Guided by the recent work 'The alphabet of NATURE' by Roberto Battiston, we will talk about planet Earth beyond popular suggestions, on an early summer evening. An event in the historic headquarters of the Vesuvius Observatory, on Vesuvius, to talk about it in front of a natural protagonist.
Friday 23 June 2023, from 16pmThe prestigious Historical headquarters of the Vesuvius Observatory in Ercolano (NA) the presentation of the book by Prof. Roberto Battiston "The alphabet of NATURE" in a two-way dialogue between the author and Francesca Bianco, Director of the Volcanoes Department of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), with greetings and introduction by Carlo Doglioni, President of INGV e Mauro Antonio DiVito, Director of the Vesuvian Observatory (INGV-OV).
In his work Battiston tackles the environmental issue, a decisive issue for the future of the planet, inviting readers to consider it in scientific terms, avoiding unfounded suggestions: only in this way, in fact, is it possible to understand the many aspects of a very complex phenomenon.
The afternoon at the Vesuvius Observatory will continue by accompanying the public on a visit to the historic headquarters, the historic avant-garde center for the study and monitoring of Campania volcanoes. The Vesuvian Observatory maintains a very important exhibition which contains numerous scientific instruments, photos, films, documents, where it is possible, through multimedia installations, to realize the role played by INGV in monitoring our country's active volcanoes.
At the end of the museum visit the unedited film on the 1906 eruption of Vesuvius by the Troncone brothers will be screened.
Participation is free while seats last.
〉 Roberto Battiston he is professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Trento where he carries out research in space and astroparticle physics in search of dark matter and primordial antimatter. He is the author of numerous scientific publications.
Friday, June 23, 2023 | 16:00
Vesuvius Observatory, via dell'Osservatorio, Herculaneum (NA)
"The alphabet of NATURE", ed. Rizzoli, 2022
The environmental question: an elusive, slow, contradictory theme, yet decisive for our future; a theme that we must face now, avoiding being deceived by unfounded suggestions.
The reality in which we are immersed is complex, uncertain and unpredictable, perhaps to a level never seen in the past. Faced with this complexity, however, our thinking cannot retreat: how could we live in a world that we know how to decipher only to a very small extent? The chaos of the pandemic, the broken reactions of a certain policy and the circulation of increasingly viral fake news have clearly shown that only thinking in scientific terms allows us to understand and explain the many aspects of a complex phenomenon. Precisely for this reason, science, with its limitations, its uncertainties, but also with its interpretative efficacy, should be fully accepted in public discussion. The preservation of democratic values and the strengthening of trust in institutions are only possible with the contribution of well-informed citizens. As Stephen Hawking wrote: “In a democracy, it is very important that citizens have a basic knowledge of science so that they can control how science and technology increasingly affect our lives”.
What are the right questions when faced with something we don't understand? How do you unmask a fallacy in an argument? What are the cognitive errors that condition our decisions? We have an enormous challenge ahead of us, writes Roberto Battiston, in which to capitalize on the lesson we have learned with the pandemic: the environmental question. An elusive, slow, contradictory theme, yet decisive for our future; a theme that we must face now, avoiding being deceived by unfounded suggestions. Thanks to science we have the tools to understand problems and solve them: we just have to learn how to use them in the most appropriate way.
