With

Vincenzo Barone, curator of the exhibition “Uncertainty”, INFN researcher and professor at UPO (Università del Piemonte Orientale)

Ornella Juliana Piccini, INFN researcher at the Amaldi Research Center of Sapienza University of Rome and member of the VIRGO collaboration

Giada Mancini, INFN researcher at the Frascati National Laboratories and member of the ATLAS collaboration

Antonio Walter Riotto, professor of cosmology at the University of Geneva and INFN researcher

Paola Bonani, curator of the exhibition “Ti zero” and for Azienda Speciale Palaexpo

Moderator: Matteo Massicci, INFN – Communication Office

Why do we live in a universe made of matter? What is the matter that makes up the universe made of? How was the universe born and what is its destiny? These are some of the most fascinating questions that fundamental physics tries to answer with its theories and experiments. However, when our instruments reveal something, how can we trust their measurements and claim to have observed something new, as in the case of the discoveries of the Higgs boson and of gravitational waves? Uncertainty, indeed, permeates all of science, because it is not a simple defect of information but a fundamental and unavoidable condition of nature and of our way of studying it, as quantum mechanics has taught us. The progress of physics, of our knowledge, is therefore inevitably linked to our ability to understand and handle uncertainty.

To learn more about this topic and understand how researchers deal with uncertainty daily, follow us live on Facebook and YouTube on Monday, February 7 at 6:30 pm: we will talk about uncertainty in quantum mechanics, experimental physics and cosmology. And also in art, to understand how contemporary art elaborates and interprets the major themes and concepts of science, including the one of uncertainty. The meeting will be hosted in the halls of Palazzo delle Esposizioni, which are hosting the exhibition “Uncertainty” until February 27. At the end of the event, it will also be possible to ask questions to the researchers.

Photo: “Spirit and Opportunity” (2004), Roman Ondak, in the exposition “Ti con Zero”. Photo M3S © 2021 Azienda Speciale Palaexpo.