Midreshet Ben-Gurion ( he, מִדְרֶשֶׁת בֶּן גּוּרְיוֹן), also known as Midreshet Sde Boker, is an educational center and boarding school in southern
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
. Located in the
Negev
The Negev or Negeb (; he, הַנֶּגֶב, hanNegév; ar, ٱلنَّقَب, an-Naqab) is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. ), in the north. At its southe ...
next to kibbutz
Sde Boker
Sde Boker ( he, שְׂדֵה בּוֹקֵר, lit. ''Herding Field'') is a kibbutz in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Best known as the retirement home of Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, it falls under the jurisdiction of Ramat ...
, it falls under the jurisdiction of
Ramat HaNegev Regional Council
Ramat HaNegev Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית רמת הנגב, ''Mo'atza Azorit Ramat HaNegev'', ''lit.'' Negev Heights Regional Council) is a regional council in the Negev desert in Israel. With around 8,000 residents spread acros ...
. In it had a population of .
History
The construction of a field school began in 1962, inspired by
David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion ( ; he, דָּוִד בֶּן-גּוּרִיּוֹן ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first prime minister of Israel. Adopting the name ...
's vision of developing a thriving
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
ish culture in the arid Negev. The
Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research
The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research (BIDR) constitute one of the academic faculties of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), and are located on BGU's Sede Boqer Campus in Midreshet Ben-Gurion in the heart of the Negev Desert i ...
, affiliated with
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) ( he, אוניברסיטת בן-גוריון בנגב, ''Universitat Ben-Guriyon baNegev'') is a public research university in Beersheba, Israel. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev has five campuses: the ...
, the Ben Gurion Heritage Institute, and a
high school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
emphasizing environmental studies, are now located there. Ben-Gurion and his wife
Paula Ben-Gurion
Paula Ben-Gurion (née Munweis) ( he, פולה בן גוריון; April 1892 – 29 January 1968) was the wife of David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister of the State of Israel.
Biography
Paula Munweis was born in Minsk, then part of ...
are buried on the cliff overlooking the Zin valley.
Solar energy research
The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research has developed a
solar energy
Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the Sun that is harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar power to generate electricity, solar thermal energy (including solar water heating), and solar architecture. It is an essenti ...
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
Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of e ...
house was built with rational
fenestration
Fenestration may refer to:
* Fenestration (architecture), the design, construction, or presence of openings in a building
* Used in relation to fenestra in anatomy, medicine and biology
* Fenestration, holes in the rudder of a ship to reduce the w ...
, 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
A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of Transparent ceramics, transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic condit ...
uses
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
sulfate
The sulfate or sulphate ion is a polyatomic anion with the empirical formula . Salts, acid derivatives, and peroxides of sulfate are widely used in industry. Sulfates occur widely in everyday life. Sulfates are salts of sulfuric acid and many ar ...
solution as a heat screen during the day. The liquid is pumped between the two skins, protects the interior from
ultraviolet
Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nanometer, nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 Hertz, PHz) to 400 nm (750 Hertz, THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than ...
rays and collects heat. At night the liquid is recirculated returning the heat to the greenhouse.
David Faiman
David Faiman (born 1944 in the United Kingdom) is a British and Israeli physicist.
Background
Faiman was educated at Willesden County Grammar School and the University of London, and received his Ph.D from the University of Illinois in 1969. Af ...
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
Drylands are defined by a scarcity of water. Drylands are zones where precipitation is balanced by evaporation from surfaces and by transpiration by plants (evapotranspiration). The United Nations Environment Program defines drylands as tropical ...
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
Avigad Vonshak is a Professor Emeritus at the French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands at the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
Biography
Vonshak was ...
, Director of the Institutes from 2002 to 2010, made headlines for his discovery, together with
Prof. Sammy Boussiba (also of the institutes) of
astaxanthin
Astaxanthin is a keto- carotenoid within a group of chemical compounds known as terpenes. Astaxanthin is a metabolite of zeaxanthin and canthaxanthin, containing both hydroxyl and ketone functional groups. It is a lipid-soluble pigment with r ...
accumulation in green algae.
Astaxanthin Accumulation in the Green Alga Haematococcus pluvialis
/ref> Astaxanthin is an extremely valuable poly-unsaturated fatty acid (PUFA
Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co. Ltd (SPDB or Pufa; ) is a state-owned joint-stock commercial bank, established in 1993, with its headquarters located in Shanghai.
Shanghai Pudong Development Bank issued a 400 million A-share offer on Septemb ...
) which is valued for its use as a pigment, nutritional value, and possible use in bio-diesel.
Notable residents
*Gannit Ankori
Gannit Ankori (Hebrew: גנית אנקורי) is an Israeli art historian. She is Professor of Fine Arts and Chair in Israeli Art at the Department of Fine Arts at Brandeis University. She was previously chair of the Department of Art History at ...
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
External links
Village website
.
High school website
{{Authority control
Education in Israel
Community settlements
Populated places established in 1963
Populated places in Southern District (Israel)
1963 establishments in Israel
Commemoration of David Ben-Gurion