Israel – A tiny nation with exceptional abilities

Israel is geographically a tiny nation among other nations, but a giant in terms of scientific and technical advancement. Two recent breakthroughs confirm the agility of its people. Those nations choosing to boycott Israel do it to their own detriment.

1. On 21 February 2019, SpaceIL, a private Israeli company, launched a lunar lander called Beresheet from Cape Canaveral on a used SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in an attempt to land on the surface of the moon. It carried a DVD-sized digital-analog hybrid disks bearing copies of the Bible, drawings from Israeli schoolchildren, English Wikipedia and 30 million pages of records representing a “backup” of humanity’s knowledge.

Although the landing was unsuccessful due to technical problems, SpaceIL already started planning for the next launch.

Israel Aerospace Industries, the contractor who built the craft, has signed an agreement with a German company to build similar landers for the European Space Agency in the future.

2. A team of Israeli researchers has “printed” the world’s first 3-D vascularized, engineered heart. On 15 April 2019, a team of Tel Aviv University researchers revealed the heart, which was made using a patient’s own cells and biological material. Until now, scientists have successfully printed only tissues without blood vessels.

“This was the first time anyone anywhere has successfully engineered and printed an entire heart replete with cells, blood vessels, ventricles and chambers,” said Prof. Tal Dvir of Tel Aviv University’s School of Molecular Cell Biology and Biotechnology, Department of Materials Science and Engineering in the Center for Nanoscience an Nanotechnology, and the Sagol Center for Regenerative Biotechnology, who was the lead researcher for the study.

Israel is indeed a tiny nation with the abilities of a superpower nation.