Flying robots, skeletons and skulls, brain decomposed into two, lighting our tower and a lot of academic action. University of Haifa wishes you a Happy New Year, a year of…

Healthy Sisters of women with eating disorders show a higher level of depressive symptoms than women whose sister is not suffering from an eating disorder, according to a new study. The study also found that the relationship between the sisters, one of whom has an eating disorder, is worse than that between sisters neither of whom suffers from an eating disorder. “The worse the relationship between the two sisters, the greater the level of psychological distress becomes for the healthy one, which in turn places her at risk of developing an eating disorder of her own,” said Prof. Yael Letzer from the Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences.

They decorated graves with flowers, held ceremonial meals before their funerals, and – as a new study from the University of Haifa now shows – the Natufians who lived in our region 15,000 – 11,500 years ago also created massive mortars that were used to pound food at their burial ceremonies. The pounding sound of these large mortars informed the members of the community that a ceremony was underway. “The members of the Natufian culture lived during a period of change, and their communal burial and commemorative ceremonies played an important role in enhancing the sense of affiliation and cohesion among the members of the community,” explain Dr. Danny Rosenberg and Prof. Dani Nadel, from the Zinman Institute of archaeology who undertook the study.