The image of the footprints is the starting point for the 2023 edition of the Science Festival, in Genoa, from October 26 to November 5, and is the “visual cue” to talk about science. They are imprints that intertwine, between the past and the future, imprints that say we are not alone, and “what seems most noteworthy is that among these imprints a more persistent trace is mingled…”, to paraphrase Eco (“The Name of the Rose,” Pompeani 1980). .
It will be a journey of experience with a demanding audience of all ages and the enthusiasm of 300 guests and 500 young people participating in 250 events in a mission aimed at bringing basic and applied scientific research and new technological scenarios to everyone. Science, like the light sung by Leonard Cohen (Anthem, 1992), will find glimmers of light everywhere, tracing the footprints of light like the breath of pages turned or leafing through a book in Genoa, the Book Capital 2023.
In the year of the centenary of the National Research Council, the slogan “research from the future” resonates with the centenary of Italo Calvino, who managed to unite literature and research, as “agents of transforming the world” (A. Asor Rosa, “Style Calvino”, Einaudi 2001). . At this historical moment, it was an important choice to open the 21st Science Festival with Michelangelo Pistoletto and Marco Paolini, direct interpreters of the relationship between art and science in the collective path to building a better future. Pistoletto, uniting factory and culture in stages around the world on the occasion of his 90th birthday, will hold a judicial lecture on the relationship between art and science, a topic he addressed in his book “The Formula of Creation” (Citadelarte 2022), founded on the idea that “art is the most sensitive expression Integrated from thought, it is time for the artist to take upon himself the responsibility of putting all examples of the social fabric into communication” (Manifesto ProgettoArte 1994).
We will continue to escalate with Paolini, who from the permanent and mobile laboratory of “La Fabbrica del Mondo” will leave his mark on historical issues such as energy, environmental crisis, plunder of natural resources and climate change, going further. Evolution of types and technologies. Word will then spread to scientists, from astrophysicists Betty Hartmann and Anita Wojnar to cosmologist Thomas Hertog, a collaborator with Stephen Hawking. From the frontiers of the universe to archaeological science, Marcela Frangipani will discuss the birth of the concept of society, starting in Anatolia, where the world’s oldest public building is located, and nuclear physicist Elisabetta Boareto will explain how the atoms in tree rings tell us about the climate of the past.
Neuroscientist Michela Mattioli will narrate the process of brain imprinting, between brain plasticity and self-repair, while Robert Stickgold and Antonio Zadra will propose a new theory of dreams and memory. Genetic and ecological footprint, global warming and the alarming decline in biodiversity, artificial intelligence and new algorithms, quantum computers, humanization of data and robotic devices, which are already among us to improve the quality of life for those with sight, physical and mental problems, are examples. on themes among many other solos. It is impossible to mention them all. So, to start your science-fest immersion, put “Footprints” on the turntable, a classic jazz piece between avant-garde and jam sessions, by Wayne Shorter (“Blue Note”, 1967). Happy listening and happy science festival.
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Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Science Festival
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