“Scientists should think about their speciality within the framework of modern culture to provide not only specific knowledge, but also some general ideas” (Jacques Monod, 1970)

“At the dawn of the third millennium, scientists claim their right to intervene in a field, which was once considered to be under the exclusive competence and jurisdiction of philosophers and churchmen: the field of values.” (Rita Levi Montalcini, 2002)

Under the Auspices of:

PROGRAM

Friday, March 11th 2005
09:00 – 10:30 OPENING SESSION

RITA LEVI-MONTALCINI (CNR - Istituto di Neurobiologia e Medicina Molecolare, Roma)

10:30 – 10:45
Chair: Bernardino Fantini (University of Geneva)
10:45 - 11:15
Christian de Duve (Institute of Cellular Pathology, Bruxelles)
Life between chance and necessity

11:45– 12:00
Chair: Takashi Gojobori (National Institute of Genetics, Mishima)
12:00 - 12:30
Giorgio Bernardi (Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Napoli)
An ultra-darwinian view of evolution

14:30 – 14:45
Chair: Giorgio Morpurgo (Università degli Studi di Perugia)
14:45 - 15:15
Emile Zuckerkandl (Institute of Molecular Medical Sciences, Palo Alto)
Complexity, intelligent design and nature's cunning
15:15 - 15:45
Antoine Danchin (Institut Pasteur, Paris)
Is the computer metaphore relevant to describe living organisms?

15:45 – 16:00
Chair: Gian Antonio Danieli (Università degli Studi, Padua)
16:00 - 16:30
Pier Luigi Luisi (Università degli Studi di Roma Tre)
From the origin of life on Earth to synthetic biology
16:30 - 17:00
Douglas Wallace (University of California, Irvine)
Ancient origins-modern diseases: the mitochondrial connection

17:15 – 17:30
Chair: Vittorio Sgaramella (Parco Tecnologico Padano - CERSA, Lodi)
17:30 - 18:00
Benno Müller-Hill (University of Cologne)
In praise of fundamental biological research
18:00 - 18:30
Werner Arber (University of Basel)
Practical and philosophical values of scientific knowledge

18:30 – 20:00 (Tavola rotonda in lingua italiana)
Giorgio Bernardi (Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Napoli)
Ernesto Carafoli (Università di Padova)
Giovanni Giacometti (Università di Padova)
Piergiorgio Odifreddi (Università degli Studi di Torino)
Vittorio Sgaramella (Parco Tecnologico Padano - CERSA, Lodi)

10: 40 – 10:50
Chair: Talal Younès (IUBS, Paris)
10:50 - 11:20
Motonori Hoshi (Keio University, Yokohama)
Individuality and sexuality
11:20 - 11:50
Marvalee Wake (University of California, Berkeley)
Integrative Biology: an approach to the analysis of complexity

11:50 - 12:00
Chair: Pierre Lasserre (University of Paris VI)
12:00 - 12:30
Gabriel Macaya (University of Costa Rica, San José)
Doing science in small national scientific communities

14:30 – 14:40
Chair: Lucio Luzzatto (Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca sul Cancro, Genoa)
14:40 - 15:10
Takashi Gojobori (National Institute of Genetics, Mishima)
The evolutionary origin of a brain
15:10 - 15:40
Alain Prochiantz (CNRS - Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris)
To be and not to be an animal
15:40 - 16:10
Elkhonon Goldberg (New York Univeristy)
Human brain and the civilized mind

16:50 - 17:00
Chair: Walter Erdelen (UNESCO, Paris)
17:00 - 17:30
Graziano Fiorito (Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Napoli)
A point of view on behavior and its flexibility
17:30 - 18:00
Pierre Gilles de Gennes(Institut Curie, Paris)
The nature of memory objects in the brain
18:00 - 18:30
Hideaki Koizumi (Advanced Research Laboratory, Saitama)
Developing the Brain. An approach towards learning and educational sciences by functional imaging

11:15 – 11:25
Chair: Howard Moore (UNESCO-ROSTE, Venice)
11:25 - 11:55
Ladislav Kovac (Comenius University, Bratislava)
Humans transcending biology: Epistemology of artifacts
11:55 - 12:25
Lucio Luzzatto (Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca sul Cancro, Genova)
Gene transfer in human cells: medical, ethical and emotional implications
12:25 - 12:55
Elliott Sober (University of Wisconsin, Madison)
Science, selfishness, and human nature

14:00 - 14:10
Chair: Giovanni Giacometti (Università degli Studi, Padua)
14:10 14:30
Pierre Gilles de Gennes (Institut Curie, Paris)
The tribulations of inventors
14:30 - 15:00
Susan Greenfield (Oxford University)
Selling science to society

15:00 – 14:15
Chair: Ernesto Carafoli (Università degli Studi, Padua)
15:15 - 15:45
Alessandro Schiesaro (King's College London)
Poeta creator: poetry creates the world
15:45 - 16:15
Richard Ernst (ETH, Zürich)
Arts and sciences, fascinating aspects of Tibetan paintings
16:15 - 16:45
Arthur I. Miller (University College London)
Abstract Art, Abstract Science
16:45 - 17.15
Piergiorgio Odifreddi (Università degli Studi di Torino)
Zero, and nothing else

17:15 – 17:30 TRANSFER TO SAN VIDAL CHURCH
17:30 – 18:00
Jörg Rasche (German Association for Analytical Psychology, Berlin)
Music, love and gravitation. Mozart and the physics of enlightenment
18:00 – 18:15 CONCLUDING REMARKS
Giorgio Bernardi (Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Napoli)