2015-September/October
Potential for Blessing
Israel’s Contributions to the World Today
“I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee … and thou shalt be a blessing” (Genesis 12:2).
Through technology, environmental innovations, medical discoveries and humanitarian aid, Israel has made outstanding contributions to the world today. Though many do not yet have the necessary faith in Christ to be able to extend Kingdom blessings, they are being prepared for such a privilege under the Kingdom of Christ.
The humanitarian spirit displayed by Israel is largely influenced by the Mosaic Law that has been their heritage for many generations. Consider a few of their ongoing contributions.
Nobel Prizes
The Nobel Prize is the most prestigious international award given to people who have made important contributions in Chemistry, Economics, Literature, Peace, Physics, and Medicine.
Between 1901 and 2014, the Nobel Prize has been awarded to approximately 855 laureates. At least 194 (23%) of them have been Jewish. Jews currently make up only approximately 0.2% of the world’s population (1 in every 500 people).
|
Field |
Jewish Laureates | % of World |
% of US |
|
Chemistry Economic Literature Peace Physics Medicine Total |
36 29 14 9 51 55 194 |
21%
39% 13% 9% 26% 27% |
32% 50% 27% 10% 37% 39% |
Scientific Research
At the forefront of scientific research Israel’s high-tech discoveries excel among the nations.
Israel has more scientists, technicians, and engineers per capita than any other nation in the world, with 140 per 10,000 employees. The United States has 85 per 10,000. Israel’s “Silicon Wadi” has the highest concentration of high-tech industries after Silicon Valley in California. Following are some of the innovations that have come from Israel.
Israel’s Computer Technology
- Babylon, a single-click translation, dictionary and information program.
- Cubital’s Solid Rapid Prototyping machines make 3D models of engineering parts directly from a computer screen.
- CuBox, a two-inch mini-computer, can be used in countless applications and is priced around $55.
- Digital Pen, transfers handwriting to computers, cell phones or other electronic devices.
- Disk-on-Key, a USB flash memory that can store up to 1TB of data.
- World’s smallest DNA computing machine system, composed of enzymes and DNA molecules, performs mathematical calculations using a DNA molecule as its sole source of energy.
- EnLight, an optical processor running at the speed of light, performs several trillion operations per second.
- Laser Keyboard, a virtual keyboard projected onto a wall or table top, allows typing with handheld computers and cell phones.
- Penflow Technology for digitally handwritten signatures, replacing paper and scanning.
- PrimeSense digital devices, allow one to “see” in three dimensions. Quicktionary Electronic Dictionary, a pen-sized scanner, scans words or phrases and then translates them into other languages and transfers them to a PC.
- Robots which perform a variety of tasks including welding, packing, and artificial intelligence.
Water Conservation, Desalination
Israel’s technology is also making the desert bloom, greening the earth, cleaning water and air, and providing clean energy. The Negev desert now produces flowers for export to Europe, including tulips to the Netherlands!
- Runoff Agroforestry Systems redirects floodwaters to dike-surrounded plots or handdug pits where trees or shrubs are planted with rows of crops between them. Legume shrub- like trees absorb atmospheric nitrogen through their root system. Soil fertility is maintained at little cost.
- Drought-tolerant crops thrive in the hot desert sun. Fed with brackish or low-quality water, algae grows a high-value product on seemingly valueless land.
- Tal-Ya Water Technologies developed reusable plastic trays to collect dew from the air, reducing water needed by crops or trees by up to 50%.
- Israel’s Desalination Engineering is a world leader in thermal desalination and water treatment technology and has installed hundreds of plants in over 40 countries. IDE Americas Inc., a subsidiary of Israel’s IDE Technologies Ltd, is currently designing a desalination plant in San Diego California, the largest of its kind in the western hemisphere. Construction of the plant will begin this year and is slated to begin bringing high-quality drinking water to the San Diego area by 2016.
Many scriptural promises regarding the land of Israel have yet to see their fulfillment. However, through the ongoing efforts of Israel’s scientists and engineers we may be witnessing the foregleams of them.
Greening the Earth
“And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase” (Ezekiel 34:27). Tree planting reverses desertification (the transformation of habitable land to desert) by creating a cycle of nutrients that nourish the soil. Israel is the only country over the last 100 years to see a net gain of trees.
Cleaning the Earth, Water and Air
“For the seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew” (Zechariah 8:12). Israel ranks as the fifth cleanest tech country in the world. Fifty percent of Israel’s irrigated water comes from recycled wastewater.
- Amiad’s filtration and treatment technologies bring clean water to industries, households and farms in 70 countries.
- Agtech has a product that mixes with pesticides and herbicides to keep them from contaminating groundwater.
- Ecoppia’s robots clean dust from energy- generating panels without human intervention or water.
- ArrowBio takes trash from collection trucks and separates organic and inorganic materials. The system sorts huge volumes of solid waste, salvaging recyclables and turning the rest into biogas and rich agricultural compost.
Watering the Earth
Drip irrigation using a plastic emitter
was invented in Israel. But instead of releasing water through tiny holes, blocked easily by tiny particles, water is released through larger and longer passageways by using velocity to push water through a plastic emitter.
- CommonSensor wireless devices work with the automatic irrigation system to water crops only when they are thirsty.
- The uManage Platform gives growers realtime data for making the best decisions for their crops. It helped farmers lower water usage by 30% and fertilizer consumption by 15%.
- GreenIQ’s web app automatically adjusts irrigation and lighting according to weather forecasts.
- Netafim Smart Drip and micro-irrigation releases water in controlled, slow drips to provide precise crop irrigation. The kibbutz-owned company operates in 112 countries with 13 fac- tories throughout the world.
- Takadu provides monitoring software to water utilities worldwide. The product offers real time detection and control over events such as leaks, bursts, zone breaches and inefficiencies.
- Desert Fishing. The lucrative tropical fish-growing industry in the Negev desert is one of the best places to harvest tropical fish and marine plants for export.
Powering the Earth
- Eternegy gets 40% more power from the sun with lightweight solar energy trackers based on principles of kite surfing.
- HydroSpin generates electricity for municipal water monitoring systems from the flow of the water itself.
- The Wind Tulip, a cost-effective, silent, vibration-free wind turbine designed as an aesthetic environmental sculpture, produces clean energy at high efficiency from any direction.
At the forefront of scientific research are Israel’s Medical Discoveries which affect people every day. Below is but a brief sampling of their contributions to mankind’s health.
Medical Apps
- The AirSonea personal wheeze monitor uses an app and connected device enabling people with asthma to manage their condition at home or on the go.
- The WisePhone App includes an S.O.S. button that sends a message to predefined contacts.
- App for children who lack verbal skills sends and receives messages on their mobile devices using pictorial symbols.
Medical Robotics
- ReWalk, a bionic walking assistance system, enables paraplegics to stand upright, walk and climb stairs.
- Mazor Robotics has developed a robotic guidance system for highly accurate, state-of-the-art spine surgery using less radiation.
- SmartHand, a robotic prosthetic hand, functions like a real one, allowing patients to write, type on a keyboard, play piano and perform other movements.
Human Body, Blood
- Cheetah Medical’s Nicom device, a non- invasive monitoring device from Israel that detects the leading hospital killer, Sepsis, a blood infection causing more than 200,000 deaths in US hospitals every year. Mortality rates can now be reduced by up to 40%
- OrSense’s NBM-200 non-invasive monitor for continuous and spot measuring potential donors’ hemoglobin level and other blood parameters. It eliminates finger pricking, biologically hazardous equipment and waste.
- NeuroEndoGraft flow diverters redirect blood flow from a brain aneurysm so that a stable clot can form, and the potentially fatal aneurysm is no longer in danger of rupturing.
Bones/Cartilage
- “Agili-C” implant regenerates hyaline cartilage, the most abundant type of cartilage in the body.
- Bonus Biogroup implant generates new healthy bones from stem cells.
- InSpace Balloon cushions between two rubbing bones, alleviating pain and shortening the rehab process.
Heart
- The mobile app CathMaps+ for heart patients stores medical history and locates the nearest cardiac catheterization lab anywhere in the world in case of emergency.
- Healarium developed a mobile app that lets cardiac rehab patients record blood pressure, weight, and blood-sugar levels.
- Smart-digital hWear, a T-shirt with conductive fibers woven in, performs the job of an ECG machine and transmits vitals to your doctor’s smartphone.
Vision
- Bio-Retina, an implantable artificial retina, is activated by eyeglasses fitted with a laser energy source to transform light into neuron-stimulating electrical impulses.
- The ExPRESS miniature glaucoma shunt implant revolutionizes the way eye surgeons treat Glaucoma, which affects about 13% of people above age 60.
- OrCam camera device is designed to assist people who are visually impaired. It attaches to eyeglasses and is wired to a portable computer in the wearer’s pocket. It “speaks” to the wearer through an ear piece, any text such as menus, street signs, grocery labels, newspapers. It also recognizes faces and monitors traffic lights.
Cancer
- A biodegradable ‘balloon’ separates tumors from healthy tissues, greatly reducing side effects of radiation therapy in prostate cancer.
- InSightec’s ExAlblate OR uses MRI-guided ultrasound to destroy tumors and uterine fibroid cysts without surgery.
- IceSense3 helps doctors destroy benign breast cancer lumps by freezing them. The minimally-invasive, ultrasound-guided procedure successfully obliterates small cancerous tumors as well.
Diabetes
- Dario diabetes is a mobile and website app connected to a pocket-sized blood-glucose monitoring kit. Patients, medical professionals and caregivers can access and analyze data.
- HelpAround is an app that helps diabetics find someone in their vicinity with a glucose tablet, meter or dose of insulin and provides a button to press for emergency responders in case of a diabetic coma or seizure.
- LifeWatch V, the world’s first medical smartphone, has embedded sensors to analyze blood glucose levels. Blood-glucose test strips can be inserted into a portal on the phone’s frame and results are automatically sent to a remote server.
Parkinson’s Disease
- Azilect, a popular drug to treat PD symptoms, is prescribed for patients in 56 countries.
- Guided imagery is used to tame or stop the tremors of PD patients without medication.
- InSightec’s ExAblate Neuro is a non-invasive treatment of tremors by magnetic-resonance guided ultrasound.
Viruses
- Specially treated clothes that crush viruses, bacteria and fire.
- Vecoy Nanomedicines offers a new way to disarm viruses by luring them to attack microscopic, cell-like decoys. The technology tricks a virus into committing suicide and could neutralize viral threats like Ebola, hepatitis, HIV and chemical and biological warfare.
Healing Wounds
- Aid-Tec, a smart adhesive bandage, has a breakable capsule that releases a therapeuticsubstance onto the sterile pad. The waterproof bandages come with an anticoagulant, an antibiotic, an antifungal, a wart remover or a corn remover.
- A Gordian Trocar is used in laparoscopic surgery to open abdominal access ports for surgical instruments and then seals them shut when withdrawn.
Spreading Wings of Relief Around the World
The tiny nation of Israel has been involved in numerous efforts to help victims of natural disasters, disease, and poverty. Israel’s rescue and recovery organizations have been first responders, reaching out to disaster victims all over the world regardless of politics or religion. They have set up emergency hospital units with qualified personnel, sent tons of food, medicine and relief supplies, and contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Israel has provided natural disaster aid for victims of the following disasters: Cyclones in Myanmar; earthquakes in Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, Japan, Peru, China and Haiti; ebola clinics in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea; famines in Kenya; floods in the Czech Republic, Pakistan, Paraguay, Serbia and Bosnia; hurricane Katrina, and super storm Sandy in the US; leper clinics in South Sudan; terror attacks in Boston and Mumbai; tsunamis in Southern Asia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Ceylon, and Japan; ty-phoons in the Philippines; and vol- cano eruptions in Congo. The list goes on and on.
Israel’s Humanitarian Aid
Healthcare treatment in Israeli Hospitals is provided for wounded Gazans and Palestinans, Hamas fighters, Arabs from Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq; and African migrants. Save A Child’s Heart provides urgently needed pediatric heart surgery and follow-up care for children from Third World and developing countries.
Israel’s aid to Africa includes: Healthcare: Malaria experts, training doctors and nurses, building emergency rooms in hospitals, treatments for HIV infections, lifesaving eye surgery and the Center for Emerging Tropical Diseases. Farming: GrainPro bags, advanced fish farming technologies and agricultural training courses. Business: training programs and small mobile solar systems to charge phones, lights or appliances.
Emergency Response: aid packages and mobile apps training programs. Energy, sanitation and water: A solar energy plant in Rwanda. Paulee CleanTec for toilets that need no water and leave no waste. Solar power and water provided to schools and clinics.
Ten Men
“Many people and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem … In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold … of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you” (Zechariah 8:22, 23).
The best is yet to come when God delivers and then blesses Israel under Christ’s kingdom and the New Covenant. Then the human family will recognize that God is with Israel and will desire to both learn and follow the God of Israel (Isaiah 2:1-4; Micah 4:1-4). How wonderful to know that day will be very soon!
Categories: 2015 Issues, 2015-September/October
