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Digital signals from ground-based automated probes lost in deeper space. An image that illustrates the technological level reached by humanity in just over a century, thanks also to the intuition and stubbornness of one of the greatest Italian scientists of all time: Guglielmo Marconi. And the celebrations of the physicist, 150 years after his birth, will start today – after the Holy Mass celebrated by the cardinal and archbishop of Bologna Matteo Zuppi – from where this all-Italian story began.
It was in fact September 1895, when from his studio in Villa Griffone in the municipality of Praduro e Sasso (which later became Sasso Marconi in 1938 in honor of the physicist from Bologna) at the foot of the Bolognese hills, after many attempts, a young 21 year old succeeded in unthinkable: launching a wireless signal by overcoming an obstacle. And from that moment on, nothing was the same as before. That young man was indeed Marconi. The device used by the Italian physicist proved to be valid in communicating and receiving signals at a distance of more than a mile, but also in overcoming natural obstacles (the Celestini hill behind Villa Griffone). The rifle shot that the butler Mignani fires into the air to confirm the success of the experiment (the device had vibrated and sang like a cricket three times) is considered the baptismal act of the radio.
And it is from his home in Emilia (and from an exhibition dedicated to him in the Radio Rai headquarters in via Asiago in Rome, on his birthday) that the main celebrations for the 150th anniversary of his birth, on 25 April 1874 ( he later died on 20 July 1937). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics (shared with Carl Ferdinand Braun) precisely for the discovery of radio waves in 1909, to which the world today owes the birth of radio, television, wireless and borderless communication, such as the signals sent towards the Earth still today by the Voyager probes, now for many years outside the edge of our solar system and lost in deep space.
“I’m happy that Italy has woken up and I do everything I can to collaborate in these celebrations,” explains Elettra Marconi, the daughter of the Nobel Prize winner, born in 1930, who has a son called Guglielmo in honor of her grandfather. «My father’s greatest merit? Being able to save many lives at sea with wireless communication. When he passed away I was a child, I was only 7 years old – she says – her. I remember him playing with me. He was very affectionate and intelligent. He made me talk, listened to my questions and treated me like a grown-up person. I learned a lot from him. He was very creative. I remember when he was at work he couldn’t be bothered. But then he would come out and it was a joy. My father is my whole life.”
Among the many events scheduled for the three-year period 2024-2026, explains Giulia Fortunato, president of the Marconi Foundation and of the Committee for the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great Italian scientist, there will also be a commemorative stamp, an international conference with the Nobel Prize winner for physics Anne L’Huillier and NASA director Mark Clampin and then multimedia shows, exhibitions and the Marconi Prize in Bologna, the most prestigious award worldwide in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). And again, the collaborations with the Leonardo da Vinci National Science and Technology Museum in Milan and the Leonardo Civiltà delle Macchine Foundation, the Rai miniseries broadcast in May with Stefano Accorsi and Nicolas Maupas and the Osaka Expo in Japan. Villa Griffone will receive a large loan for the renovation: 200 thousand euros for more urgent works, three million euros for the restoration and valorization sites. Funds that are added to the other four million euros to create a museum dedicated to him at Villa Aldini in Bologna that talks about science and attracts international and tourist attention. And then there will also be collaborations with the Navy, Formula 1 and the America’s Cup sailing which will be held between September and October in Barcelona.
And of all the developments that that invention had, up to the Internet and global communication, what would Guglielmo Marconi think today? Elettra says again: «He would like it, but some things are used in a negative way and he would certainly be very against this – Elettra replies – He wanted to save humanity, not destroy it. Even morally, you see what happens with mobile phones, even with Artificial Intelligence. They are great things, but you have to be careful how you use them.”
Cinecittà will be an active part in the creation of the many tributes that will remember the 150 years of Guglielmo Marconi and the unique materials from the Luce historical archive will be expressed in different languages: video art, photography, cinema. Even with a coloring project of the inventor’s historical images. Instead, on Saturday 27 April, starting from 8 in the morning, the “Vatican Transmitter” (built specifically by Guglielmo Marconi in 1929 and activated for international service on short waves until 2006) will hold a celebratory event in which the Secretary for Relations with the States and international organizations Monsignor Paul Richard Gallagher, the prefect of the Dicastery for Communication Paolo Ruffini, the secretary of the Dicastery for Communication Monsignor Lucio Adrian Ruiz, the head of Vatican Radio Massimiliano Menichetti, the director of the technological direction of the Dicastery for Communication Francesco Masci and Guglielmo Marconi’s daughter, Elettra. During the morning the redevelopment of the Marconi building will be presented and the documentary Marconi in the Vatican will be screened.