September 22, 2011, Updated September 11, 2012

The ‘largest chemistry lesson in the world’ is the record Israelis are hoping to snag tonight.

Ilan Ramon

Ilan Ramon.

Eleven research institutes around Israel will tonight reenact an experiment performed in the space shuttle Columbia in 2003 by the first Israeli astronaut- the late Colonel Ilan Ramon.

The Ministry of Science and Technology, which came up with the initiative, chose to go for the Guinness World Record today to coincide with ‘Researchers’ Night’ – an annual event supported by the ministry and the European Union, in which science institutes open their doors to the general public in order to bring them closer to science.

The record will be measured by the number of people performing the experiment simultaneously in at least 10 locations country-wide. The current world record stands at 562 people in a single chemistry lesson in Belgium.

According to Prof. Daniel Hershkovitz, Minister of Science and Technology, the initiative aims to bring the general public, particularly the younger generation, closer to science by making it more accessible, to raise public awareness of science and to commemorate Ramon and his accomplishments for science.

The institutes participating in the record attempt are: the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Haifa University, Tel-Aviv University, Bar-Ilan University, Ben-Gurion University, MadaTech – the Israel National Museum of Science, the Kiryat Yam Science Garden, the Bloomfield Science Museum Jerusalem, the Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research institution, Shamoon College of Engineering, the Ort Braude College and the Weizmann Institute.

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