Professor Giorgio Piccardi was one of the most controversial and significant Italian scientists of the 50s and 60s. He was University Professor of Chemistry and Physics at Florence University and Director of the Chemistry and Physics Department. He was a very acculturated man (also in the humanities); he was an ante litteram environmentalist and an elegant and refined man. He did research in many fields (outside Chemistry too), publishing dozens of books and scientific articles, many of them in English and Deutsch He was the first in Italy to investigate surface phenomena. He taught people who would make remarkable things. He was always interested in multidisciplinary research and tried steadily to encourage the cooperation of scholars in disciplines different from his. He claimed to have discovered an effect (the Piccardi effect) in which interplanetary magnetic fields influenced the result of some simple inorganic reactions and, in general, the results of non-reproducible phenomena (fluctuating phenomena). It was believed, and it is still generally believed, that the Piccardi effect is a self-deceptive result, but this does not diminish the importance of Piccardi as a scientist, teacher and man. This article will trace Piccardi’s life, focusing in particular on its effect and on its popularization, characterized by mistakes made both by supporters and detractors. The author will show an original contributions of his regarding the Piccardi effect’s explanation, one more complete than the present one in the scientific community, and its use in teaching. The article concludes with considerations regarding the scientific and human legacy of Piccardi and on how a figure like him can contribute to working in science today.
| Published in | History Research (Volume 3, Issue 2) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.history.20150302.12 |
| Page(s) | 25-34 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2015. Published by Science Publishing Group |
History of Physics, Fluctuating Phenomena, Italian Scientists, Piccardi Effect, Self-deceptione
| [1] | Data from several Piccardi's biographies below citied. |
| [2] | www.wikipedia.issue “Hugo Schiff”. |
| [3] | The full list of Piccaqrdi's paper is in pag.124 of Manzelli, Masini, Costa, I segreti dell'acqua (The secrets of water), Di Renzo press, 1994. |
| [4] | Let see every biography of Ettore Majorana exspeccialy E.Recami, Il Caso Majorana( Majorana case), Editore Di Renzo, 2001, pag.263. |
| [5] | G. Piccardi “Molecular hydrogen in sunspot”, Nature, Vol 112,21, pag. 880,1928. |
| [6] | G. Piccardi, E. Messeri “Ricerche sperimentali sulla vitalità del latte di donna”, Rivista di Clinica Pediatrica, Vol 11, 23, p.44,1946. |
| [7] | G.Piccardi “sulla oreficieria granulata”, Studi Etruschi,Vol 22, 14, p.119,1952. |
| [8] | M. Fontani, M. Costa, P. Manzelli,"Un elemento mancato: il Florenzio.", Il Chimico Italiano,Vol.1, 12, pag.32,1997. |
| [9] | W. Noddack, O. Berg, I. Tacke.” Zwei neue Elemente der Mangangruppe(Two new elements of the manganese chemical group)”,Chemischer Teil. [Berlin: In Kommission bei W. de Gruyter]. |
| [10] | G. Gamow” L'energia atomica”, Milano, Mondadori, 1950, pag 167. |
| [11] | F the full list of Piccaqrdi's paper is in pag.124 of Manzelli, Masini, Costa, I segreti dell'acqua (The secrets of water), Di Renzo press, 1994. pag.. 102 and following. |
| [12] | http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/triboelettricita/. |
| [13] | Apart biographies a description of tes can be found in G.Piccardi” Sopra un test inorganico per lo studio degli influssi atmosferici e cosmici”, Geofisica e meteorologia, Vol. 3, 4,p.31,1955. |
| [14] | Detailed in G. Piccardi” phenomenes astrophysiques et evenements terrestres”, Universite de Paris, p. 12, 1960. |
| [15] | The full list of Piccaqrdi's paper is in pag.124 of Manzelli, Masini, Costa, I segreti dell'acqua (The secrets of water), Di Renzo press, 1994. pag.109 and following. |
| [16] | The full list of Piccaqrdi's paper is in pag.124 of Manzelli, Masini, Costa, I segreti dell'acqua (The secrets of water), Di Renzo press, 1994. page 207. |
| [17] | Let see S.Fuso “ Il chimico del Sole”, Scienza e paranormale, Vol.47, nr.2, pag 110, 2007. |
| [18] | The full list of Piccaqrdi's paper is in pag.124 of Manzelli, Masini, Costa, I segreti dell'acqua (The secrets of water), Di Renzo press, 1994. pag. 59. |
| [19] | Detailed in G. Piccardi” phenomenes astrophysiques et evenements terrestres”, Universite de Paris, p. 12, 1960 or in G.Piccardi,” Variazioni dei test D ed attività solare”, Geofisica e meteorologia, Vol.6,pag.19, 1958. |
| [20] | The full list of Piccaqrdi's paper is in pag.124 of Manzelli, Masini, Costa, I segreti dell'acqua (The secrets of water), Di Renzo press, 1994. pag.110. |
| [21] | G.Piccardi,” Una ipotesi solare”, Rendiconto Accademia dei Lincei,Vol. 21, 14, pag.84, 1956. |
| [22] | The full list of Piccaqrdi's paper is in pag.124 of Manzelli, Masini, Costa, I segreti dell'acqua (The secrets of water), Di Renzo press, 1994. pag. 90. |
| [23] | Benveniste” Human basophil degranulation triggered by very dilute antiserum against IgE” Natiure, vol. 333, 2, pag. 816- 818, 1988. |
| [24] | http://biblioteca.imss.fi.it/acquisti/miscellanee_piccardi.pdf7. |
| [25] | The full list of Piccaqrdi's paper is in pag.124 of Manzelli, Masini, Costa, I segreti dell'acqua (The secrets of water), Di Renzo press, 1994. pag. 75 or S.Fuso “Il chimico del Sole”, Scienza e paranormale, Vol.47, nr.2, 2007. pag. 48. |
| [26] | The full list of Piccaqrdi's paper is in pag.124 of Manzelli, Masini, Costa, I segreti dell'acqua (The secrets of water), Di Renzo press, 1994. part written by Manzelli. |
| [27] | G. Masini, I ricercatori del cielo, Editrice l Sorgente, 1975, pag.27. |
| [28] | Dcarlucci, A.. Castaldo, Un paese di baroni, Chiarelettere, 2009. |
| [29] | G. Palermo, utori, Baroni e portaborse. I rapporti di potere nell'università,Editori Internazionali Riuniti, 2009. |
| [30] | G. Piccardt, G. Masini “The test chemical in the auroral zone”, Geofisica e Metereologia, Vol 9, 2, p.37, 1969. |
| [31] | G. Masini, I ricercatori del cielo”, Editore la Sorgente, p. 28, 1975. |
| [32] | P. Silvestroni, Fondamenti di Chimica, Veschi Publishers,1980, p. 572. |
| [33] | Kauffman, Beck “The self deception in science: the curious case of Giorgio Piccardi”, Speculation in Science and Technology Vol 10, 4, pag 113, 1986. |
| [34] | The full list of Piccaqrdi's paper is in pag..124 of Manzelli, Masini, Costa, I segreti dell'acqua (The secrets of water), Di Renzo press, 1994. p. 89. |
| [35] | E. R. Dewey, Cycles that Trigger Mysterious Force Events, New York, Manor book 1973. |
| [36] | G. Masini, I ricercatori del cielo”, Editore la Sorgente, pp. 31-32, 1975. |
| [37] | The full list of Piccaqrdi's paper is in pag.124 of Manzelli, Masini, Costa, I segreti dell'acqua (The secrets of water), Di Renzo press, 1994. p. 101. |
| [38] | H. C. Friedman “A survey of NRL rocket research results since the last meeting of COSPAR Space Research”, pp. 1021–1035, 1961. |
| [39] | The full list of Piccaqrdi's paper is in pag.124 of Manzelli, Masini, Costa, I segreti dell'acqua (The secrets of water), Di Renzo press, 1994. p. 83. |
| [40] | M. Gauqelin, Biological Clocks, Coll. Marabount Universitè, 1973. |
| [41] | V. Gualtieri “fenomeni associati all'attivazione dell'acqua”, II International Conference on Bionics Applied and Biophysics, Kiev, Ukraine, 2013. |
| [42] | S. Fuso “ Giorgo Piccardi uno scienziato a modo suo ( Giorgio Piccardi A scientist in his own way)”, Le Scienze, Aprile 2003, pag 200. |
| [43] | F. De Meyer, C. Capel-Boute “Statistical analysis of chemical tests by Piccardi”, Int. J. Biometeor, Vol. 31, 6, pp. 301–322, 1987. |
| [44] | C. Artemi, “ Ricerca a scuola” La Didattica delle scienze, La Scuola press, April 2007. |
| [45] | C. Artemi,” From a scientific error, a teaching proposal”, SIF Communication Congress 2014. |
| [46] | The full list of Piccaqrdi's paper is in pag.124 of Manzelli, Masini, Costa, I segreti dell'acqua (The secrets of water), Di Renzo press, 1994. p. 105. |
APA Style
Carlo Artemi. (2015). Giorgio Piccardi: A Forgotten, But Great, Italian Scientist. History Research, 3(2), 25-34. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.history.20150302.12
ACS Style
Carlo Artemi. Giorgio Piccardi: A Forgotten, But Great, Italian Scientist. Hist. Res. 2015, 3(2), 25-34. doi: 10.11648/j.history.20150302.12
AMA Style
Carlo Artemi. Giorgio Piccardi: A Forgotten, But Great, Italian Scientist. Hist Res. 2015;3(2):25-34. doi: 10.11648/j.history.20150302.12
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Download@article{10.11648/j.history.20150302.12,
author = {Carlo Artemi},
title = {Giorgio Piccardi: A Forgotten, But Great, Italian Scientist},
journal = {History Research},
volume = {3},
number = {2},
pages = {25-34},
doi = {10.11648/j.history.20150302.12},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.history.20150302.12},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.history.20150302.12},
abstract = {Professor Giorgio Piccardi was one of the most controversial and significant Italian scientists of the 50s and 60s. He was University Professor of Chemistry and Physics at Florence University and Director of the Chemistry and Physics Department. He was a very acculturated man (also in the humanities); he was an ante litteram environmentalist and an elegant and refined man. He did research in many fields (outside Chemistry too), publishing dozens of books and scientific articles, many of them in English and Deutsch He was the first in Italy to investigate surface phenomena. He taught people who would make remarkable things. He was always interested in multidisciplinary research and tried steadily to encourage the cooperation of scholars in disciplines different from his. He claimed to have discovered an effect (the Piccardi effect) in which interplanetary magnetic fields influenced the result of some simple inorganic reactions and, in general, the results of non-reproducible phenomena (fluctuating phenomena). It was believed, and it is still generally believed, that the Piccardi effect is a self-deceptive result, but this does not diminish the importance of Piccardi as a scientist, teacher and man. This article will trace Piccardi’s life, focusing in particular on its effect and on its popularization, characterized by mistakes made both by supporters and detractors. The author will show an original contributions of his regarding the Piccardi effect’s explanation, one more complete than the present one in the scientific community, and its use in teaching. The article concludes with considerations regarding the scientific and human legacy of Piccardi and on how a figure like him can contribute to working in science today.},
year = {2015}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Giorgio Piccardi: A Forgotten, But Great, Italian Scientist AU - Carlo Artemi Y1 - 2015/09/08 PY - 2015 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.history.20150302.12 DO - 10.11648/j.history.20150302.12 T2 - History Research JF - History Research JO - History Research SP - 25 EP - 34 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2376-6719 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.history.20150302.12 AB - Professor Giorgio Piccardi was one of the most controversial and significant Italian scientists of the 50s and 60s. He was University Professor of Chemistry and Physics at Florence University and Director of the Chemistry and Physics Department. He was a very acculturated man (also in the humanities); he was an ante litteram environmentalist and an elegant and refined man. He did research in many fields (outside Chemistry too), publishing dozens of books and scientific articles, many of them in English and Deutsch He was the first in Italy to investigate surface phenomena. He taught people who would make remarkable things. He was always interested in multidisciplinary research and tried steadily to encourage the cooperation of scholars in disciplines different from his. He claimed to have discovered an effect (the Piccardi effect) in which interplanetary magnetic fields influenced the result of some simple inorganic reactions and, in general, the results of non-reproducible phenomena (fluctuating phenomena). It was believed, and it is still generally believed, that the Piccardi effect is a self-deceptive result, but this does not diminish the importance of Piccardi as a scientist, teacher and man. This article will trace Piccardi’s life, focusing in particular on its effect and on its popularization, characterized by mistakes made both by supporters and detractors. The author will show an original contributions of his regarding the Piccardi effect’s explanation, one more complete than the present one in the scientific community, and its use in teaching. The article concludes with considerations regarding the scientific and human legacy of Piccardi and on how a figure like him can contribute to working in science today. VL - 3 IS - 2 ER -
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