Next month it will be a year that Czechs first went into lockdown because of Covid-19. There are concerns that over that time more and more people are drinking at home and in excess. I spoke to Dr. Miroslav Barták of the Department of Addictology at Charles University about the growing risk.

He has degrees from three universities, worked for a couple of years for the Office of the Government and lectures at CU’s Faculty of Law. His next ambition, though, is decidedly non-academic: he wants to fight in mixed martial arts (MMA). Meet Petr Agha.

This week Charles University hosted a webinar as part of its continuing public debate series Česko a jak dál. The topic was disinformation and fake news in connection with Covid-19. Disinformation has been part of the mix from the very beginning of the pandemic.

Following vaccinations of health care workers and personnel and clients at senior homes, the Czech Republic rolled out the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for seniors 80 and over just a few days ago. Our photographer took a closer look.

Sleep is Karel Blahna’s focus of research. At the Biomedical Center at Charles University’s Faculty of Medicine in Plzeň, he looks into how the brain’s sleep activity changes in sickness and health. He was able to put together a team and conduct research thanks to support from CU’s Primus programme.

A team of Czech parasitologists from CU’s Faculty of Science has been working with researchers from Great Britain, Israel, and Canada to develop an effective vaccine preventing against leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease transmitted by sand flies. The results of their study were published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications.

There are more than 3‚000 species of termites, and their combined mass is greater than the combined mass of all human beings on the planet. They’re best known as pests that can gnaw through your house, but only in recent years has more research been done into their significance for the ecosystem.

Even in the midst of the continuing pandemic Charles University has honoured Jan Palach, the student who in an act of protest in January 1969 doused himself in petrol and set himself alight. The drastic act, sacrificing his life, was aimed at shaking his fellow citizens out of lethargy to protest the Soviet-led invasion.

Even though vaccination for Covid-19 has begun in the Czech Republic, there are still many people who remain sceptical and have expressed fear or doubts. Anyone among the broader public wanting to view a serious debate on the matter should look up a discussion that was live this week organised by the Neuron Endowment Fund.

The US-based immunologist Václav Větvička says there couldn’t have been more than five people on the plane when he recently traveled back to the Czech Republic. Because of Covid−19. As a scientist, Větvička has been outspoken about what we can – and should – be doing to stay safe. And really do we have any other choice before we get the vaccine?

Cultural anthropologist Alena Lochmannová is a CU graduate and the author of Body behind Bars, a remarkable ethnological monograph examining tattoos and body modification in Czech prisons.

In her third year at the Faculty of Education, Tereza Neumanová is a woman of contrasts: someone who lives for the bike but also hopes to teach one day. Who has no qualms about grinding through the mud but carefully applies makeup before every race.

Petr Plecháč, completing a Ph.D. at Charles University, made world headlines with his analysis of Shakespeare’s Henry VIII. It was long accepted that the play was co-authored by playwright John Fletcher, but Plecháč’s study – using machine learning – analysed word frequency patterns and rhythms to provide further evidence that the play was a collaborative effort. Henry VIII was not written by Shakespeare alone.

Martin Hilský is one of the country’s most prominent translators of Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets into Czech. In 2011, his translations were published in a single volume The Complete Works (Dílo). Now, Academia has followed up with Shakespeare’s England: Portrait of an Age.

Much of the focus of IDEA, a think-tank of the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, which is part of CERGE-EI, is tied this year to the novel coronavirus, and anti-Covid measures. However, that is far from its only activity: this week the think tank hosted an online conference examining the influence of public policy on labour markets.

Lab contributed to testing and put years of experience into new commercial kit

September 24 is Familial Hypercholesterolemia Awareness Day, established by the FH Foundation in 2012. The purpose of the day – and related events – is to raise awareness of the dangers of high cholesterol, which can lead to the onset of early heart disease, heart attacks or strokes.

Well-known evolutionary biologist and parasitologist Jaroslav Flegr, who teaches at CU’s Faculty of Science, anticipated in August that things weren’t going to go the way we hoped regarding the coronavirus. As of last week, cases jumped to record levels in the Czech Republic.

Researchers from Charles University’s First Faculty of Medicine together with three private sector firms have developed a new test for flu and Covid-19 which should be available in September.

A number of deadly viruses are believed to have originated in bats, including Ebola and the original SARS. The indications are that the novel coronavirus SARS-Cov-2 also made the jump from bats, most likely through an intermediary species.