Structure Polish Academy of Sciences

We call for the establishment of an institution in Poland whose role would involve constantly monitoring impending health threats, communicating them to the public, and providing information about how to address them. The institution should have a multidisciplinary team of experts operating independently of the government and receiving permanent funding. The opinions and recommendations of the experts should be made directly and publicly available.

A team of scientists from the PAS Institute of Physical Chemistry presented their studies on the hydrogen peroxide generation at the boundary between two immiscible liquids – water and oil. Commercially available hydrogen peroxide is considered a promising candidate for producing power with minimal environmental impact.

We call for the vaccination of school children, mandatory vaccinations for school staff, and the observance of the rules concerning distance, disinfection, and masks (DDM). This is the only way to avoid remote learning in the 2021–2022 school year.

Scientists from the PAS Institute of Botany isolated a new genus and species of fungus – Salinomyces and Salinomyces polonicus – from brine graduation tower in Dębowiec near Cieszyn. The new moderately halophilic fungus has been described in an article published in Fungal Biology.

It is our behavior that will determine how severe the fourth wave of COVID-19 infections will be and whether it will paralyze the health-care system. Therefore, the current lull should not cause us to relax our vigilance.

The Polish Institute of Advanced Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PIASt) has announced the call for applications in the fellowship program for the academic year 2022-2023. The deadline for submitting applications is October 31, 2021.

Representatives of European academies of sciences met at the Berlin Process Joint Conference to talk about a plan to control COVID-19 in the Western Balkans. The conference was jointly organized by the Polish Academy of Sciences and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

There are many possible pathways towards a carbon-neutral future — and achieving it by 2050 is possible but requires urgent action. This is the conclusion of a group of top scientists tasked by the European Commission with advising on how to facilitate the energy transition in Europe.

Dr. Błażej Ślązak from the PAS Institute of Botany together with an international team of scientists examined species of violets native to the Canary Islands. The researchers paid particular attention to cyclotides – cyclic peptides produced by plants. Their findings have been published in Nature’s Scientific Reports.

Pandemic restrictions could increase the feeling of loneliness, which may weaken healthy physiological responses, found the Institute of Psychology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Research on loneliness was carried out by Prof. Łukasz Okruszek with a team from the Social Neuroscience Lab. The results have been published in International Journal of Psychophysiology and Journal of Research in Personality.

Polish Science Contact Agency of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PolSCA) together with Czech Liaison Office for Education & Research (CZELO), Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NRDIO) and Slovak Liaison Office for Research and Development (SLORD) invite to the “V4 Conference 2021 – Earth Observations for citizens and the planet – V4 perspective on R&I contributions to the Copernicus programme”. The event under the Polish presidency of the Visegrad Group will be held on 29 June 2021 at 13:30 (CEST).

Scientists from the Space Research Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences will build an instrument to study solar wind. This is the first independent experiment of Polish researchers in NASA’s mission.

Scientists from the PAS Institute of Computer Science, the Nencki Institute and the University of Warsaw created the first "Atlas" of regulatory areas active in gliomas of various degrees of malignancy. The study provides a better understanding of the mechanisms of glioblastoma development. The research results have been recently published in the Nature Communications.

Professor Zofia Szweykowska-Kulińska, a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences and several PAS committees, has joined the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO).

The InterAcademy Partnership urges world leaders to improve ocean health by stopping habitat destruction and the spread of environmental contaminants, fighting climate change and overexploitation, and adopting evidence-based policies.

The state of the Atlantic adds a layer of variability to local sea level rise in Europe, while the massive loss of ice mass in the Antarctic due to climate change is sufficient to affect the gravitational pull on the earth’s oceans so that they move towards the Northern Hemisphere. This is just one of the many findings of the EASAC’s 2-year expert study of the state of the North Atlantic.

Apart from the Jagiellonian Library it is the second oldest functioning municipal library in Poland with over a million of items. Annually, its collections serve to 10,000 readers. The celebration of the 425th jubilee of the Gdańsk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences begins.

To live up to their climate pledge under the Paris agreement, EU lawmakers must ensure all 250 million existing as well as all new buildings in the EU become nearly zero greenhouse gas emitters. In a new report, experts nominated by EASAC’s member science academies call for far-reaching policy action.