October 9th: Precious If someone gives you a diamond proclaiming it symbolises how their love will last forever, be ready to reply: “Liar!” The precious diamonds are a material made exclusively of carbon. There is another material with the same exact composition: graphite (i.e. the lead in pencils). The only …
October 8th: Star Movie star Hedy Lamarr was regarded as the most beautiful woman in the world. But she was more than that. She was creative and curious. She invented an improved traffic stoplight, helped aviator Howard Hughes to speed aeroplanes by inspiring their design on fast fishes and birds, devised …
October 7th: Exhausted “There are several categories of scientists in the world; those of second or third rank do their best but never get very far. Then there is the first rank, those who make important discoveries, fundamental to scientific progress. But then there are the geniuses, like Galilei and …
October 6th: Drooling Did you know that you can push stuff with light? More than that, you can use light to trap objects and move them around. Ok, the stuff has to be small, micrometric small. And the light better be a laser. And you need a lens. But this …
October 5th: Chicken Memories. Thoughts. The precious skills required to make a delicious frittata. All stored and processed in the brain. An intricate net of nerves growing around and interconnecting of which we know a lot and yet still too little. What regulates nerves growth was only discovered in the …
October 4th: Spell The internet is populated with quirky geeky t-shirts. And great deal of them read “Physicist – noun, someone who solved a problem you didn’t know you had in a way you didn’t understand. See also wizard, magician.” Except physics had nothing to do with magic. It is …
October 3rd: Roasted Every Italian knows the importance of well-roasted beans to make the perfect coffee. Samantha Cristoforetti is no different. Except she takes her espresso in space. She has been often renamed as a woman of records: the first Italian woman in space, the longest uninterrupted flight for a …
October 2nd: Tranquil B.A. “Contact light.” N.A. “Shutdown.” B.A. “Okay. Engine stop” C.D. “We copy you down, Eagle.” N.A. “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” C.D. “Roger, Tranquility. We copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We’re breathing again. Thanks a lot.” This is the …
October 1st: Poisonous Marie Skłodowska Curie was a fighter. During the course of her life: she struggled with depression just after high school; attended a clandestine institution for higher education because women were not allowed at regular institutions; she gave up education to sustain her sister studies; once she had …
The people that know me in real life, also know that I have many –way too many– hobbies. This is a big problem because I often get very excited about a new idea, plan every detail, start the project, only to dreadfully remain stranded half way when a new idea …
