Stories of ideas, discoveries, inventions ... and blunders

Stories of research and development of new technologies for environmental, economic, and social sustainability. We draw lessons for the future from tales of successes interspersed with major failures.

Edward Jenner and the long history of vaccines

Even the anti-vaxxers owe their lives to him Let’s go back to the end of the 18th century: life expectancy did not exceed forty years, and maternal and infant mortality rates were extremely high. For those who managed to survive, infectious diseases became the new – and most feared –...

Author

Luca Longo

Stories of ideas, discoveries, inventions ... and blunders

Elena Ceaucescu: the great chemist who didn’t know what sulphuric...

Easy to be the most prestigious scientist in the world if you are the wife of a dictator If you...

Stories of ideas, discoveries, inventions ... and blunders

The Cardiff giant and the hoax that conquered America

George Hull and the plaster statue he carved and buried in a mine It is 1868, America is undergoing a...

Stories of ideas, discoveries, inventions ... and blunders

Enrico Fermi and the energy of the nucleus

The evolution of atomic power plants, from their origins to the modular reactor revolution When we think ofnuclear energy, our...

Stories of ideas, discoveries, inventions ... and blunders

Mitochondria: the energy powerhouses of life

This is where the energy that is needed to power cells and enable biological evolution is transformed In the world...

Stories of ideas, discoveries, inventions ... and blunders

The Tasaday tribe: Between mythology, deception and scientific truth

The discovery, the scam, and the final twist It is 1971. While Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev exchange fierce accusations...

Stories of ideas, discoveries, inventions ... and blunders

Before oil they used… whales

A brief history of fossil energy The discovery of oil: a resource that illuminated the past but obscures the future...