LOST IN THOUGHTS
No man is an island
History of a denied Nobel: Rosalind Franklin
If someone asked you: ”Who discovered the shape of the DNA?", you would answer "Watson and Crick", but it is not so.
Rosalind Franklin was born in 1920. With a scholarship she joined St. Paul in 1932, who had the most modern scientific equipment. She worked many hours alone to make progress faster. In 1938 she was admitted to the University of Cambridge, where she studied chemistry and physics. A few years later she graduated from the King's College in London, where she began working on the analysis of the structure of DNA with Gosling and Wilkins, with whom the reports were very tense, both because of the different characters, and because of Wilkins' overly paternalistic attitude, together with a widespread machismo present in most of the English universities of the time. In the same period, another couple at the Cavendish Lab, in Cambridge, worked on the form of DNA: Crick and Watson.
On May 1, 1952, Rosalind took Photograph 51, the most important photo in the history of DNA, a photo that Wilkins unwisely showed at Watson. It was proof that Watson was looking. On April 25, 1953, he published "Nature", the famous scientific journal of the time, the article in which Watson and Crick announced the discovery of the century, beating King's College. Rosalind died in 1958 due to a tumor, probably due to the long exposure to X-rays. When in 1962 Crick, Watson and Wilkins won the Nobel Prize, only Wilkins quickly hurried to Rosalind, without any tribute to Rosalind's decisive contributions. Moreover, in Watson's book is described as treacherous, a portrait away from reality because Rosalind was a private woman and little understood by her colleagues, will this be forgotten and diminished?
In short, one of the greatest research in the scientific field became a race against time, a race for merit, a woman who worked with tenacity, in isolation for about two years became one of "the six women who changed the world". The Rosalind’s case is not isolated. Other great women have been stolen, like Jocelyn Burnell or Lise Meitner, but we can not say that the story of Rosalind is the story of a defeat, because, even without the recognition that would have been right to receive, it has done the same: she made a big step forward for humanity.
Di Letizia Damiani e Carmen Giannini
Babel Tower: a melting-pot
Everyone knows the fascinating myth of the Babel Tower, but what’s its full metaphorical potential? Of course it is a legend that proposes to explain why does humanity speak so many different languages, though it isn't the only possible interpretation, just like thousands of other myths whose main attractiveness is represented by the possibility to read them in a huge variety of different critiques and observations. In fact, the myth of the gigantic Tower is one of them: it opens a wide range of interpretations. The first thing that comes to the mind of those who want to analyse it is that at the centre of the narration there is the human condition with its historical, traditional and mythical themes as one of the main subjects: indeed it is clearly explained by the point of view of the Jewish people and society. They in fact believed that humanity was united by the same fate and that each individual was subjected to it and submitted to mortality.
Moreover, mankind went through a phase of great stability and unity, guaranteed by the use of a common language and a common speech, to a phase of decay and division. Why did this happen? Because men began to strongly feel a compelling thirst for power and decided to build the greatest tower ever, with the ambitious aim of reaching the supreme power of God, to be finally as powerful as him. This action reoccurs in a wide variety of myths and legends, let's just think about the Greek mythology, in which the theme of hubris and arrogance has a fundamental importance. In addition, the theme of haughtiness is also present in other biblical events, and the main representative is Satan, the fallen angel, who convinces Adam and Eve to sin with him and to challenge God’s mercy.
Similarly, in this myth another opposition between construction and destruction can be noticed, especially when God discovers men’s audacity and he punishes them destroying their Tower. How does he quench his wrath? He makes them speak so many different languages so they can’t understand each other and this leads to the destruction of their great and admirable work, which crumbles down to its foundations.
The story of the Babel Tower has influenced so many artists through the centuries; one of them for example is Pieter Bruegel the Elder, who was charmed by this spellbinding myth and so he reproduced two paintings of it, adapting the setting to the Northern European Renaissance one.
Di Carmen Giannini, Letizia Damiani, Alessia De Maria
Moreover, mankind went through a phase of great stability and unity, guaranteed by the use of a common language and a common speech, to a phase of decay and division. Why did this happen? Because men began to strongly feel a compelling thirst for power and decided to build the greatest tower ever, with the ambitious aim of reaching the supreme power of God, to be finally as powerful as him. This action reoccurs in a wide variety of myths and legends, let's just think about the Greek mythology, in which the theme of hubris and arrogance has a fundamental importance. In addition, the theme of haughtiness is also present in other biblical events, and the main representative is Satan, the fallen angel, who convinces Adam and Eve to sin with him and to challenge God’s mercy.
Similarly, in this myth another opposition between construction and destruction can be noticed, especially when God discovers men’s audacity and he punishes them destroying their Tower. How does he quench his wrath? He makes them speak so many different languages so they can’t understand each other and this leads to the destruction of their great and admirable work, which crumbles down to its foundations.
The story of the Babel Tower has influenced so many artists through the centuries; one of them for example is Pieter Bruegel the Elder, who was charmed by this spellbinding myth and so he reproduced two paintings of it, adapting the setting to the Northern European Renaissance one.
Di Carmen Giannini, Letizia Damiani, Alessia De Maria
Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Today, there are a lot of strong and independent women. They fight everyday to be respected in a society dominated by men. But sometimes things don't go the way they are expected. Today I'm going to talk about a special woman. Her name is Jocelyn Bell Burnell.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell was born in Lurgar, Northern Ireland. She grew up and attended the Preparatory Department of Lurgar College, where she, like the other girls, was not allowed to study science until her parents, and others, decided to protest against the school policy. After that she went to the Mount School, a school in York, England. She graduated from the University of Glasgow with a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Philosophy.
Now she is a antrophysicist and she became really famous after making an important discovery. In fact, Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovered the first radio pulsars, in 1967. She was working with Antony Hewish, who was awarded the Nobel Prize, along with the astronomer Martin Ryle. Bell Burnell was excluded from the recipients of the prize, despite the fact that she was the first to observe the pulsars!
This is what upsets a lot of people! A lot of women have to deal with this kind of treatment. And it's not fair. Luckily she became a really powerful women and an amazing scientist. In 2014, she was elected President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the first woman to hold that office. In 2016, the Institute of Physics renamed their award for early-career female physicists the Jocelyn Bell Burnell Medal and Prize.
In conclusion, even if she didn't get the Nobel Price, she should be really proud of herself: she is a symbol to all the women in the world.
Di Giovanni Russo
Jocelyn Bell Burnell was born in Lurgar, Northern Ireland. She grew up and attended the Preparatory Department of Lurgar College, where she, like the other girls, was not allowed to study science until her parents, and others, decided to protest against the school policy. After that she went to the Mount School, a school in York, England. She graduated from the University of Glasgow with a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Philosophy.
Now she is a antrophysicist and she became really famous after making an important discovery. In fact, Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovered the first radio pulsars, in 1967. She was working with Antony Hewish, who was awarded the Nobel Prize, along with the astronomer Martin Ryle. Bell Burnell was excluded from the recipients of the prize, despite the fact that she was the first to observe the pulsars!
This is what upsets a lot of people! A lot of women have to deal with this kind of treatment. And it's not fair. Luckily she became a really powerful women and an amazing scientist. In 2014, she was elected President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the first woman to hold that office. In 2016, the Institute of Physics renamed their award for early-career female physicists the Jocelyn Bell Burnell Medal and Prize.
In conclusion, even if she didn't get the Nobel Price, she should be really proud of herself: she is a symbol to all the women in the world.
Di Giovanni Russo
THE FATHER OF ALL SUPERHEROES IS DEAD
Perhaps he wasn’t born with super powers but he certainly had the power to create them. He was Stan Lee and his name will be always written in history. The famous comic writer passed away on the 12th November 2018, at the age of 95 in Los Angeles due to a pulmonary inflammation. He was inspired by his year of military service for his first comic, Captain America, published in 1941.
It started the Marvel Comics era. With the birth of the DC Comics in 1952 and its new characters like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, Lee needed to create new characters just like Spiderman and The Incredible Hulk. Do you know that the Hulk’s original color was grey? In fact, its green color was a printer issue. Do you also know that, before writing about the fantastic lives of these fictional characters, Lee wrote antemortem obituaries for celebrities at an undisclosed news office in New York? He left this work because it was “too depressing”.
Despite his fame, he was a modest person; in fact in 2014 he said to the Chicago Tribune: “I used to think what I did was not very important, people are building bridges, engaging in medical research, and here I was doing stories about fictional people who do extraordinary, crazy things and wear costumes. But I suppose I have come to realize that enetertainment is not heasly dismissed.” Lee also created or co-created Black Panther, X Man, The Mighty Thor, Iron Man, Deardevil and the recent Ant Man. With his characters he gave us a lot of lessons, for example the famous phrase: ”With great power there must also come great responsibility.” Stan Lee was as extraordinary as the characters he created.
Di Santina Sacco
It started the Marvel Comics era. With the birth of the DC Comics in 1952 and its new characters like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, Lee needed to create new characters just like Spiderman and The Incredible Hulk. Do you know that the Hulk’s original color was grey? In fact, its green color was a printer issue. Do you also know that, before writing about the fantastic lives of these fictional characters, Lee wrote antemortem obituaries for celebrities at an undisclosed news office in New York? He left this work because it was “too depressing”.
Despite his fame, he was a modest person; in fact in 2014 he said to the Chicago Tribune: “I used to think what I did was not very important, people are building bridges, engaging in medical research, and here I was doing stories about fictional people who do extraordinary, crazy things and wear costumes. But I suppose I have come to realize that enetertainment is not heasly dismissed.” Lee also created or co-created Black Panther, X Man, The Mighty Thor, Iron Man, Deardevil and the recent Ant Man. With his characters he gave us a lot of lessons, for example the famous phrase: ”With great power there must also come great responsibility.” Stan Lee was as extraordinary as the characters he created.
Di Santina Sacco