Istituto Lombardo - Accademia di Scienze e Lettere - Rendiconti di Scienze
https://www.ilasl.org/Scienze
<p><strong>L’Istituto Lombardo Accademia di Scienze e Lettere</strong> è una realtà culturale radicata da più di 200 anni nella città e nel territorio lombardo. L’Istituto, sito a Milano nel quadrilatero di Brera, è innanzitutto sede di memoria, a partire dal prezioso patrimonio archivistico e librario che custodisce, ma anche vivace contesto di riferimento per la ricerca, l’alta formazione e la cultura in genere.</p>PAGEPress Scientific Publications, Pavia, Italyit-ITIstituto Lombardo - Accademia di Scienze e Lettere - Rendiconti di Scienze1974-6989L'Istituto di Farmacologia dell'Università di Milano dal 1946 al 1980
https://www.ilasl.org/Scienze/article/view/775
<p>The global pandemic of Covid-19 has caused enormous damage to scientific research by dramatically reducing the functionality of the institutions responsible for it and at the same time polarizing many lines of research toward solving the pandemic problems. This situation has similarities with what happened during the Second World War. In that case, the post-war recovery was intense, also bringing many changes in the methodology and motivations of scientific research. In this paper I analyzed, as a model of post-war rebirth, that of the Institute of Pharmacology of the University of Milan that became from a small laboratory a research and teaching institution based on human and scientific concepts that were innovative at the time. Its birth started in the years 1946-47, was favored by the collaboration between private and public institutions (the De Marchi Foundation, the University of Milan and the Municipality of Milan), was build by the scientists as a high-level, broad-based international study center, and formed the basis of a possible example of a university campus. The methodological and conceptual development of a new pharmacology and its growth in researchers and scientific purposes are outlined. The birth from this Institute of the Mario Negri Research Institute, of the School of Pharmacy of the University of Milan, of the Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology Center of the CNR and of the Lombardy Biomedical Library System is briefly described. The different reactions to a global damage brought to science and research in the post-war and post-pandemic periods are discussed.</p>Francesco Clementi
Copyright (c) 2022 Istituto Lombardo - Accademia di Scienze e Lettere - Rendiconti di Scienze
2022-01-252022-01-2510.4081/scienze.2022.775Old tricks and new trends to address tumors: a medicinal chemist’s perspective
https://www.ilasl.org/Scienze/article/view/826
<p>Major efforts in the past decades have provided novel small molecule drugs and biologicals and innovative mechanisms against tumors, but the quest for safer, bioavailable and more effective active principles is still ongoing. This contribution focuses on innovative approaches to fulfill therapeutic goals in oncology; namely, the inhibition of the stabilizing interaction between the RNA-binding protein HuR and mRNAs of multiple oncogenes, and the unleashing of a strong immune reaction against cancer cells by antagonizing the PD-1 – PD-L1 interaction on the surface of cancer cells. “Classical” drug-like, bioavailable small molecules were either rationally designed from a naturally occurring template (tanshinones converted to aza-tanshinones – HuR), or from a synthetic peptidomimetic inhibitor (biphenyloxy aryls converted to disubstituted triazines – PD-L1); after their synthesis and activity profiling, early leads were identified to be further structurally optimized in the near future.</p>Pierfausto Seneci
Copyright (c) 2023 Istituto Lombardo - Accademia di Scienze e Lettere - Rendiconti di Scienze
2023-07-132023-07-1310.4081/scienze.2022.826Microdosimetry
https://www.ilasl.org/Scienze/article/view/811
<p>The interest in the application of microdosimetry for assessing the radiation quality of hadrontherapy fields has grown in the last two decades. The reference detector for microdosimetry is the tissue-equivalent proportional counter (TEPC). Novel types of microdosimeters have been developed by the Nuclear Measurement Laboratory of the Politecnico di Milano in collaboration with the INFN National Legnaro Laboratories. This work describes the main features of an avalanche confinement TEPC, capable of simulating sites down to 25 nm and a silicon telescope detector. The main dosimetric and microdosimetric quantities are also given and discussed in the Introduction for the sake of clarity.</p>Stefano Agosteo
Copyright (c) 2023 Istituto Lombardo - Accademia di Scienze e Lettere - Rendiconti di Scienze
2023-07-132023-07-1310.4081/scienze.2022.811Apparecchiando la Tavola: l’ordine degli elementi
https://www.ilasl.org/Scienze/article/view/812
<p>The periodic table of the chemical elements, published in 1869 by Dmitri Mendeleev, is actually the destination of an exciting journey that lasted over 3000 years, which will be broken down into key steps and briefly discussed herein. To this journey, driven mainly by the innate curiosity of scientists and philosophers to understand the structure and composition of the world around us, the greatest minds of chemistry and natural philosophy, from Empedocles, to Priestley, to Lavoisier, to Davy, have contributed with essential individual pieces that combined into the solution of such a majestic jigsaw puzzle by Mendeleev. Although the periodic table is a milestone of chemistry and one of the greatest triumphs of scientific knowledge, it is continuously evolving and it is still nowadays one of the most useful and versatile tools for the understanding and rationalizing a broad range of chemical and physical phenomena.</p>Fabio Parmeggiani
Copyright (c) 2023 Istituto Lombardo - Accademia di Scienze e Lettere - Rendiconti di Scienze
2023-07-132023-07-1310.4081/scienze.2022.812DALLO SVILUPPO DELL’AUTOMOBILE ELETTRICA, RIFLESSIONI SULLA STORIA DELLA TECNOLOGIA
https://www.ilasl.org/Scienze/article/view/813
<p>Mention is made of the effort made by man to realize locomotion systems other than human or animal muscles. In particular, the medieval idea of Guido da Vigevano to create a cart driven by the wind is presented. We then move on to deal with the birth and evolution of the electrically powered car, born almost simultaneously with the thermal traction one. The electric car, due to its many advantages, has a greater diffusion: the electric traction allows to have no pollution in the city, while the thermal one allows to overcome the limits of the reduced autonomy a greater diffusion. With the progress of batteries, towards the Eighties a new interest in the electric car was born, which, starting from the beginning of the Twenty-first century, knows a new development. Of particular interest is the hybrid car, with electric and thermal motor: the electric traction allows you to have no pollution in the city, while the thermal one allows to overcome the limits of the reduced autonomy. From the examination of the history of the electric car, the interest in the history of technology arises: it can allow interesting ideas even today. From the examination of the history of the electric car, the interest in the history of technology arises: from the Turrinelli drawings in Istituto Lombardo, some examples are presented.</p>Edoardo Rovida
Copyright (c) 2023 Istituto Lombardo - Accademia di Scienze e Lettere - Rendiconti di Scienze
2023-07-132023-07-1310.4081/scienze.2022.813Verso un nuovo umanesimo digitale
https://www.ilasl.org/Scienze/article/view/827
<p>Digital technologies are producing disruptive changes in human beings and all aspects of human society. They generated a paradigm change, perhaps with even deeper effects than those generated by past scientific revolutions. While they offer unprecedented chances to develop a better future for humankind, they also raise serious concerns about possible unprecedented risks. This article is an attempt to clarify why we are presently at this crucial crossroads and calls for moving along a new perspective where technology is at service of humankind: the perspective a new digital humanism.</p>Carlo Ghezzi
Copyright (c) 2023 Istituto Lombardo - Accademia di Scienze e Lettere - Rendiconti di Scienze
2023-07-132023-07-1310.4081/scienze.2022.827Città intelligenti e neutralità climatica: verso la transizione energetica
https://www.ilasl.org/Scienze/article/view/825
<p>The contribution discusses the goal of achieving global climate neutrality, focusing on the activities of cities, energy production, and consumption. Europe is committed to supporting a hundred selected cities in reaching climate neutrality by 2030 through the Mission Climate Neutral and Smart Cities. This commitment combines climate neutrality with the concept of smart cities, promoting innovation and setting an example for other cities to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. For the hundred cities, Europe envisions the use of financial tools, regulatory interventions, and a Climate City Contract, along with funds from the national recovery and resilience plans, which are expected to be suitably coordinated. Due to the continued high consumption of fossil fuels, and of their inevitable use in the coming – hopefully few - decades, efforts must be made to improve the efficiency of existing power plants and utilize less polluting fossil fuel sources. The use of renewable sources, particularly solar, wind, and hydroelectric power, becomes increasingly imperative. Gradual electrification of sectors emerges as a key strategy for the energy transition, considering the natural integration of these sources into the power grid. The use of hydrogen as an energy carrier and storage source, as well as ongoing research in nuclear energy, are additional essential elements contributing to the implementation of a diversified energy strategy deemed necessary. The widespread adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT) and smart sector integration are also fundamental components of the energy transition. Renewable energy communities of prosumers, promoted by the European directives RED II and IEM of the Clean Energy Package, could potentially generate 20% of the energy consumed in cities by 2030, further emphasizing the importance of the electrical system and smart grids in this context.</p>Carlo Alberto Nucci
Copyright (c) 2023 Istituto Lombardo - Accademia di Scienze e Lettere - Rendiconti di Scienze
2023-07-132023-07-1310.4081/scienze.2022.825Il mondo dei <em>chip</em>: progressi tecnologici e vulnerabilità di una filiera strategica
https://www.ilasl.org/Scienze/article/view/824
<p>After a brief coverage of the developments that led to the birth of microelectronics, the note describes the economic and physical laws that have guided the growth of this technological segment for over fifty years. Following the laws of Moore and Dennard, the complexity of microelectronic chips has increased dramatically, reaching the point of incorporating miniaturized components, now nanometric in size, comparable in number to the stars in a galaxy. However, during these decades microelectronics has not only pursued the path of miniaturization. Alongside digital technologies, diversified platforms have developed that allow for the creation of equally essential chips in non-digital product segments. The actors of all these production chains are distributed over the various continents and are strongly interconnected. While much of the advanced digital chip manufacturing is in Asia, most of their design resides in the United States while European companies are at the forefront of sensor, industrial and automotive chips. However, the recent pandemic crisis and rising geopolitical tensions have highlighted how the lack of just one chip can disrupt the production of essential goods. Therefore, the governments of advanced economies are implementing initiatives to logistically relocate manufacturing sites and to strengthen local technological capabilities with the aim of protecting the economies from international crises. Europe too is moving in this direction but, in order to be effective, it is increasingly urgent to solve some weaknesses in the European political construction which also in this field limit the role of our continent on the global scene.</p>Andrea L. Lacaita
Copyright (c) 2023 Istituto Lombardo - Accademia di Scienze e Lettere - Rendiconti di Scienze
2023-07-132023-07-1310.4081/scienze.2022.824CESARE CARDANI. LA VITA
https://www.ilasl.org/Scienze/article/view/829
<p>Non disponibile.</p>Paola Vita Finzi
Copyright (c) 2023 Istituto Lombardo - Accademia di Scienze e Lettere - Rendiconti di Scienze
2023-07-132023-07-1310.4081/scienze.2022.829