2023 Eurepean Researchers’ Night

Cnr Nano is ready to be part of the 2023 Researchers' Night a Europe-wide public event, which displays the diversity of science and its impact on citizens' daily lives in fun, inspiring ways. This year, the event will take place in 26 countries on Friday 29 September 2023.

Both Cnr Nano units, Modena and Pisa, will join the event with engaging hands-on presentations and a science bash', contributing to the local initiatives in the city center of Modena and at the Cnr Research Area of Pisa.

Cnr Nano has held an event each year since 2013, since it provides a unique opportunity for our researchers and the public to interact with each other, and to bring Cnr Nano research to a wider audience.

In Modena our researchers will be engaged in a 'Science bash' dedicated to a female scientists perspective on researach, as well as playful experiments and immersive activities. In Pisa a booth will show a series of demonstrations on nano-bio-technologial advanced research for health and medicine.

Events in Modena - within the local program Unimore-Illumina organized by the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia:

A far la scienziata comincio io. Vita e avventure di due giovani ricercatrici nel mondo ultrapiccolo e ultraveloce delle nanoscienze ("To Become a Scientist, I Start" – Life and Adventures of Two Young Researchers in the World of Nanoscience), is an informal conversation about the world of nanoscience with a female scientists perspective. Caterina Chiari and Claudia Cardoso, will share their journey as young researchers in cutting-edge science fields such as ultrafast electron microscopy and material design. During the event, they will discuss their career choices, the challenges they have faced, and the most exciting moments of their research, engaging in a dialogue with Vincenzo Grillo on the topic of gender equality in science.

On stage: Claudia Cardoso, Caterina Chiari, Vincenzo Grillo.

Time/Venue:  21:00, Room D, San Geminiano Area, via San Geminiano, 3, Modena.

L'apprendista ignorante: come gli algoritmi imparano a giocare (e a vincere) (The ignorant apprentice: how algorithms learn to play (and to win)) An interactive, interdisciplinary activity to see-first-hand an example of machine learning. Using a simple series of boxes and tokens, visitors will implement the winning strategy in the "NIM" game, and experience how the algorithm learns the winning strategy even without knowing the rules of the game!

At the booth: Fulvio Paleari and Matteo D'Alessio.

Time/Venue: 20:00 - 00:00, San Paolo Area via Camatta, 15, Modena.

Toccare le proteine a mani nude virtuali (Touching proteins with virtual bare hands) - At this booth visitors will have the opportunity to be immersed in a virtual reality and closely observe and interact with protein structures. Thanks to a VR viewer and a molecular visualization program it will be possible to see, assemble and manipulate proteins as well as touch the protein structures with "virtual" hands. It will be possible to see proteins related to human health, such as proteins responsible for Alzheimer's and proteins used in Coronavirus detection, as well as proteins used in optogenetics.

At the booth: Giorgia Brancolini, Alessandro Mossa, Serena Giberti.

Time/Venue: 20:00 - 00:00, San Paolo Area via Camatta, 15, Modena.

The event in Pisa takes place within the initiative BrightNight by Regione Toscana.

Nanomateriali per la salute (Nanomaterials for health) - Ilaria Tonazzini and colleagues will explain what nanosciences are, who are the scientists working in this multidisciplinary field and how thanks to nanotechnology it is possible to develop innovative tools. They will show nanosensors capable of rapidly diagnosing biological samples and conducting analyses on environmental and food samples. As well as novel nanobiomaterials for applications in regenerative medicine, controlled drug release, and the study human brain.

At the booth : Ilaria Tonazzini, Mariacristina Gagliardi, Sara Carpi, Sara Chiarugi, Laura Colagiorgio, Chiara De Cesari, Giorgia Tori 

Time/Venue : 16:30 - 20:30, Area della Ricerca del Cnr di Pisa, Via Moruzzi 1, Pisa.