Questions concerning the 1989 democratic revolutions and the collapse of "real socialism" in East Central Europe were a highlight of an international conference in Prague organized by two AS CR Institutes. The conference’s aim was to historicize the democratic revolutions of 1989, moving beyond the dominant "transitological" understanding of these revolutions in terms of the "End of Communism" and the "Beginning of Democracy." These were questions discussed: "Did these revolutions and the end of "real socialism" signal the end of revolutionary regimes and the beginning of a "restoration," or rather the replacement of worn-out communist revolutions with a new, neoliberal revolution? Or, considering the nonviolent character of the events, did they really constitute a revolution at all?" It was observed that modern political identities and ideological currents are marked by their attitudes toward the pheno-menon of revolution and toward various historical revolutionary models. Other themes were, "Democratic, Liberal, or Neoliberal Revolution? Dissent, Post-Dissent, and the Ideas of 1989. The End of History or the End of the Future? Theories of Soviet-type Society. The Second Life of the 1968 Prague Spring in 1989." Hosting the conference were the Department for the Study of Late Socialism and Post-Socialism of the Institute of Contemporary History ASCR and the Department for the Study of Modern Czech Philosophy of the Philosophy Institute ASCR, held October 2-3, 2014 at the Villa Lana. and Petr Kužel.
We feature an interview with Professor Martin Rees, one of the speakers at the conference Frontiers of Quantum and Mesoscopis Thermodynamics 2011. Professor Rees in Master of Trinity College and Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge. He holds the honorary title of Astronomer Royal and also is Visiting Professor at Imperial College London and at Leicester university. After studying at the University of Cambridge, he held post-doctoral positions in the UK and the USA before becoming a professor at Sussex University. In 1973, he became a fellow of King's College and Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at Cambridge (continuing in the latter post until 1991) and served for ten years as director of Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy. From 1992 to 2003 he was a Royal Society Research Professor. and Gabriela Adámková.
Zeolites are some of the most important solids in modern technology and the search for new types of zeolite and new methods of making zeolites remains at the forefront of research. Recently, we have developed a new synthetic strategy called ADOR (Assembly-Disassembly-Organization-Reassembly). This strategy starts from germanosilicate zeolites being vulnerable to hydrolysis providing zeolites layers of the original structure. Appropriate manipulation with the layers connected with intercalation chemistry and followed by their condensation resulted in the synthesis of six new zeolites, some of them being considered as "unfeasible" due to the high energy of their frameworks. Basic principles of ADOR chemistry are described in this short overview. and Pavla Eliášová, JIří Čejka, Petr Nachtigall.