Chemical Stamps

2011 has been declared the International Year of Chemistry. To celebrate, the Israel Post Office has issued two commemorative postage stamps depicting the research subjects of Israel’s Nobel laureates in chemistry. One stamp shows the ubiquitin molecule, for which its discovers – Profs. Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover of the Technion – were awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The second sports an image of the ribosome – the cellular machine whose structure and mode of action were deciphered by the Weizmann Institute’s Prof. Ada Yonath, for which she received the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

The stamps, which went on sale in January, have values of NIS 4.20 (ubiquitin) and NIS 6.10 (ribosome). They were designed by Hayyimi Kivkovich, and the first-day cancellation stamp was designed by David Ben-Hador.