The international group of Prof. Martin Hof at the J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry, CAS, unravelled the role of lipid molecules in a key process involved in the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. The brand new insight intothe molecular mechanisms involved in Alzheimer’s disease was possible by using single molecule fluorescence techniques developed in the group.

The Academy of Sciences of the CR concluded the evaluation of the research and professional activities of its 54 Institutes for 2010–2014. It was the most detailed evaluation not only in the Czech Academy of Sciences but in the whole Czech Republic. In these days, the CAS is publishing, in Czech as well English, the survey of the course and results of this evaluation. The evaluation was based on a method to this extent never before used in the Czech Republic, in which foreign experts assessed – within individual fields and in relation to the current international level of the given field – research and professional activities of the scientific teams. In this assessment over 1,400 experts, who came from fifty countries, mostly from Germany, the United States and France, took part.

Scientists from the Institute of Physics together with colleagues from Utrecht University developed a new method to image the electrostatic field of molecules at the atomic level. The work, which was published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications [1], advances our current possibilities to image individual molecules on a solid surface using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM).

On Friday, 13 May, President of the Czech Academy of Sciences Prof. Jiří Drahoš awarded two significant world scientists prestigious medals of the CAS. The highest prize, the medalDe scientia at humanitate optime meritis, was awarded to Prof. Dr. Rolf-Dieter Heuer, director-general of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in 2009–2015, an important scientist in the field of experimental particle physics. An Ernst Mach Honorary Medal for Merit in the physical sciences was awarded to Prof. Dr. Jörg Neugebauer, director of the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung in Dusseldorf.

The Czech Academy of Sciences concluded the evaluation of the research and professional activities of its 54 Institutes for the period 2010–2014. It was the most detailed evaluation ever not only of the Czech Academy of Sciences itself but in all of the Czech Republic. It was based on a method never before used in the Czech Republic, which lay in foreign experts within the individual research fields assessing the professional activities of the scientific teams in the international context. The works of Czech researchers was assessed by over 1,400 experts, who came from fifty countries, most often from Germany, the United States and France.

Under the auspices of the president of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prof. Jiří Drahoš, the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, the Mozart Society in Czech Republic and the Don Juan Archiv in Vienna held the international “Current Issues of Mozart Research” conference, marking this year’s 260th anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s birth and the 225th anniversary of his death. It was held on 16 and 17 April 2016 in the main building of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. In his opening salutary speech, the Vice-President of the Academy of Sciences, Dr. Pavel Baran, informed the foreign participants that upon its foundation back in 1890 the institution was called the Academy of Sciences and Arts, and added that its initiator, the architect Josef Hlávka, had 30 years previously built the Hofoper in Vienna. Hlávka was closely personally associated with the composer Antonín Dvořák, which resulted in, among other things, the creation of the Mass in D major, “Lužany”.

The conference “Overcoming Global Threats: Enhancing Inter-cultural Dialogue, Stability and Peace”, organized under the auspices of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Lubomír Zaorálek, was held on the 13–14th April 2016. It aimed at addressing the issues of overcoming global threats, developing inter-cultural and intra-cultural dialogue, including inter-religious and intra-religious respect and discussions, enhancing justice, mutual cooperation and stability.

Czech White-Nose Syndrome Team together with international collaborators discovered that mechanisms of tolerance protect Palearctic bats from white-nose syndrome (WNS), the disease that caused mass die-off in North America. The discovery provides hope for the future of bats in North American ecosystems.

International research team demonstrates electrical switching of an antiferromagnet

Ferromagnets and antiferromagnets are the two common forms of magnetically ordered materials. Traditionally we thought that magnetism can be easily controlled and utilized only in ferromagnets. Researchers from the Czech Republic, United Kingdom, and Germany change this perception by demonstrating electrical switching of magnetization in an antiferromagnetic microchip. The work was published online by the journal Science on 14 January 2016 (DOI: 10.1126/science.aab1031).