In 2010, the body a Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) was exhumed from a tomb in the Church of Our Lady before T9n in Old Town Square in Prague to authenticate the cause of his death. Brahe's death only eleven days after the onset of a sudden illness has been a mystery for over four hundred years. Over the centuries, a variety of myths and theories about his death were propounded. The most persistent theory has been that mercury poisoning caused Brahe's death. After studying samples for two years taken during the exhumation, the team of researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark, the University of Southern Denmark and the ASCR's Nuclear Physics Institute came to the unanimous conclusion that Brahe did not die of mercury poisoning. and Jan Kučera, Jan Kameník a Vladimír Havránek.
Anthers, pistils and evolution (The evolution of reproduction systems in angiosperms). The reproduction systems in flowering plants are very diverse, most likely owing to sessile life way of plants. Without he possibility to move, search for the partner to reproduce becomes difficult, insect transfers pollen from one plant individual to another, which led to co-evolution of both flowering plants and their pollinators. The prevailing reproduction system in angiosperms is a hermaphroditism. The presence of both male and female organs in the same flower may results in self-crossing and increased risk inbreeding. Thus, plants evolved several mechanisms to avoid self-pollination. One of them is pollen self-incompatibility, which causes suppression of pollen gernmination on the stigma of the same genotype. After loss of self-incompatibility, some species developed a specific reproduction system called gynodioecy. It is characteristic by a co-occurrence of females and hermaphrodites in the same population. Females produce outbred progeny, whereas hermaphrodites ensure reproduction if the partner plants are not accesible. Dionecy, the reproduction system with females and males, widespread in animals, also occurs in plants, but with much lower frequency.
This conference took place 3-7 March 2008 and was held in the Emauzy Abbey. ALICE is the acronym for A Large Ion Collider Experiment, one of the largest experiments in the world devoted to research in the physics of matter on an infinitely small scale. Hosted at CERN, this project involves the international collaboratin of more than 1000 physicists, engineers and technicians from 300 countries. Together they are contributing to the resolution of one of the latest challenges in fundamental physics recounting the birth of matter. and Michal Šumbera, Vojtěch Petráček, Petr Závada.
Brain Awareness Week this year featured lectures by leading Czech neuroscientists and other brain scientists. It was the Czech Republic´s 18th observance, held on March 14-18, 2016 at the Czech Academy of Sciences main building. This issue of the Academic Bulletin presents an article by Dr. Alexandr Chvátal of the Institute of Experimental Medicine fo the CAS on what is known about glial cells at present. According to the general opinion, the central nervous system (CNS), whose principal purpose is the acquisition, processing and storage of information and response to external stimuli, to mainly composed of neurons that provide all of this above-mentioned functions. In fact, many glial cells are also involved in these functions. The aim of this brief overview is to correct some misconceptions about glial cells and to summarize some new insights about their role in nervous tissue functions. Many of the results were obtained by researchers from the Institute of Experimental Medicine of the Czech Academy of Sciences. and Autorem je redakce uvedená zkratkou red
The Week of Science and Technology of the CAS is the most extensive science festival in the Czech Republic. This year, it was held for the 15th time already and took place between November 1-15, 2015 in Prague, Brno, Ostrava and other places over the intire Czech Republic. In total, it included 250 lectures, 60 exhibitions, science cafés, workshops, seminars, projections of scientific films and 75 open-house days. The open-house days at the institutes of the Czech Academy of Sciences are intended for all visitors interested in finding out more on the latest trends in the realm of science, in the work of scientists, the research projects of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the latest scientific instruments. and Jana Olivová, Luděk Svoboda.