The project SUNRISE or “Solar Energy for a Circular Economy,” prepared in cooperation of seven European universities and eight research centres including J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry of the CAS, has been selected by the European Commission as one of the six Coordination and Support Actions (CSA) within the Horizon 2020 programme. The aim of the project is an ambitious employment of solar energy and widely available materials in production of fuels and chemicals, hoping to replace energy-intensive production based on oil and coal.

In January 2019, Doctor Alexandr Knápek from the Institute of Scientific Instruments of the CAS visited Mu’tah University in Jordan, bringing with him a new machine developed in Brno specifically for Mu’tah. On this occasion, a press release was published, informing about December’s signing of a memorandum of understanding between these two institutions.

A new report by the European project SAPEA (Science Advice for Policy by European Academies) focuses on the highly discussed topic of microplastics in the environment. The report states that the level of pollution by these materials does not present an imminent danger to humans.

A team of scientists at the Institute of Vertebrate Biology of the Czech Academy of Sciences managed to describe a hitherto unknown hybrid zone in parasites of mice. This important discovery, which can facilitate information crucial for understanding of origins and proliferation of new infectious diseases, has been recently published by the Molecular Ecology journal.

In last five to fifteen years, response diversity of wheat – an important sign of its resilience – has decreased significantly in most European countries. The loss of resilience occurs both in central European and northern European, as well as southern European countries. These findings, gathered with participation of Czech scientists, were published in the prestigious PNAS journal.

European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), comprising of more than 1800 leading researchers in life sciences, awarded EMBO Installation Grants to ten young scientists establishing independent laboratories in the Czech Republic, Poland, Portugal, and Turkey. Among the supported researchers, announced in December, is also one Czech scientist – Martin Schwarzer from the Institute of Microbiology of the CAS.

At the end of the year 2018, the Czech Academy of Sciences signed a memorandum of understanding with the Brazilian organisation SENAI, which focuses on education in industrial areas, support of innovations, and transfer of technology. The memorandum was signed by the CAS President Eva Zažímalová, SENAI President Robson Braga de Andrade, and SENAI CEO Rafael Esmeraldo Lucchesi Ramacciotti.

A group of four Czech scientists from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of the Charles University and from the Institute of Mathematics of the CAS has managed to discover a solution of the so-called quadratic gravity describing a new type of spherical black hole. The research, drawing on numerical simulations by an international team of scientists, has been published in the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters.

Four outstanding Czech scientists were awarded prestigious medals for long-term accomplishments and advancements of their fields of science: geneticist Jiří Forejt, botanist Jan Krekule, physicist Jiří J. Mareš, and geologist Zdeněk Vašíček. The laureates received the medals on Wednesday, December 12, from the President of the CAS Eva Zažímalová herself.

Cancer cells with damaged mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is necessary for mitochondrial respiration, are unable to form tumors. Researchers from the Institute of Biotechnology of the CAS in the BIOCEV centre have already proven that in order to be able to do so, cancer cells need to restore respiration through “stealing” of mitochondria with undamaged mtDNA from surrounding non-cancer cells. Now a subsequent research has managed to explain why respiration is so important for the creation of tumors.