The Velvet Revolution was a non-violent uprising in Czechoslovakia that saw the overthrow of the Communist government. On November 17, 1989, police suppressed a peaceful student demonstration in Prague. Among the protesters were many young employees of Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. Based on the November events, civil forums were created at worksplaces. In consequences of the political evolvement, some of the compromised directors from institutes left their positions and during the following six months all directors had to be evaluated. Scientific committies began to form. On November 6, 1989, the entire presidium of ČSAV resigned and December 12, the Chamber of elected representatives of ČSAV was established. This organ became a carrier of fundamental changes, for example the first Czech science foundation was set up and proposals for evaluation of the institutes formed. The new organization structures of Academy were created. and Antonín Kostlán.
Jako popularizátor vědy to stále chovám v živé paměti: 2005 – Rok fyziky, 2009 – Rok astronomie. Fyzikové si za záminku zvolili sté výročí „zázračného roku“ (annus mirabilis), v němž Albert Einstein zveřejnil tři práce, které od základu změnily fyziku: podal kvantový výklad fotoelektrického jevu a výklad Brownova pohybu mikročástic a formuloval speciální teorii relativity. Každý z těchto výsledků je mimořádný už sám o sobě, jejich triáda v průběhu jediného roku a jediného mozku je neopakovatelná. Hvězdáři, rodní bratři fyziků, si předloni připomněli 400 let od souběhu dvou událostí, které „otřásly nebem“: Galileovo zavedení dalekohledu coby nejvýznamnější událost pozorovací astronomie a vydání prvního ze základních děl astronomie teoretické – Keplerův „pražský“ spis Astronomia nova s prvními dvěma zákony oběhu planet. and František Houdek.
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.