|
WEIZMANN
INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE
Nanoscience
Nothing New,
Something
That Moses Knew
Text/Photos:
Tim Boxer
 SRAELI
Consul General Alon Pinkas had a confession to make at the
Weizmann Institute of Science annual gala at the Waldorf: “I
grew up three blocks from the university in Rehovot in the late
‘70s. I used to steal their oranges and grapefruit. They were
very good. And I wasn’t the only one.”
For a liberal arts major, who flunked every
chemistry and biology class ever given, CNN senior analyst Jeff
Greenfield did a noble job in introducing 34 Nobel scientists
at the dinner.
The parade of Nobel laureates reminded board
chairman Stuart Eizenstat what John F. Kennedy
said about a group of Nobel winners he hosted at the White House:
“This house has not seen such an array of wisdom and knowledge
since Thomas Jefferson dined here alone.”
Former chairman Gershon Kekst
presented a scroll to Helen and Martin Kimmel for
their gift of the Kimmel Center for Nanoscale Science.
Shimon
Peres and Alon Pinkas
|
Shimon Peres, himself a Nobel Peace
Prize laureate, said the new center’s study of nanotechnology
– the science of using things measured in one-billionth of a
meter – will revolutionize every aspect of our life.
“Nanotechnology is the opposite of the
nuclear bomb,” Peres said. “We will have new medicine, with
robots the size of a hair on your head probing your body. We will
have cars with material thinner than paper so you won’t use so
much energy and make pollution.”
Actually, Peres noted, nanotechnology is
nothing new for the Jewish people. First to experiment in
nanoscience was Moses – he extracted water from a rock.
|
