The Nobel laureate Giorgio Parisi holds a lectio magistralis at Sapienza

• Sergio Mattarella at Sapienza

• Nobel Prize in Physics to the Italian Giorgio Parisi, Klaus Hasselmann, Syukuro Manabe

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November 22, 2021 In the presence of the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, the Nobel Prize for Physics Giorgio Parisi, gave a lectio magitralis, entitled "The sense of science" on his role and that of scientists and politics. In the lectio, the Nobel Prize focused on the strong anti-scientific tendencies in today's society: "Astrological, homeopathic and anti-scientific practices are spreading with a voracious technological consumerism". Talk about "bad communicators". He says that "We have a duty to promote a culture based on facts and prevent the spread of pseudoscience."

 "It is not surprising that faced with a new virus and a situation in which data was arriving intermittently and incomplete, experts in the field have sometimes found themselves in disagreement, especially on what to do. In a time when television science seems indecisive. , much to the scandal of the public, our role becomes increasingly important both to reach a consensus in the scientific community as quickly as possible, and to disseminate to the public the results on which consensus has been reached. We have a duty to promote a culture based on the facts ". 

"It is possible that this mass mistrust in science that reaches our Parliament is also due to a certain arrogance of the scientists who present science as absolute wisdom, compared to other questionable knowledge, sometimes the arrogance consists in not trying to get to the public the evidence available, but to ask for an unconditional consent based on trust in the experts ", said Parisi," It is precisely the refusal not to accept one's limits can weaken scientists ", he added. "This interest in science has had an unsuspected fallout. Many people have been baffled to see prominent scientists squabbling with the same vehemence that politicians from different parties might have," he said. And he warned: "Science is sometimes felt like a bad teacher who has led us in the wrong direction and changing this perception is not easy. " 

"If science continues to develop and drag technology on a planetary level, there is no guarantee that this will happen even in a country like Italy", where "systematic deindustrialization is the common thread of Italian history since the tragic death of Mattei ". And "it is quite possible - he concluded - that our rulers decide that Italian industry and research must have an increasingly secondary place and that the country must slowly slide towards the third world. If we also consider the slow decline of public schools , the divestment of the financial commitment of the Italian government in cultural heritage, we realize that all Italian cultural activities are in slow but steady decline. Italian culture must be defended on all fronts ". 

To Parisi's accusations, President Mattarella replies in his speech: "The period of underestimation of the weight of the role of science seems to me, at least in Italy, closed in brackets, after the experience of this emergency that we have crossed that he made everyone perceive the value, the importance, the indispensable credit to be given to science ".

And he continued "We can therefore hope with confidence in the awareness of the value of science, even in institutional life, so that we can make our own the quote (made by the Nobel laureate Giorgio Parisi, ed.) Of Robert Wilson: 'We can do this for which is worth contributing to common life '".