01/2000

Academic bulletin 01/2000

Kaleidoscope - Photogallery

Round Table Discussion "Russia - Appeal or Threat?"

EURATOM - The Czech Republic Becomes a Member of an Organisation Developing a New Type of Nuclear Reactor

Research and Development Council of the Government of the Czech Republic

Report from the 127^th and 128^th sessions of the Czech Government's Research and Development Council

News from the Academic Council

The 39^th and the 40^th sessions of the Academic Council of the ASCR took place on December 21st, 1999, and January 25^th, 2000.

Josef Hendrich - the 50^th Anniversary of His Decease
Josef Hendrich, distinguished Czech pedagogue and expert on Comenius studies, worked as an assistant professor of pedagogy at the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University. He focused his attention on the personality of Jan Ámos Komenský (Comenius) and solved several controversial topics concerning his life and work. Josef Hendrich is also known for his effort to improve the contemporary school system.

Science - Research - Society

The Current Situation in the Use of High Performance Computers

Standard PCs are not sufficient enough for specific scientific research and engineering. More sophisticated computations need to be performed on workstations and servers or on special devices called high performance computers.

Republic Conference of Sisyphus Club
Sisyphus, the Czech club of sceptics, convened its first republic conference on January 21st, 2000.

ERCIM
The European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics was founded ten years ago as a platform for international co-operation and research. Fourteen European countries including the Czech Republic have joined the organisation since. ERCIM have brought together partner research institutions in the field of computer science, information technology and applied mathematics such as the Institute of Information and Institute of Information Theory and Automation of the ASCR. Academic Bulletin provides its readers a report from the ERCIM 10^th anniversary events held in Amsterdam in November 1999.

Czech Language Institute of the ASCR
Research at the Institute is focused on the study of the national language in its standard form, dialects and slang as well as of its current state and historical development. The Institute also devotes attention to general linguistic theory and comparison of Czech with other Slavic and Indo-European languages. Its experts try to cultivate language knowledge with the help of consulting services. Currently they work on a project of computer databases of the Czech vocabulary. The Czech Language Institute has published the Dictionary of Ancient Czech. Academic Bulletin presents the following departments: Department of Stylistics and Text Linguistics, Department of Language Development, Language Information Centre.

How the Butterflies Talk…

Within the last 30 years, the rapidly developing field of biology has been part of the research on chemical communication of organisms. Chemical ecology was established as a completely new, multidisciplinary scientific domain. Understanding communication between insect individuals is not fantasy any more. Last year, Michal Hoskovec, a young researcher from the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the ASCR, was awarded the Alfred Bader Award for his works on "chemical communication of insects". He was also presented with a Humboldt scholarship and will be studying at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany. Currently he and his colleagues have devoted themselves to the problem of chemical communication of C. ohridella.

Events

Christian Doppler Grammar School

Microwave Furnace Scored Again
The 6^th International Symposium and Exhibition "Inovace 99" (Innovations 99) was held in the Congress Centre and Exhibition Hall of Czechoslovak Society for Science and Engineering (ČSVTS) in Prague on December 7^th - 9^th, 1999. The event was held under the auspices of the Vice-President of the Czech Government and the Minister of Finance Pavel Mertlík. The Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals of the ASCR was honoured with the prize "Inovace roku 99" (Inovation of the Year) for its microwave furnace for glass.

Science and Engineering in Slovakia
This conference took place in the Hotel Academia owned by the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Stará Lesná in High Tatras on October 25^th - 27^th, 1999.

Scientists Made Arrangement
During fall 1999 the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic invited delegations of the British Academy, the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Representatives of the ASCR with their guests evaluated the current level of co-operation and the program of reciprocal residency studies to date, and signed the contracts for years 2000 - 2001.

Master Jan Hus
The Commission for Studies Related to the Personality, Life and Work of Master Jan Hus convened an International Symposium about Master Jan Hus in Rome in December 1999. AB will return to this topic in a more detailed report in the supplement of its next issue.

The 18^th Conference on Isoprenoids
Isoprenoids represent an important group of natural substances existing in the living organisms. The Conference on Isoprenoids, which took place in Prachatice on September 10^th - 16^th, 1999, raised several interesting questions: why mother nature chose in particular this type of organic compound for life functions and how they work in different types of metabolism.

Science or Else?
The second colloquium of experts representing various scientific domains from Switzerland, Germany and the Czech Republic called "Science or Else?" was held in Villa Lanna on November 27^th - 28^th, 1999. Scientists discussed not only the methodology of scientific research, but they also analysed deeper problems of the relation of science to society, politics, the educational system, promotion, but mostly to the alternative ways of cognition because these often succeed in replacing rational scientific attitudes.

News - Announcements

Topical Supplement

Zero Time Point - Science for the Third Millennium (the second part)