Much like in the years before, staff members of the Institute of Geology, Czech Academy of Sciences, participated in the Photogenic Science photo competition with their best shots. Some of them were chosen for the shortlist, and finally one photo by Michal Filippi and two photos by Pavel Lisý were nominated. One of the two photos, titled "Nobody was at home" ended up second in the "Scientists in photography" category.

Professor Zbyněk Roček of the Institute of Geology CAS takes part in a three-dimensional reconstruction of a unique Devonian amphibian Ichthyostega, which is one of the earliest known terrestrial vertebrates living about 360 million years ago. The model is made by the Danish artist Esben Horn and his team from the 10 Tons Studio in Copenhagen. Under the permission of the 10 Tons Studio we are pleased to publish one of the first photos of the prepared reconstruction (see picture). Ichthyostega represents a key evolutionary stage in a transition of vertebrates between permanent water-dwellers and terrestrial tetrapods. The model will be installed in a permanent public exhibition in the National Museum in Prague after its main building becomes re-opened after its general reconstruction.

Assoc. Prof. RNDr. Lukáš Krmíček, Ph.D. of the Institute of Geology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, v. v. i., together with his colleagues of the University of Potsdam (Universität Potsdam) presented new results of radioisotope dating of the Železná hůrka (Eisenbühl) volcano near Cheb at the Basalt 2017 conference. Based on the results of Ar/Ar step-heating of dark mica, the age of this volcano was shown to be "only" 400,000 years. Thus, the Železná hůrka represents the youngest Czech surface volcano. Volcanic activity in the vicinity of the Železná hůrka resulted in the formation of subsurface explosive maar-diatreme volcanic structures about 100 to 200 thousand years later. As yet, the "echoes" of volcanic activity in the Cheb area (similarly to the Yellowstone National Park in the USA) can be registered in the form of CO2 emanations accompanied by frequent earthquake swarms.

RNDr. Tomáš Hrstka PhD. was invited as a plenary speaker to an important international conference AMAM-ICAM 2017 (2nd International Conference on Applied Mineralogy & Advanced Materials - 13th International Conference on Applied Mineralogy)  in June 2017 to present the potential use of artificial intelligence and neural networks in automated mineralogy. Moreover, he also presented new findings based on the project Strategy AV21 related to the use of automated scanning electron microscopes in the study of individual dust particles and environmental monitoring..