Science Café: Science Café

Did you know that nanoparticles and nanoproducts are already available in normal stores and in your homes? Czech scientist Anna Fučíková will share the story of nanoparticles and their (r)evolution over the last 20 years.

We are hearing the word nano more and more often, not only from scientific journals but also from newspapers and television. Less known is the fact that nanoparticles and nanoproducts are already available in normal stores and are certainly in your homes. So, let's listen to the story of nanoparticles and their (r)evolution over the last 20 years. The talk will be given by Anna Fučíková, a Czech scientist, who has been working in the field of nanoparticles, especially silicon nanoparticles for several years. Silicon nanoparticles are small crystals made out of silicon in the size of several nm and they are capable of emitting light after excitation. We can imagine that they are small “nano-lamps” which main potential is to be used in medicine as new fluorescent markers. These “nano-lamps” can be bounded for example to a drug and we can observe the path of the molecule inside living cell thanks to this “nano-lamp”. Later in the talk we will explore together the most interesting examples of nanoparticles you have at home, also why nanoparticles can be both Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and what awaits us in the near future in nanoscience.

Mgr. Anna Fučíková Ph.D. studied biophysics at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University and currently works there as an Assistant Professor and as a part time young scientist at the Institute of Physics at the Czech Academy of Sciences and VSCHT. She works with nanomaterials and specializes in their characterization and studies their potential application in biology. In 2012 she was awarded the price Czech Head and in 2015 the Neron Impuls grant. In her free time she concentrates on the popularization of science.

Science Café is a series of popular science presentations and talks by the best Czech scientists of today. It is organized by the Czech Centre Berlin, the Czexperts Network and the Neuron Foundation, Prague. Each year the Neuron Foundation gives out the Neuron Impulse grants to outstanding basic research projects and celebrates the best scientists with the Neuron Awards.