Press Releases

How many nanometres does your hand measure? Why does nothing stand still in the nano- world? And what does atomic force microscopy allow us to do? This and more is revealed in the new comic book Secrets of the Nano- World, published by the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences. The comic book introduces the frequently mentioned, but rarely taught topic of nanotechnology to (not only) students and teachers.

A team of scientists from the Czech Academy of Sciences and Masaryk University has made a major contribution to research into the accumulation of impurities at the interface between crystals, a phenomenon having caused e.g. a series of accidents at nuclear power stations in the UK in the 1960s.

Multiscale materials are assembled from different types of nanomaterials, which themselves have unusual properties. By combining and integrating them into higher-order hierarchies, smart matter with unique functionalities and surprising applications in many different fields can be obtained. A consortium of eight partners from academia and research, led by the J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, has received financial support from the Programme Johannes Amos Comenius of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. Specifically, it was the Excellent Research Call aimed at supporting research with the potential for excellent results applicable in practice.

Scientists from the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and Palacký University Olomouc, have once again successfully uncovered the mysteries of the world of molecules and atoms. They have experimentally confirmed the correctness of a decades-old theory that assumed a non-uniform distribution of electron density in aromatic molecules. This phenomenon significantly affects the physicochemical properties of molecules and their interactions. This research expands the possibilities for designing new nanomaterials and is the theme of a paper that has just been published in Nature Communications.

On the occasion of the Dvořák Lectures organized by the Institute of Physics, the FZU Director Michael Prouza handed over decrees to appoint the Emeritus Scientists of the Czech Academy of Sciences to three researchers from the Institute of Physics. In his opening speech, he thanked the appointed researchers – namely Pavel Novák, Ivan Pelant and Antonín Šimůnek – for making a significant contribution to the development of physical research by fulfilling their scientific visions.

Unique Cherenkov telescopes have successfully been installed at the Ondřejov Observatory near Prague. There are two telescopes at the site, which are now the largest optical telescopes in the Czech Republic. They have been developed in the frame of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory, and evaluated as performing telescopes in the high energy region above 1 TeV.

The atomically sharp domain walls that were discovered by an international team led by researchers from the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, might considerably improve the research of ulta-fast memory devices made from antiferromagnetic materials. 

A total of 11 postdoctoral researchers have headed back from abroad to Czechia as grant holders of the Horizon Europe’s “Excellent Science” programme. Three of the researchers who will be developing their career path at the Institute of Physics have received a total of 498 836,16 Euros awarded to them as part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships in order to finance their research in physics. In addition to this, the FZU has received an ERA Postdoctoral Fellowship.