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Czech ScienceProfessor Zdenek Kopal (1914-1993) - from Litomysl to NASA
Last week the Moravian town of Litomysl celebrated the 90th anniversary of
the birth of one of its great natives, world-renowned astronomer Zdenek
Kopal. Zdenek Kopal left Czechoslovakia in 1938, after finishing his
university studies. Later he studied at Cambridge and Harvard
Universities. For thirty years Zdenek Kopal lectured astronomy in
Manchester, England. One of the main areas of his interest were binary
stars but Professor Zdenek Kopal is perhaps best known for his
participation in NASA's Moon landing project. In an earlier Czech Science
programme the head of the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of
Sciences, Jan Palous, spoke about Professor Zdenek Kopal's contribution to
the US Apollo project.
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Czech ScienceAstronomy in the Czech lands III - Astronauts
Welcome to Czech Science. Last week Professor Jan Palous from the
Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences talked about
Czech-born astronomers who left Czechoslovakia during the communist era
and made their careers at foreign universities and research centres. Today
Professor Palous will be talking about Czech participation in one
important part of space research - manned missions to outer space.
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Czech ScienceAstronomy in the Czech lands II - Czech-born astronomers working abroad
Welcome to Czech Science. Last week we started a short series about
astronomy in the Czech lands. Our guest, the director of the Astronomical
Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Professor Jan Palous, took us
back to 17th century Rudolphine Prague - a time when the city hosted such
famous astronomers as Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler. Only three
centuries later it was Albert Einstein who spent two years in Prague and
very likely formulated his general principle of relativity here. While in
last week's episode, Professor Palous talked about foreign scholars
working in this country, today he'll be talking predominantly about
Czech-born astronomers who made their careers abroad.
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Press ReviewPress Review
The tragic Egyptian charter plane crash that left 148 dead and panoramic
colour images of Mars released by NASA after establishing contact with a
US probe to search for signs of life on the Red Planet make the front
pages of almost all the main dailies today. Domestically, it's a photo of
Czech actress Helena Ruzickova that dominates the papers. Mrs Ruzickova
died on Sunday at the age of 67 after losing a two-year battle against
cancer.
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Czech ScienceContact lens inventor Otto Wichterle was born 90 years ago
Last week, Czech academics marked the 90th anniversary of the birth of the
outstanding Czech scientist and legendary inventor of the contact lens and
the synthetic fibre "silon", Professor Otto Wichterle, who died
five years ago. Those who had a chance to meet him, his former students
and colleagues remember Otto Wichterle not only for his achievements in
science and research but also for his exceptional personality.
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Current AffairsCzech astronomers discover new asteroid
Czech astronomers have made a number of important discoveries recently. Earlier this year they discovered a Nova, which is a star temporarily emitting a great amount of energy and light, and solved a question which was puzzling astronomers around the world, that is whether one very bright object was or was not actually two stars. Several days ago, an unknown asteroid was observed from the Klet observatory in South Bohemia. More from Pavla Horakova.
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Current AffairsPrize for young scientists awarded for the first time
On Wednesday, the Czech Academy of Sciences officially presented 47 outstanding young Czech scientists with the first ever Wichterle award. The award, named after the Czech chemist Otto Wichterle, who invented the contact lens, will be given each year to encourage chronically underpaid Czech scientists. Dita Asiedu was at the ceremony and spoke to the chairwoman of the Academy of Sciences, Helena Illnerova.
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Talking PointCzech have a law fighting light pollution
I'm standing in front of Stefanikova Observatory on Petrin Hill in Prague. On a clear night like this I should be able to see hundreds and hundreds of stars. As it is I can only count several dozen. The reason? Light pollution. Our modern civilisation simply produces too much light which outshines the stars. Experts say that too much light at night can disturb our natural rhythms. Improperly aimed and poorly shielded lamps can be dangerous for drivers and even pilots. Astronomers are badly affected as well as light pollution greatly diminishes the view of deep sky objects.
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