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 […]
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 […]
A beautiful Summer festival of ideas
This July, I had the great pleasure to present my book at ALSO24, one of the most stimulating and beautiful Summer festivals in England. Set on a natural estate with its own lake and forests, the festival combines ideas, music, food and dance in a unique, three-days long blend of entertainment and encounters. It was […]
Solstice at the Standing Stones of Callanish
I had the privilege to travel to the Outer Hebrides around solstice, to speak about my book, STARBORN, and to visit several primary schools on the Isle of Lewis, on the invitation of the Callanish Stones Trust. The Callanish Stones (the “Stonhenge of the Hebrides”) are an incredible neolithic stone circle, which inspired me during […]
What We Lose When We Can’t Stargaze
In my first op-ed for TIME, I argue that losing our connection with the night sky means becoming cut off from our ancestors’ view of the universe. We are missing out on the opportunities of being inspired and awed by the cosmos that surrounds us, which is more and more urgent given the catastrophic impact […]
STARBORN at Ratio Forum
It was such a delight to present the topics of my book at RATIO, one of the largest science-themed events in Bulgaria in Nov 2023. The public were fantastic, the organizers incredibly warm and welcoming, and it was great fun to meet and hang out with the other invited speakers, Robin Ince and Louise Allcock! […]
✨ STARBORN launch events in November! ✨
I am thrilled to announce the first launch events for my new book, STARBORN – How the Stars Made Us (and Who We Would Be Without Them). It’s a mix of talks and conversations with amazing scholars, followed by book signing – I look forward to meeting my first readers then! Please do join me […]
From the Big Bang to AI
I’m delighted to have been invited to talk about AI in cosmology by the prestigious Accademia dei XL, an Italian learnt society. The talk (in Italian) has been delivered online – spanning some of the history of astronomy as well as AI, it explains how and why machine learning will be crucial to enable us […]
