Translator: Michele Gianella Reviewer: Cecilia Bernabeni
This is a bridge.
We are in 1952 in Moscow, at the Kurchatov research center.
A group of researchers is testing a technology
with the aim of obtaining clean, virtually unlimited energy,
without waste or relevant by-products.
We are in an era when the Cold War is escalating rather rapidly:
the project, in fact, is classified as top secret.
This is also a bridge, but we'll get back to it in a moment.
Now let's go back to the 50s:
Russian physicists, and shortly afterwards also European and American ones,
were convinced
that it would take little time and relatively limited resources
to obtain such a profound revolutionary technology.
Both blocks, Soviet and Western,
were in fact veterans of a prolific series of studies
on the H-bomb, the hydrogen bomb, a thermonuclear bomb.
The principle with which the hydrogen bomb works
is somehow akin
to what happens inside the Sun:
two small, electrically charged atoms, collide, melt their nuclei
and release a gigantic amount of energy.
What the scientists involved were trying to achieve
is the same principle, but in a controlled environment.
The aim now is no longer to generate a super powerful weapon
but to produce energy through nuclear fusion.
After all,
building a star on Earth is quite complicated,
and difficulties soon emerged
from engineering to materials science,
theoretical physics and plasma physics.
A key moment,
which represented a turning point in the history of the study of fusion,
took place in Geneva in 1958,
at the conference later nicknamed "Atoms for Peace".
One of the objectives of this conference
was to bring together the world's most relevant research groups
and present the state-of-the-art of the fusion studies,
thus breaking the "Top Secret" classification.
This is already, per se, a wonderful bridge.
It came to an almost unanimous conclusion
that the best way to control this star, this Sun,
is through a toroidal reactor,
a so-called Tokamak.
In a few words,
it is a metal donut-shape object surrounded by coils
that generate magnetic fields that are enough strong and accurate
to control this star, this Sun,
in a confined and stabilized environment for a sufficient period of time.
But how much are we afraid of change?
Well..
If we could get energy from fusion today,
it would change absolutely nothing in our everyday life:
except,
we would stop destroying the planet as we are doing now.
Now.
Even now.
"Atoms for Peace" is a turning point
after which scientists from all over the world
started strong collaborations.
And in particular, around the end of the 1980s,
Europe, the United States, Russia and China
laid the foundations for an international collaboration
with the aim of demonstrating the feasibility of fusion on Earth.
The project is called "ITER -
International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor"
and is currently under construction
in Cadarache, in the south of France, in the region of Provence.
ITER, which is the most complex man-made technological work,
will be able to generate a plasma of 100 million degrees,
ten times hotter than the center of the Sun.
And a few meters away
from this relatively small, but very hot, star,
liquid helium,
used for cooling some components,
will reach a temperature of -270 degrees.
So, within a few meters, the hottest point
and one of the coldest points of the entire solar system
will coexist in ITER.
In recent decades, other experimental reactors were built
for the sake of studying fusion.
Among the most relevant are:
"JET" in Oxford; "ASDEX Upgrade" in Munich;
"EAST" in China;
and "DIII-D" in San Diego, at General Atomics in California.
Currently I am at DIII-D,
and I have two feelings that run in parallel within me.
The first is surely gratitude
for being part of a project that spans so far into the future.
The second one is a kind of responsibility,
seen that this can literally change the fate of our planet.
This, of course, is true for all the researchers
who, like me, share this fantastic journey.
But let's take a step back.
From average, sometimes bad, high school student,
how did I get here?
Surely,
the amazing hard work my parents put in
made the difference.
Certainly, I was also very, very lucky
to find professors who stimulated me the right way.
But a key element, which I still carry with me today,
is the hip-hop culture.
Hip-hop is a cultural movement
that was born in the U.S. in the early 70s,
and includes within it:
rap music, graffiti, dj-ing and breakdance.
It is basically poetry in motion:
a unique bridge, whose motto is "peace, love, union and fun".
I got to know it with everything that wasn't school -
but of course,
by that I don't mean that studying doesn't bring benefits;
on the contrary, especially today
studying is an integral part of my everyday life.
But it is by cultivating your passions
that you explore new places
where you would never have thought to get to.
A way to go beyond one's own limits,
whether these are imposed by ourselves or by others.
It is the dream, the goal, that allows you to become
what you never thought you could be.
But then how did a movement like hip-hop, so distance from science,
influence my life, my work and my study path?
Certainly, it taught me silence and listening.
Just as we spent entire afternoons as kids
trying to assimilate every single word
that we heard from the older kids,
today part of my work
is studying and listening to the opinions of older scientists
who have made history in our field.
Surely it has also taught me patience,
because, much like before joining such important events
one has to spend years studying and working hard,
so I am involved today in a project
that will see the light after 2080.
Exactly.
Probably, I won't even make it to 2080.
It taught me the respect towards those who know more than me;
but also towards those who know less.
Because we have all been beginners at least once, in everything.
It is the attitude and method this culture has conveyed to me,
that has allowed me to focus on something much bigger than me.
In a collective, and not individualistic perspective.
All this can be encapsulated in an old Afro-American saying,
which I believe is today more relevant than ever:
"Each one, teach one".
This is also a bridge.
Thank you.
(Applause)