REMINDER Today's Colloquium on Cosmic Rays at 16:30 in MLH

[Info Point]

*ICTP COLLOQUIUM*

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*16:30, Thursday, 8 September 2011 *

*Main Lecture Hall, Leonardo Building, ICTP*

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*Alessandro De Angelis, *

Università di Udine, INFN Trieste & LIP/IST Lisboa

*Francesco Longo, *

Università di Trieste & INFN Trieste

*Claudio Tuniz, *

ICTP & University of Wollongong, Australia

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*The discovery of cosmic rays***

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*One hundred years ago, an Italian scientist contributed to the 
discovery of cosmic rays. In June 1911, Domenico Pacini demonstrated, by 
studying the decrease of radioactivity with an electroscope immersed in 
water, that cosmic rays could not come from the terrestrial crust. In 
1912, an Austrian scientist, Victor Hess, identified radiation of 
extra-terrestrial origin flying by balloon to 5200 meters.*

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*The Nobel prize for the discovery of cosmic rays was received by Hess 
in 1936, two years after the death of Pacini. Historical, political and 
personal facts contributed to the substantial disappearance of Pacini 
from the history of science.*

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*We will explain how the Italian contribution to this important 
discovery has been forgotten and how cosmic-ray research led to studies 
on the origin of matter, universe and humans. *

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