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 →

Leggi sotto in italiano Scientific knowledge puts us in the conditions to contemplate more closely the beauty of things. Focusing on the harmony, the order and sometimes the counter-intuitiveness of the universe makes us perceive the presence of an immense mystery upon which everything rests. But it is simplicity, rather than ingenuity, sometimes the source... Continue Reading →

Leggi in Italiano This year's Templeton Prize goes to the Brazilian-born theoretical physicist Marcelo Gleiser. Scientific American has just published an interview with the scientist (first Latin American to get the prize) in which emerges his contribution to affirm life's spiritual dimension. I thought I would share with you some of the passages of the... Continue Reading →