News

It is our sad duty to announce to the physics community and the wider public that the eminent plasma theorist and research organizer Karel Jungwirth has passed away. 

On 29 September this year, CERN, a European laboratory for particle physics, the place where the web was born in 1989 and the Higgs boson was discovered in 2012, celebrated its 70th anniversary. The impetus came from Louis de Broglie, a French theoretical physicist and 1929 Nobel Prize winner in Physics, who proposed the establishment of a European physics laboratory in 1949 to prevent the outflow of talented physicists to the US. 

This year's photo competition of the Institute of Physics surprised the jury not only by the number of images submitted, but also by the variety of topics chosen by the contestants. This year's main theme was physical phenomena.

This year's Researchers‘ Night at the Institute of Physics, although rainy and gloomy, attracted 494 visitors to the premises of the Institute of Physics, who overcame the bad weather to immerse themselves in the world of science. Participants were impressed by the beauties of the microworld, the starry sky in the mobile planetarium, scintillating crystals and followed the tracks of invisible particles in the fog chamber. Physics enthusiasts could attend a panel discussion with leading scientists. Yet the evening was not only about science. The program also featured the Sleeping Lion drama group with a two-act comedy from the period of the First Republic and a screening of photo contest images. The contest winner announcement ended the night's program.

On (not only) open questions in physics with David Hlaváček

In the "Open Questions in Physics" interview series we introduce you to different research areas and personalities of the Institute of Physics. At the Department of Astroparticle Physics, David Hlaváček is involved in the design of one of the control modules of the upcoming LISA space mission, which aims to capture gravitational waves possibly dating back to the very beginning of the universe. In addition, he is also involved in the outreach and philosophy of science. Where does he see physics going, what will LISA tell us about the cosmos and why is it important to inspire new generations of scientists?

On open questions in astroparticle physics with Jakub Vícha

Where do high-energy cosmic ray particles come from and how can we even learn what they are? Can they open up an opportunity for us to discover completely new physical processes? And can cosmic rays influence the weather? These questions have not been answered yet, but research by Jakub Vícha from the Department of Astroparticle Physics at FZU is bringing us closer to unravelling these mysteries.

Even neighbourhood festivals are influenced by fashion trends. On the third Saturday in September, a part of Cukrovarnická Street was traditionally transformed into a friendly and sunny neighbourhood space. This year's Zažít město jinak (Experience the City Differently) event ran along the lines of the circular economy – clothes and books were exchanged, photovoltaic devices were demonstrated and there was also positive chemistry.

A double interview with Helena Reichlova and Barbora Špačková, who have succeeded in tough competition and both won five-year funding for their own Dioscuri centres. They describe, for example, the role they believe social media play in research careers. And they also explain what guides their selection of new collaborators.

Researchers from the Laboratory of Functional Biointerfaces of the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences have advanced the development of a compact, fully portable and fast biosensing device and demonstrated its effectiveness in detecting bacterial and viral pathogens in a wide range of food samples.