Články dle značky: Science

The Neuron Foundation this year recognised numerous top scientists incl. experts from Charles University. The award for lifelong contribution to science went to Czech internationally-known chemist František Švec from the Faculty of Pharmacy.

"We explore the extremes of the vertebrate eye. Deep-sea fish are very interesting in that they have many extreme adaptations, from which we can then draw conclusions for our human ventricular eye," explains evolutionary biologist Zuzana Musilová from the Faculty of Science of Charles University. More in one minute.

It has been almost two years since the Russian attack on Ukraine began at dawn on 24 February 2022. Ahead of the sombre anniversary, Forum reports on the work of Ukrainian scientists and scholars at Charles University.

"Our goal is to understand the limits of what the vertebrate eye is capable of! By studying the eye of deep-sea fish, we can also learn many useful insights about the human eye" says CU's Zuzana Musilová  - awarded a prestigious ERC Consolidator grant.

There are more than 3‚000 species of termites, and their combined mass is greater than the combined mass of all human beings on the planet. They’re best known as pests that can gnaw through your house, but only in recent years has more research been done into their significance for the ecosystem.

A number of deadly viruses are believed to have originated in bats, including Ebola and the original SARS. The indications are that the novel coronavirus SARS-Cov-2 also made the jump from bats, most likely through an intermediary species.

“I study children's reading from the perspective of the children themselves,” says Anežka Kuzmičová from the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University. She introduces more in a one-minute video.

Eight scientists – three of them from Charles University – received Neuron Awards at an official ceremony at the National Museum this week.

It has been more than three years since scientists used the LIGO system or Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory for the first time in history directly observe gravitational waves. The stunning discovery confirmed predictions Albert Einstein made with his theory of general relativity almost a hundred years earlier.

Few doubt the importance of social and technological innovation projects; in a period of ever-evolving playing fields or shifting sands, it is more important than ever that good ideas don’t fall the wayside.

The moon has fascinated us for most of recorded history: a guiding light on dark seas, a sacred disk illuminating the heavens, a symbol of the unattainable, a god. For most of human existence, its stark, cratered surface remained impossibly beyond reach. All that changed 50 years ago, on July 20, 1969. As some 500 million people watched a live televised broadcast (the largest ever TV audience at the time), the commander of the Apollo 11 mission Neil Armstrong emerged from the Lunar Module called the Eagle and – in his NASA spacesuit - became the first man in history to step onto the Moon’s dusty surface.

He is a student at the Faculty of Science’s Department of Geography and is extremely intelligent. As in off the charts: an IQ of 160+. Radek Pileček. A young man known for having cast doubt on elections results and who came in second in the ‘Smartest Czech’ competition.

The final Friday in September saw the return of Czech European Researchers' Night, where scientific and educational institutions across the Czech Republic open their doors to curious visitors. Charles University, of course, took part.

Experts vs. “experts” - Scientists in the Media was the title of an online panel discussion on Thursday hosted by Kampus Hybernská. Four invited speakers – two well-known science journalists and two scientists, discussed the difficulties of their fields and where they overlapped, as well as the damage caused by some experts spreading denial.

A team of Czech parasitologists from CU’s Faculty of Science has been working with researchers from Great Britain, Israel, and Canada to develop an effective vaccine preventing against leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease transmitted by sand flies. The results of their study were published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications.

Sleep is Karel Blahna’s focus of research. At the Biomedical Center at Charles University’s Faculty of Medicine in Plzeň, he looks into how the brain’s sleep activity changes in sickness and health. He was able to put together a team and conduct research thanks to support from CU’s Primus programme.

It was apparent that the complete but darkened skeleton of a small whale at the Museum of Human and Comparative Anatomy would eventually fall apart. But restorers achieved something remarkable: returning the skeleton – one of only two in the Czech Republic – to its former glory, while also preserving soft tissue. The team was headed by anthropologist and anatomist Andrej Shbat.

“Have you ever imagined what life would be like if it evolved in a cold ocean beneath an impenetrable shell of ice, or on a world whose haze obscured the universe beyond?” That is a question posed by members of EAI such as Julie Nováková, a biologist and PhD student at Charles University, launching a campaign to publish a new sci-fi anthology.

„‎Čekali jsme, že největší změny vegetace budou na konci doby ledové. Překvapilo nás, že to jsou poslední čtyři tisíce let,“ říká paleoekolog Petr Kuneš z Přírodovědecké fakulty UK, který se na publikaci v prestižním vědeckém časopise Science podílel.

"The psychology of poverty is still a relatively new research direction at the interface of economics and psychology," explains the scientific and partnership couple Julie Chytilová and Michal Bauer from Charles University.They present more in one minute.