News
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Popular Science: Painting with a surpriseIt is good luck when an old and unrestored painting is acquired for pigment analysis, and even more so when there is a surprise in it. A group of chemists and geochemists from Great Britain, Belgium and the Czech Republic, which also included Professor Jan Jehlička from the Institute of Geochemistry, Mineralogy and Mineral Resources, analysed an oil painting from the 18th Century with the aid of Raman spectroscopy. The painting “Bird in Hand” was acquired by the passionate collector George Lester Winward, who thought it to be a work by Thomas Gainsborough, the renowned English painter of the 18th century. Published Aug 09, 2015 |
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International students can organise residency documents at Charles UniversityThe Department for Asylum and Immigration Policy of the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic today opened a new branch of the Foreigners’ Residence Unit on the premises of the Charles University Komenského Student Residence. This gives international students another option for arranging their residency documents for the Czech Republic. Published Aug 07, 2015 |
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Faculty News: African mole-rats - a goldmine for researchIn essence the talk will provide an overview of the family Bathyergidae, what is characteristic to living in a totally sealed burrow system. We will then explore the social organisation of the two most social species with a comparison of the methods of social suppression operational in the mole-rats. The lecture takes place on Thursday 30th, 14.00, Vinicna 7, B312 Published Jul 27, 2015 |
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Faculty News: The 13th International Symposium on Geo-disaster Reduction in our FacultyThe International Consortium on Geo-disasters (ICGdR) together with the Czech scientific community will be holding the 13th International Symposium on Geo-disaster Reduction in Prague between the 9th and 11th August 2015. The forthcoming event is an opportunity to bring together geoscientists, engineers and social scientists to collaborate on disaster reduction worldwide. Published Jul 24, 2015 |
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Popular Science: Tree-rings – a live chronicle of forest managementWhile watching nature programmes on TV we can often see documentaries about tropical seas and rainforests. Now, however, we are going to search an environment that is much closer to us. Why should we be interested only in native ecosystems, which form only a small percentage of forests nowadays? Let's find out what the impact of forest management is on a traditionally managed forest in CHKO Pálava, a protected natural area in the Czech Republic. There was a change in this region from intensive management to leaving the forest on its own for a couple of centuries. Published Jul 08, 2015 |
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Why is it good to know the secret of hemoproteins?Top-class researchers and scientists are often asked by their colleagues how to reach the excellent scientific results. Assoc. Prof. Markéta Martínková, working at Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague has reached the top level in her scientific work. She has been successful to publish the results of her team that they achieved during solving the numerous projects in a variety of excellent scientific papers. This is particularly true of her latest publication that offers the outcome of research of her team and a critical review of results reported by other top laboratories worldwide. This paper has been published in one of the most prestigious chemistry journals. Published Jul 06, 2015 |
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Vladimír Vondrejs: life between science and artDoc. RNDr. Vladimír Vondrejs, CSc. (*1937) has been "closely coexisting" with the Faculty of Science, Charles University for more than 50 years. As a chemistry graduate (from our Faculty), Mr. Vondrejs has devoted most of his career to molecular biology and is regarded as one of the spiritual fathers of gene engineering in the Czech Republic. He worked at the Department of Microbiology and Genetics for several decades, teaching many generations of students, some of whom have remained at the Department since their student days. On top of that, this legend of Czech science has a side that is far less scientific - Vladimír Vondrejs is an active fine artist. Published Jun 29, 2015 |
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Popular Science: Are we closer to revealing the origins of mammalian neocortex?Mammals are unique with their six-layered neocortex. No other vertebrate clade has a brain structured in such a way. For example a reptile’s dorsal cortex consists of one layer of pyramidal cells with little functional differentiation. The development of the neocortex is a primary contribution to mammalian intelligence – including ours. How has this complex structure evolved? As phylogeny is a succession of ontogenies, or individual developments, understanding the mechanisms of ontogenetic development can help us understand brain evolution in an essential way. Published Jun 09, 2015 |
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Popular Science: Magnetism and asteroid miningAsteroids have been increasingly seen as possible raw material resources over the last few years. To make asteroid mining a realistic concept, we need to measure and model their properties as accurately as possible. After helping to discover the Chelyabinsk meteorite, a team led by RNDr. Günther Kletetschka, Ph.D. of the Institute of Hydrogeology, Engineering Geology and Applied Geophysics is now exploring this exciting object. Published May 12, 2015 |
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Popular Science: Tug-of-war between parents and children: clonal spread boundariesHow do plants spread? Through seeds, of course - that is what most people would reply quite automatically. The truth, however, is that many plants also use much more effective mechanisms for flooding their surroundings with off-springs, e.g. stolons and rhizomes. (Charles University) Faculty of Science botanists have endeavoured to discover a clearly-set strategy behind this type of spread. Published Apr 21, 2015 |
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Popular Science: What influences the geography of gay places and how?Michal Pitoňák, a PhD student from the Department of Social Geography and Regional Development, the Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague is interested in queer geography – the geography of sexuality. Together with his colleague, Koessan Gabiam from Belgium, they try to describe and explain factors that influence the localization and diversification of gay places. Similar studies have been done on the scale of a region or country, most often on a city scale. Michal Pitoňák and Koessan Gabiam, however, analysed all the states of the European Union (EU), Norway and Switzerland. Published Apr 09, 2015 |
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Popular Science: How is healthcare for foreigners in Czechia?Geographers from the Department of Social Geography and Regional Development in the Faculty of Science of Charles University in Prague are interested in migration and its aspects. In one of the case studies they investigated the Czech healthcare and insurance system in relation to foreigners. Based on Czech law Dušan Drbohlav, Dagmar Dzúrová and two colleagues from Spain made and tested the hypothesis that foreigners have disadvantages compared to native Czech citizens. Published Apr 09, 2015 |
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Popular Science: Tracking Paleoclimate in High Central AndesAs summers and vegetation seasons pass by, plant remains accumulate and in waterlogged areas they turn into peat bogs. These bogs contain thousands of years of paleo information from which we are able, using specific techniques, to reconstruct environmental conditions persisting in the past. Actually, this was the science which, in the early 19th century, revealed the existence of the green-house effect. But back to our recent article. Published Feb 23, 2015 |
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PhD STARS program is open for applicationsFaculty of Science of the Charles University in Prague has launched its program supporting talented PhD research students from all over the world. During the STARS 2018 call, prospective students can apply to PhD research topics announced on the web pages on January 15th, 2018. Deadline for application is March, 15, 2018. Published Jan 07, 2015 |
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Popular Science: Investigations into traces of life on MarsInvestigations of potential life or traces of life in space are no doubt an exciting part of contemporary science. One of the Czech Republic's experts in this area, geochemist Jan Jehlička (Institute of Geochemistry, Mineralogy and Mineral Resources) and his colleagues recently made a significant contribution to preparing the application of Raman spectroscopy in future Mars missions. Published Dec 01, 2014 |
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Popular Science: Suburbanisation in the post-communist world"Urban sprawl", the English term used to describe spontaneous expansion of human populations to suburban areas, has found a firm place also in Czech. While in the US, the country where this term was born, this phenomenon reached its climax years ago, it is still booming in a number of other regions of the world. The post-communist part of Europe has been one of such regions for the last twenty five years. Published Nov 17, 2014 |
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Money for research comes from NorwayProfessor Zdena Palková of the Genetics and Microbiology Department is known for her original yeast cell colony research projects. This year she has managed to get substantial financial support for her work. Her team has become one of nineteen teams in the Czech Republic to receive grants from the Czech-Norwegian Research Programme. Published Oct 24, 2014 |
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Science is Beautiful starts Year 6Science is Beautiful, a competition show established by the Faculty of Science, Charles University in 2009, is intended for all those who "suffer from the same handicap": love for nature combined with love for photography or painting. The competition takes place for the sixth consecutive year, and the deadline for registrations is November 2. Published Oct 08, 2014 |
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A prize which makes you thinkThe Ig Nobel Prize, awarded since 1991, may be humorous but it has deeper meaning: after the laughter dies down over how strange the research is, it’s intended to make us think. This year the laureates included several Czechs. We set out to talk to Professor Jaroslav Flegr shortly after he returned from the ceremony with his prize shaped like a dining hall tray from Harvard University, where the awards were presented. Published Oct 01, 2014 |
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Notification for foreign students concerning EBOLAThe Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports together with Chief Public Health Officer of the Czech Republic issued a notification for foreign students upon coming from west Africa and Congo, from areas stricken by fevers caused by the EBOLA virus. Published Sep 09, 2014 |