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The HiLASE Centre in Dolní Břežany is celebrating another success; another world record. At the end of January, the High Energy Slab Lasers scientific team managed to break their own world record on the BIVOJ laser system by 40%. Converting to the second harmonic frequency, they demonstrated 515 nm, second harmonic pulses with an energy of 95 J at a repetition rate of 10 Hz.

The best photo of the FZU Photo Competition 2021 was taken by Denyse Musiienko, Ladislav Straka and Ross Colman using interference microscopy to capture a martensitic structure. In an absolute ranking of 126 submissions, second place was won by Alexej Bubonov, who also came second in 2020. The winners of this year’s contest have won third place too.

Researchers from the Czech Academy of Sciences have patented an invention that might fix the problem with batteries catching on fire. The experimental high-voltage aqueous battery is based on dual-ion electrochemical reactions. The new battery provides a life-cycle of 500 discharge/charge cycles, and its capacity is comparable to that of the commercially available nickel-metal hydride batteries. But unlike them, the aqueous battery is made of extremely cheap materials.

A combination of theoretical study, purposeful work, and valuable practical experience – this is what the Radius Development Centre provides to university students. The centre was conceived by three Institutes of the Academy of Sciences together with two universities – Palacký University in Olomouc and University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice.

The biochip is as fast as an antigen test and at the time as reliable as the PCR method. A team of Czech scientists led by Hana Lísalová has achieved the most crucial milestone in the development of a unique system for the detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19. Biosensor research, which the system is based on, confirmed their sensitivity and reliability and opened new options for further development in this area.

Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences - ELI Beamlines has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center in Taiwan. The Signing Ceremony was held online and it is the beginning of bilateral scientific and technical cooperation.

We are happy to announce that the BIVOJ laser system is once again a record holder in its performance class. This is BIVOJ's second world record this year and the third overall. Earlier this month the high energy output from BIVOJ was converted (via second harmonic frequency conversion) to 515 nm wavelength pulses with an energy of more than 68 J at a repetition rate of 10 Hz, which at the time of writing is the world's highest average power in the category of high energy (>1 J), high average power lasers.

Until now, observing subatomic structures was beyond the resolution capabilities of direct imaging methods, and this seemed unlikely to change. Czech scientists, however, have presented a method with which they became the first in the world to observe an inhomogeneous electron charge distribution around a halogen atom, thus confirming the existence of a phenomenon that had been theoretically predicted but never directly observed.