Communication and Imagination
Notation: A = Amara F = Fiorella [ ] = extra comments by Amara
A: You told me of the influences that your grandmother had in your curiosity about the sky as a child. How old were you, and how did that happen?
F: Actually now we are going in a direction that I've only discovered about myself recently (the last few years). That is, not being afraid of being a scientist in the way I want, that is, to use my fantasies and imagination. Scientists are often afraid, they must be rigorous, they must be very analytical, they must be very correct. But they don't have to be afraid to use their imagination and fantasies because the way that you communicate with people is very much on an emotional level. The way I got started asking questions of my grandmother was through an emotional process. My grandmother didn't know anything about the sky. But I was about 5 or 6 years old, and we were spending summers out in the country outside Milano, close to Crema, where there were big farms and I stayed there. At night, she would say: "Fiorella, let's go for a walk in the country." And so we would walk and walk and it was so dark. No light was anywhere. And she would begin to tell me these amazing stories about the universe. Such as, if we continue to walk and walk to far distances we would then reach that star, and she would tell me why the moon was so big and white and the stars so small. These stories were completely based on imagination and fantasy and of course, weren't correct. Now with the education I have, of course these things are not true, but I appreciated very much all of that fantasy and imagination. The idea of capturing a star, the idea of being a star all led me to want to learn and study. The real true scientists are not afraid to use some of their imagination because it's very much complementary to the analytical part.
A: Feynman was a classic example of one who uses his imagination...
F: Yes! He was just sparkling and overflowing with ideas.. If you take literally some of what he was saying, you would think that he was crazy! But actually there was a big truth to what he was saying. But his passion, [and] emotion just grabbed your imagination.. Feynman was one of the greatest scientists ever. So this other aspect of communication (i.e. imagination) is what I've learned recently. Even when I was teaching at Liceo Scientifico, after I got my degree, I was still so afraid of using this other way. In the beginning. Then in time I learned to not be afraid! You will find the same thing too, since you're interested in doing some teaching. You will see how you progress. In the beginning, you will be afraid to explain what inertia is, you will try to be very scientific and very precise. Then in the second week you will elaborate a little bit on that concept. Then in the third week you will want to tell your students how you discovered that if you cooked spaghetti with the water boiling there is a phenomena to be observed..
A: Convective processes in the boiling of spaghetti water!
F: But it takes time. Science is hard.
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