Aliens coming to Insubria

At Università dell’Insubria is coming back the cycle of meetings “Science & Sci-fi”, at its second edition, which was organised by prof. Paolo Musso, academic of Philosophy of Science of the Department of Theory and Applied Science.

This year’s theme is “The image of aliens in science and sci-fi” and will be deepened in the meanings of sci-fi, thanks to the collaboration with Bonelli Editions, and in the meanings of science, with the presence of important positions like Giovanni Bignami and the support of SETI Italia.

“After last year’s good result,” says Musso, “we decided to replicate it, focusing mainly on proposals and timetables, to allow an easier participation from all those who are interested, even those who are working. This years the seven meetings in programme are dedicated to deepening the sci-fi and science side of the themes, together with the representatives of two of the most important institutions in the world in the field of space sciences: the COSPAR and the International Academy of Astronautics, and the two most important scientific experiments of this century, the LHC accelerator of CERN, which discovered Higgs boson, and Planck Satellite, which just finished the map of Big Bang. Particularly the analysis of the data of the Planck should be over by the end of 2014, so when in January there will be the meeting with Bersanelli we should be able to offer to our students and guests the new image of the universe will come out in first preview. But also Giovanni Bignami, chief of the National Institute of Astrophysics and COSPAR, will be speaking to us about searching for life in space of the Viking mission in these days, will also present us on preview of a historical event: the landing of the Rosetta probe on a comet, which will happen two days before its presentation at Insubria. The events will be completed by some scientific meetings on the SETI programme (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence), where I participate too and is looking for intelligent life in space, on the shape of signals coming from other civilizations. Apart from our usual Antonio Serra we will host two writers, Cristina Belon and Carla Monticelli, with also a monster cartoonist from Bonelli, Patrizia Mandanici, who accepted to speak in public for the first time”.

The first of these meetings will be Wednesday November 5^th at 2.30 pm at Morselli Pavillion in via Ottorino Rossi, ASL building in Varese, and Antonio Serra, creator of Nathan Never, sci-fi comics between the longest other than being a pillar of Sergio Bonelli editions,will speak about the evolution of the imagination of aliens in the sci-fi movies, especially focusing on Godzilla, which this year is 60 years from his first movie.

“It’s interesting to observe the representation of aliens, intended in its sense of diversity, because in the end it reflects fears, hopes and characteristics of the society that produce them” says Antonio Serra.

All the meetings are open for the public and participation is free.

Program of the meetings:

Wednesday November 5^th: “Godzilla and his brothers: aliens in the sci-fi movies” with Antonio Serra (Sergio Bonelli editions, creator of Nathan Never), at 2.30 pm, Morselli Pavillion, room 10TM, via Ottorino Rossi, ASL building, Varese

Friday November 14^th: “Life in cosmos between science and sci-fi”, with Giovanni Bignami (Chief of COSPAR and INAF) and Cristina Bellon (Sci-fi writer) at 5.30 pm, Main Hall, via Ravasi 2 Varese.

Wednesday December 3^rd : “Imagine the unimaginable:aliens in sci-fi comics”  with Patrizia Mandanici (Sergio Bonelli Editions, cartoonist of Nathan Never) at 2.30 pm , Morselli Pavilion, room 10TM, via Ottorino Rossi, ASL building, Varese.

Wednesday December 10^th : “Looking for extraterrestrial civilizations: the Seti programme” with Stelio Montebugnoli (representative of SETI Italia) and Claudio Maccone (Technic Chief of International Academy of Astronautics) at 5.30 pm,  Main Hall, via Ravasi 2, Varese.

Wednesday December 17^th :”How to talk about believable aliens, self-publish yourself and have success”, with Rita Carla Francesca Monticelli (Biologist, writer and expert in self-publishing) at 2.30 pm, Morselli Pavilion, room 10TM, via Ottorino Rossi, Asl building, Varese.

Wednesday January 21^st : “A new cosmology: discovers of Planck mission about the origin of the universe” with Marco Bersanelli (University of Milano, scientist responsible for the Planck satellite), at 6 pm, Main Hall, via Ravasi 2, Varese.

Wednesday January 28^th: “A new physics: the discovery of Higgs boson and its consequenices” with Lucio Rossi (Responsible of the High Radiance Project of LHC at Cern of Geneva) at 6 pm, Main Hall, via Ravasi 2, Varese.