In the early months of 2020, when the news spread about an outbreak of the dangerous new respiratory disease COVID-19, hundreds research teams began a race against time to develop an effective and safe vaccine. Many of their attempts failed or were abandoned due to insufficient efficacy or safety, or on account of organizational difficulties.
In the 10-year perspective, greenhouse gas emissions should be cut by half, and reach net zero around 2050. The global community has set this goal, but to be successful, every country must take this commitment seriously, including Poland. The Interdisciplinary Advisory Team for the Climate Crisis to the President of the Polish Academy of Sciences writes about it in its communiqué on the decarbonization of the power sector in Poland.
The White Paper Series published by the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR) contribute to the democratization of hydro-environment observation and data. Among the experts and co-authors of the publication there is Dr. Michael Nones, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Geophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
The Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) and the British Academy (BA) invite applications from early career researchers in the humanities and social sciences to participate in a virtual Knowledge Frontiers Symposium on Just Transitions.
Legal challenges hamper the sharing of health data with researchers outside the EU/European Economic Area (EEA), a new report by European academy networks concludes. The authors call for solutions to overcome these barriers to ensure timely and straightforward research collaboration in the public sector and thereby maximize health benefits for European citizens. The report has been prepared by ALLEA, EASAC and FEAM. The Polish Academy of Sciences is a member of the ALLEA and the EASAC organizations.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, many breakthrough discoveries have been made, including the development of the COVID-19 vaccine, which has turned the containment of the pandemic into a realistic goal. In order to accomplish this goal, however, we must learn the lessons of what we have found out about the state and its institutions, as well as about ourselves.
Józefa Joteyko, Helena Willman-Grabowska and Zofia Daszyńska-Golińska – next to Maria Skłodowska-Curie – are the first women scientists in Poland. Dr. Iwona Dadej from the PAS Institute of History in Warsaw and the PAS Center for Historical Research in Berlin talks about forgotten female researchers.
The most important issue of the upcoming World Water Day, organized by the Polish Academy of Sciences on March 22, will be ecological, economic and social value of water. During this event, scheduled to be held online, experts will talk about the importance of water, as well as present and discuss the UN World Water Development Report 2021 on the state of the world’s freshwater resources.
All interested scholars of any nationality and representing all research disciplines can apply for 2-year postdoctoral fellowships at the institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In the first Call 35 fellows will be selected. The deadline for applications is June 30th.
At the heart of Cygnus, one of the most beautiful constellations of the summer sky, beats a source of high-energy cosmic ray particles: the Cygnus Cocoon. An international group of scientists at the HAWC observatory has gathered evidence that this vast astronomical structure is the most powerful of our galaxy's natural particle accelerators known of up to now. The results of the research, in which scientists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN) in Cracow played an important role, are presented in the prestigious journal “Nature Astronomy”.
The threat of the virus spiraling out of control is real. Fortunately, we already have vaccines and also a fair amount of knowledge at our disposal. However, the implementation of the vaccination program is lengthy and varies enormously on a global scale. All of this means that a complete return to the situation that existed before COVID-19 cannot be expected within the next few years. And so, instead of waiting for the pandemic to end, we must all seek ways to live with the virus. This should involve not cyclically imposing unpredictable restrictions that damage the economy, education and social life, but rather creating new social norms that curb the possibility of the infection spreading.
For five years two biologists and ardent nature photographers were traversing the most distant recesses of the Knyszyn Forest. They took pictures of flora and fauna. They discovered places where one can come across European Bison, weasels and red deer. Their journey culminated in an album, in which Prof. Marek Konarzewski, corresponding member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and Dr. Janusz Kupryjanowicz share the beauty of the Knyszyn Forest with us.
The Vistula Boulevards in Warsaw and the Augustów Canal won the most prestigious hydrological awards in Europe. The International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR) appreciated boulevards for innovative hydrological solutions and canal for its historical and enginnering importance. The awards were conferred on February 18 during the 6 IAHR Europe Congress, organized by the Polish Academy of Sciences and Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW).
“Without vaccination, after contracting COVID-19, out of a group of one million people, thirty thousand will not survive. This is approximately the risk of death due to the disease in Poland" – scientists from the COVID-19 Advisory Team to the President of the Polish Academy of Sciences wrote in a position paper dated 10 February.
The participants of the 6th IAHR Europe Congress will have the unique opportunity to talk about, among others, how to forecast floods or achieve the sustainable development in urban water supply systems. The congress agenda includes sessions and webinars combined with discussions with the audience. Europe Regional Hydro-Environment Heritage awards will be presented. This year’s congress, organized by the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences - SGGW and PAS Institute of Geophysics, will be attended by 400 experts from 53 countries.
Researchers have taken full advantage of the benefits brought about by the artificial intelligence and used artificial neural networks to detect schizophrenia and autism. Their findings has been recently published in Cognitive Computation journal. Among the authors are scientists from two institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
"Wetlands and Water" is this year’s theme for World Wetland Day. On this occasion, Prof. Tomasz Okruszko, one of the experts of the Advisory Team for Climate Crisis to the PAS President, explains why wetlands are so important to us. The 6th IAHR Europe Congress, co-organized by the Polish Academy of Sciences, the PAS Institute of Geophysics and the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, will be taking place shortly.
The number of costal floods in the Baltic Sea basin will increase within the next 30 years. What’s more, in a 100-year perspective the historic center of Gdańsk may disappear under water. The Interdisciplinary Advisory Team for the Climate Crisis to the President of the Polish Academy of Sciences issued a communiqué on sea-level rise.
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