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Reuven Anati. Around fifty exhibits are already standing
Moon Swing. Wet Wheel. Monkey Man.
Not exactly the terminology associated with the scientific theories emanating from the laboratories of the Weizmann Institute. But there's a different lab on campus (accent on different) that's as much an embodiment of innovation, imagination, and daring as any of the Weizmann labs. Inside sits a modern day Geppetto, mechanical designer Reuven Anati, who in one of his former existences reigned for eight years as Israel's national champion in marksmanship while holding fourth place in the world. These days, his goal is bringing science to children and attracting children to science.
Judging by the enthusiastic response, he's right on target. Anati is the Chief Exhibit Developer in the Clore Garden of Science. The exhibits are designed to stimulate a child's wonder about the world while communicating scientific principles. Each exhibit demonstrates a natural phenomenon, such as the pendulum whose erratic movements illustrate chaos theory.
A suspended monkey-like man with swinging appendages of varying weights, the exhibit's arms and legs shift simultaneously at varying speeds. The monkey man's physical behavior is clearly unpredictable. The exhibits embrace wind, water, sound, energy, light in fact, all of nature's elements. Their titles are compelling: the Wave Machine, Wind Turbine, Cartesian Diver, the Foucault Pendulum, the Full Rainbow and the Archimedes Screw.
Around fifty exhibits are already standing and swinging, twisting and bouncing, squirting and blowing in the wind, all set for their November debut at the dedication of the Clore Garden of Science. The exhibits are hands-on for the young (and young at heart), most of whom will be arriving on field trips from all over Israel. It's expected that the Clore Garden of Science will become a popular tourist destination.
A Tuscany native, Anati emigrated to Israel with his family at the age of five. Anati says that as long as he can remember, he was fascinated with the inner workings of things. As in everything.The consummate tinkerer even at an early age, a clock or radio would disintegrate into a succession of screws, springs and wires by the time his mother would notice one of her household items had gone missing.
This on Anati from Dr. Moshe Rishpon, the Youth Activities Section and Clore Garden of Science Director: "The Weizmann Institute and the Clore Garden of Science are the beneficiaries of having the right person at the right time, a person whose talents and capacity to accomplish this important pro ject are without comparison."
Indeed, Anati received the President's Prize, the highest honor conferred on an employee of the Institute. He was also recipient of the nation's Kaplan Prize, awarded by former President of Israel Zalman Shazar. The prestigious award is bestowed on inventors for patent applications. Anati's patent, developed while at Scitex, is for a unique scanner that reproduces patterns on cotton jersey knit.
And if you own a wrench, it's possible you're using one of Anati's other patent designs. Under Anati's hand, the tool was transformed to accommodate differing sizes of nuts, bolts and screws, in both inches and millimeters without the need to change wrenches or settings. His improved, all-in-one tool won Anati the Gold Medal Award at the New York World Expo.
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