January 21, 2010
Like everyday, this morning I brought my little son to the kinder-garden. On the way I met Tim de Zeeuw, the Director General of ESO. From the window of my office I can see his and I had noticed he […]
January 8, 2010
While reading Rare Earths by Peter Ward, I found the following quotation: “Much of the work we do as scientists involves filling in the details about matters that are basically understood already, applying standard techniques to new specific cases. But […]
December 23, 2009
It is almost time to leave for Xmas vacations. Finishing up a few things and getting ready to leave to Italy. There are many aspects that make these holidays appealing. Among those, is an archaeological exploration foreseen for the first […]
December 22, 2009
When I was close to the end of my Master in Astronomy at the University of Padua, I do not exactly remember why I decided to do my thesis work on Supernovae, under the supervision of prof. Roberto Barbon. So, […]
December 15, 2009
Wouldn’t it be nice for a scientist to be able to proof everybody else is wrong? And if you are in astrophysics, why shouldn’t you dream about showing that the cosmological castle is built on sand and you have found […]
December 10, 2009
Today I was all day long in a Time Management training course, organized by ESO. You might wonder why on earth an astronomer should take a course in time management… but actually, more and more (especially in big organizations as […]
December 3, 2009
This is a somewhat unusual post when compared to my usual ones. In fact, today my Grand Mother Vittoria turns 100! She was born in Buia (Italy) on December 3rd, 1909. One hundred years ago, almost exactly 300 years after […]
December 2, 2009
Nota per i lettori italiani: potete trovare tutti i dettagli su “L’Ombra della Terra” in questo sito (if you read Italian, then you can find much more on “The Shadow of the Earth” in this website). This idea was born […]
November 30, 2009
At last the memorable night has come. If the weather in Bavaria stays as is now, we might have the chance of repeating the observations of the moon exactly 400 years after Galileo’s. Although Galileo has almost certainly observed the […]