Researchers from the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IOCB Prague) built a 2-dimensional organized array of light-driven molecular motors. At the molecular level, they have created a system of regularly spaced microscopic machines rotating when illuminated. The team headed by Dr. Jiří Kaleta (Prof. Josef Michl Group) collaborated with the 2016 Nobel laureate in chemistry Prof. Ben Feringa. Their research was published in the prestigious Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS).

The word “robot” entered the world’s languages from an old Czech stage play, but actual robotics and cybernetics are playing a major role in Czech science today, Martin Rychlik writes.