The sleep of reason breeds monsters

Can the virus die? And how do viruses become world champions? Should we be afraid of a strong state? And what's the point of being wrong?

The covid-19 pandemic brings a flood of questions but few clear answers. Who to trust when there are "experts" everywhere? Publicist Aleš Palán decided to "believe" a man who has lived with viruses almost his entire professional life. An interview with Jan Konvalinka, a leading Czech biochemist and vice-rector of Charles University, is a trip into the world of science, deadly viruses and unscientific rumours; behind the scenes of the coronavirus pandemic and the mistakes we made. Last but not least, we get a glimpse into the life of a boy from the north of Bohemia who originally wanted to become an Egyptologist but ended up in the world of invisible killers. But his insight and humour give hope that knowledge is stronger than fear.

The author of the interview Aleš Palán met photographer Jan Šibík for the first time in Šumava while working on the bestseller Rather Go Mad in the Wilderness and the book of essays Return to the Wilderness. The book of interviews with Jan Konvalinka is framed by photographs of the quarantine from the spring of 2020, which Šibík took from the first to the last day.

Jan Konvalinka (1963) graduated in biochemistry at the Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague and obtained the degree of Candidate of Chemical Sciences at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the CAS. He worked at the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg and at the Heinrich Pette Institute at the University of Hamburg. He is currently a research team leader at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the CAS and teaches biochemistry and molecular biology at the Faculty of Science of Charles University, where he also serves as Vice-Rector for Research.

His scientific work focuses on the biochemistry of viruses and tumorigenesis. He and his collaborators are studying enzymes important to the life cycle of HIV and other pathogenic viruses and are looking for ways to block them. At the same time, it deals with methods for diagnosis and therapy of tumours. He is the author of more than 130 publications in international journals, collaborates with laboratories at the Universities of Heidelberg, London and Stanford University, and is a frequent invited speaker at international conferences and symposia. He is a member of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic.

During the coronavirus crisis in the spring of 2020, he became the coordinator of an academic initiative to help with covid testing in the laboratories of Czech universities and the Academy of Sciences.

With his wife, akad. he had. rest. Dagmar Konvalinková, a restorer in the modern art collections of the National Gallery in Prague, has two daughters, Dorota and Františka.

Aleš Palán (1965), publicist and writer, is the author or editor of forty-five book titles. For the anthology Brnox he won the Magnesia Litera award together with Kateřina Šeda. His book interview with the Florian brothers, Being Indebted for the Soul, and his novel Ratajský les (Ratajský les) were nominated for the same prize. The interview with the Reynek brothers Who Walks in the Dark was awarded the annual prize of the Czech Literary Fund. Three times Palán's book won the Catholic Weekly Good Book of the Year poll. Interview with Šumava loners Better to go crazy in the wilderness. Encounters with Sumava Loners became a bestseller and was awarded the title of Lidové noviny's Book of the Year. His works have been published in English, German and Japanese. In the autumn of 2019, Ales Palán published another book of interviews, Like in Heaven, Only Different. New Encounters with Loners from Bohemia and Moravia and became a Magnesia Litera winner in the category of journalism. The author returned to the Šumava loners in his book of reflections Return to the Wilderness.

Jan Šibík (1963), a reportage photographer who travels around the world, is the author of the books Rather Go Mad in the Wilderness and Return to the Wilderness. For twenty years, he was a scientist