Harry Potter's Science and Magic: Science Week Kicks Off

Science and fantasy meet in the name of Harry Potter: Science Week kicks off on September 20th in Rome, a seven-day program of experiments, performances, and educational workshops for all ages, leading up to the European Researchers' Night on Friday, September 26th, with hundreds of events throughout Italy. "This year, too, we've chosen to dedicate the Science Week launch event to the connection between science and magic," said Alessandra Della Ceca, scientific director of the LEAF events program, the European Researchers' Night organized by Frascati Scienza. This year, the event also celebrates its twentieth anniversary. Over time, the event has encouraged more and more researchers to take to the streets, engaging the public, and opening science laboratories to everyone. This event, precisely because of its high social value, has also received recognition this year from the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella. Science Week will kick off at Rome's Ex Cartiera Latina in the Appia Antica Regional Park, where professors, researchers, and communicators will playfully transform into sorcerers, elves, and wizards, ready to master beastly potions, magical waters, transfigurations, mystical plants, Leviosa electrostatics, alchemy, and astronomy.

The program will continue with events spread primarily across Lazio, starting in Frascati, where the Ebri Rita Levi Montalcini Foundation will present an installation featuring inflatable neurons, or Licia Troisi's show, "Murder, She Wrote for an Evening," to solve some cosmic crimes. It will also continue to Parma, where visitors will discover the dangers of mosquitoes; Piacenza, where music will meet Artificial Intelligence; and Rende, in the province of Cosenza, where researchers from Crea will guide the public through the biodiversity of olives.