STARBORN named “Book of the Week”
I’m delighted and honoured that ⭐️STARBORN⭐️ has been selected as a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week – with the amazing voice acting of Khalid Abdalla lending emotion and intensity to the text, in the outstanding abridgement by Anna Magnusson. If you are based in the UK, you can catch the five episodes on […]
On the indiscriminate adoption of AI
A (possibly controversial) opinion piece I wrote is published today on Nature Astronomy: “The indiscriminate adoption of AI threatens the foundations of academia” I argue that artificial intelligence offers much promise, but its use in scientific research should be restrained so that the primary aim of academia — advancing knowledge for humans — is safeguarded. […]
The Unwetlands
🌿 “The Unwetlands”: Thrilled to have been awarded a grant by the Journalism Science Alliance to work with the amazing Elisabetta Tola and her team of investigative journalists. Together with the independent media outlet FACTA.eu we have been awarded funding for the joint project “The Unwetlands. A Satellite-Based Investigation into Italy’s Lost Wetlands.” The project […]
Cresciuti dalle Stelle
Felice ed emozionato di presentare il mio libro, “Il Cielo Stellato Sopra di Noi” a Locarno, mia città natale, il prossimo 27 novembre! 💫 💫 💫 Una serata speciale, non solo per me: tutte le donazioni saranno a favore dell’Associazione Triangolo, che supporta i pazienti oncologici ❤️ . Spero di vedervi numerosi, per scoprire come […]
Umani ed Algoritmi
In occasione della giornata mondiale dell’ascolto, il 23 ottobre 2025 ho avuto il piacere di intervenire ad un evento gratuito “Umani ed Algoritmi”: come l’intelligenza artificiale sta cambiando le nostre relazioni, in collaborazione con la Dr Elisa Cunial. Questo bell’articolo uscito sul Bo Live cattura bene ciò di cui abbiamo discusso.
Il Cielo Stellato Sopra di Noi
I’m excited to share the titillating cover of the Italian translation of my book, STARBORN, which will be published by il Saggiatore S.r.l on March 14th with the inspired title “The Starry Sky Above Us”, a quote from Immanuel Kant’s “Critique of Practical Reason”. I’m very grateful to Luisa Doplicher and Daniele A. Gewurz for […]
Looking back, looking forward
Yesterday’s group Xmas party (a bit early in the season, granted, as some of the team are off today to visit CCA at the Flatiron Institute) was the opportunity to thank everyone in the group for a great year together.I am grateful not only for the science we did together with these young and talented […]
Inside the Infinite Monkey Cage
A few weeks ago, I had the rare pleasure of recording an episode of one of my favourite shows/podcasts – The Infinite Monkey Cage, hosted by Brian Cox and Robin Ince, with comedian John Bishop and astronomer Maggie Aderin-Pocock as guests alongside myself. Absolutely mesmerizing to be on the other side of that mic, and […]
Da Isaac a Elon: il nostro futuro è fra le stelle?
Un intervento a Mondofuturo 2024, serie di eventi che accompagnano il Trieste Science + Fiction Festival. Una versione della mia presentazione è stata pubblicata da TuttoScienze del 30 ottobre 2024 su LaStampa. Il leggendario Ciclo della Fondazione di Isaac Asimov dipinge un lontano futuro in cui l’umanità ha conquistato la Galassia. A questo e ad […]
Machine learning pipeline for direct detection experiments
After painstakingly thorough work, I am pleased to see our new paper, led by Andre Scaffidi, out today as part of the DARWIN direct dark matter detection collaboration! 👏 We use a semi-supervised anomaly detection pipeline, comprising of a variational autoencoder trained on simulated background events and a classifier distinguishing between electronic and nuclear recoils, […]
Living on Earth: we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the stars
I’ve had the pleasure to return as a guest to Living on Earth, Public Radio’s Environmental News Magazine, to discuss how the stars have shaped who we are, and how they are likely to show us the way forward amidst the ongoing ecological emergency. It’s been great to discuss these topics with host Jenni Doering […]
