sources, including... atmospheric humidity." US Army Regulation 700-136, Washington DC, June 2009

Military troops around the world, no matter where they are instated, know that even with the best training, personnel and arms, they cannot survive battle if they are lacking one vital thing: water. Among the concerns of military heads is  to ensure water sources are always available, even in the most arid of places.

One Israeli company took up the challenge to ensure water can be readily available, anywhere and at any time, by extracting it from the most common of things: air.

Initially, the system filters the air so that water can be extracted and accommodated in containers. Then, it is cooled and purified into drinking water. This water can be served from a tap within the system or inside the cabin.

Chairmen and co-CEO, Arye Kohavi, says that “water transportation is one of the most common reasons for the departure of convoys across Afghanistan. These convoys are attacked and have casualties.” He adds that “if we can produce the water at the exact point where it is consumed, we spare the need to transport water and reduce the risk and expenses.”

According to the Water-Gen, the device, which can be fitted onto vehicles, produces 10-20 gallons of pure drinking water a day, even in harsh weather and field conditions. The system, which is operated by solar or electric energy, is designed to meet military needs and standards, the company adds.

Water-Gen Video

Eventually, Water-Gen hopes the technology can be implemented not just in the military, but in water-scarce regions around the world too. The United States, India, The UK, Spain and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) have already shown interest in the company’s products.

Israeli company's LiteTouch laser system is becoming a fast favorite of dentists and their patients in the US, Asia and Europe

Going to the dentist is never a picnic, and dentists understand how their patients feel. That’s why they are constantly trying new technologies to make treatment less unpleasant.

Syneron Dental Lasers of Yokneam, Israel, has developed the new LiteTouch dental laser – an innovation that has played a pivotal role in transforming the way practitioners perform dental treatments today.

Just as the mobile phone freed the world from wires, so has the LiteTouch freed dentists from traditional tools as well as bulky optic fibers, making laser dentistry completely portable, says company president Ira Prigat,  ”The LiteTouch system is cost-effective and a step up toward a completely high-tech clinic.” And for dentists who miss the comforting sound of the drill, the LiteTouch vibrates like a drill although fortunately for patients, it doesn’t hurt like a drill since it’s laser-based.

Black Galaxy: the new crossbreed - which includes blueberry pigment - may be more nutritious than a regular tomato

Everyone knows that Israeli food is scrumptious, fresh and flavorsome. It’s also highly innovative.

At the annual Arava Agricultural R&D exhibition – which took place earlier this month -visitors were wowed by new edible produce including a black tomato, rainbow colored carrots and red lemons.

Over 250 companies from Israel and around the world participated in the expo.

The new species of fruits and vegetables are set for export. And in addition to adding a splash of color to the salad bowl, the new produce reportedly packs more vitamins and antioxidants into its fruit/vegetable.

Rainbow carrots Photo: Bareket Tal

“Black Galaxy” tomato was developed by Technological Seeds DM. The company says that the color was derived from a pigment in blueberries and that the new species has higher concentrations of Vitamin C as found in regular tomatoes.

Among other new edible creations, the show featured the latest agro-tech developments including thermal plant imaging and a crop dusting robot.

Thank you israel21c.org for the story