Science History

Marking 50 years since the Apollo–Soyuz mission — the first space collaboration between the United States and the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War

Fritz Strassmann, who took part in one of the most important scientific discoveries of the 20th century, risked his life to save a Jewish woman.

Daniel Kahneman, who passed away a year ago, revolutionized our understanding of economic behavior by demonstrating that our decisions are often guided by intuition and bias rather than pure rationality—a breakthrough that earned him the Nobel Prize in Economics.

Marking 90 years since Fritz Haber’s death, the scientist who helped prevent world hunger with a method for producing synthetic fertilizers but also spearheaded chemical warfare for Germany in World War I.

Marking a year since the passing of physicist Arno Allan Penzias, who fled Nazi Germany as a child and co-discovered cosmic background radiation, a breakthrough that solidified the “Big Bang”.

Stephen Hawking, one of the world’s most renowned physicists, revolutionized our understanding of black holes and the universe, all while living with ALS and being confined to a wheelchair.

Marking 63 years since the passing of Otto Loewi, the neuroscientist who, in a dream, found the experimental setup to discover how signals are transmitted between nerve cells.

Marking 90 years since the birth of Carl Sagan, a trailblazer in planetary science and astrobiology, who became an iconic advocate for science in the media and the public sphere through popular books and a successful TV series.

Israel’s first president was not only a statesman but also the chemist who discovered how to harness bacteria to produce acetone. Chaim Weizmann skillfully leveraged his scientific achievements and prestige to advance the founding of the State of Israel.

Marking 135 years since the birth of Edwin Hubble, who revealed that the universe is much larger than the Milky Way, showed that it is steadily expanding, and laid the foundation for the Big Bang theory.

Long before electronic computers came to be, the young mathematician Ada Lovelace was already crafting algorithms for an early calculating machine. Today, her legacy is celebrated through initiatives that promote women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Acclaimed physicist Sergey Gredeskul and his wife Victoria, also a physicist, immigrated to Israel from Ukraine. Sergey was once a leading figure in the theoretical field of disordered systems. Their rich world of knowledge and culture was abruptly cut short when Hamas terrorists brutally murdered them in their home in Ofakim, southern Israel, on the morning of October 7, 2023.

This month marks 110 years since the birth of James Van Allen, the American researcher who discovered the magnetic radiation belts and led numerous pioneering studies in space exploration.

Physicists who set out to debunk the theory of evolution for religious reasons ended up revolutionizing the field of geology.

Élisabeth and Eugène Wollman worked together for many years on groundbreaking research in microbiology, until the Nazis came.

WIS Physicist Eilam Gross, one of the researchers involved in the discovery of the Higgs boson, with parting words for the particle’s predictor

Felix Hausdorff, a leading mathematician of the 20th century, chose to end his life instead of being sent to a concentration camp at the age of 73

Pioneering Israeli Science: The Remarkable Journey of Joshua Jortner

Maria Goeppert Mayer, a scientist who overcame prejudice and discrimination to win the Nobel Prize in Physics

Marking 70 years since the elucidation of the DNA molecule’s unique double helical structure

Stephanie Horowitz’s pioneering research contributed to the discovery of isotopes. Years later, she tragically met her end in the gas chambers at Treblinka.

Remembered mainly for the light bulb he didn’t invent, but gave the world hundreds of inventions and patents. Thomas Edison

65 years since Linus Pauling submitted his petition against nuclear testing

The 137th birthday of Niels Bohr, physicist and one of the fathers of quantum mechanics