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.
Při analýze pohřebiště ze starší doby bronzové ve Vliněvsi (střední Čechy, okr. Mělník) byla zkoumána variabilita typů milodarů v hrobech různého pohlaví a věku. Krom jiného se ukázalo téměř výhradní zastoupení tyčinkových náramků v dětských hrobech. Rozborem všech dostupných nálezů tyčinkových náramků v hrobech únětické kultury v Čechách se tato vazba ukázala jako nenáhodná. Autoři diskutují hypotézu o spojení náramků s obdobím nedospělosti a s ním souvisejícími přechodovými rituály, případně ochrannou funkci těchto předmětů. and During an analysis of the Early Bronze Age burial site in Vliněves (central Bohemia, Mělník district), the variability of types of goods in graves of different sex and age was examined. Among other things, the study showed an almost exclusive representation of bar bracelets in the graves of juvenile individuals. An analysis of all available bar bracelet finds in Únětice culture graves in Bohemia suggested that this connection was not random. The authors discuss the hypothesis of the connection of the bracelets with the period of adolescence and related rites of passage, possibly the protective function of these artefacts.
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.