News & Press Releases
VertINGreen Unveiled Turning Indoor Green Walls Into Smart, Living Systems Breathing Life Into Buildings
Indoor air quality in modern buildings is increasingly difficult to maintain without high energy costs, and while vertical green walls offer a natural solution, their inconsistent performance and complex maintenance have limited widespread use. VertINGreen, developed by Hebrew University researchers, solves this by using AI, remote sensing, and plant data to both predict how green walls will perform before installation and monitor their health in real time—making them a reliable, efficient, and scalable tool for improving air quality and reducing energy consumption.
Israel Prize Honors Prof. Avi Rivkind for Transforming Trauma Care and Saving Lives
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and its Faculty of Medicine proudly congratulate Prof. Avraham (Avi) Rivkind on being awarded the Israel Prize in the category of Lifetime Achievement – Special Contribution to Society and the State.
Climate Lessons from the Last Interglacial for Today’s Climate Change
By integrating ancient geological archives with high-tech climate simulations, researchers identified that the Levant experienced a 20% increase in rainfall during the Last Interglacial peak. The study reveals that this wetting was driven by a "thermodynamic" shift, where a warmer atmosphere held more moisture that was then dumped into the desert by intensified Red Sea Troughs. These findings suggest that such localized, high-intensity weather patterns transformed the arid southern Levant into a viable migration path for early humans moving out of Africa.
15,000 Years Ago, Children Shaped Clay, Long Before Pottery or Farming
New discoveries from Israel suggest that the first villagers used clay not to cook, but to tell stories about who they were.
Long before pottery, before agriculture, when the first villages took shape, people in the Levant were already molding clay with their hands, carefully, deliberately, and sometimes playfully. Some of those hands belonged to children.
Protecting Wildlife from Genetic Collapse with Newly Identified "Early Warning Signals"
A new study reveals that habitat fragmentation can lead to sudden "tipping points" where a species' genetic health unexpectedly collapses after appearing stable for long periods. By merging network theory with population genetics, the research identifies detectable "early warning signals" in genetic data that can alert conservationists to an approaching crisis before it becomes irreversible. These findings provide a practical toolkit for monitoring wildlife populations and protecting the genetic diversity essential for animals to survive a changing environment.











