This article is also published in New City This conversation is now also available in Italian in the Nuova Umanita' magazine (243) The EcoOne online conference - New ways towards integral ecology -  took place from 23rd to 25th October 2020 looking at the legacy and the impact of pope Francis’ encyclical letter Laudato Si’... Continue Reading →

I have recently coauthored an article with prof Johan Buitendag (Pretoria University in South Africa) on the religious vision of nature in the light of Pope Francis' encyclical letter Laudato Si'. In the manuscript we offer an interreligious reading between Islam and Christianity on the theme of ecology. The paper entitled 'The religious vision of... Continue Reading →

I re-post this from an article I recently published in Citta' Nuova on Francis Collins and the Templeton Prize Il curriculum scientifico di Francis Collins è sicuramente tra i più prestigiosi al mondo. Direttore dei National Institutes of Health (NIH), Collins ha guidando uno del progetti scientifici più ambiziosi dell’ultimo secolo, The Human Genome Project, che ha permesso... Continue Reading →

I re-post this entry from the sister blog Wonderverse Learning a new language is no easy task but it can be a lot of fun! I find particularly fascinating to see how our brain gradually gets to grips with new rules, pronunciation and idiosyncrasy until the magic happens and one just ‘gets it’.   With... Continue Reading →

Ripropongo questo articolo pubblicato su Citta' Nuova nel numero di giugno 2020 sul documento vaticano sull'acqua Aqua fons vitae Simbolo di vita e di purificazione, la sua presenza discreta e preziosa accompagna i mille gesti della nostra quotidianità. Pochi elementi naturali sono così evocativi di significati come l’acqua. Giustamente il poverello di Assisi ebbe a... Continue Reading →

The current COVID-19 health emergency is changing our lives. Lifestyles have been disrupted, relationships put on hold, and financial stability is at risk. We all feel vulnerable and insecure in these gloomy days. Yet, we are witnessing unprecedented solidarity and a renewed sense of interdependence is penetrating our collective consciousness. Now more than ever we... Continue Reading →

This post was first published in its sister blog wonderverse and is meant to be a sequel of the one entitled “A surprising LEGO world” in which I argued that molecules are holistic entities and can never be considered “just-a-bunch-of-atoms”. When a new molecule is formed in fact some of its properties are often new... Continue Reading →

This blog post was first published in the sister blog Wonderverse Leggi in italiano sotto When I was a kid, playing with LEGO was one of my favorite games. I was deeply fascinated by the seemingly endless possibilities for creation, starting from a relatively small set of simple building blocks. Growing up I found a similar... Continue Reading →

This blog post was first published in the sister blog wonderverse Along our journey through Wonderverse we have showcased so many different faces of the beauty and relational character of the natural world we live in. From the intricate workings of our brains and its connection to happiness to the sophisticated mechanism of pollination of wasps and... Continue Reading →

This article was first published in Citta' Nuova The ancient Greeks had two words to talk about time, krónos e kairós. The first to express its chronological flow, while the second, kairós, could be translated as the critical or opportune time, but also to express a particular moment in which the eternal seems to enter... Continue Reading →

I write this post from Barcelona (Spain) where I am attending an international scientific conference. The focus of the meeting is on artificial molecular assemblies wlth bio-applications. Often such artificial systems try to mimic shapes and functions of Nature with extraordinary results both in terms of technological application as well as aesthetic. I usually set... Continue Reading →

Leggi in italiano We often think of science as a neat sequence of logical inferences, a rather cold, rational exercise of the mind to unravel the mysteries of the cosmos. This is undoubtedly part of the game of doing science, but as a scientist myself I know for experience that there is also another face... Continue Reading →