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Science JournalScience Journal

This month in Science Journal: Czech robots not so different than Czechs themselves, they play football and they pour beer. And what’s little, looks like bamboo and eats up toxins and spits them out elsewhere?  More

Current AffairsNew exhibition remembers first Czech Nobel Prize winner

A new exhibition at Prague’s Karolinum marks 50 years since the first Nobel Prize in the history of Czechoslovakia. The exhibition ‘Pár Kapek’ or ‘The Story of the Mercury Drop’ remembers Jaroslav Heyrovský, who received the honour in December 1959 for a new invention in the field of chemistry – polarography.  More

Current AffairsCzech scientists turn toxic waste into water

Finding an agent that would successfully clean up chemical toxins has been a kind of theoretical Holy Grail for chemists. Thanks to a group of scientists at Brno’s Masaryk University it seems the quest is over. The international team has created an enzyme that breaks some of the most persistent chemical waste products down into pure water and carbon dioxide, doing in a few months what takes nature hundreds of years. A bit earlier I spoke with Dr. Jiří Damborský, who headed the team.  More

Czechs TodayCzechs Today – Antonín Holý

Antonín Holý is one of the Czech Republic’s most renowned scientists. Most recently, his name was put forward by the Czech Academy of Sciences to be nominated for the Nobel Prize in medicine for his work finding compounds to fight both the AIDS virus and cancer. Learn more in Czechs Today. More

NewsCzech president vetoes EU chemical bill

Current AffairsThe fate of crayfish in the Vltava sparks concern about male fertility

In the past two decades the availability of oral contraceptives has significantly reduced the number of abortions annually performed in the Czech Republic. However the use of these contraceptives has had an unfortunate side-effect - traces of the female hormone estrogen which end up in Czech rivers may be doing more environmental damage than we know.  More

Current AffairsPolice, specialists, uncover stores of dangerous chemicals at warehousesite

At the weekend a store of hundreds of different chemicals was uncovered by police at a warehouse site in the region of Hradec Kralove, Central Bohemia. Three people have already been arrested. Police have also enforced an information embargo, but this has not stopped the Czech press speculating about how the dangerous chemicals including mercury and cyanide - highly hazardous to human health - came to be there. More

NewsInvestigation into hazardous materials near Hradec Kralove continues

Czech ScienceScientists uncover secrets of red wine

Have you ever wondered where the ruby colour of red wine comes from? And did you know that some wine producers enhance the colour of wine even though they shouldn't? These questions arose during research conducted by scientists from the eastern town of Olomouc, which focuses on natural dyes called anthocyanins.  More

Czech ScienceCzech-developed appliance detects dangerous biological substances

In possible cases of bio-terrorist attacks or leaks of dangerous substances into the environment, efficient detection and early-warning systems could save many lives. Czech scientists have developed a special optical sensor, a device which can detect dangerous biological substances in the environment.  More