The UN General Assembly has declared 2015 the International Year of Soils to raise awareness of the vital importance of soil, which is essential not only for food security and for cultivating plants for feed, fibre, fuel and medicinal products, but also for maintaining biodiversity as it hosts countless organisms. It plays a key role in storing and filtering water, in carbon and other nutrients cycling and performs other irreplaceable ecosystem functions. The Institute of Soil Biology of the CAS Biology Centre carries out biological research into many of those functions of soil in both natural and human–affected environments, including studies of the soil microstructure, soil organism communities and their dynamics and interactions and so on. Researchers at the Institute of Soil Biology focus, among other things, on the contribution of soil fungi to nitrous oxide emissions and on the production of methane. The latter is a potent greenhouse gas and a substantial part of atmospheric methane is produced by anaerobic microorganisms called Archaea found in the soil and in animal digestive tracts, while soil is also a significant methane sink. Research is also being concentrated on the characterization and risk assessment of antibiotic resistance-reservoirs in soil, which is connected with the massive use of antibiotics in the past five decades. Scientists examine ways of preventing the antibiotic resistance spreading in the environment through food chains as well as and on the role played by the soil microflora in those processes, as Doctor Dana Elhottová explains in the corresponding article. and Jana Olivová.
The Institute of Rock Structure and Mechanics is focused on research connected with both natural rocks and rock environment on the Earth´s crust, as well as with artificially produced geomaterials, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. and Zuzana Weishauptová.
The largest international research centre for particle physics, the construction of which the Czech scientific community played a very important role, is celebrating the 60th year since its foundation in September 1954. It operates the 17-mile long Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the largest accelerator in the world. Its official name is the “European Organization for Nuclear Research”, but it is known internationally known by the acronym CERN (from the French, Conseil Européen pour la recherche nucléaire). A noteworthy interactive exhibition took place at ASCR headquarters from September 2 to October 12, 2014 was open to the public without charge. In an “interactive tunnel,” ASCR President Prof. Jiří Drahoš opened the exhibition with a ceremonial “kick-off of the protons.” CERN is the prototype of programmes for European cooperation through which a number of European projects have been built,” Professor Drahoš said. He cited the Czech scientific community for its involvement in experimental and scientific work there. Membership in CERN is important for the Czech Republic not only in terms of participation in top experiments, but significantly in providing young scientists and engineers an invaluable opportunity to expand their knowledge and skills for application in their nations. This issue of Academic bulletin features an interview with dr. Daniel Krasnický from CERN and Universitá di Genova and interview with dr. Jan Blaha from Stanford University who cooperates with CERN. and Jiří Chýla.