The gap between scientists and the public is decreasing - Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VILNIUS TECH) Citizen Science Centre is building bridges between the scientific community and citizens. When people engage in scientific processes, together explore and analyse data, the benefits of scientific research reach a much broader part of society.

On 25 April, at 5 p.m. in Franciszek Smuglewicz Hall, the Vilnius University (VU) Library will be opening an exhibition dedicated to the twentieth anniversary of Lithuania’s entry into the North Atlantic Treaty and the European Union. Documents from the 16th to the 20th century that are associated with the capitals of both the European Union (including candidate countries) and the NATO members (41 states) were selected in the book storages and put on display in an exhibition.

On April 18th, VILNIUS TECH will become a centre attracting science talents and leading modern businesses. In Saulėtekio central halls, future creators while setting the direction for their careers, will not only overcome the existing laws of the universe but also create vigorous and promising new ones.

In modern medicine, the study of ancient DNA has emerged as a revolutionary field, blending the mysteries of human history with cutting-edge advancements in genetics. The debate among scientists and medical professionals is focused on a pivotal question: does ancient DNA offer practical insights for contemporary health, or is it merely a window into our distant past? Dr. Horia Stanescu will answer this and other questions in the lecture “What ancient DNA can tell us about modern diseases?”.

The 67th Open Readings 2024 International Conference of Physics and Natural Sciences for students will take place from the 23rd to the 26th of April.

Celebrating the 445th anniversary of Vilnius University (VU), the “Scientific Sprint” science communication competition was held for the third time. The first place was won by the team “GiS” from the VU Faculty of Chemistry and Geosciences, represented by Prof. Giedrė Beconytė and Samanta Klusytė. Their presentation was on the topic “Spatial data for good governance - from vision to solution”. The winners were awarded a prize worth 1000 euros, sponsored by the competition partner “Thermo Fisher Scientific”.

Rapid technological progress allows us to launch more and better satellites into space every year. Most of them are for commercial telecommunications or navigation, many are military. But satellites are also greatly improving scientific research. Scientific satellites allow us to look deep into space, measure cosmic radiation, observe supernovae, or discover galaxies far away. We can also use them to look back down to Earth, for example, to monitor changes in the global environment, from tropical rainforests to Arctic ice sheets.

The University of Granada’s (UGR) open educational platform, AbiertaUGR, welcomes Arqus students and academics to register for the fourth edition of its Massive Open Online Course “Machine Learning and Big Data for Bioinformatics”, which will run from 15th April to 17th June 2024. Registration for the MOOC, which is free and available in Spanish and English, opens on 11th April and will remain open until the course ends.

Released by virus researchers Vilnius University (VU) Life Sciences Center scientist Dr. Gytis Dudas and US scientist Dr. Allison Black’s book, The Applied Genomic Epidemiology Handbook: A Practical Guide to Leveraging Pathogen Genomic Data in Public Health. The book is intended for public health professionals who are interested in genomic epidemiology or who want to start applying it in their work. The authors introduce the readers to the essential principles of genomic epidemiology, tools and the implementation and application of genomic monitoring systems in practice.

For the fourth year in a row, the Department of Human and Medical Genetics at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences, part of the Faculty of Medicine at Vilnius University, together with the Lithuanian Society of Human Genetics, is celebrating Medical Genetics Week this month. This year’s Medical Genetics Week is packed full with a variety of events and initiatives, and we invite you to read our interview with Prof. Dalius Jatužis, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University. We talked with the dean about how genetic testing can help to prevent complex diseases in patients, what new technological and scientific breakthroughs we can expect in the future to help treat genetic diseases, the ethical issues that may arise from these new discoveries, and many other interesting things.