On the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, the International Centre for Theoretical Physics Abdus Salam and the Trieste Section of the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) are organizing a public event based on the play "The Hidden Force", which offers a view of 20th century physics through the eyes of four of its female protagonists.
The Hidden Force arises in the performing art scene from the interaction of a group of women researchers in Physics, History and Theatre, with the aim to celebrate women’s contribution to Science and to make it known within the general public. The play offers a view of twentieth century’s Physics through the eyes of four only partly credited protagonists: Marietta Blau (Austrian nuclear physicist), Chien-Shiung Wu(Chinese-American particle physicist), Milla Baldo Ceolin (Italian particle physicist) and Vera Cooper Rubin (American astronomer). Their stories reveal a common fabric of strong intellectual and human value, talent and determination, which led them to achieve fundamental results towards a deeper understanding of nature: these covered innovative methods to reveal the essence of nuclear processes, experiments on their hidden symmetries, the elusive nature of neutrinos and the observation of distant galaxies. Their lives were intertwined with radical social and historical changes in an international context characterized by great upheaval, but also by the birth of modern Physics and of institutions like CERN.
Too few people are concerned with handing down and making known a female genealogy. This work presents four iconic women who have loved Science, four like the forces of Nature: the force of Gravity, Electromagnetic, Weak and Strong. But there is another hidden force that any spectator will perceive, and it is the force of women, generating a drive towards Science as a place of respect, progress and civil coexistence.
The Hidden Force was conceived, written and promoted by a group of women physicists from the Turin Division of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics, Anna Ceresole, Nora De Marco and Nadia Pastrone, and from the Physics Department of the University of Turin, Simonetta Marcello, together with Women’s historian Emiliana Losma, expert in new technologies Rita Spada, author and playwright Gabriella Bordin, author, actress and activist Elena Ruzza, in collaboration with soprano Fé Avouglan.
Duration: 1 h 10 min
Event in Italian with English subtitles. Free entry, registration is required
