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Last week the Moravian town of Litomysl celebrated the 90th anniversary of the birth of one of its great natives, world-renowned astronomer Zdenek Kopal. Zdenek Kopal left Czechoslovakia in 1938, after finishing his university studies. Later he studied at Cambridge and Harvard Universities. For thirty years Zdenek Kopal lectured astronomy in Manchester, England. One of the main areas of his interest were binary stars but Professor Zdenek Kopal is perhaps best known for his participation in NASA's Moon landing project. In an earlier Czech Science programme

The females of many species of primates show differences in their physical appearance during their fertile period to attract the males. Until recently it was thought that human ovulation, or the fertile part of the menstrual cycle, was not visually manifested in any way. According to a study recently carried out by Czech and British scientists, it might not be quite so.

Earlier this year we reported on an unprecedented project by Czech scientists - the Czech Republic is going to build a polar station in the Antarctic. The station will be located on the north edge of James Ross Island, off the northeast coast of the Antarctic. A group of Czech scientists recently spent five weeks on James Ross Island, exploring the ground where the station is to be built. Radio Prague spoke to the head of the expedition, Pavel Prosek, from Masaryk University in Brno. He said that now the crucial thing is to transport the building

Weather forecasts are something that most people take for granted these days. If you want to know whether to put on that extra jumper, you can turn on the TV, the radio, open any newspaper or search on the internet. But do we know where and how weather is being monitored? In the Czech Republic the institution responsible for weather monitoring and forecasting is the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute which has just celebrated its 50th birthday. But as director Ivan Obrusnik told me, its history dates further back.

Staying with the brain, or braininess, to be more accurate - last year inventors and innovators in the Czech Republic applied for a record number of patents. Precisely 627, which is twenty percent more than in 2002.

This week the Czech Academy of Sciences is holding a number of events to mark European Brain Week.

There may not be too many signs of it, but spring is definitely coming.

Would you believe that flies can actually help heal wounds? Although it sounds like a paradox, soldiers injured in battles recovered more quickly if their wounds became infested with maggots. The beneficial properties of larvae have been known for centuries in many civilisations. With the introduction of antibiotics and new surgical methods, this age-old treatment was abandoned in the last century.

Welcome to Czech Science where we have been following the history of astronomy in the Czech lands since the 17th century. Today astronomy is being studied at universities in Prague, Brno and Opava. But since the 1950s the main centre of research in astronomy in Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic has been the Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences. Professor Jan Palous is the head of the institute.

Welcome to Czech Science. Last week Professor Jan Palous from the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences talked about Czech-born astronomers who left Czechoslovakia during the communist era and made their careers at foreign universities and research centres. Today Professor Palous will be talking about Czech participation in one important part of space research - manned missions to outer space.