The Olympics are not just about sports and the joy of winning: sociologists also look at the role that money, politics and globalisation play. “Basically, all Olympics suffer some controversy,” says Matouš Veselský, a sociologist at the Faculty of Humanities.

Friday, 11 February, marks the seventh International Day of Women and Girls in Science, celebrating the role of women in the scientific world and promoting gender equality. What do women scientists at Charles University enjoy the most about their work and what kind of challenges did they face?

Charles University, Professor Milena Králíčková, met for the first time in the historic Carolinum’. Králíčková was elected to head Charles University by the Academic Senate in October 2021 and then appointed by the Czech head of state at the end of January. The very first meeting addressed a number of specific points and challenges.

Innovation Breakfasts, organised by the Centre for Knowledge and Technology Transfer, have been running since last September. The series provides participants with new opportunities to broaden their outlook and a chance to connect with professionals from different backgrounds.

The UN estimates that by 2050, there will be 9.7 billion people on Earth. Facing problems such as overpopulation and the climate crisis, some people are opting to remain childless. Šárka Stříbrská, a CU graduate student who conducted research into the reasons some people choose not to have kids.

Kuks Hospital, located just outside the town of Jaroměř, dates back to the 17^th century, and is also home to a stunning Baroque pharmacy overseen by the Czech Pharmaceutical Museum. CU's Jana Karlíčková highly recommends the museum for anyone interested in medicinal history.

Dánská politička a evropská komisařka „pro digitální věk“‎ Margrethe Vestagerová bývá nazývána „drakobijcem“‎ a „nejhorší noční můrou Googlu“‎, nejslavnější regulátorkou na světě, ale také inovátorkou. V pondělí 24. ledna navštívila Univerzitu Karlovu.

She has been called a dragon slayer and the world’s most famous regulator, but also a democrat dedicated to fairness in markets paving the way for innovation: Danish politician Margrethe Vestager, the EC's executive vice-president for digital transformation. Vestager was a keynote speaker on Monday at the Faculty of Law.

Jan Exner has taken part in more Olympic Games than many, first as a volunteer and later as a lawyer for the Czech Olympic Committee. He was in PyeongChang and Tokyo, but he won’t be headed to Beijing; he discovered he enjoys teaching at university most of all.

“Our goal is to create a universal natural language generator that will be able to learn from only a few examples and will not make mistakes,” says Ondřej Dušek from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics. His work landed him a prestigious ERC grant.

At present, the Faculty of Science of Charles University boasts a herbarium containing almost 2.5 million items. “Such herbaria (or collections of pressed and dried plant or flower samples) are living archives of plant biodiversity,” says botanist Patrik Mráz.

The TV hockey series Lajna (Line) starring Jiří Langmajer as a despotic head coach at a crossroads in his life, proved popular each week among viewers online and ran three seasons. What you might not know is that a number of Charles University students were extras on the show as players on the team.

Charles Games was founded in 2020 as a successful spin-off at Charles University. The firm is the name behind the highly successful historical games Attentát 1942 and its sequel Svoboda 1945: Liberation. Forum spoke to project director Lukáš Kolek.

The year 2021 saw no end to the pandemic, which brought numerous complications, including for scientists. Nevertheless, scientific research continued with positive results. We offer a look back at science at Charles University over the course of the year.

The founder of modern Czechoslovak epidemiology, Karel Raška, who contributed to the worldwide eradication of smallpox, is to receive the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, First Class, in memoriam. His son, Professor Ivan Raška, writes about his father's contributions and career.

A specialist in North Korean studies, activist and feminist. That is how the Czech media describe Nina Špitálníková, a student of Oral and Contemporary History at the Faculty of Humanities of Charles University. Her book Witnessing Life in the DPRK (2020) became a bestseller and won the Magnesia Litera Award in the category of journalism.

It seems there were two, though many believe there was only one: the great temple in Jerusalem built by the Biblical King Solomon. The first temple stood on the Temple Mount but no material evidence of its existence has ever been found. However, in 2012, Israeli archaeologists unexpectedly discovered another site in some ways similar.

“God or fate or history willed that I become a doctor here without having studied properly here...,” are memorable words Václav Havel said in his thank-you speech after receiving an honorary doctorate in the Great Hall of Charles University in 1990. Havel was the first person to be awarded the doctorate after the fall of communism.

The Church of St. Bartholomew in Kolín is a national cultural monument and for  good reason. It is one of the most impressive examples of Gothic architecture in Central Bohemia. Among the church’s many gems are extraordinary stained glass windows. These caught Anna Bartoňová's eye.; she is a student at the Catholic Theological Faculty.

In the latest of #deeptalk series of the podcast Steppin Into Asia Petr Jandáček interviews Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon, professor of cultural history and renowned microhistorian. Sigurður Gylfi talks about his studies at Carnegie Mellon University, his first published book, his first article and his years as an independent researcher.