Fondazione Sigma-Tau
Encyclopedia
Aims
Fondazione Sigma-Tau is an institution that aims to promote and share scientific knowledge and interdisciplinary dialogue between branches of learning. It was created as a charitable organization and is recognized by law with Presidential Decree No. 648 of 4 August 1986. Chaired by Silvia Cavazza, Sigma-TauSigma-Tau
Sigma-Tau Industrie Farmaceutiche Riunite, referred to as Sigma-Tau, emerges in 1957 from the entrepreneurial initiative of research chemist Claudio Cavazza...
acts as a national and international point of reference for research development, cultural debate and the promotion of scientific progress, introducing for the first time, the concepts of entirety and complexity normally vested in the humanities.
Fondazione Sigma-Tau fosters outreach and development activities, such as seminars, conferences, lectures, round tables and events, in collaboration with universities, research institutes, and the world of culture and science.
Projects
Since 1989, Fondazione Sigma-Tau has launched important projects and many conferences and meetings from which a vast number of publications have arisen, such as the volumes published by BariBari
Bari is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas...
based Editore Laterza, from the Lezioni Italiane (Italian Lessons) cycle, and the proceedings from SpoletoScienza in particular.
Spoleto Science
Spoleto Science festival (SpoletoScienza) – the precursor of the many outdoor literature and philosophy festivals, and venue par excellence of cultural contamination – was established in 1989 as an add-on to the banner of the Festival dei Due Mondi (Festival of the two worlds), with the début title What is knowledge? (Che cos’è la conoscenza?); seemingly simple yet at the same time strongly representative of the character of the scientific and intellectual world. It became an event able to capture the curiosity of the public and anticipate trends in thinking.Each year in the halls of the cloister
Cloister
A cloister is a rectangular open space surrounded by covered walks or open galleries, with open arcades on the inner side, running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth...
of San Nicolò, the most important names in global scientific learning and artistic creativity meet to compare practices and respective languages.
Topics discussed vary from the debate Mente, Corpo e Linguaggio: cosa ne pensano i ... Robot? (Mind, body and language: what do robots think?) in 2003, to Indagine sul futuro di Gaia (Investigation into the future of Gaia) on global climate change organized in 2006, followed a year later with a symposium
Symposium
In ancient Greece, the symposium was a drinking party. Literary works that describe or take place at a symposium include two Socratic dialogues, Plato's Symposium and Xenophon's Symposium, as well as a number of Greek poems such as the elegies of Theognis of Megara...
on La Scienza nell’era della sua comunicazione digitale (Science in the era of digital communication), and the 2009 and 2010 editions that focused on the themes of energy, disease and ageing.
Fondazione Sigma-Tau Laboratory
Active from 1996 to 2006 as a Spoleto Science festival focus area, the laboratory not only analyzes the elements that identify and characterize the medical profession, but also the more sensitive aspects in the field of conditions that affect the human body; studying them for metabolic and energetic profiling in particular.The round tables of Fondazione Sigma-Tau Laboratory, which often used work groups and role-playing
Role-playing
Role-playing refers to the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role...
, were geared to increasing and spreading information on themes such as the doctor-patient relationship and error management in medicine, cancer as a metabolic syndrome, and also the testing of financial management models in the national health system.
Italian lessons
Following the Anglo-American lectureLecture
thumb|A lecture on [[linear algebra]] at the [[Helsinki University of Technology]]A lecture is an oral presentation intended to present information or teach people about a particular subject, for example by a university or college teacher. Lectures are used to convey critical information, history,...
model, and paraphrasing Italo Calvino
Italo Calvino
Italo Calvino was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy , the Cosmicomics collection of short stories , and the novels Invisible Cities and If on a winter's night a traveler .Lionised in Britain and the United States,...
, the Italian lessons project (Lezioni italiane), active since 1991, offers informal seminars at university campuses with a scientist from Italy or elsewhere. A wide audience of non-specialists are introduced to a cutting-edge scientific or philosophical research topic, based on European directives of continuing education and using non-technical language. The project has produced on average two titles every year, published by Laterza
Laterza
Laterza is a town and comune in the province of Taranto, part of the Apulia region of southeast Italy....
and translated into other languages.
Permanent forum on scientific reasoning
Launched in 1999 with the round table, Biotechnologies of germ cells – opportunities and limits (Biotecnologie delle cellule germinali − opportunità e limiti), the forum aims to grow a debate in ItalyItaly
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
on the social effects of scientific research, through a discussion that helps to ensure a more complete understanding of the decisions made and shared.
Science on-stage
This project was the brainchild of Luca Ronconi, then director, and Sergio Escobar, of the Piccolo Teatro di Milano, that emerged from the need to refresh the dramatic structure through a genuine intellectual challenge. The project was launched in 1999 with the theatrical interpretation and staging of scientific texts. What this immediately revealed, as confirmed by Giulio Giorello, professor of PhilosophyPhilosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
of Science at the University of Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, was “one of the most powerful means with which to come to terms with the natural and technical transformations of reality, and one of the most extraordinary opportunities for achieving a truly universal community.”
Lessons on the Medicine of Complexity
An international symposiumSymposium
In ancient Greece, the symposium was a drinking party. Literary works that describe or take place at a symposium include two Socratic dialogues, Plato's Symposium and Xenophon's Symposium, as well as a number of Greek poems such as the elegies of Theognis of Megara...
in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
on the interaction between the metabolic system and the DNA of cells in 1999, marked the launch of the project Lessons on the Medicine of Complexity (Lezioni sulla Medicina della Complessità), aimed at understanding the current, innovative prospects offered by the metabolic approach to disease, in the field of research of degenerative pathology and the limitation of damage caused by ageing
Ageing
Ageing or aging is the accumulation of changes in a person over time. Ageing in humans refers to a multidimensional process of physical, psychological, and social change. Some dimensions of ageing grow and expand over time, while others decline...
. In November 2010, 11 years after its début, the project celebrated Mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA is the DNA located in organelles called mitochondria, structures within eukaryotic cells that convert the chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, adenosine triphosphate...
Day with a conference attended by Masashi Tanaka, leader of the Core Research Team of Genomics for Longevity and Health at Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology.
Continuing Education in Medicine (CEM)
During 2002-2006, Fondazione Sigma-Tau established a program of continuing education in medicine, for the vocational training and retraining of public and private health professionals, which includes 150 training credits.On the radio: Moebius
Continuing with the central theme promoted by Fondazione Sigma-Tau, science communication had top billing on the scientific program broadcast on the Radio 24 radio station with Moebius on air.Latest projects
The carnitine website Carnitina Official Site launched in 2010 is one of the most important sources of information online on carnitine worldwide. Promoted by Fondazione Gianni Benzi and Fondazione Sigma-Tau, the website can be found at http://www.carnitinaofficialsite.it.Spoleto Science Festival Publications
- Alterando il Destino dell’umanità (2006)
- Il governo della scienza (2003)
- La nuova Odissea (2002)
- Aree di contagio (2000)
- Limiti e frontiere della scienza (1999)
- La medicina di Darwin (1998)
- Il patto col diavolo (1997)
- Il sapere della guarigione (1996)
- In principio era la cura (1995)
- Il caso e la libertà (1994)
- La passione del conoscere (1993)
- Immagini e metafore della scienza (1992)
- La narrazione delle origini (1991)
- Che cos'è la conoscenza? (1990)
Publications from Italian Lessons
- EBM. Medicina basata sull'evoluzione (2007)
- Scienza e politica. La lotta per il consenso (2005)
- Penna, pennello e bacchetta. Le tre invidie del matematico (2004)
- Tempo delle cose, tempo della vita, tempo dell'anima (2003)
- Galileo e il fotodiodo. Cervello, complessità e coscienza (2003)
- La fabbrica delle storie (2002)
- Davanti alla morte (2002)
- I giovani pazienti di Galeno (2001)
- La mente non funziona così (2001)
- Le logiche del delirio. Ragione, affetti, follia (2000)
- La medicina come scienza filosofica (1998)
- Gene, organismo e ambiente (1998)
- La svolta semiotica (1998)
- Il calderone di Medea. La sperimentazione sul vivente nell’Antichità (1996)
- Sonno & sogno (1996)
- L’avvenire della psicoanalisi e la causalità psichica (1995)
- Biologia e filosofia della mente (1995)
- Oltre l’interpretazione (1994)
- Siamo soli? Implicazioni filosofiche della scoperta della vita extraterrestre (1994)
- Le leggi del caos (1993)
- Le politiche della ragione (1993)
- Modelli psicoanalitici. Mito, passione, memoria (1992)
- Il pragmatismo: una questione aperta (1992)
- Perchè il mondo è matematico? (1992)
- Un know-how per l'etica (1992)
- Il testo del tempo (1992)
- Ascesa e declino degli intellettuali in Europa (1992)
Fondazione Sigma-Tau conferences – participating Nobel Prize winners
- Julius AxelrodJulius AxelrodJulius Axelrod was an American biochemist. He won a share of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1970 along with Bernard Katz and Ulf von Euler...
(New York, 30/5/1912 – Rockville, 29/12/2004) Biochemist
- James W. BlackJames W. BlackSir James Whyte Black, OM, FRS, FRSE, FRCP was a Scottish doctor and pharmacologist. He spent his career both as researcher and as an academic at several universities. Black established the physiology department at the University of Glasgow, where he became interested in the effects of adrenaline...
(Uddingston, Scotland, 14/07/1924 – 22/03/2010) Pharmacologist
- Renato DulbeccoRenato DulbeccoRenato Dulbecco is an Italian virologist who won a 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on reverse transcriptase. In 1973 he was awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University together with Theodore Puck and Harry Eagle. Dulbecco was the recipient of the Selman A...
(Catanzaro, 22/2/1914) Biologist
- John Carew EcclesJohn Carew EcclesJohn Carew Eccles, AC FRS FRACP FRSNZ FAAS was an Australian neurophysiologist who won the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the synapse. He shared the prize with Andrew Huxley and Alan Lloyd Hodgkin....
(Melbourne, 27/1/1903 - Locarno, 2/5/1997) Neurophysiologist
- Gerald M. Edelman
(New York, 1/7/1929) Biologist
- Walter GilbertWalter GilbertWalter Gilbert is an American physicist, biochemist, molecular biology pioneer, and Nobel laureate.-Biography:Gilbert was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 21, 1932...
(Boston, 21/3/1932) Biochemist and physicist
- Paul GreengardPaul GreengardPaul Greengard is an American neuroscientist best known for his work on the molecular and cellular function of neurons. In 2000, Greengard, Arvid Carlsson and Eric Kandel were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries concerning signal transduction in the nervous...
(New York, 11/12/1925) Neuroscientist
- David H. HubelDavid H. HubelDavid Hunter Hubel is the John Franklin Enders Professor of Neurobiology, Emeritus, at Harvard Medical School. He was co-recipient with Torsten Wiesel of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for their discoveries concerning information processing in the visual system; the prize was...
(27/02/1926, Windsor, Canada) Doctor and neuroscientist
- Louis J. Ignarro
(Brooklyn, N.Y. 31/5/1941) Biochemist
- Eric Richard Kandel
(Vienna, 7/11/1929) Neurologist, psychiatrist and neuroscientist
- Joshua LederbergJoshua LederbergJoshua Lederberg ForMemRS was an American molecular biologist known for his work in microbial genetics, artificial intelligence, and the United States space program. He was just 33 years old when he won the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering that bacteria can mate and...
(Montclair, New Jersey, 23/5/1925 – New York, 2/02/2008). Microbiologist, one of the founders of modern biotechnology
- Rita Levi Montalcini
(Turin, 22/4/1909) Scientist and Italian senator
- Erwin NeherErwin NeherErwin Neher is a German biophysicist.Erwin Neher studied physics at the Technical University of Munich from 1963 to 1966. In 1966, He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study in the US...
(20/5/1944, Landsberg am Lech) Physicist and biophysicist
- Ilya PrigogineIlya PrigogineIlya, Viscount Prigogine was a Russian-born naturalized Belgian physical chemist and Nobel Laureate noted for his work on dissipative structures, complex systems, and irreversibility.-Biography :...
(Moscow, 25/1/1917 - Bruselles, 28/5/2003) Chemist and physicist
- Stanley B. PrusinerStanley B. PrusinerStanley Ben Prusiner is an American neurologist and biochemist. Currently the director of the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases at University of California, San Francisco . Prusiner discovered prions, a class of infectious self-reproducing pathogens primarily or solely composed of protein...
(28/5/1942, Des Moines) Biochemist and neurologist
- Robin J. Warren
(Adelaide, 11 June 1937) Scientist and doctor
- Torsten N. Wiesel
(Uppsala, 1924) Doctor and neuroscientist