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An Explosion of Curiosity The conferences and conventions of Genoa's 5th Science Festival, scheduled from the 25th October to 6th November 2007, will be devoted to the exploration of the numerous different aspects of scientific curiosity; their richness and variety of contents challenge the latest years' editions. The great primatologist Jane Goodall will give us an account of her long-standing direct experience with chimpanzee and gorillas: we’ll try to understand what makes them so similar and, at the same time, so deeply different from us. Marc Hauser, ethnologist and psychologist from Harvard University, is going to present at Genoa's Festival his discovery of a possible universal moral grammar, that we partially share with our closest relatives. Outstanding physicists and historian of French Science Jean-Marc Lévy-Leblond is going to talk about the limits of scientific knowledge, and the French biologist Michel Morange is going to talk about recent discussions on the different paradigms of sciences of life, particularly after the mapping of human genome. Great American philosopher Hilary Putnam is going to tell a brilliant conference on scientific naturalism. Some of the most important and internationally renowned experts in the field of modern Physics are going to come to the Festival, among them: Freeman Dyson, the visionary physicist and mathematician from Princeton and Jack Steinberger, the Nobel prize winner from CERN in Geneva. We will also enjoy the presence of the brilliant physicist and expert communicator Lawrence Krauss, who will be the protagonist of a conference on parallel worlds, hidden dimensions and areas of existence going beyond our perception. The long-term effects of energy consumption on our planet's climate will be tackled by the conference of Sylvie Joussaume, Director of the French National Institute of Sciences of the Universe (INSU CNRS). The historian Louis Godart, the linguist Tullio De Mauro, Henri Giordan, responsible for the LEM Project (Languages in Europe and the Mediterranean), Xavier North, General Delegate for the French language and the languages spoken in France, and the European Commissioner for multilingualism Leonard Orban will be discussing on the linguistic differences existing in Europe, trying to explain us in which way these numerous languages actually represent a useful resource for the unification process of the "Old Continent". A more easy-going approach, but not less important presence will be Marc Abrahams, who is going to bring with him one of his well-known Ig-Nobel Awards. Palaeontologist Ian Tattersall from the American Museum of New York will present latest appealing progresses concerning the research on human evolution and the species that have co-existed with Homo sapiens up to recent years. Some particularly awaited scientific communication speeches at the Genoese meeting will be held by paediatrician Arnold Munnich, geneticist and great expert of genetic handicaps in children, by the neuroscientist Julian Paul Keenan, director of the Cognitive Neuro-Imaging Laboratory at Montclair University (USA), and by Aldo Naouri, paediatrician, psychoanalyst and expert of family relations. A large number of African scientists are going to participate in the Festival too: Almamy Konté, Director of Research for the Scientific Research Office of Senegal; the anthropologist David Mbora; Zohra Ben Lakhdar, Tunisian researcher and physicist. We will enjoy the presence of another group of world-renowned experts from Italy who have been chosen for the originality of their ongoing researches, as well as for their creativity in facing the main theme of the Festival: Curiosity. We will enjoy the participation of Salvatore Settis, director of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa; Gian Enrico Rusconi, political philosopher; Stefano Zamagni, economist; Francesco De Martini, quantum physicist; Guido Barbujani, geneticist; Giorgio Vallortigara, ethologist; Alessandro Minelli, evolutionary biologist; Furio Honsell, mathematician; Achille Varzi, logical mathematician; Mauro Dorato, philosopher of science. Scientists who have participated in the Festival since its beginnings and have by now become well-established friends of the event are going to be with us again: Enrico Alleva, Enrico Bellone, Giovanni Bignami, Edoardo Boncinelli, Luigi Luca Cavalli Sforza, Giulio Giorello, Margherita Hack, Piergiorgio Odifreddi, Domenico Parisi, Sandro Stringari, Elisabetta Visalberghi, and many more. We will also enjoy the presence of those Italian researchers who are less known by the general public, but who have honoured, in Italy or elsewhere, the Italian scientific community with their findings, e.g. Luigi Lugiato, Federica Migliardo and Sandra Savaglio, who have received important international awards for their studies in the field of physics. The programme of the conference will be enriched by a series of more informal meetings such as the Scientific Coffees, meetings at the Aquarium of Genoa and thematic cycles such as the series of conferences dedicated to the amazing “lives of scientists” of the past. > Back to top |
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