Farewell to Piero Angela, the relentless protester of pseudo-science
What is the legacy of Piero Angela. Federico Guiglia's notebook
The time of his story lasted seventy years, "like the Kingdom of Elizabeth", said Piero Angela of himself with a sense of humor and history. Now that he has passed away at the age of 93, he already regrets the discretion with which he entered our homes with Quark , Superquark and other successful Rai programs, almost asking our permission. However, it was not a refinement that was the result of the rigorous Turin education received in the family only. With grace, this small screen gentleman actually conveyed the greatest ingredient for serious and attractive disclosure: critical spirit.
That duty to narrate difficult things in an easy way – because knowledge must be everyone's patrimony -, without however renouncing doubts and asking the questions of the common person every time. In this way, trying to give answers, when possible, or new stimuli to deepen, compare, contest.
Yes, Piero Angela has been a relentless protester of the virus of lies, which can lurk in false or bogus news – the so-called fake news – as well as in pseudo-science or in the fanaticism of biased positions. He has fought with style to unmask all that clouds minds and dries up hearts.
From medicine to literature, from physics to space, from history to mathematics, to nutrition, there is no field that he has not attended, investigating with the strength of humility and awareness typical of the traveler who seeks and searches beyond all borders. . Therefore, not the story for the sake of appearing, but the pleasure of informing, entertaining and instructing. Generations of Italians drank from the source of his competence, which was also that of turning to those who knew more than him and us to explain the incomprehensible, communicate beauty, warn against prejudices. So much sowing, and the son Alberto is the first to follow in his father's footsteps.
“Italy is grateful to him”, wrote the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, interpreting the general sentiment. But what does this great and beloved Italian leave behind? He leaves an example of credibility in the era of hoaxes and the method of science and conscience with which he lived by telling, and also telling our lives.
(Published in The Arena of Verona and Bresciaoggi)
www.federicoguiglia.com
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/piero-angela-anti-scienza/ on Wed, 17 Aug 2022 05:37:48 +0000.