06/2007

Academic bulletin 06/2007

RESUMÉ

V4 Academies Forum in Smolenice Castle
Delegations of science academies from V4 countries – Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary – met on 23^rd–24^th April 2007 in Smolenice Castle near Bratislava. They discussed mutual cooperation and also relationship to European Science Foundation and European Research Council (see second cover).

EVENT OF THE MONTH
Patočka's Philosophical Week
An international philosophical conference Jan Patočka 1907–1977 between 22^nd–28^th April 2007 was dedicated to the most important Czech philosopher of the 20^th century. The symposium, honoring this victim of the communist regime and student of Professors Husserl and Heidegger, took place in the Karolinum, seat of the Charles University rectorate. Scholars from around the world explored Jan Patočka's work and the significance of its continuing influence on contemporary philosophy. Simultaneously, the Husserl Circle held its 37^th meeting, the first time on European soil.

TOPIC OF THE MONTH
A Decade of PALS
In June 1997, the ASCR signed an agreement with the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching (Germany) and became the operator of the Asterix IV laser. This facility provides the basis for experimental research in the field of high-power lasers and their applications, notably in the physics of laser plasmas. The Prague Asterix Laser System (PALS) has been made use of by the wider international research community. From 2000–2003, the European experiments at PALS were supported through the 5^th Framework Programme of EU, in the frame of the Transnational Access to Major Research Infrastructure action. Since 2004, the laboratory participates at an Integrated Infrastructure Initiative project of the Consortium (6^th FP).

SCIENCE AND RESEARCH
More Acurrate Than the Atomic Clock
On the occasion of the Optics and Optoelectronics 2007 Congress (16–19 April 2007) Professor Theodor Hänsch, Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics in 2005, visited the PALS laboratory (see A Decade of PALS) and received De Scientia et Humanitate Optime Meritis Medal. The founder of laser spectrometry and laser frequency comb techniques, which could lead to a detection of gravitational waves as well as holographic television, have been working on laser atomic clock as well as a laser spectrometry of hydrogen atom during last decade.

New Laboratory for Plant Genomics in Olomouc
A new plant-genomics laboratory was opened on 23^rd April in Olomouc as part of the Institute of the Experimantal Botany ASCR. The festive visitation of the lab was completed by Triticeae Genomics – Current Status and Utility of the Chromosome Based Strategies seminary. In the coming years, the new research establishment will be a part of an international wheat-genome-reading team, a prestigious task that can aid the undertstanding of one of the main crop-plants.