Ancient dreams, of a new future

January 2, 2021 — Science — 2 min read

This image is truly beautiful: it preserves intact that seed of trust that perhaps we have lost, and that can be usefully taken up again in this particular age we are crossing.

The drawing speaks of a possible future (precisely, a hypothetical toroidal structure in space, used as a human colony), but the reference to a recent, very terrestrial past is very strong. The graphic style, in fact, speaks for itself, for those who have already experienced some solar orbits. It speaks of the seventies, and in fact it was developed at that time by the NASA Ames Research Center. At the time, some will recall, there was a lot of this (pleasantly fantastic) studies focused on space colonization. Confidence in change on Earth was softly projected into the depths of the cosmos.

All this comes to me as a very tender reminder of a past which, perhaps, can teach us something about the future. Perhaps after the difficult year we have just left, we can really hope for a new era, in a redemption of the most dreamy and desiring part of ourselves. To return to work, to the daily struggle, it takes a dream, it takes a hypothesis of certainty, a glimpsed shadow of fulfillment.

Pure desire is necessary and sufficient to reach the stars, desire which constitutes the stuff of dreams. Trying, believing: this still depends on us. And the whole Universe changes, we know it, we feel it. From here to the most distant quasars, what really softens the texture of spacetime is a child’s gaze. Is the ability to amaze us, for the things that happen, in heaven and on earth.

Have a good restart, my friends.

Stars, stars everywhere

December 26, 2020 — Science — 2 min read

Again, it’s Hubble Space Telescope that comes in help to satisfy our desire of wonder, giving us the exquisite gift of this image from the globular cluster named Messier 107.

Globular cluster Messier 107. *Credit: ESA/NASA*

What can I say? It resembles a crowded stadium before a show, when we was still able to gather together to take part to an event (but times will return, I’m pretty sure, in which this will be possible again).

Messier 107 is one in about one hundred and fifty globular clusters present in our Milky Way. Each of them contains hundred of thousands of stars, sometimes even millions of them. They are very old: in fact, they are listed among the oldest objects in the whole Universe.

I remember a time (in the previous century) in which astronomy was facing a real crisis, exactly because of these clusters: from accurate evaluations, their stars shown an age greater that the estimated age of the universe. Rather embarrassing, I should say! Now we has reached a nice convergence between star ages and cosmological age of the universe, and the problem can be considered solved.

Anyway, as astronomer I can say we lived a very interesting time, since researches was boosted by this problematic and by the desire to find a solution. As a matter of fact, efforts were made till ages from stellar evolution was deeply revised (clusters lost several billion of years, in this process), but also the cosmological framework was updated (as a consequence the universe as a whole gained some billion years in respect to previous estimates). Finally, as you probably know, an age of around 13.8 billion years seems to fit well both for stars that for universe itself.

Nice lesson. Science always goes forward attempting to solve problems. Each problem treasure a possibility, to learn even more, to gain new views, to revise settled believes. When science does not face problems, it’s not always a good sign: we are missing the opportunity to learn something, probably.

Granted, in real life is not always easy, to view possibilities inside problems. But who knows, maybe science can teach us something, in this case…

Science is a game!

December 18, 2020 — Science — 1 min read

True science is a game, after all. This is something we easily forget. Playing is one of the most important activities of mankind, so that even little boys and girls, who are not used to lost time (such their parents), spend most of their time in this way, playing.

One of the most beautiful games is to discover that physical reality can be understood, in its marvelous complexity, by the human mind. To discover how the universe works, it’s probably one of the most beautiful games, significantly contributing to build a feeling of significance in a life.

This amazing video has been interpreted by researchers of European Space Agency (ESA) in their spare time. It can help us to remember that, after all, scienze is a wonderful game.

Many can easily recognize the music, and also the guy who make a brief cameo at minute 5.41 (the two things are related, as you may discover).

You can make better science if you don’t take yourself too seriously. This is the true message of this nice video. A message to keep. Crucially important, for scientist and not scientist as well.

Podcasts (and my way home)

April 1, 2019 — rumblings — 2 min read

Asa a lot of other people, I have the problem of how to spend the time while I am in the car. Well, of course, the first thing to do -as everyone says – is to drive. With all the needed attention, obviously.
But, while you’re driving, you may also use your ear to listen to something.
Yes, music is the first choice. It has been my first choice for many, many years. But sometimes you want to be exposed to something that is not exactly musical, in a strict sense. There is a lot of richness, out there.
You can embrace podcasting, for example.
Podcasts are wonderful when you’re driving.

They are made often by speech, and are not so loud and invasive as – say – death metal music, so you can hear the sounds outside your car. Which can be a very good thing, if you’re driving (after all, the world outside claim your attention).
One thing I appreciate of Spotify (among others) is that it includes a section devoted to podcast. Which is not automatic, for a streaming service (for what I know, Google Music features no podcasting yet). Unfortunately, not all the podcast are present inside Spotify, so I must rely on a dedicated app if I want to really have access to all the richness out there. I have chosen Pocket Casts because, while it’s not free, for a small amount of money it gives you an endless river of possibility and you have the real chance to configure an environment exactly as you like.
Oh, and another possibility is given by audiobooks, of course. Admittedly, I am a not so avid consumer of audiobook and, as occasional listener, I do prefer not to rely on a monthly subscription, as possible with Audible and similar services. So I take advantage of the audiobook section of Google Books, which it’s perfect for anyone who likes audiobooks but do not want to add another regular channel of expense.
Granted, there are plenty of possibility to explore to make the way home (or work) less boring, in case of heavy traffic. But, to be honest, my really preferred choice, it seems not available yet…

Sunset, from the observatory

March 23, 2019 — astronomy — 1 min read

In these days, it’s a particular pleasure to come out from the Observatory (Rome Astronomical Observatory, which actually it’s not in the city but in the outskirt) to admire the beautiful and very suggestive sunsets, wonderful moments that only nature can produce.
I’ve taken some pictures, using my cell phone, a couple of days ago. The pics feature the city in the evening, and part of the beautiful park that surrounds the buildings of the observatory. In the first you can see understand how majestic can be the city in this very peculiar moment of the day…

The second picture shows a gorgeous tree in the park, which captured my attention just before I entered in my car to return home…

There is a true glory in each sunset, there is no feeling of loss but something, like a hidden promise, a promise to feel at home in the universe, to find a place that you truly can call home.
With stars, a lot of glimmering stars, all around you.

Open Source and Linux, in 2019

January 3, 2019 — Tech — 3 min read

From an interesting article that appeared in the middle of 2018, you could understand that the things kept moving, last year, for the Open Source ecosystem.This is open source beyond Linux and, according to Zemlin, is indicative of one of the best years and most robust periods at The Linux Foundation itself. That’s just fine and it’s also pleasant, that the Open Source movement becomes each day more robust.

But it’s more interesting, in these days, to see what kind of previsions can be made about the state of one of the most successful open source project: I’m talking obviously of Linux, the free operating system.

Speaking of that, the pages of Linux Journal hosts a very interesting conversation between “the leaders of three of the most prominent Linux distros of the day”, namely Debian Project, elementary, Fedora Project.

Thinks are moving fast for Linux, as you know: they always do it. Even in 2019 we can enucleate some trends, seeking the best rising linux distros, and trying to understand the reasons behind their upcoming fortune: it’s what happens in a detalied article of TechRadar. Well, you might be surprised in seeing that one of the five selected distro is really one of the most ancient one… but no more spoilers, even in I guess you already understood!

It’s also worth a look the 5 Linux Prediction for 2019 from UMG!Ubuntu! website. From all listed, for me the most interesting is surely #4, about novel hardware. If Linux has really to land on common people’s desktops (which is a theme almost recurrent in the last ten years or so…) it has to be easy, really easy, and fully integrated with the specific hardware.

We are in 2019 now. People wants computers and mobile devices that works out of the box. Besides all, wars of opinions like windows or linux or mac have completely loosen sense now, in the age of instant communication and social media. If it works well, it’s fine. Even better, if it’s cheap and work well.

From the quoted article, on Linux Journal,

I still have big printed manuals for a few early Linux versions, which, back then, were necessary for getting just about everything working (from X11 to networking and sound). Heck, sometimes simply getting a successful boot required a few trips through those heavy manuals. Ah, those were the days.

Well, those days (those glorious days) are gone.

Is exactly on this ground that linux on desktop may gain its sense.
It’s a great challenge, because both macOS and Windows are very complete and polished operating system, featuring great integration with mobile devices.

It’s a great challenge. Let’s see what happen, during this new year.