Knowledge is one of the essential values of our time, and yet its importance is often taken for granted. In an age shaped by artificial intelligence, global crises and unprecedented scientific change, this event asks what it means today to invest in research and learning. Bringing the perspective of someone who has moved through science as a researcher, a director and a leading figure in public institutions, Chiara Carrozza weaves personal experience together with systemic analysis, connecting science, politics and society. From experimental physics to biorobotics, from the organisation of research systems to the training of new generations, this is a chance to explore the many kinds of value that knowledge holds: cultural, economic, democratic and human. What is knowledge really worth in a world moving faster than its own institutions? Without a long-term vision and without faith in education, there can be no sustainable development and no shared future.

Rain, fog, wind, frost, drought. There is a silent protagonist that runs through the millennia and shapes the fate of humanity more than kings, generals or revolutions: the climate, with all its atmospheric envoys. “Storia del mondo in 10 tempeste” (A History of the World in 10 Storms) revisits the great events of the past from the unfamiliar perspective of meteorology, showing how often the meeting of human beings and destiny has been settled by unexpected natural phenomena. Napoleon had calculated everything: the dimensions of the plain at Waterloo, the placing of the artillery, the charge of the Guard. The one thing he had not allowed for was the storm that broke on the night of 17–18 June 1815, turning the ground to mud and forcing delays on the Emperor that proved decisive. Starting from episodes such as this one, Vincenzo Levizzani leads us through the centuries and recounts the many times human plans have collided with the fury of the elements. He shows how the weather has always acted as the invisible director of great events, and how it still does, shaping our habits, our economy and our culture. The book is also a reflection on ambition and humility: because often, when we imagine we are holding the reins of History, all we really have in our fist is a drop of rain.