ISRAEL'S ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE WORLD OF HIGH-TECH

Written by Administrator

Tuesday, 21 September 2010

Technion's Pill-Cam

On a rainy Monday evening in September, over 50 members of SAUL braved the elements to hear a captivating presentation from Tony Bernstein, Executive Director of the British Technion Society, about the Technion’s ground breaking developments, which are helping change people’s lives around the world.

The Technion, based in Haifa is Israel’s leading science and technology university, and is home to Israel’s first winners of the Nobel Prize in science.

Due to the ingenuity of Technion alumni, Israel is now home to the greatest concentration of high-tech start up companies anywhere outside of the Silicon Valley. Such is the strength of the Technion’s academia that 74% of managers in Israel's electronic industries hold Technion degrees.

The talk provided a fascinating insight into the Technion and focused on the Nobel Prize winning research which discovered a breakthrough in cancer treatment and degenerative brain diseases, incredible nanotechnology research which recently produced the world’s smallest bible fitting on a pin-head, and Azilect, the most effective drug developed to fight the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Tony Bernstein also talked about scientific research projects at the Grand Water Research Institute aimed at alleviating the water scarcity in the Middle East and medical robots, developed by the Technion’s mechanical engineering department which can enter a patient’s bloodstream and deliver medical treatment.

The audience was particularly interested in the camera pill, known as the PillCam, which was developed by Technion graduate Dr Gavriel Iddan. The pill is swallowed by the patient and then delivers detailed pictures of the gastro-intestinal tract. The camera, equipped with a tiny light source, miniaturised transmitters and power cells, travels through the body in a disposable capsule. Produced by Given Imaging Ltd, it makes digestive system examinations as simple as taking a pill. For all those who are wondering, it is not reused!

The nano-bible

Many in the audience were not aware that so many technological innovations such as Intel’s Personal Computer Notebook Technology and the security technology used in airports around the world originate from Israel and were interested to find that these advances have been made at the Technion.

The evening concluded with an opportunity to take home the British Technion Society’s fascinating literature on the Technion together with some limited edition gift notelets illustrating some of the Technion’s powerful scientific images.
Despite Israel being the 100th smallest country in the world, with less than 1/1000th of the world’s population, we should feel very proud that the Jewish homeland is today recognised as a world leader in science and technology.

The British Technion Society would be very happy to present their Roadshow presentation at other B’nai B’rith Lodges so please contact BTS’ offices on 020 7495 6824 if you are interested. Should anyone want to be included on the British Technion Society’s newsletter please e-mail bts62@aol.com.