Every week The Slovak Spectator brings you a selection of three short stories from across Slovakia from which pessimism and negativity are absent.
Slovak-Czech team wins global prize for school scientists
Team PURA: Anna Podmanická from Slovakia and Tomáš Čermák from Czechia. (source: Jana Plavec, Czech Academy of Sciences)
On Earth Day, April 22, The Earth Prize, an environmental sustainability award presented to secondary school students, named its Global Winner for 2025: a teen duo from Slovakia and Czechia. Anna Podmanická (19) and Tomáš Čermák (18) won for their innovation PURA – a solution that cleans water using light and plasma to remove pollutants and antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Their project beat finalists from every continent and is the first-ever Earth Prize win for Slovakia or Czechia. The pair will receive funding and global support to scale their invention, which aims to revolutionise water treatment.
Peter McGarry, founder of The Earth Foundation, praised the project: “Tomáš and Anna have combined scientific excellence with social responsibility. PURA could transform the way we protect both people and the planet.”
Taylor from TikTok is taking over Slovakia (and loves Miňonky)
Taylor Húska, an American content creator and wife of Slovak hockey player Adam Húska, has become a viral sensation on Slovak TikTok. Her funny videos about life in Slovakia, taste tests of local snacks (she’s obsessed with Miňonky chocolate wafers!), and efforts to speak Slovak have earned her nearly 50,000 followers and hundreds of thousands of views. The hardest word for her to pronounce? “Bystrica,” she laughs.
Taylor now lives in Zvolen but travels often with her husband between Slovakia, Switzerland and the USA. “I started posting for fun – I never expected this kind of reaction,” she told the Refresher youth news website in an interview.
As Adam prepares for the World Championship with the Slovak national team, the couple plan to split their summer between Slovakia and the US.
Zvolen library opens SmartLab to spark interest in tech and science
The regional library in Zvolen has opened SmartLab – a new interactive space designed to bring science and technology closer to the public. Visitors can try coding, robotics, 3D printing and AI tools, with activities suitable for all ages.
The project, which is supported by the Banská Bystrica Regional government and Slovakia’s Centre of Scientific and Technical Information, aims to modernise libraries and spark interest in innovation. SmartLab will also support other libraries in the region with equipment and training.
“Libraries are becoming lively centres of modern learning,” said regional governor Ondrej Lunter.
Some more feel-good stories published by The Slovak Spectator for you to enjoy:
A popular lakeside recreational area in Bratislava’s Nové Mesto borough will get new amenities, including upgraded sports facilities and public furniture.
Slovak scientists are helping tear down two objections to the premise of the film Jurassic Park.
Bratislava is hiding secrets – this weekend is your rare chance to uncover some of them.
Perk, Trnava: “Stylish, affordable, and seriously tasty” – read our restaurant review.
Hikers, cyclists and climbers all know about it – do you? Check out Manínska Gorge, a natural wonder carved by both nature and man.
Meme of the week
Caption: Mariah Carey plagiarised her whole diploma thesis?
In this meme, the satirists at Zomri take a dig at the widespread phenomenon of academic fraud among Slovak politicians. In the picture, former president Ivan Gašparovič is pictured in apparent shock upon mis-hearing news about a prominent Slovak MP, Marián Kéry, whose name sounds phonetically very similar to that of American singer Mariah Carey. The meme implies that news of plagiarism by an MP would, by contrast, shock no one.
This week it came to light, thanks to reporting by reporting by the Sme daily, that in 2004 Kéry, who is now a leading member of the governing Smer party and who even then was already a district chairman of the party, copied almost word-for-word the thesis of a classmate in order to obtain his master's degree. Partly based on that qualification he later went on work as a high school teacher.
The revelation is particularly ironic given that only last year Kéry disparaged fellow MP Branislav Gröhling as "a plagiarist" when the latter became leader of the opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party. Kéry's Smer party has been equally strident in its condemnation of other politicians, including former prime minister Igor Matovič, who admitted plagiarising his own thesis. It has fallen strangely silent since the revelations about Kéry.
For the record, the Smer MP claims that he did not commit plagiarism, suggesting that the word-for-word resemblance is merely coincidence, but added that he wrote the thesis "during a difficult period" in his life.
You can send me your tips for good news stories about Slovakia or funny memes at: kseniia.husieva@spectator.sk. Thank you!
