Meet the participants of the adventurous Neuron Expeditions at Colours of Ostrava

Proof of the world's deepest flooded abyss, the discovery of a new species of crocodile and the finding of one of the oldest Mayan cities. The Neuron Expedition was behind these and many other discoveries. Now you have the chance to come to Colours of Ostrava and hear about two fundamental discoveries that the Neuron Expedition helped bring about.

At this year's Colours of Ostrava music festival you can meet, as part of the Meltingpot forum, the researcher Sara Polak and the naturalist Jan Dungel, whom the Neuron Foundation supported on their expeditions. The chair of the board of the Neuron Expedition, the traveller and documentary filmmaker Petr Horký, will also appear.

As part of Friday's programme on the Livingstone stage, Petr Horký will explain from 1:15 p.m. how the Neuron Expeditions work and what their main benefit is. He will also share his experiences from his travels and present his film CIVILISATION — Good News about the End of the World.

Straight afterwards you can meet the researcher, anthropologist and archaeologist of artificial intelligence Sara Polak. She took part in the expedition In Search of the Lost Mayan City, led by Ladislav Šilhán with Professor Milan Kováč, which the Neuron Foundation supported last year. The city, which the expedition named Yax Balam (First Jaguar), lies in the Guatemalan province of Petén and has a history almost 3,000 years long. Sara will share the important findings and points of interest she gathered on this journey.

The naturalist, painter, graphic artist and illustrator Jan Dungel will appear on the same stage later in the afternoon from 3:00 p.m. In 2017, with the support of the Neuron Expedition, he rediscovered and described a long-forgotten primate, the uakari, in the heart of the Amazon. Besides experiences from his travels he will also explain why it is important to support scientists in the field.

That is precisely the aim of the Neuron Expedition project, which brings courageous scientists the opportunity to gather data anywhere in the world. The Neuron Foundation usually devotes up to a million crowns to a scientific expedition. In this way the Neuron Foundation has already supported eleven successful expeditions to various corners of our planet, to a total value of 5.5 million crowns.

The detailed programme of the Meltingpot forum can be found on its website.