Section Archive Czech Science
EU campaign calls on young people to help reduce greenhouse emissions
Turn down. Switch off. Recycle. Walk. Change. Those are five simple
recommendations the European Commission is calling on people to follow in
an effort to raise awareness of climate change and possible ways to reduce
its speed.
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Scientists work to convert muddy fish pond into clear lake
In the high summer months, many water bodies are plagued by surface water
bloom, a layer of organisms called cyanobacteria or blue-green algae,
which thrive in water rich on phosphorus. Not only is water bloom
unsightly but it can be potentially dangerous to people as the bacteria
produce various toxins. Hydrobiologists from the city of Plzen are now
trying to cut the bacteria off from their phosphorus supply and turn the
largest fish breeding pond in Plzen into a crystal clear lake rife with
predator fish and rich vegetation.
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Czech scientific institute signs landmark agreement with US pharmaceutical company
Czech science - and one scientist in particular - received a great honour
last week, when the United States pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences
announced a donation to the Institute of Organic Chemistry and
Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences for the establishment of a
special research centre bearing the company's name. The California-based
biopharmaceutical company will donate 1.1 million dollars a year to the
institute for an initial five-year term to fund the centre's operations
and ongoing research activities. A part of the amount will be used to
finance the research of the renowned Czech scientist, Professor Antonin
Holy, for whom the company has established the Gilead Distinguished Chair
in Medicinal Chemistry.
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Rare anthropology collection opens to public during "Museum Night"
On Saturday, June 17th, some forty museums and galleries around Prague
opened their doors to the public for the third "Museum Night".
Among other things, this publicity event enables visitors to see
collections which are normally not easily accessible - such as The
Hrdlicka Museum of Man in Prague 2 which we visited for this edition of
Czech Science.
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Hunting dinosaurs in Mongolia
In less than a month's time, a team of Czech scientists will leave for the
Mongolian desert of Gobi to spend a month at a rich fossil location
looking for the remains of dinosaurs. The team of Expedition Gobi 2006 are
now making the final preparations and also bracing themselves for the rough
weather conditions of the Mongolian desert. By the end of the project in
2009, they are hoping to excavate and bring back to the Czech Republic a
complete dinosaur skeleton to be displayed in Prague.
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Shutting down Czech pirate software
The issue of software piracy is currently a hot topic worldwide. With file
sharing programs freely available on the web and copied CDs abundant in
markets around the country, pirated software is all too easy to obtain,
not only in the Czech Republic. As a member of the Berne Convention and
the Paris and Universal Copyright Conventions, the principal international
organisations which protect copyright, the Czech Republic has taken a
number of steps in recent years to increase its compliance with
international piracy laws, and according to a recent study, its efforts
have paid off. More
Wikipedia - the "addictive" encyclopaedia
Those of you, who are familiar with the internet, will probably have come
across the global interactive encyclopaedia called Wikipedia. It is
written by volunteers and anyone with an internet connection can
contribute to it. It all started five years ago and now there are almost 4
million articles in over 100 language versions, including a Czech one.
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Chernobyl - 20 years after
For days after the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power station, on
April 30th, 1986, Czechoslovak Radio announced that the situation at the
power plant was improving. Precisely at that time the radioactive cloud
had reached Czechoslovakia.
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Ornithologists monitor decline in farmland bird species
Ornithologists in Europe have been noticing that many wild bird species
have undergone severe decline across the continent over the last three
decades,
particularly in EU countries. Among them are the skylark, the yellow
hammer and the lapwing.The Czech Society for Ornithology has been involved
in an international project which monitors trends in the populations of
wild bird species in Europe. More
Professor Vaclav Paces on Czech achievements in genomics research
Genomics, or the study of the genomes of organisms and the use of the
genes, has among other things the potential of offering new therapeutic
methods for the treatment of some diseases, as well as new diagnostic
methods. On the achievements of Czech scientists in this field, Radio
Prague talks to the President of the Czech Academy of Sciences, former
director of the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Czech Academy of
Sciences and genomics expert, Professor Vaclav Paces.
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