Category: Science and Health

When the great bustard (Otis tarda) – the heaviest living bird capable of flight – doesn’t feel well in the wild, it doesn’t make an appointment with a veterinarian. Instead, the impressive, colorful and threatened species seems to self-medicate with specific plants for which it searches.  The ground-nesting bird – found in open grasslands and […]

One of the most universally observed commandments in Jewish tradition is the mitzvah of circumcision. In the mishnah at the bottom of yesterday’s daf, sage after sage waxes poetic about why circumcision is so great.  On today’s daf, the Gemara continues this discussion by sharing a number of stories about Abraham, considered the first Jew […]

A technique to measure the long-term effects of antibiotic combinations – “cocktails” – has been developed by researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. These combinations are of intense interest to the scientific and medical communities because the use of single antibiotics often leads to the rapid development of bacterial resistance to these […]

Computers can never replace physicians, but a deep-learning system developed at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa has been found to decipher breast cancer scans better than a human ever could. One in eight women in Israel will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in her life. The disease occurs in men […]

Training on a treadmill and using virtual reality (VR) may improve walking and cognition and relieve depression among relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, according to a new study. Led by researchers at Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center and the Sackler Medical Faculty at Tel Aviv University (TAU), it was conducted with colleagues at The University […]

On today’s daf, we encounter a mishnah that teaches the following: One who takes a vow that deriving benefit from those who rest on Shabbat is forbidden, is prohibited from deriving benefit from Jews and Samaritans …  One takes a vow that deriving benefit from those who ascend to Jerusalem is forbidden, is prohibited from deriving benefit […]

What is the difference between being born and not being born? This isn’t the set-up for some kind of dad joke, it’s the question at the heart of a mishnah on today’s daf.  One who takes a vow (not to derive benefit) from those that are born is permitted those who will be born. From […]

When human bones suffer small defects such as fractures, they usually heal spontaneously, with the body restoring lost tissue. But when there are large defects, such as substantial bone loss resulting from removal of tumors by surgery, physical trauma, tooth extraction, gum disease or inflammation around dental implants, the bone is unable to renew itself.  […]

Knees are one of the many parts of the human body that seem like they just weren’t built to handle all of this “walking around upright, working out and running” stuff. As such, a sizable portion of the human population suffers from damaged meniscus tissue, typically resulting in surgery to adjust or replace the tissue […]

Parashat Toldot uses the search for water as the basis for a profound lesson about grief and death. In the previous Torah portion, we learn about Abraham’s hostile encounter with Avimelech, the ruler of Gerar, an area scholars believe is located in what is now southern Israel. Abraham and Avimelech have a dispute over water […]