Our diversity and the Italian Constitution. Do we really need human races?

This paper describes a proposal regarding the presence of the word "race" in the Italian Constitution. Three points are worth of note. Firstly, simply removing the word race from the Constitution is of no real help, since we could miss an indispensable hook for laws concerned with racism. Rather, we should be able to introduce an alternative phrase that: (i) can express the concept of diversity without forgetting all the various aspects of its meaning (biological and cultural, above all); (ii) in no way evokes a hierarchy of values. To make it more effective, the amendment must be accompanied by an explicit statement that race has no meaning for the human species and that any discriminatory view based on such an invalid assumption must therefore be rejected. Secondly, overcoming the old, but still existing, dichotomy between “physical” and “cultural” anthropology, is an absolute necessity in every discussion about the ”human races”. In fact, the term race is also used to stigmatize cultural differences, as if they were the product of different intellectual skills or moral predispositions. Achieving a synthesis between the biological and cultural dimensions of race is a preliminary step to effectively counter the dangerous links between new forms of intolerance and the resurgence of genetic determinism. Thirdly and finally, we should be aware that our commitment must not end simply by signing a document. On the contrary, it must start from there. In our educational and training activities, we must seek to involve wider audiences and provide them with the best tools so they can look at human diversity with no preconceptions. It is important to raise awareness of the need for a change among all those who, for various reasons,are involved in scientific and cultural dissemination

Pulsation Period Change & Classical Cepheids: Probing the Details of Stellar Evolution

Measurements of secular period change probe real-time stellar evolution of classical Cepheids making these measurements powerful constraints for stellar evolution models, especially when coupled with interferometric measurements. In this work, we present stellar evolution models and measured rates of period change for two Galactic Cepheids: Polaris and l Carinae, both important Cepheids for anchoring the Cepheid Leavitt law (period-luminosity relation). The combination of previously-measured parallaxes, interferometric angular diameters and rates of period change allows for predictions of Cepheid mass loss and stellar mass. Using the stellar evolution models, We find that l Car has a mass of about 9 $M_\odot$ consistent with stellar pulsation models, but is not undergoing enhanced stellar mass loss. Conversely, the rate of period change for Polaris requires including enhanced mass-loss rates. We discuss what these different results imply for Cepheid evolution and the mass-loss mechanism on the Cepheid instability strip.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure, Poster presented at IAU307: New windows on massive stars: asteroseismology, interferometry, and spectropolarimetry, Editors: G. Meynet, C. Georgy, J.H. Groh & Ph. Ste

Anthropologists, Italians and “human races”

This article is part of an international forum on raceand racism published by the Journal of Anthropological Sciences and edited by Alan Goodman of the New Hampshire College (USA). The paper presents an overview of the use and meaning of the term "human race" among Italian scholars, both on the biological and cultural side, in a historical perspective. The theme is also contextualized with respect to political and social current events

Le Bitcoin : la monnaire du futur ?: De l'intégration à l'utilité commerciale (étude centrée sur les entreprises suisses)

Ces dernières années une nouvelle monnaie a fait son apparition sur internet. Une monnaie étrange qui n’est gouvernée par personne, une monnaie qui est autorégulé par un algorithme et qui de plus est anonyme. Cette monnaie s’est fait remarquer en 2013 de par son coût qui en l’espace de 6 mois a vu sa valeur passer de 20 CHF à 1’100 CHF. Je parle bien évidement du Bitcoin. Ce travail dans une première partie va explorer le terme crypto-monnaie et mettre ce mot en contexte au sein de la loi Suisse. Ensuite on donnera une explication sur le fonctionnement du Bitcoin - les technologies utilisées et leurs fonctionnements, ainsi que les avantages et inconvénients d’implanter une telle monnaie dans son entreprise. Pour finir nous allons regarder ce que les entreprises qui ont essayé cette nouvelle monnaie en pensent

Samples and data accessibility in research biobanks. An explorative survey

Biobanks, which contain human biological samples and/or data, provide a crucial contribution to the progress of biomedical research. However, the effective and efficient use of biobank resources depends on their accessibility. In fact, making bio-resources promptly accessible to everybody may increase the benefits for society. Furthermore, optimizing their use and ensuring their quality will promote scientific creativity and, in general, contribute to the progress of bio-medical research. Although this has become a rather common belief, several laboratories are still secretive and continue to withhold samples and data. In this study, we conducted a questionnairebased survey in order to investigate sample and data accessibility in research biobanks operating all over the world. The survey involved a total of 46 biobanks. Most of them gave permission to access their samples (95.7%) and data (85.4%), but free and unconditioned accessibility seemed not to be common practice. The analysis of the guidelines regarding the accessibility to resources of the biobanks that responded to the survey highlights three issues: (i) the request for applicants to explain what they would like to do with the resources requested; (ii) the role of funding, public or private, in the establishment of fruitful collaborations between biobanks and research labs; (iii) the request of co-authorship in order to give access to their data. These results suggest that economic and academic aspects are involved in determining the extent of sample and data sharing stored in biobanks. As a second step of this study, we investigated the reasons behind the high diversity of requirements to access biobank resources. The analysis of informative answers suggested that the different modalities of resource accessibility seem to be largely influenced by both social context and legislation of the countries where the biobanks operate