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.
We present an interview with Robert lzzard whose doctorate is from Cambridge University and who has been awarded an Intra-European Fellowship for Career Development which is a part of Marie Curie Actions. His research at l'Universite Libre de Bruxelles is focused on the evolution of binary stars. and Andrea Khudhurová.
We feature an interview with Professor Eva Za2imalova, a member of the Academy Council and the head of the Laboratory of Hormonal Regulation in Plants at the Institute of Experimental Botany of the ASCR. From 2007 to 2012 she was director of this institute. Her research is in the fields of auxin and cytokinins (mode of action of auxin. auxin binding site(s), regulation of levels of auxins and cytokinins in relation to cell division and elongation and themechanism of polar transport of auxin). and Marina Hužvárová.
The European Union has allocated 31 million crowns for the professional enhancement of Czech scientists and international activities of research teams at the Institute of Scientific Instruments of the ASCR and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication of the University of Technology in Brno. The EU subsidy encompasses three years. Thanks to this financial support, Vladislav Krzyžánek, a leading Czech expert in electron microscopy, has returned to Brno after 12 years in Muenster, Germany. The EU subsidy will additionally fund training workshops, guest stays of foreign scientists, support for researchers’ mobility and the establishment of cooperation between universities and the industrial sector. and Luděk Svoboda.
Proč se nekříží kočka se psem? Proč se sice může zkřížit kůň s oslem, ale jejich potomci - mulové či mezci - jsou neplodní? Z jakého důvodu jsou někdy strilní i kříženci dvou blízce příbuzných poddruhů, třeba myší, a souvisí to nějak se vznikem nových živočišných druhů? Jeden z nejdůležitějších článků tété záhady odhalil Jiří Forejt z Ústavu molekulární genetiky Akademie věd ČR, kterýá identifikoval první gen u savců zodpovědný za samčí neplodnost mezidruhových kříženců, přečetl ho a ukázal, jak je regulován. and Jana Olivová, Stanislava Kyselová.
V nakladatelství Oxford university Press vyšlo letos - snad vůbec poprvé - dílo českých badatelů v historických vědách, a to konkrétně v oblasti orální historie. Nabídku od nakladatelství ke knižnímu zpracování náhledu na naši současnost po roce 1968 dostal Miroslav Vaněk v roce 2011 na konferenci v Denveru a jak, říká, kdyby tušil, co ho čeká, nekývl by. Naštěstí přizval kolegu Pavla Mückeho, aby spolu podnikli martyrium přípravy anglickojazyčné publikace pro zámořského nakladatele. Když anglicky psaná kniha Velvet Revolutions: An Oral History of Czech Society vyšla, dostala se ke čtenářům nejprve v elektronické verzi na Novém Zélandu., The Velvet Revolution in November 1989 brought about the collapse of the authoritarian communist regime in what was then Czechoslovakia. It also marks the beginning of the country's journey towards democracy. This book examines what the values in so-called real socialism were, as well as how citizens’ values changed after the 1989 collapse. In Velvet Revolutions (published in Oxford Oral History Series, Oxford University Press, 2016), Miroslav Vanek and Pavel Mücke of the Institute for Contemporary History of the CAS analyse and interpret 300 interviews on citizens’ experience of freedom and its absence, the value of work, family and friends, education, relations to public sphere and politics, the experience of free time, and the perception of foreigners and foreign countries. The interviewees are drawn from a wide range of professions, including manual workers, service workers, farmers, members of the armed forces, managers, and marketing personnel. All of the interviewees were at working age during the last twenty years of the communist regime and during the post-revolutionary transformation. From this rich foundation, the book builds a multi-layered view of the Czech history before 1989 and during the subsequent period of democratic transformation., and Marina Hužvárová.
We feature an interview with Prof. Zdeněk Herman, a renowned Czech chemist. In his research he focuses on the dynamics of chemical reactions or the collisions of ions that he calls "billiards with particles." Professor Herman studied chemistry at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University specializing in physical chemistry and radiochemistry. After completing his studies in 1957, he joined the Institute of Physical Chemistry (now J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry of the ASCR). He was Head of the Department of Chemical Physics, and Deputy Director and Head of the Scientific Council of the Institute. Only after the fall of the communist regime was he allowed to complete his habilitation and become a Professor of Chemistry in 1996 at the Institute of Chemical Technology in Prague. Since 1989, he has served on many ASCR committees and in the Czech Government. In 2003, he was awarded the Czech Head National Prize. Professor Herman is also a sculptor and painter. For the 50th anniversary of the Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals of the ASCR, he crafted a bronze bust of the Institute's founder, Professor Vladimír Bažant. and Marina Hužvárová.
We feature an interview in this issue with Professor Josef Michl, acclained chemist, who received his Ph.D. at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in 1965 but left Czechoslovakia three years later. He became a full professor in 1975 at University of Utah. Professor Michl has held nearly one hundred visiting professorships and named lectureships, delivered hundreds of invited lectures at institutions and conferences, has served on many professional and editorial boards, advisory councils, and committees, and has organized several international meetings. Since 2006, he also has held an appointment at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the ASCR. He is a laureate of Wichterle Award, the Schrödinger and Porter Medals, the J. Heyrovský Gold Medal of the ASCR and Charles University, the Czech government Patria Award for Czech scientists working abroad, and the Marinus Smith Award from the University of Colorado for his work with undergraduates. He is also a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science and is an honorary member of the Czech Learned Society. and Sylva Daníčková.
In this issue, we feature an interview with Phillipe Lebaube, head of the CORDIS Unit of EU’s Publication, for a detailed view on its activities. CORDIS, information space devoted to European research and development and technology transfer, has been in operation for nearly two decades now. and Anna Vosečková.
The view on this topic are presented in an interview with Vladimír Nekvasil, who is the president of the Council for Support of ASCR Participation in European Integration of Research and Development. At the Institute of Physics of the ASCR, he was Chairman of the Scientific Council (1994 and 1996), Attestation Commission (1994-1997) and the Commission for the Regress of Grievances. Since 1993, he has been a member of the Academy Assembly. He is also a chairman of the Advocacy Commission of ASCR for the doctoral thesis Doctor of Science (DSc.) in the physics of condensed systems. and Marina Hužvárová.
The first implementation phase of the ELI Beamlines project was concluded and the laser facility in Dolní Břežany was inaugurated on October 19, 2015 in the presence of many distinguished guests from the world of science and politics. The initial greetings were given by Czech and foreign guests, including the President of the Czech Academy of Sciences Jiří Drahoš, Director of the Institute of Physics Jan Řídký, the President of the Senate of the Czech Republic Milan Štěch, Archbishop of Prague Dominik cardinal Duka, Director General of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) Francesco Sette, Director General of the ELI-DC International Association Wolfgang Sandner, Chairman of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructure John Womersley, French physicist and founder of the ELI project Gérard Mourou, Deputy director for science and technology in the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California Patricia Falcone. Guests were invited to see laser and experimental technologies directly in one of the laser halls. and Marina Hužvárová a Jana Olivová.
Within the frame of the Week of Science and Technology, you can visit an exhibition named Encyclopaedia of the Book. Read more it in the interview with the author of the so-called book by Petr Voit. and Dagmar Hartmanová.
In this issue, we feature an interview with the president of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (AS CR), Prof. Jiří Drahoš. The interview focuses on funding science and research at AS CR and the methodology that has become the universal tool for distributing money to the whole Czech science as a whole. On the basis of this government-conceived tool, the institutional financial grant for the AS CR should be reduced by about 50 percent by 2012. and Marina Hužvárová.
Featured in this issue is the interwiew with Professor Petr Ráb, a member of Academy Council, and of the Steering Committee of the Evaluation of Academic Institutes. Through this evaluation, the Academy Council is provided a full report of the research effectiveness of Academy Institutes. The process of research assessment is supervised by foreign evaluators. and Marina Hužvárová.
What exactly does the term "Excellence in Science" mean was the subject of a talk by the president of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Václav Pačes for the Academic bulletin. and Marina Hužvárová.
Professor Pavel Zemanek and his colleagues at the Institute of Scientific Instruments (1St) of the ASCR built a laser that moves tiny spheres of polystyrene floating in water While in science fiction programs such as "Star Trek," tractor beams are used to move massive objects, the unique research published in Nature Photonics (2013, 7, 123-127) is limited to moving microscopic particles. Changing the way the light is polarized changes the direction the spheres move. The ISI scientists also found that at certain sizes, the spheres arrange themselves into neat rows as they move, bound by the light itself. The practical applications could be diverse. The tractor beam is very selective in the properties of the particles it acts upon, so one could pick up specific particles in a mixture. For example, this laser could be used to separate white blood cells. and Luděk Svoboda.
Dr. Petr Jehlička, Snr Lecturer in Environmental Geography at the Open University in Milton Keynes, United Kingdom, points out that some twenty-five years after the end of socialism, between one and two thirds of the East European middle classes still continue to grow some of the food consumed in their households - mostly not for economic reasons but primarily as their hobby. Nevertheless, social sciences in the West and a considerable part of scientific literature on home gardening in the global North continue to view this informal food production in Eastern Europe as an activity of mainly disadvantaged segments of society. He argues, moreover, that concepts generated in the Western context, where this activity is only marginal, are considered as universal knowledge, while data gathered in Eastern Europe, where household food production is dominant, are viewed as marginal and less interesting. He also describes ways in which Eastern Europe can contribute to broad international debates about this issue and various other topics in social sciences. and Jana Olivová.
Vede Výzkumné centrum Dvory a rezidence ve středověku, píše odborné knihy o životě na středověkých dvorech a překládá veršované eposy ze staré němčiny 13. století. Zároveň si však umí ušít středověké šaty dobovou technikou nebo vyzkoušet vaření podle dochovalých středověkých receptů. Bádání v historických pramenech i méně obvyklé experimentální přistupy pomáhají Daně Dvořáčkové-Malé z Historického ústavu AV ČR lépe pochopit vytyčený objekt věděckého zájmu - každodenní život panovníckých dvorů a obyvatel středověku. and Leona Matušková, Stanislava Kyselová, Václav Kořínek.
This comment was made by Professor Jiří Drahoš a renowned physical chemist, interviewed for a feature article in this issue. The Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (ASCR) has been observing this year the 20th anniversary of its inception, this one being another in the series. Professor Drahoš has been president of the ASCR since 2009. Since then, Professor Drahoš has been facing the government's decisions to cut the Academy's budget every year. He has worked at the Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals of the ASCR since 1977, holding various positions, including research scientist, senior research scientist, Department Head, Deputy Director (1992-1995) and Director (1996-2003). His principal research interest is multiphase chemical reactors. He has published more than 60 original papers in impacted international journals and is a co-inventor of four international and holds 10 Czech patents. According to Science Citation Index and other sources, his scientific papers have been cited more than 700 times. In 1977 he was awarded the Medal of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (CSAS). and Marina Hužvárová.
The Seventh Conference of the Czech Neuroscience Society together with the First Conference of the Slovak Society for Neuroscience was jointly convened in Prague November 1-4, 2009. The conference was held in conjunction with 7th International Stem School in Regenerative Medicine, which offered Ph.D. students and young researchers the opportunity to discuss with prominent scientists in the field of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. Regenerative medicine stands at the forefront of current medical research as scientists seek to better understand regenerative abilities of our cells and tissues and to use these abilities to enable the rescue and repair of damaged tissue resulting from injury or disease. and Luděk Svoboda.
We feature an interview with Pavel Kindlmann, professor of ecology at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, who performs research on various aspects of biodiversity as head of the Biodiversity Research Centre in Šumava National Park in the Bohemian Forest. Bark beetles, which have become a heated issue with a political dimension, are the focus of his study. On one side, some experts demand that natural processes be allowed to take their course, even if that menas the bark beetle would destroy most of that forest. On the other side, experts are insisting on intervention. Anti-intervention forces are supporting the Biodiversity Research Centre. and Luděk Svoboda.
We feature and interview with Professor Curt Rice, who is an American-born Norwegian linguist and the rector of Oslo and Akershus College. He is the first rector of his institution who was not elected; he began his rectorship on August 1, 2015. Professor Rice promotes gender equality, open access and other issues related to leadership in higher education. He will be the key speaker at the 4th national conference on gender and science, which is to take place on June 22, 2016. The conference is organized by the Centre for Gender and Science of the Isntitute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences. and Naďa Straková.
Miroslav Šlouf of the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry of Academy of Sciences of the czech Republic is interviewed concerning his research activities in this issue. More than 25,000 of total joint replacements of big human joints, such as hip, knee, elbow ets., are implanted every year in the Czech Republic. The bearing surface in the joint replacement is usually made of a special polymer - ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). This contribution describes the development of novel UHMWPE types, which should increase the lifetime of artificial joints. Czech scientists of the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry collaborate on this unique research and its applications with Czech company Beznoska. and Marina Hužvárová.
Soon after becoming the head of the Academy of Sciences in 2009, Professor Drahoš was faced with questions concerning the very survival of the institution and a crisis in funding caused by a wrong methodology of evaluation. During the past year, the Academy engaged in an evaluation of its 54 institutions. All of this involved a considerable amount of work. The electoral term of Professor Drahoš’s presidency is nearing its completion, so this affords an opportunity for a succinct recapitulation of his achievements. and Marina Hužvárová.
Chlorophyll Fluorescence in Aquatic Sciences (AQUAFLUO) Conference in Nové Hrady between May 28 and June 1 was the first of its kind and enabled researchers from a variety of fields to discuss current aquatic research problems. Addressing the conference was Prof. Paul Falkowski of Rutgers University, a member of prestigious (U.S.) National Academy of Sciences and specialist in Geological Sciences and Marine and Coastal Sciences. As such he is engaged in iron fertilizer for phytoplankton and phytoplankton´s role in the carbon dioxide cycle. Professor Falkowski gave Academic Bulletin a brief interview. and Gabriela Štefániková.
This issue includes an interview with Dr. Radomír Pánek, head of Tokamak Department of the Institute of Plasma Physics of the ASCR. Dr. Pánek's team observed the distinctive H-mode operation for the first time (on November 29, 2012) since the Tokamak was reinstalled in the IPP in 2008. The H-mode (high confinement mode) refers to a sudden improvement of plasma confinement in the magnetic field of tokamaks (by about a factor of two) which is foreseen as the standard mode of operation for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). The H-mode pedestal forms near the plasma transport barrier, located behind the improved plasma confinement. Greater insight into the physics of this narrow plasma region is required to enhance control of the power flux, plasma heating and the Edge Localized Mode (ELM) instabilities in fusion reactors. and Luděk Svoboda.
The Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic has been observing the 20'" anniversary of its inception. This month we feature an interview with Professor Helena Illnerova of the Institute of Physiology of the ASCR, the first woman to be elected of the ASO? president of the ASCR. Professor Illnerova is one of the leading Czech scientists, having begun her work in the 1960s. Her main research interest is the time-keeping program of mammals, including man, and the synchronization of the circadian biological clock with the 24-hour-day and seasons of the year. In 1990, she received a DrSc. degree for a doctoral thesis entitled Regulation of Circadian Rhythms in the Rat Pineal Gland. and Marina Hužvárová.
During the Brain Awareness Week, held worldwide annually in March, neuroscientists and other brain scientists seek to promote understanding of the progress and benefits of brain research by informing the general public concerning their research activities and their achievements. Brain Awareness Week was created in the USA by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives in 1996. The fourteenth year of the Brain Awareness Week in the Czech Republic occurred on March 12, 2012. Events were held the ASCR’s main building. We feature an interview in this issue with neurosurgeon Professor Eduard Zvěřina, who is the founder of microsurgery in the Czech Republic. and Gabriela Adámková.
Earlier this month, the Czech media reported that a highly efficient antiviral drug developed by Czech scientists has been shelved, reportedly for fear it would compete with existing medicines manufactured by pharmaceutical giants. The substance, known as MK-612, was designed at the Academy´s Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry. Academic Bulletin interviewed Zdeněk Havlas, headmaster of the Institute, about next stage in the future of this efficient substance MK-612. and Marina Hužvárová.
We highlight the interview with Czech chemist Professor Rudolf Zahradník, who used to be the president of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic from 1993-2001. He has published more than 350 papers and 10 books especially on problems related to quantum chemistry. He is a member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science. He was also a founding member and from 1994 to 1997 chairman of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic. and Sylva Daníčková.
One of the best-known Czech scientists, theoretical astronomer Prof. Jan Palouš, a member of the Academy Council of the ASCR, continues his discourse in part two of an interview about differences between astronomy of the 19th and the 21 centuries, computer simulation of Space, about striking fact that the Sun is not a binary-star and the finiteness of Space. / and Marina Hužvárová.
Creating a scientific and educational forum for students, scientists and other professionals to learn about, to share, to contribute to, and to advance the state of knowledge in its field of science is the aim of the Organization for Computational Neuroscience, which staged its annual meeting in Prague in July 18-23, 2015, co-organized by the CAS Institute of Physiology and the Charles University. Keynote speakers at the CNS 2015 Prague: Jack Cowan, Wulfram Gerstner and its president Astrid Prinz gave interviews to the Academic Bulletin, in which they highlighted the both the new findings and main open questions in computational neuroscience. This field combines mathematical analyses and computer simulations with experimental neuroscience to develop a principled understanding of the workings of the nervous systems and apply it in a wide range of technologies. Increasingly studies emphasize the circuitry and network function in the brain. Investigations are focused on the changes of the functional and anatomical features in a healthy brain as compared to dysfunctional brain states; thus, studies of the healthy brain provide insights into brain dysfunction, while observations of dysfunctional brain states give clues to normal brain functioning. This workshop explored computation in both the healthy and dysfunctional brain to uncover what each state might reveal about the other. and Jana Olivová.
Small molecules that regulate the cell division cycle are a joint research project of the CAS Institute of Experimental Botany and Palacký University’s Faculty of Science. An interview with Professor Miroslav Strnad, head of the Laboratory of Growth Regulations, describes the significance of this joint project. The laboratory concentrates its research on small molecules that regulate cell division cycle, proliferation and growth of both plant and animal cells. Cytokinins and cytokinin-derived purine inhibitors of cyclindependent kinases are the most intensively studied compounds. The multidisciplinary research team is composed of experienced plant physiologists, biochemists and organic and analytical chemists. Many students are involved in the research phase during their pre-graduate and postgraduate studies in botany, analytical and organic chemistry, biochemistry or medicinal biology. Several research projects are in progress in collaboration with international partners (University of Berlin; Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences; University of Natal Pietermaritzburg, South Africa and the Vienna Medical University. and Marina Hužvárová.
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.
We feature an interview in this issue with Professor Eva Semotanová, director of the Institute of History of the ASC R. As a research worker, she specializes in interdisciplinary fields of science on the intersection between geography and history, namely, historical geography, history of cartography and historical cartography. Professor Semotanová's study includes the history of Czech towns and cities in a historical-geographic context as she seeks to integrate this context into historical processes. She supervises the Institute's cartographic collection. Chair of the Committee for Historical Geography, she also lectures on historical geography. and Marina Hužvárová.
The 80 th Prague Meeting on Macromolecules, this time focused on Self-assembly in the world of polymers, took place in Prague on July 10-14, 2016. Its participants discussed theoretical aspects of polymer self-assembly, advanced methods of preparing and characterizing self-assembling macromolecular system; special attention was paid to biomimetic self-assembled nanostructures as well as to biological and technical applications of self-assembled macromolecular systems. and Jana Olivová.
This issue also brings an interview with Dr. Vilém Neděla, the head of Environmental Electron Microscopy of the Institute of Scientific Instruments of the CAS on the Quanta 650 FEG scanning electron microscope (SEM), which is used for high-resolution imaging and semi-quantitative X-ray microanalysis of both conductive and non-conductive specimens at nanometer resolution. and Magdaléna Selingerová.
We continue in introduction the comments of three additional directors of Academy Institutes, who were asked three questions. and Odpovědi 3 ředitelů ústavů AV ČR na otázky redakce ( pokračování)
One of the most famous Czech scientists, theoretical astronomer Prof. Jan Palouš, a member of the Academy Council or the ASCR, talks in an interview about his membership in the prestigious correspondence-board of The Royal Society of Edinburgh. and Marina Hužvárová.