Czech Science | All stories

Prague is a city with a 1000-year old history. So no wonder that wherever you dig, you're bound to discover foundations of old houses or at least a broken pot. It's much rarer though that archaeologists find something more valuable - buried treasure, for example. But fortune smiled on a group of archaeologists last week when they discovered a clay jar chock-full of silver coins right in the centre of Prague.

In two months' time, an electronic appliance developed by a research team in the Czech city of Brno is to be sent into space. It will be delivered to the International Space Station, where it is expected to operate for one year. Meanwhile the team in Brno are busy finishing another international space research project.

Did you know that one type of semi-precious stone is found almost exclusively in the Czech Republic? Even its name suggests that it comes from this country. The greenish milky stone is called moldavite and a collection of the most beautiful specimens is now on display at Prague's Stefanik Observatory.

There is a saying in Czech - "Zlate Ceske rucicky", which translates as "golden Czech hands", and points to the nation's unique ability to create and innovate under even the worst of conditions. Great Britain, known as one of the most innovative countries in the world today in the field of science, has launched a new project to get British scientists to work alongside some of their "golden-handed" Czech counterparts. The idea is to get them to work in concert to find ways of improving and speeding up the process of innovation. The project, under the

Our environment contains all kinds of more or less dangerous chemicals. Some of them have even reached as far as the Arctic Circle and the south pole, the highest mountain peaks and deepest seas. The Czech branch of the environmental group Greenpeace didn't have to go that far to prove that we live in a contaminated world.

The world's largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380, successfully completed its test flight last week. The aircraft that can carry up to 840 passengers took off from its production site in the French city of Toulouse but the aeroplane is a truly European cooperation. For example its wings and engines are built in the United Kingdom, the tail comes from Spain and Germany. But it's little known that Czech scientists, too, had their share in the project.

Uranium was considered a highly strategic material by socialist Czechoslovakia and thanks to the country's rich reserves mining was quite extensive. It has had a serious impact on the environment which will take decades to clean up. Czech scientists have come up with a solution tailored for one particular mining area - using the by-products of uranium mining to produce - commercial fertiliser.

Like other post-communist countries, the Czech Republic has seen a large increase in the number of drug addicts in the last decade. The 'traditional' Czech drugs have been alcohol and tobacco, but in recent years cannabis and so-called 'party drugs' like ecstasy have become increasingly popular. To deal with this problem a new degree course has just been established at Charles University in Prague.

The Czech Academy of Sciences has a new president. After Professor Helena Illnerova's four-year term expired, Professor Vaclav Paces, the former head of the Institute of Molecular Genetics, was elected to chair the institution for the next four years. When I met Professor Paces recently, we first discussed the perennial problem of lack of finances.

This week the South Bohemian town of Cesky Krumlov is hosting an annual meeting of an interesting international organisation. It is called Women in Nuclear and is a worldwide association of women working in the nuclear field.