Our Universe is expanding faster and faster. What is the force behind it? Is it the fifth fundamental force predicted by some alternative theories of gravity? Scientists have chosen the Sun as their laboratory to find out.
Does it make sense to publish a printed journal that deals with the promotion of physics? With this controversial question, the director of the Institute of Physics, Michael Prouza, opened a discussion on the future of the popularization of physics. The debate took place on Monday, October 24, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Československý časopis pro fyziku journal in a crowded hall of the SOLID21 building, and was followed by expert lectures on the history of physics and its popularization.
Today the Honorary Medals have been handed over by the president of the Czech Academy of Sciences Eva Zažímalová. The recipients were 11 researchers honoured for their long-lasting contribution to science by the Czech Academy of Sciences. The laureates included two researchers from the Institute of Physics, prof. Jiří Chýla, CSc. and prof. RNDr. Ivan Pelant, DrSc.
Less than 5% of the Universe is made of normal, visible matter; the rest is dark energy (68%) and dark matter (27%). No wonder then that understanding the bigger fraction of matter is a fundamental goal of astrophysics and cosmology. Federico Urban from FZU got an EEA and Norway grant to foster international collaboration on several aspects of dark matter.
Václav Vrba, our classmate, friend and colleague passed away after a long illness on Tuesday, December 29. His life’s pilgrimage crossed ours in a number of places and for years in our working as well as personal lives and it is difficult for us to accept that it no longer will be so.
A total of seven Lumina Quaeruntur premiums for researchers of younger and middle generation have been awarded by the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic within a programme to support prospective scientists. One of the recognized researchers is Ippocratis Saltas from Centre for Cosmology and Fundamental Physics of the Institute of Physics. The annual ceremony at which laureates are handed over prizes by Eva Zažímalová, the president of the Academy of Sciences, was postponed due to epidemiological measures.
Scientists from the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (FZU) retained their last year’s extraordinary success in winning EXPRO grants awarded by the Czech Science Foundation (GA CR) and they excelled in junior grants success rate.
The nomination for the annual Otto Wichterle Premium is intended for outstanding young scientists up to the age of thirty-five employed at the Academy of Sciences who achieved top results in their fields.
The fellowship is aimed at career development, transfer of knowledge and acquisition of new skills and the development of scientists in all their potential roles
CTA will be the next generation ground-based instrument in the detection of gamma rays, which are very high-energy electromagnetic radiation emitted by the hottest and most powerful objects in the Universe – such as supermassive black holes, supernovae and possibly remnants of the Big Bang
The prize is divided among three scientists. One of them, professor Gérard Mourou, is the father of the idea of ExtremeLight Infrastructure project
"The more we know about neutrinos, the more we know about the early universe and about how our world works at its most basic level,” said NOvA co-spokesperson Gary Feldman of Harvard University.
