Awards & performances
– Travel & Leisure magazine listed the best airports in the world and awarded the 8nd place at Ben Gurion airport, the 1st place returning to Singapore airport.
– This magazine also made the list of best cities in Africa and the Near East, awarding the 2nd place in Jerusalem and the 7nd in Tel Aviv.
In the category of best hotels, Israel also stands out thanks to the Waldorf Astoria in Jerusalem, which ranks 2nd place and the Tel-Aviv Norma at the 7nd instead.
– Pr. Berta Levavi-Sivan obtained the 2017 Kaye Innovation Prize for her discoveries in aquaculture (see below High Tech)
– In the field of innovation (Global Innovation Index), Israel was ranked 7nd time consecutive to the 1st place for the “North Africa and Western Asia” region and at the 17nd place among 127 countries (against 21nd in 2016).
– Israel is ranked 13nd among 152 countries for applications for international patent recognition; he occupies the 1st world place in the export of services in the field of communication and information technology, the 4nd place in the world for the percentage of female university graduates who work, the 3nd place in the field of cooperation between universities and industry and the 4nd room for foreign investment in research and development.
– Author David Grossman won the prestigious Man Booker International Prize in London for “A horse walks into a bar“, a painful portrait of Israeli society.
– The average life expectancy is 82,5 years (80,6 for men and 84,3 for women), which places the country in 8nd world rank.
– A young high school student in class 12, Mor Divshi, won the gold medal in the 25nd Rotterdam Philosophical Olympiad, on 50 countries. He had done an essay on the changes in professional and personal relationships due to the digital society.
– The young Druze Zeid Medah, from Kfar Samia, became the world champion of Thai boxing under 15
– For the fourth consecutive year, Tel Aviv University ranks 9nd place in the world for the number of its undergraduate graduates who have become entrepreneurs, according to market analysis firm Pitchbook Data.
– Lady Globes magazine chose Minister Ayelet Shaked, of the Habayit Hayehoudi party, as “Israel's most influential woman».
High Tech
– The Flytrex company will deliver parcels using drones and uses innovative software, which can do more than transport parcels from point A to point B. Drones have information on weather conditions, the topography of places and are notified of the presence of other drones in the air. Flytrex starts a pilot project with Ukrainian postal services. Its drones will be able to transport packages weighing up to 3kg and deliver them in less than half an hour.
– 20% of fish are obtained today by aquaculture. Why are fish in aquaculture slow to grow? Prof. Berta Levavi-Sivan of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has identified fine molecules called Neurokinin B (NKB) and Neurokinin F (NKF) which are secreted by the brain of fish and which play a crucial role in their development and reproduction. . It has succeeded in developing inhibitors of these molecules which make it possible to increase of 25% harvesting fish under the same aquaculture conditions. The technology has been patented and entrusted to the start-up AquiNovo of the Trendlines group.
Archeology
– According to carbon 14 dating carried out on olive pits, the city of the Khirbet Kéfaya site dates from the 11nd century before our era, which corresponds to the time of King David. According to archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), on the border between the Philistine and Judean kingdoms, this city is none other than Shaarayim, the city of the fight between David and Goliath. A new exhibition titled “ In the Valley of David and Goliath presents the result of 8 years of excavations of great historical and archaeological value. One artifact bears an interesting inscription, arguably one of the oldest specimens of Hebrew writing discovered to date. Other objects of interest: ritual pieces in cult shrines, unique stone sculpture, representing a small temple and decorated with architectural elements that seem to echo biblical descriptions of King Solomon's Temple and his palace in Jerusalem, pottery, weapons like the three iron swords…
Amanda Weiss, director of the Museum of Bible Lands in Jerusalem, will participate in the inauguration of the Museum of the Bible (MOTB) in Washington, which aims to present the influence, history and narrative of the Bible, in through a series of highly technological exhibits and interactive experiences. The exhibition " In the Valley of David and Goliath will inaugurate the Museum in November.
– Researchers from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) have discovered a huge 2700-year-old reservoir and water system at the Rosh Haa'yin site. According to Gilad Itach, director of excavations, it would be an underground reservoir 20m long and 4m deep, collecting rainwater, under a building with walls 50m long. This construction could have housed the administration of the neighboring farms, built at the time of the Assyrian domination of the kingdom of Israel.
- In a Galilee dig site in the old village of Huqoq, co-led by AAI's Shua Killevitz, unprecedented depictions of the biblical story of Jonah and the whale have been discovered on the mosaics of a synagogue dating from the 5nd century. Jonas' legs appear dangling, emerging from the mouth of a large fish, itself swallowed by another, larger one, which is itself consumed by a third, even more imposing one. Among the mosaic finds, there is also a scene showing men building a tower using stones, the Tower of Babel. Also noteworthy is a mosaic medallion that depicts Helios, the Greco-Roman sun god, in a chariot drawn by four horses. He is surrounded by personifications of the months, the signs of the zodiac and the four seasons. But we also find the image of Samson and the foxes (Judges 15:4) and that of Samson carrying the gate of Gaza on his shoulders (Judges 16:3). In addition to their artistic value, the mosaics are a window into the lifestyle and craftsmanship techniques used around 1 years ago.
– During excavations in Timna, Negev, Dr. Naama Sukenik of AAI & Dr. Erez Ben-Yosef of Tel Aviv University
discovered dyes dating from the time of Kings David and Solomon, in fabrics 3000 years old and well preserved, given the dryness of the place. The plants are madder which gives a red hue and woad or indigotine which gives indigo blue.
– According to the IAA, an account of the fall of Jerusalem by Flavius Josephus, a Judeo-Roman historian from the 1er century, is confirmed by objects discovered on an ancient road which linked the city gates and the basin of Siloam to the Temple. These are weapons used by Roman legionaries and Jewish rebels. Archaeologists have also unearthed stones from crossbow shots, launched by Roman catapults, and arrowheads used by Jewish rebels behind the barricades, when the city was delivered to the Romans, in the year 70 of the common era.
Defense
- The society aeronautics has developed two new drones. The Orbiter 4 is dedicated to maritime missions with its 24-hour autonomy and its capacity to carry two loads weighing 50 kg. In these two loads, the device can use different radars (maritime patrol, aperture synthesis), an interception sensor, an electro-optical load, or even a communication satellite.
Pegasus 120, is a multi-rotor that can lift up to 75 kg of load which is intended for special military missions. (http://www.drone-actu.fr)
– Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd has developed the new Gil 2 missile of the 5nd generation in the Spike missile family. This missile is guided by an electro-optical system and infrared ray sensors that allow for very fast and precise targeted eliminations whatever the conditions. It can be fired leaving it to reach its target without intervention, but it can also be controlled remotely during its flight to be redirected in the event of a sudden change in the target.
Spike LR II is another developed missile that weighs 12,7 kg, with a range of 5,5 km if fired from a vehicle or launcher and 10 km if fired from a helicopter.
– Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has developed a naval version of the MALE (Medium Altitude Long Endurance) Heron 1 drone, for long-duration patrols. Heron1 carries an "advanced" electro-optical payload, namely the MOSP (Multi-mission Optronic Stabilized Payload) developed by the Tamam division of IAI, as well as a light surveillance radar designed by ELTA. This Heron1 can carry multiple payloads and sensors simultaneously, allowing it to provide a full range of intelligence gathering, target detection and identification capabilities. With an endurance of 20 hours, it is able to follow a hundred targets up to a distance of 322 km.
Inventions and Discoveries
– Materials with shape memory are characterized by their ability to repair the deformations inflicted on them
