How Israel’s Leading Ebola Expert Could Eradicate The Virus

And why the US military is investing in him

By: Dyana So and Maya Yarowski, NoCamels
Africa is currently facing its worst Ebola outbreak in history, with over 1,600 officially reported cases of infection, a death toll of 880 and rising, and a startling mortality rate of up to 90 percent.

One of the reasons that the Ebola virus is so deadly is that there is still no proven vaccine or treatment, and only a handful of researchers around the world are currently working on a cure. But while the World Health Organization (WHO) is busy raising $100 million for an emergency response plan, increasing numbers of people in West Africa are prone to or have already become infected with one of the most deadly and dangerous diseases.

So what’s really being done about a cure? Dr. Leslie Lobel, an Israeli researcher at Ben Gurion University and one the world’s few experts on the Ebola virus, is currently ahead of many of his international colleagues when it comes to discovering a vaccine that would make humans immune to the virus. But besides toting his own vaccine as the cure all and end all of the Ebola epidemic, Lobel has some interesting insight to impart on why this is the most serious outbreak in history.

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The Natural Order

Approaching the boundaries of nature with trepidation.

by Rabbi Yonason Goldson for aish.com

“Caution is a most valuable asset in fishing, especially if you are the fish.”

The author of this clever truism, whose identity has been lost to posterity, probably had no idea just how right he was. A lack of caution, it now seems, has endangered a $7 billion dollar-a-year industry.

After the sighting of a single Asian carp this past June, everyone from the National Wildlife Federation to the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers is close to panic. These giant carp, originally imported to control the spread of algae in Arkansas fish farms, escaped into the Mississippi River during the great flood of 1993 and have been steadily making their way northward.

The last line of defense has been a man-made canal built a century ago to link the Mississippi River with the Great Lakes. By running electric current through this narrow waterway, officials believed they could block the progress of the invasive fish. Now they are not so sure.

Able to eat 40 percent of their body weight each day and lacking any natural predators, the Asian carp can grow to over a hundred pounds and four feet in length, crowding out smaller fish and thereby threatening the survival of the fishing industry. Some argue that the only remaining solution is to shut the Chicago area shipping locks, thereby shutting down commercial traffic as well. A judge’s decision is currently pending.

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Israeli Researchers Discover Why Bacteria Are Becoming Tolerant to Antibiotics

Using the quantitative approach of physicists, they learn that bacteria can quickly evolve to predict exactly when exposure to antibiotics will occur

By: Michael Lefkoe, NoCamels, on ShalomLife.com
It has been nearly nine decades since Sir Alexander Fleming’s accidental discovery of Penicillin at his Paddington laboratory in 1928, and today well over a hundred different types of antibiotics exist for numerous bacterial infections. A growing concern in modern medicine, however, is the ability of pathogenic bacteria to evolve strategies for overcoming antibiotic treatments. Many antibiotics such as ampicillin and erythromycin, for example, which used to kill off whole bacterial populations with great efficacy, are now capable of much less due to this alarming phenomenon of bacterial tolerance.

Researchers at Hebrew University in Jerusalem recently made an important discovery that advances our understanding of how bacteria are able to develop tolerance to antibiotics. Using the quantitative approach of physicists, they discovered that bacteria can quickly evolve to predict exactly when exposure to antibiotics will occur. As a result, the infectious bacteria will learn to lie dormant during the precise period of exposure, giving the population greater chance at survival.

To illustrate this striking phenomenon, consider a patient taking antibiotics on a fixed schedule for some bacterial infection he had the misfortune to develop. Perhaps his doctor told him to take the antibiotics three times a day for ten days, spacing each dosage throughout the day at equal intervals. As this study indicates, the bacteria population may evolve after just a few days to modify its dormancy period to coincide with the duration of antibiotic exposure. To be sure, in the dormant stage nothing is absorbed by the bacteria, not even those “powerful” antibiotics.

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Explaining 'Healthy' to Children in Complex World

By Elizabeth Traison for The Jew and the Carrot

I recently observed the following conversation between a mother and her 2 or 3 year old son. We were all at a coffee shop, I was catching up on some work for my health coaching certification on my iPad and at the table next to me this mother-and-son duo were enjoying an afternoon snack.

The mother had purchased a glass of tea, which came with two paper cups; my coffee came in just one cup. Surprised by the difference, the boy continued to ask further about coffee and tea, not only about the heat discrepancy, but about their essence and identities.

The mother, who admitted to her son that she does drink coffee too, was baffled – taken aback, even – by her son’s curiosity.

“It’s not that coffee is bad for you”, she started slowly, “it’s just not for everyone”. Then she added with inflection, “all of the time”.

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From Couponing in the Holy Land

If you have been in the supermarket recently, you might have seen a sign similar to this one:

Right now, there doesn’t seem to be a lack of produce in the store and the prices are relatively low, but how long will it last? What produce is likely to be the most affected by the war?

You might not realize when we hear that a rocket fell in a “Shetach Patuach” (open area), it means that the missile might have fallen in an agricultural area which has crops or livestock. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, there have been a number of fields and greenhouses damaged from missiles along with 3 poultry houses and 2 dairy farms. Additionally, movement and encampment of Israeli troops around Gaza can also damage fields. Add to the mix the abandonment of foreign workers subsequent to the death of a Thai agricultural worker and the urging of the Thai government to have Thai workers relocated out of danger and there is a serious risk to the ability of the South to provide produce to the supermarkets. A representative of Kibbutz Alumim who was interviewed, however, said that July-August is not that damaging to the fields because it is “between seasons.” There are peppers growing in greenhouses and there are peanuts to be picked in the fields near Ashkelon. The army has built trenches in an area that was just recently their organic carrots field and it will take years to rework the land to be ready to plant again. They aren’t complaining, however, especially considering that next year is a shmita year. Other kibbutzim weren’t able to collect their carrots and they are still laying in the ground. Kibbutz Saad wasn’t able to package their carrots so other kibbutzim helped them.

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Residents of Southern Israel Are Not Leaving their Homes

By KKL-JNF for Jpost.com

Residents of Israel's south talk to KKL-JNF about how they cope under the shadow of rocket fire from Gaza.

As Operation Protective Edge enters its 10th day, rockets from the Gaza Strip continue to rain terror in Israel's south, with sirens wailing from Netivot to Ashkelon. Over the past few days, rockets have reached Israel's central and northern regions, too, disturbing the peace all over the country.

For the Gaza border communities this intolerable reality has been an integral part of life for more than a decade already. KKL-JNF supports the communities in Israel's south not only in periods of extreme crisis but all the time, by assisting them in becoming firmly established and in growing. This includes land reclamation and infrastructure for residential and agricultural development, water source development and residential landscaping.

We spoke with several residents from Israel's south, to hear about how they cope under the constant shadow of Gaza rockets.

“The situation is stressful, but we are used to it already, unfortunately,” said Eyal Brandeis, who lives in Kibbutz Sufa, only 4 kilometers away from the Gaza Strip border. He said that because they are so close, the residents do not always get to hear the warning before the missile strike. “In the other parts of Israel you hear the siren first, and then you hear the boom. Here one often hears a loud boom and only afterwards the siren.”

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"This is my Nobel Prize"

By KKL-JNF for Jpost.com

87 year-old Mietek Gorcher, KKL-JNF Sweden's greatest supporter, is honored at Sweden Park during the Go Green mission to Israel, a delegation of KKL-JNF supporters from Sweden and Denmark.

It is impossible to meet Mietek and not be captivated by his charm. He is a Holocaust survivor who was twelve years old at the beginning of World War II, and his story is that of a man who survived the Warsaw Ghetto and nine concentration camps. As he tells it, "towards the end of the war, my father and I were taken to Buchenwald. As the allied forces advanced, the Nazis moved us from camp to camp, always one step ahead of the conquering armies. Two weeks before the war ended, my father was killed by a bomb dropped by an American plane on the retreating German forces. At the end of the war, I weighed 22 kilograms, and had no more will or strength to continue. As I sat by the side of the road, all of a sudden three English soldiers appeared and came over to see why I was sitting there. One of them looked at me, realized I was Jewish, and said 'sholem aleichem'. I broke down in tears.

"Today, I spend almost all my time telling my story to high school children all over Sweden. This is my mission, and I have already lectured in 212 schools. When I finish my talk, I always ask if there are any questions. There are almost never any questions. The schoolchildren just cry. I never take money for my lectures, but I leave KKL-JNF's address with the schools and ask them to send whatever they would have paid me to KKL-JNF."

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