News
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Photo contest Šutroskop (MicROCKscopia)The Geologilcký Art Spolek (GAS) is organizing a photo contest with geoscientific themes for students of all disciplines and years of the Faculty of Science of Charles University. The deadline for submitting photos is April 14, 2023! Published Mar 20, 2023 |
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New weapons against 'brain-eating' and tropical diseases thanks to BIOCEV scientistsAn international team of parasitologists and medicinal chemists from the BIOCEV Centre has developed and successfully tested a substance against a deadly parasite. Naegleria fowleri attacks the human brain and despite all modern treatments, 97% of cases end fatally. The new substance has been shown to cure the infection in mice. Along with it, scientists have discovered other anti-parasitic agents that could be used against malaria or sleeping sickness in the future. Published Mar 07, 2023 |
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Conference "Bologna process: benefits, challenges, opportunities"On Tuesday, March 14, 2023, the conference „Bologna Process: Benefits, Challenges, Opportunities“ will take place at Charles University at historical residence Carolinum, under the auspices of the Eastern Partnership University Cluster. The aim of the conference is to assemble experiences and to share best practices regarding the increasing comparability in the standards and quality of university education and promoting meaningful student and academic mobilities and joint educational endeavors between the EU universities and the universities of Eastern Partnership countries. The conference will take place in a hybrid format. Published Mar 06, 2023 |
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The study's findings provide insights into the surprising evolution of proteinsA team of researchers from the Faculty of Science at Charles University, BIOCEV and IOCB (Czech Republic), Johns Hopkins University (USA) and ELSI (Japan) has discovered why modern proteins use a quasi-universal repertoire of 20 canonical amino acids (AAs). The study, published in the journal JACS, shows that foldability was likely a critical factor in the selection of the canonical alphabet. Published Feb 28, 2023 |
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Against the mainstream in fungal systematicsDevelopments in the current systematics of fungi are largely directed towards the division of existing species into smaller, narrowly defined species. But as demonstrated by scientists from the Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, and the Institute of Microbiology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic on the Aspergillus genus model, such a division is often not justified and only complicates or makes the correct identification of species impossible. The results were published in a series of three publications in a prestigious journal Studies in Mycology. Published Feb 26, 2023 |
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Accommodation at the Hlávka College for the academic year 2023/2024Students of doctoral programmes or young academic or scientific workers, students of bachelor and master degree programmes who achieve excellent academic or scientific and pedagogical results, are not wealthy, do not have an apartment in Prague, are not entrepreneurs and meet the requirements of the Josef, Marie and Zdeňka Hlávka Endowment Foundation may apply for accommodation at the Hlávka College. Published Feb 24, 2023 |
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Our faculty hosted the School of AdsorptionOn 7 and 8 February, the School of Adsorption organized jointly by the CUCAM team and Pragolab and Micromeritics took place at the Faculty of Science. The main aim of the School was to introduce interested students and company representatives to the basics and applications of adsorption, development of new experimental and theoretical procedures and interpretation of adsorption data. Published Feb 09, 2023 |
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Lewis acid zeolites – (green) catalysts for tomorrowJan Přech, Ewelina Szaniawská and Jiří Čejka (group of Synthesis, Catalysis and Advanced Materials from the Dept. of Physical and Macromolecular Chemistry) with Steven L. Suib (University of Connecticut, USA) published a paper in the most cited chemistry journal: Chemical Reviews (IF=72,1). The article critically reviews recent advances in tetra- and pentavalent metal-substituted molecular sieve catalysis. Published Jan 20, 2023 |
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Professor Petr Nachtigall diedProf. RNDr. Petr Nachtigall, Ph.D. passed away on 28 December 2022. He was an internationally recognized expert in computational material science; he worked at our faculty at the Department of Physical and Macromolecular Chemistry. We honor his memory. Published Jan 04, 2023 |
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Heme, heme, is oxygen here?You have probably heard that aristocrats have blue blood, right? Of course, it is not true. We all have blood of a beautiful red color, thanks to a protein called hemoglobin – the blood pigment. This protein has a non-protein part called heme, which carries oxygen in our blood from lungs to a whole body. Besides being an oxygen carrier, heme has a much wider set of tasks in various proteins of many organisms. For example, bacteria use heme in oxygen sensor proteins to orient themselves in the environment. The team of Assoc. Prof. Markéta Martínková from the Faculty of Science, Charles University has recently published a new mini-review focused on the mechanisms of action of those proteins. Published Dec 18, 2022 |
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SGA Student Chapter Prague – The 20th AnniversarySince 2022 is the year of celebrations for the SGA Student Chapter Prague, we have decided to organize the annual SGA Prague Christmas meeting and the 20th Anniversary celebration on 7th December. The event took place at the Faculty of Science, Charles University. On the same day we organized an excursion to the gold mine near Jílové u Prahy took place for those interested. Published Dec 15, 2022 |
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The great importance of small dimensionsDr. Michal Mazur and his colleagues from the Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague study catalysts that are based on metal nanoparticles stabilized at zeolites. Recently, they have prepared a new type of zeolitic catalyst. Their results have been published in the prestigious journal Angewandte Chemie. Published Dec 13, 2022 |
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New Bachelor's Degree Programme in Science will link the natural science disciplinesApplications for the programme can be submitted until the end of February 2023. The new programme at Charles University combines physics, chemistry and biology. Published Dec 08, 2022 |
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Dr. Ruth Tachezy receives the CELSA 2022 AwardThe CELSA Award is presented annually and aims to recognize university public figures who have gone above and beyond the call of duty to serve society and humanity in general. This year, the CELSA Board awarded two prizes, one of which was presented to Ruth Tachezy, Ph.D., of the Department of Genetics and Microbiology. She was recognized for her involvement in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, both during the initial testing period and later in communicating with relevant institutions, the media and the general public. Published Nov 21, 2022 |
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Small mountain lake opens a window to the pastThe team centered around Associate Professor Petr Kuneš from the Faculty of Science of the Charles University in Prague has been researching the prehistory of Bohemian Forest (Šumava) lakes for seven years. The sediments collected have been unravelling new stories and now part of the results have been published in a prestigious journal Science of the Total Environment. The unusual quality of the record from a small mountain lake (Prášilské jezero) has made it possible to reconstruct changes in the lake ecosystem in great detail, revealing processes associated with the brownification of the water that go beyond the scope of a local study. Published Nov 15, 2022 |
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Snow Leopards in Nepal by professor Pavel KindlmannSnow leopards in Nepal, is the title of a new book produced by Springer, edited by Prof. Pavel Kindlmann from the Institute for Environment of the Charles University. The publication is the only one so far to provide comprehensive information on population dynamics and presents not only a comprehensive overview but also new, previously unpublished data from 15 years of intensive photo-trapping combined with sampling and analysis. These data could be useful for other researchers working on the snow leopard. In addition to the editor, the co-authors are former or current PhD students of the Institute of Environmental Science, Faculty of Science, Charles University. Published Nov 15, 2022 |
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New book "Atlas of the Gravity and Magnetic Fields of the Moon"Günther Kletetschka, Associate Professor at the Department of Hydrogeology, Engineering Geology and Applied Geophysics, has become one of the co-authors of a major new monographic publication from Springer. The book contains information on the geology of the Moon together with basic information on magnetic fields, mapping and topographic models. Published Nov 12, 2022 |
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GA CR awarded prestigious grants, one of them goes to our facultyThe Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (GA CR) will fund 10 new EXPRO projects and 23 JUNIOR STAR projects from next year. Both prestigious competitions aim to promote scientific excellence through superior conditions - EXPRO is designed for experienced scientists who have a breakthrough idea, while JUNIOR STAR will allow outstanding budding scientists to pursue their own research topics. One of the JUNIOR STAR grants goes to our faculty - it was awarded to Dr. Filip Kolář from the Department of Botany. Congratulations! Published Nov 05, 2022 |
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What are reduced mitochondria for?A few years ago, scientists discovered a curious case of protozoa (oxymonads) that do not have mitochondria. Since then, the research group of Associate Professor Hampl from the Faculty of Science of Charles University and the BIOCEV research centre has been asking how the unique loss of mitochondria occurred. In a paper, which has just been published in the prestigious journal Current Biology, Associate Professor Hampl's team with Justyna Zítek as the first author used the closest known relative of the oxymonads, a free living flagellate Paratrimastix pyriformis, as a model species. Published Nov 04, 2022 |
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What's keeping global biodiversity at bay?An article in the prestigious journal Science Advances, published by scientists from Prague´s Charles University (Center for Theoretical Study and Faculty of Science), shows that the Earth's biodiversity is regulated on the scale of tens of millions of years by a feedback loop between diversity on the one hand and the origination and extinction of species on the other, so that it cannot grow indefinitely. This sheds new light on the current biodiversity crisis. Published Nov 01, 2022 |