Kvadruplexy, přesněji řečeno guaninové kvadruplexy, patří bezesporu mezi nejzajímavější molekuly DNA. I když jsou kvadruplexy známy od 60. let 20. stol., zájem o tyto molekuly vzrostl převážně v uplynulých 10 letech. Předpokládá se, že kvadruplexy by mohly hrát důležitou úlohu v klíčových biologických procesech. Tuto hypotézu podporuje i skutečnost, že se již podařilo potvrdit jejich existenci in vivo. Kvadruplexy nabízejí svůj potenciál nejen v oblasti medicíny, představují také slibný materiál v oblasti nanotechnologií. and Guanine quadruplexes are among the most interesting of DNA molecules. Although they have been known since the 1960s, they have attracted attention particularly over the last 10 years. Scientists anticipate that these molecules may play an important role in key biological processes. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that their existence in vivo has already been proved. Their potential can be used in medicine, and they also offer promising material for nanotechnology.
Each of the philosophers whom the author focuses on in this article addressed not only the question of the meaning of the First World War, but also of war in general as a certain kind of phenomenon. Scheler and Patočka both share a generally phenomenological starting point and in particular they share an orientation that treats the war experience as one of transcendence (sacrifice, being “shaken”) of the everyday and its institutional bonds. In this respect, however, the two philosophers reflect wartime experience in an almost contradictory way: Scheler adores the engagement of war in the interest of nationalistically-understood goals, Patočka exalts the attitude of the „shaken“, consisting in „self-possession“ and in refusing „the appeals to mobilise“. Transcendence has, then, an opposite meaning in the two thinkers. Despite the generally problematic (especially nationalistically extreme) character of Scheler’s views, even here we find a stimulating reference to the nontransparency of a distinction between just and unjust wars and of its identification with aggressive and defensive wars. Patočka’s thought about being “shaken” does not, however, concern only wartime experience, but also plays an important role in a conception of the „spiritual man“, which had a significant resonance in the Czech intellectual milieu.
Masaryk, against the background of the events of the First World War in their wider context of „world revolution“, formulated his own conception of the meaning of Czech history, consisting in the struggle between theocracy and democracy. This interpretation drew a critical reaction from J. Patočka. Masaryk was the only one of the philosophers treated here who, in his thoughts about war, reflected on the meaning of the First World War for political organisation and cooperation among nations in general. In his exaltation of the significance of democracy as the guarantee of the realisation of human rights, Masaryk can be seen as a philosopher who is close to the modern conception of moral and political philosophy (J. Rawls, M. Walzer, V. Hösle).