By
Rachel Fletcher
Ancient bones excavated in Jericho, now part of the Palestinian territories, could help a team of Israelis, Palestinians and Germans uncover the origins of tuberculosis.
The research by the Hebrew and Al-Quds Universities is being sponsored by the German Science Foundation, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).
The team will research bones excavated by the British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon between 50 and 70 years ago, testing them for a variety of diseases, including tuberculosis, leprosy, leishmaniasis (a disease caused by a sandfly parasite) and malaria.
Prof Mark Spigelman at the Hebrew University, who is leading the Israeli team of researchers, is known internationally for his study of ancient diseases (palaeoepidemiology) using human remains.
Could "radio frequency technology" save your skin? Tel Aviv-based Ultragen Ltd says so. It has recently carried out its UK launch of a portable device claiming to offer technology for skin treatment which was previously available only in salons.
The device, called simply stop, uses patented "radio frequency technology" called TriPollar, developed by Ultragen's sister company, Pollogen Ltd.
TriPollar technology claims to reduce wrinkles and cellulite and tighten skin by passing radio frequency currents through the skin, heating it and creating areas of high energy density.
A snowmaking machine is due to be shipped to the Alps after being tested in Israel. The IDE All Weather Snowmaker was created by water solutions company IDE Technologies, which has offices in Israel, Madrid and California.
IDE Technologies says it can produce 950 cubic metres of snow a day. It was tested by creating snow east of Netanya, in conditions hotter than 30 degrees Celsius.
Snowboardclub.co.uk reports that ski resorts in Austria and Switzerland now plan to use it to create chemical-free snow at ambient temperatures, beginning in October.
Are you dyslexic? Or do you make so many typos that people think you're dyslexic? Israeli start-up Ginger Software hopes that it can help.
Ha'aretz reports on its new computer program which uses a unique algorithm, and a large pool of sentences, to detect the semantic and grammatical errors that standard spelling checkers won't find, analysing whole sentences beyond text level.
This should end the days of leaving documents riddled with mistakes even though your checker, er, tolled ewe their were nun.
Founder Yael Karov told Ha'aretz that the programme can create alternatives for what a writer might have intended to say and then select the most appropriate.
The Ginger software analyses can be integrated into Microsoft Word.
Do you have a technical or medical story? Email editorial@thejc.com