Ing. Petr Veřtát, Ph.D.

Like Jekyll and Hyde – such condition applies also to some materials. An international team led by Hanus Seiner from the Institute of Thermomechanics has discovered that in some directions the alloy of nickel, manganese and gallium is able to transmit elastic waves faster than steel, but in other directions the pulses propagate more slowly than in air. To describe the alloy's behaviour, scientists had to analyse every single atom. The study was published in the prestigious Advanced Materials journal.

Enthusiasm for science is the driving force behind success. This is also demonstrated by Lindau Meetings, where for decades young scientists from all over the world have been meeting Nobel laureates. "The atmosphere of togetherness and mutual support they experience there is an invaluable source of inspiration," says this year's participant Petr Veřtát, a postdoctoral fellow from the Department of Magnetic Measurements and Materials at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences.