Global warming and changes in the marine environment are causing the global population of corals to dwindle at an alarming rate – but in the Gulf of Eilat, of all places, the coral reef appears to be thriving (at least until the storm that hit the area in April 2020). Prof. Maoz Fine of Bar-Ilan’s Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences and the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in Eilat explores the enigma of the resilient Israeli-Jordanian reefs, in a study which includes scientists from Israel, Monaco and Jordan.

When a person defines their out-group, meaning where they don’t belong, they actually strengthen their personal identity, both for itself as well as towards others. As social creatures, we all do this regularly before our in-group, but also before our out-group. 

Protein trafficking is an essential process required for the health and proper function of all cells, tissues and systems of the human body. Dysfunction of the trafficking machinery leads to cellular traffic jams, a hallmark of many devastating illnesses such as Alzheimer’s, diabetes and cancer. Dr. Moran Dvela-Levitt, of the Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, is looking for answers to major enigmas regarding the  protein trafficking of the cell; for instance, how do the millions of different proteins in the cell arrive at their destinations?

Empathic accuracy is a crucial clinical skill at the heart of many therapeutic interventions. A study conducted by Dr. Dana Atzil-Slonim, of the BIU Department of Psychology, and research partners examined the ability of therapists to precisely identify positive and negative emotions of their patients, and the correlation between empathic accuracy and treatment outcome. 

Clinical data was collected from 15 music therapists who work with Israeli children in the Gaza envelope area where residents have been dealing with missile attacks for years. As a result of continuous missile attacks, many children in the Gaza envelope experience fear of death or injury, and develop anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The synchronization phenomenon, in which a complex system functions as a single body, exists in different orders of magnitude: from subatomic particles to cells in a body, members of animal or human groups, to galaxies.