26 Oct 2012
His Excellency, the Ambassador of the Republic of Italy in the Czech Republic, Mr. Pasquale D´Avino
Your Excellency, we address You with following open letter, concerning our official position towards recent decision of Judicial Court in l´Aquilla. This open letter shall be published on the webpage of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic on Friday, 26th of October 2012. We, as representatives of the geoscientific institutes within the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, wish to formally object to Your Excellency with regard to the unprecedented sentences passed against seven members of the National Commission for the Forecast and Prevention of Major Risks, who assessed the probability of a large earthquake in the area of L’Aquila in 2009.
17 Jul 2012
After a long illness, Professor Antonín Holý, one of the most important Czech scientists of the 20th century, died on Monday, 16 July 2012. He would have celebrated his 76th birthday on 1 September this year. Antonín Holý, whose professional career was connected particularly with the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry (IOCB) of the Academy of Sciences of the CR, discovered new antiviral drugs, which help cure millions of people all over the world. These substances are the basis for the production of the most effective medicines for AIDS available so far as well as medicines for smallpox, herpes zoster, viral infections of the eye membrane or hepatitis B.
30 May 2012
Four laureates of the Nobel Prize from Israel – Ada Yonath (Weizmann Instiute, Rehovot, Nobel Prize 2009), Aaron Ciechaonover (Technion, Nobel Prize 2004), Avram Hershko (Rappaport Institute, Haifa, Nobel Prize 2004) and Dan Schechtman (Technion, Nobel Prize 2011) – visited Prague on the last days of May. They attended the conference Prague Nobel Get-Together at Prague’ National Technical Library (30–31 May), which was jointly arranged by the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the ASCR, The Academy of Sciences of the CR and the Embassy of the State of Israel in the CR. Besides the Nobel Prize laureates, also other significant personalities from the fields of chemical biology, material sciences and structural biology appeared within this event.
10 May 2012
The members of the Swedish Royal Technology Mission 2012, which was not lacking even King Carl XVI Gustaf, met on Wednesday 9 May 2012 at the headquarters of the ASCR with the representatives of out most important scientific institution. At the opening, President of the ASCR Prof. Jiří Drahoš welcomed the guests. He briefly introduced the Academy of Sciences of the CR and its role in our system of science and research, including the international cooperation projects. The Swedish delegation then was acquainted with the Tokamak COMPASS project by Director of the Institute of Plasma Physics Petr Křenek and Head of the Tokamak Department Radomír Pánek. The PALS system was presented by the project coordinator Jiří Ullschmied and Director of the Institute of Physics of the ASCR Jan Řídký introduced the future superlaser called ELI.
1 Apr 2012
A discovery of Czech physicists published in Nature Physics
A direct transfer of angular momentum from a circularly polarized light to spins allows to excite a magnet from its equilibrium state at sub-picosecond time scales. The discovery, allowing to manipulate spins in a magnet by short laser pulses, was reported by scientists from the joint Laboratory of Opto-Spintronics at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University and the Institute of Physics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. The work was published on April 1st 2012 in the journal Nature Physics.
19 Mar 2012
Working Conference at the Headquarters of the ASCR
The figure of Václav Havel as a publically engaged intellectual was the subject of a conference held by the Institute for Contemporary History (ÚSD) of the ASCR on Monday, 19 March 2012 at the Headquarters of the ASCR in Prague. It was attended by a number of historians and other experts from the ASCR as well as from other institutions. According to the director of the ÚSD, ASCR, PhDr. Oldřich Tůma, PhD., two main reasons led to the organisation of the conference – the motif of the symbolic farewell to Václav Havel and venerating his memory and then on the working level an attempt for an objective and unbiased formulation or at least a preliminary definition of the ground plan of what V. Havel means for Czech society and its history.
24 Feb 2012
New knowledge from virologists from the Academy of Sciences of the CR
Endogenetic retroviruses, which attacked our ancestors millions of years ago and became components of human DNA, which thanks to evolution do not evoke infections in our organisms but some of their genes, on the other hand, benefit us, because they are models of the synthesis of several proteins enriching cells by a new essential function. Nevertheless, in ‘the wrong places’, this at other times welcome life-giving ability can work counterproductively and threaten our health. A team of virologists led by Dr Jiří Hejnar from the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the ASCR has described the mechanisms regulating these processes.
21 Jan 2012
Czech scientists have developed new anti-cancer substances
New possibilities in the treatment of cancer diseases have been opened by a discovery by Czech and Spanish researchers. The team of prof. Vladimír Křen from the Institute of Microbiology (MBÚ) of the ASCR along with the team of prof. Jitka Ulrichová from the Faculty of Medicine of Palacký University in Olomouc and with scientists from Universidad de Málaga in Spain have developed new derivatives with antiangiogenic activity on the basis of silybin ‒ substances obtained from milk thistle (Silybum marianum).
20 Jan 2012
An Article by Czech Scientists in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases
Scientists from Moravian workplaces have proved that bats here suffer from white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease that is threatening the ecosystem in North America. In the Czech Republic as well as in other parts of Europe, bats with this syndrome die only very rarely and the disease has not yet caused a decline in the population numbers. Uncovering the cause of ‘European immunity’ could save North American bats and avert also the disruption of the biological balance in that part of the world.
20 Dec 2011
Recollection of Honorary President of the ASCR Prof. Rudolf Zahradník
At the very beginning, there was the Na zábradlí Theatre. As a member of the audience, I could look into the author’s mind for the first time. I tremendously appreciated the numerous announcements of Charter 77 on various topics, which weighed heavily on democrats in oppressed Czechoslovakia; it was said that it was he who significantly contributed to their wording. After the second miracle of my life (the first was the end of the world war), after the collapse of the cheekiness called real socialism, I saw V. H. for the first time with my own eyes. It was at a restaurant boat anchored on the River Vltava, where he invited about fifteen researchers and artists for a discussion and dinner in 1991…
