EU Descartes Prizes awarded at Prague Castle

Prague Castle hosted the yearly Descartes Prize award ceremony on Thursday at which scientists were honoured for their contributions in the field of life science and physics. This year's 1 million euro EU Descartes Prize was awarded to two teams for outstanding cross-border research. The winning EU-US team has made revolutionary breakthroughs in the field of quantum cryptography; the winning pan-European team contributed to greater understanding of mitochondrial DNA, believed to be one of the keys to the ageing process.

A 250,000 euro EU Descartes Prize for Science Communication was awarded for the first time to five personalities for their exceptional role in bringing science and technology to wider audiences in Europe.