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Israeli
Science & Technology Breakthroughs
The 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world's
population, can lay claim to the following:
- The cell phone was
first developed at the Motorola plant in Israel.
- Most of the Windows NT
and XP operating systems were developed by Microsoft-Israel.
- The Pentium MMX Chip
technology was designed in Israel at Intel.
- Both the Pentium-4
microprocessor for desktop computers and the Centrino processor
for laptops were entirely designed, developed and produced in
Israel.
- Voice mail technology
was developed in Israel. The Israeli company Amdocs is the largest
company in the world in this field.
- Both Microsoft and
Cisco built their only foreign-based research and development
facilities in Israel.
- The program ICQ, which
is the technological basis for AOL Instant Messenger, was
developed in 1996 by four young Israelis.
- Disk on Key - a
portable, virtual hard disk - was developed by the Israeli company
M-Systems.
- Israel has the highest
number of personal computers per capita in the world.
- Israel has the highest
number of university degrees per capita in the world.
- Israel produces more
scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large
margin - 109 per 10,000 people - as well as one of the highest per
capita rates of patents filed.
- In proportion to its
population, Israel has the largest number of startup companies in
the world. In absolute terms, Israel has the largest number of
startup companies than any other country in the world, except the
US.
- With more than 3,000
high-tech companies and startups, Israel has the highest
concentration of hi-tech companies in the world - apart from
Silicon Valley.
- Israel is ranked #2 in
the world for venture capital funds right behind the United
States.
- Outside the United
States and Canada, Israel has the largest number of companies
listed on NASDAQ.
- Israel has the highest
average living standards in the Middle East. The per capita income
in 2000 was over $17,500, exceeding that of the United Kingdom.
- On a per capita basis,
Israel has the largest number of biotech startups.
- Twenty four percent of
Israel's workforce holds university degrees - ranking third in the
industrialized world, after the United States and Holland - and 12
percent hold advanced degrees.
- Israel has the third
highest rate of entrepreneurship - and the highest rate among
women and among people over 55 in the world.
- Relative to its
population, Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on
earth.
- Israel has the world's
second highest supply of new books per capita.
- Israel has more
museums per capita than any other country.
- Israeli scientists
developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation diagnostic
instrumentation for breast cancer.
- An Israeli company
developed a computerized system for ensuring proper administration
of medications, thus removing human error from medical treatment.
Every year in U. S. hospitals 7,000 patients die from treatment
mistakes.
- Israel's Given Imaging
developed the PillCam - the first ingestible video camera, which
is so small it fits inside a pill. Used to view the small
intestine from the inside, the camera helps doctors diagnose
cancer and digestive disorders.
- Researchers in Israel
developed a new device that directly helps the heart pump blood.
The new device is synchronized with the heart's mechanical
operations through a sophisticated system of sensors.
- Israel leads the world
in the number of scientists and technicians in the workforce, with
145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the U.S., over 70 in Japan,
and less than 60 in Germany.
- A new acne treatment
developed in Israel causes acne bacteria to self-destruct - all
without damaging surroundings skin or tissue.
- An Israeli company was
the first to develop and install a large-scale solar-powered and
fully functional electricity generating plant in Southern
California's Mojave Desert.
- The first computer
anti-virus software package was developed in Israel back in the
1970's.
- Major law enforcement
agencies use Israeli technologies to monitor voices and messages
on conventional phones, mobile phones and e-mails.
- An Israeli company,
Teva, is the world's largest generic pharmaceutical company.
- A new brain implant
has been developed in Israel that can lower the risk of stroke by
diverting blood clots away from sensitive areas of the brain.
- IBM scientists in
Israel are playing a vital role in a massive project of the
European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) to discover the
origins of life on earth.
- Israeli software
company Check Point is the global leader in Virtual Private
Network (VPN) and firewall technologies.
- Israeli company Elta
is responsible for the world's first civilian aircraft equipped
with technology designed to protect airliners from a missile
attack.
- Mashav, the Israeli
Foreign Ministry's Center for International Cooperation has
trained over 200,000 international aid workers that have traveled
to dozens of countries to help with medicine, agriculture,
disaster relief, and many other issues.
- Israel has, for many
years, held the world record in milk production.
- Rummikub, the third
highest selling board game in the world, is manufactured in a
family-run plant in the small southern Israeli town of Arad.
- Drip irrigation - the
system that is based on using plastic pipes that release small
amounts of water next to crops or plants - was developed by the
Israeli engineer Simcha Blas in the 1970's. # in agriculture.
- A design submitted by
Israeli-born Michael Arad has been chosen for the World Trade
Center Memorial, from amongst 5,000 entries from around the world.
- Israeli company
Retalix created the grocery scanners used at such stores as
Costco, Albertson's, and 7-11, as well as 25,000 additional stores
and quick-service restaurants throughout the United States.
- Primate research at
Hebrew University is leading to the development of a robotic arm
that can respond to the brain commands of a paralyzed person.
- Two Israeli
researchers are generating cancer-killing molecules that will
recognize cancerous cells and target them aggressively, while not
affecting normal cells.
- Israeli researchers
developed a novel stem cell therapy to treat Parkinson's Disease -
using a patient's own bone marrow stem cells to produce the
missing chemical that enables restoration of motor movement.
- Israeli company Silent
Communications has developed a type of silent conversation system
for cell phones, so users can carry on conversations without
saying a word.
- The Israeli company
Wondernet is currently dominating the world market in document
signature authentication, with its unique scientific method of
verifying handwritten signatures.
- Israeli Professor
Yehuda Finkelstein has discovered the cause of and cure for
halitosis (bad breath).
- Cherry tomatoes were
originally supposed to be a snack when they were designed by a
group of scientists led by professor Nahum Keidar from the
agriculture faculty at the Weizmann Institute of Science, with the
cooperation of the Israeli company Zera.
- The Quicktionary, a
pen size scanner that scans a word or a sentence and translates it
to a different language, was developed by the Wizcom Company,
based in Jerusalem.
- Professor Ehud Keinan
from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology developed a pen
that identifies an improvised explosive.
- The Israeli company
Insightec developed an ultrasound system for removing tumors
without surgery.
- Researchers at the
Technion have developed an antibiotic that destroys anthrax
bacteria as well as the toxins it secretes into the bloodstream of
the infected body.
- Epilady, an electric
hair removal system, was developed by Yair Dar and Shimon Yahav
from the Goshrim Kibbutz.
- The sun-heated water
tank, a device that converts solar energy into thermal energy and
that saves about 4% of the national energy supply, was developed
by an engineer from Jerusalem.
- Dr. Gal Yadid, Dr.
Rachel Mayan, and Professor Abraham Weizman from Bar Ilan
University developed a form of drug rehabilitation using a natural
steroid that is inserted into the brain and develops a resistance
for the drugs.
- Alon Moses from
Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem and Imanuel Hensky and Carlos
Hidelgo-Grass from Hebrew University decoded the mechanism for
Streptococcus A.
Source:
http://www.israeliconsulatela.org/culture/Science.asp
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