Press releases

Arthropods - creatures with jointed legs that contain today's crabs, beetles, or spiders - are the most successful animal group that ever existed on Earth. They contain over 1,200,000 described species, represent most of the animal biomass, and are one of the most fundamental parts of both marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Not only do their adults dominate the land and sea, but their juvenile and larval stages are as important as the mature individuals.

A loss of NEUROD1 leads to severe diabetes. However, the clinical, pathophysiological, and molecular characteristics of NEUROD1 mutations remain unclear. In a new study published in Nature Communications, researchers from the Institute of Biotechnology CAS, BIOCEV and from the Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine elucidate the crucial role of NEUROD1 in the development and maintenance of the endocrine pancreas.

Large earthquakes (M >8.5) in North-Central Chile are believed to occur in a regular cycle about every 100 years. An international team including a scientist from the Institute of Geophysics of the CAS has obtained evidence that the next large earthquake in this region may behave differently. In fact, the roughly 400 km long area of the active plate boundary currently seems to be divided into two smaller potential rupture areas. The discovered barrier in-between could significantly reduce the size of a future earthquake and thus its destructive effects.

Scientists from the IOCB Prague, the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and Palacký University Olomouc, have once again successfully uncovered the mysteries of the world of molecules and atoms. They have experimentally confirmed the correctness of a decades-old theory that assumed a non-uniform distribution of electron density in aromatic molecules. This phenomenon significantly affects the physicochemical properties of molecules and their interactions. This research expands the possibilities for designing new nanomaterials and is the theme of a paper that has just been published in Nature Communications.

Ariel, the European Space Agency’s next-generation mission to observe the chemical make-up of distant extrasolar planets, has passed a major milestone after successfully completing its Preliminary Design Review (PDR). The successful completion of the PDR marks a crucial step forward for Ariel, demonstrating that the mission's payload design meets all the required technical and scientific specifications, and no showstoppers were found for the foreseen launch in 2029.

A research team from IOCB Prague, under the leadership of Milan Vrábel, has developed a new chemical reaction that will allow scientists to better target drugs to specific places in the human body and to monitor if their active compounds reach unintended tissues. This can help eliminate the unwanted side effects of therapy.

Narratives by Romani survivors from the Czech lands and Slovakia about their experiences during World War II are now available on the websites www.svedectviromu.cz and www.romatestimonies.com. Researchers from the Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS) have chosen today, the International Roma Holocaust Memorial Day, to launch the site. The processing and search capabilities of online database are unique in the world. The database will eventually contain approximately 250 testimonies about the specific fates of Czech and Slovak Roma and Sinti affected by the war and Nazi repression.

69 new members and associate members join the EMBO community of more than 2,000 leading life scientists in Europe and beyond. Four new members come from Czech Republic.

The Czech Academy of Sciences expresses its deep concern and disagreement with the attempts to restrict the research freedom of some employees of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN).

Handaxes from the period of the first human migration out of Africa, eggshells of extinct ostriches, and a unique collection of rock engravings. An international team led by the Institute of Archaeology of the CAS in Prague has successfully completed its third excavation season in Oman. Thanks to the unique findings, the researchers will be contributing, among other things, to the reconstruction of the climate and history of the world’s largest sand desert.