Midreshet Ben-Gurion

History

The construction of a field school began in 1962, inspired by David Ben-Gurion's vision of developing a thriving Jewish culture in the arid Negev. Ben Gurion envisioned the place to be a "Hebrew Oxford of the Negev".

The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, affiliated with Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the Ben Gurion Heritage Institute, and a high school (with a boarding school) emphasizing environmental studies, are now located there.

Ben-Gurion and his wife Paula Ben-Gurion are buried nearby in the Ben-Gurion Tomb National Park on a cliff overlooking the Zin valley.

Solar energy research

The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research has developed a solar energy research program focusing on how extremes of heat and cold in the desert can be mitigated through efficient storage of heat during the day for release at night.

An adobe house was built with rational fenestration, small windows in the northern side and heat collecting concrete prisms in the windows of the south facing wall. The prisms are situated in the rooms. They absorb heat during the day and can be rotated to allow the heat to discharge into the rooms at night. The "chimney" is part of an evaporative cooling system that maintains the temperature of the house during the day at bearable levels.

A double skin greenhouse uses copper sulfate solution as a heat screen during the day. The liquid is pumped between the two skins, protects the interior from ultraviolet rays and collects heat. At night the liquid is recirculated returning the heat to the greenhouse.

David Faiman of the Solar Center has made advancements in the realm of concentrator photovoltaics CPV. Faiman has produced a CPV unit capable of producing energy at a factor of up to a thousand more than conventional units.

Agricultural and biotechnology research

Researchers at Midreshet Ben-Gurion have made breakthroughs in agriculture and biotechnology relevant to drylands and sustainable agriculture. The STRS1 and STRS2 genes, master controller genes in stress responses, discovered by Dr. Simon Barak and his students in 2006, helped to elucidate some of the more important genes involved with abiotic stress responses.

Avigad Vonshak, Director of the Institutes from 2002 to 2010, made headlines for his discovery, together with Prof. Sammy Boussiba (also of the institutes) of astaxanthin accumulation in green algae. Astaxanthin is an extremely valuable poly-unsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) which is valued for its use as a pigment, nutritional value, and possible use in bio-diesel.

Notable residents

• Gannit Ankori

Gallery

File:Midreshet Ben-Gurion3.JPG File:Grave of David Ben Gurion and Paula Munweis in Sde Boker.jpg|Graves of Paula and David Ben-Gurion Image:Sdebokerhome.jpg|A typical home in Sde Boker Image:Tzin Flood.jpg|Flooding in Zin Valley below the Midrasha

References

References

1. ""...מעין אוקספורד עברי בנגב, מעין יבנה עברית..." - טיקצ'אק".
2. [http://132.72.126.71/NR/rdonlyres/86A56629-51FC-49A1-A05E-624839C6FECE/35433/NewOrlPETAL2.pdf PETAL: A research pathway to fossil-competitive solar electricity] {{webarchive. link. (2011-07-03)
3. [http://www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/content/abstract/145/3/814 Helicases That Attenuate Arabidopsis Responses to Multiple Abiotic Stresses]
4. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070521204722/http://pcp.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/32/7/1077 Astaxanthin Accumulation in the Green Alga Haematococcus pluvialis]