לוח שנה משולב

TBA

Gamma oscillations are fast (30-80 Hz) rhythmic patterns of neural activity that have been proposed to support information processing in the brain. Gamma rhythms are altered in diseases such as schizophrenia and autism and are therefore of both basic and clinical interest. I have been developing optogenetic tools for light-based control over the activity of genetically defined neuronal populations. A new set of such tools, step function opsins (SFOs), are optimized for modulating the activity of neural circuits and ideal for observing emergent network properties. I will present the molecular engineering approach we used for developing these opsins and show new data on application of these tools to study the mechanisms underlying gamma oscillations in the prefrontal cortex. Some technological aspects will be discussed, with emphasis on the array of available optogenetic tools and how they might be improved to further extend the range of experiments feasible with these new techniques.

The excavations at Tell es-Safi, ancient Canaanite and Philistine Gath, have revealed impressive and dramatic evidence of diverse cultures and periods. In particular, rich remains dating to the Bronze Age (Canaanite culture) and the Iron Age (Philistine and Judahite cultures) have been uncovered, sheding new light on a diverse range of questions relating to these periods and cultures. This includes questions regarding the origins, development, and disappearance of the Philistines in biblical times; evidence of the earliest known archaeological remains of a siege; and various finds that shed interesting light on issues relating to the biblical text.
In addition, in our excavation, we have manifested an exciting and unique interdisciplinary use of archaeological science, as part of the recent joint Bar-Ilan University/Weizmann Institute of Science program in archaeological science. By bringing the archaeological scientists into the field, fully collaborating with the field archaeologists, a completely new perspective(s) on the past is revealed.
In this lecture, I will describe some of the main finds from the excavations, as well as some of the methods that we use.

Quantum impurity problems are among the few nontrivial problems describing strongly correlated condensed matter systems that are amenable to exactsolutions. Due to recent advances in nanofabrication techniques, predictions from the conformal field theory (CFT) approach, such as nontrivial scaling exponents, can be tested by quantum dot experiments. A major challenge on which my talk focuses is the extension of exact methods to the nonequilibrium regime, in which quantum dot experiments are typically performed. Using CFT methods we solved exactly the problem of nonequilibrium transport through double quantum dots, obtaining exact results of experimental relevance for the full counting statistics of charge transport near a non-Fermi liquid critical point. Those results also imply a nontrivial effective charge of 2e, which can be probed by shot noise experiments. It remains an open problem to generalize the nonequilibrium solution to arbitrary quantum dot configurations.