The Czech Republic has some notable firsts: the contact lens, the sugar cube, the word robot, the plastic explosive Semtex, the world’s first Pilsner beer and the dollar all have their origins here. It was Czech doctor Jánský who discovered blood types and enabled transfusions, Gregor Mendel is a founder of modern genetics, Jan Evangelista Purkině who coined the word photoplasm (fluid substansce of a cell), Antonín Holý invented an important antiretroviral drugs used in the treatment of HIV and hepatitis. Prokop Diviš installed the first lighting rod, Nobelist Jaroslav Hejrovský invented polarographic method, Jan Ámos Komenský (Comenius) is considered the father of modern education. Comenius was the innovator who first introduced pictorial textbooks, written in native language instead of Latin, applied effective teaching based on the natural gradual growth from simple to more comprehensive, supported lifelong learning and development of logical thinking by moving from dull memorization, presented and supported the idea of equal opportunity for impoverished children, opened doors to education for women, made instruction universal and practical. Besides his native Bohemian Crown, he lived and worked in other regions of the Holy Roman Empire, and other countries: Sweden, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Transylvania, England, the Netherlands and Hungary. Black Light theater was invented here in Bohemia and has been advanced as an art form to where it is today. It’s a trick of they eye and a colour sensation, visually mesmerizing non verbal and suitable for people of all ages - the best place to see this modern marvel is the Laterna Magica in the National Street (10 min far from my flat).