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Those of you, who are familiar with the internet, will probably have come across the global interactive encyclopaedia called Wikipedia. It is written by volunteers and anyone with an internet connection can contribute to it. It all started five years ago and now there are almost 4 million articles in over 100 language versions, including a Czech one.

For days after the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power station, on April 30th, 1986, Czechoslovak Radio announced that the situation at the power plant was improving. Precisely at that time the radioactive cloud had reached Czechoslovakia.

Ornithologists in Europe have been noticing that many wild bird species have undergone severe decline across the continent over the last three decades, particularly in EU countries. Among them are the skylark, the yellow hammer and the lapwing.The Czech Society for Ornithology has been involved in an international project which monitors trends in the populations of wild bird species in Europe.

Genomics, or the study of the genomes of organisms and the use of the genes, has among other things the potential of offering new therapeutic methods for the treatment of some diseases, as well as new diagnostic methods. On the achievements of Czech scientists in this field, Radio Prague talks to the President of the Czech Academy of Sciences, former director of the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Czech Academy of Sciences and genomics expert, Professor Vaclav Paces.

The majestic building of Prague's National Museum, standing on top of Wenceslas Square, opened in 1891 to provide a dignified home for the institution, founded in 1818. What was a quiet, leafy area a hundred years ago is now the busiest place in Prague. With congested motorways on both sides of the building and two metro lines crossing right underneath it the National Museum building is suffering considerably.

Have you ever wondered where the ruby colour of red wine comes from? And did you know that some wine producers enhance the colour of wine even though they shouldn't? These questions arose during research conducted by scientists from the eastern town of Olomouc, which focuses on natural dyes called anthocyanins.

This week the news arrived from Iran that an expedition of young Czech geologists discovered what might be the largest salt cave in the world. The discovery was no accident. It was one of the aims of the expedition which left for southern Iran a couple of weeks ago. In today's Czech Science we will find out more about the goals of Expedition Namak 2006.

So-called "invasive" species include plants and animals that have been brought from other parts of the world and harm native species, sometimes to the point of extinction. In today's Czech Science we look at two such aliens in the Czech Republic, the giant hogweed and the American mink, and at what exactly science can do to help tackle the problem.

Some thirteen years ago the Czech National Library first started a pioneering project in which it turns rare documents into digital form. Its experts even devised a special format for the digitisation which was later adopted as a UNESCO standard. For its preservation efforts, the library was given a UNESCO award earlier this year. In this edition of Czech Science, we take you to the historic building of the Czech National Library in Prague where the oldest manuscripts meet with the most advanced technology.

Is life on Earth a product of "blind evolution" or is the world as we know it the work of an omnipotent creator? Hundreds of supporters of the theory of "intelligent design" gathered in Prague at the weekend to discuss, as they said "errors in Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and alternatives to it".