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We live in a country, Italy,
where scientific knowledge...

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research and science are not
understood as part of the culture.

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Our culture is still essentially
literary, philosophic, juridical.

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This is noticeable
in several aspects,

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first of all in our schools,

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where science does not play
an important role in the evaluation.

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Latin, Italian, ancient Greek
are the subjects that matter,

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and of course they are
extremely formative,

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but in the choices we have
to take every day,

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for our lives and health,

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we cannot use Latin or Italian,
we have to use scientific knowledge.

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When we use our mobile phones,
or choose certain medicines,

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to take regardless
of prescriptions,

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the ideas we have about
what is surrounding us,

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about the life of a community...

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all this must have
a scientific substratum,

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otherwise we might take
the wrong decisions.

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We can see this
from different points of view.

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If a well-known person
quotes a Latin phrase

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and makes a mistake,

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newspapers will respond
quite quickly,

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saying: "Look what he said,
speak in Latin only if you know it"

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However, if one mistakes
bone marrow for the spinal cord,

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or atoms for molecules,

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it will not arouse any interest,
any opinion,

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on the contrary, if anyone tries
to point that out,

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they will tell you
not to be too pedantic.

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This is a very important point,
researchers have to consider it.

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If people do not see science
as an important part of culture,

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it is due to the fact
that we were not able...

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to inform people
about what we are doing.

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Actually that is the point,

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the majority of researchers
still live in their ivory towers,

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they do not share
our beliefs with people,

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our needs, our points of view
and certainties.

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An important moment
was when we decided...

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to publish our results
in English only.

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University teachers at that time,
scholars,

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did not appreciate
publications in English.

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In many cases,
for the competitions,

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teachers did not even
take into consideration...

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papers that were written in English,
only those in Italian.

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We decided not to publish
anything in Italian,

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only in English, at that time
it was certainly very daring.

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The other situation
that was somehow daring,

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at the time when we started,

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was talking on TV and on the radio,

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writing in research journals.

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This was seen
as going beyond the limits

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inside which researchers
had to work.