Program 2014
DESCRIPTION
(OPEN HERE CALENDAR AND PRESENTATION OF 2014 CONFERENCES)
THE PROGRAM
The Club Donegani continues its activities as interface between civil society and the world of research and technological innovation and culture, proposing a series of scientific conferences on topics of broad interest in health and environment together with some historical conferences.
GREEN CHEMISTRY
Sustainable development, the keystone of technological progress in the new century, involves the gradual use of non-edible biomass to replace oil for the production of chemicals, plastics and biofuels. The latter in particular can contribute significantly to the reduction of greenhouse gases, and to a lesser dependence on imported fossil sources, provided that the products comply with sustainability criteria and do not compete with the food sector.
The research directors of three nationally and internationally leading companies in the sector will illustrate the results obtained so far from their research and the future prospects.
Dr. D.Giordano, director of the Mossi Ghisolfi (Tortona (Alessandria) research, illustrate a proprietary and revolutionary technology named Proesa®, which allows for the production of bioethanol and other chemicals from non-food plant.
Dr. C. Perego, director of the Research Centre for Non-conventional Energies – Istituto Eni Donegani, will illustrate the projects of the center for the production of biodiesel from biomass through the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, the use of microorganisms (yeasts, fungi, bacteria and microalgae), the conversion of waste into a bio-oil similar to the oil.
Dr. L.Capuzzi, research directoir of Novamont, talks about the innovation strategies of the company, based on the concept of third-generation biorefinery, fully integrated in the territory and dedicated primarily to the production of bioplastics and chemicals from renewable sources.
FOOD AND HEALTH
The importance of food for health and the influence of nutrition on the quality of life have been known since ancient times.
Today, thanks to the Science of Food and Nutrition and in particular to Dietology, the problems of human nutrition can be addressed starting from a solid knowledge on the chemical composition of nutrients and on molecular mechanisms ruling their absorption and usage by the body.
Some aspects of this theme of common interest will be illustrated in a series of four lectures by two chemists of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Novara, and two medical doctors of the Hospital Maggiore of Novara.
Prof. Dr. F. Pollastro and prof. G..Appendino will clarify that the bitter and spicy flavors are not only the means to select and appreciate the food, but that taste receptors are widespread in the body and their sensitivity and stimulation to specific components contained in foods can be used for therapeutic purposes or to develop new natural medications.
Dr. F. D’Andrea, in contrast with the proliferation of all kinds of diets and the media confusion on the subject, will provide guidelines that will help to unravel the tangle of diets.
Dr . M. Campanini will speak of a series of common foods such as wine, chocolate …, containing substances that act as chemo-protecting agents and therefore preventive medicines against the onset of diseases of various kinds.
HISTORICAL RECONSTRUCTION
There is a certain analogy between scientific and historical research. Here to we start from experimental facts, historical events, and develop a conceptual scheme to explain them rationally.
Is the case of the rolls manuscripts (about 900 documents) found in 1947 by a shepherd in a cave of the archaeological site of Qumran, in the desert area west of the Dead Sea. Since then numerous scholars have devoted their attention to the analysis of these literary but also archaeological findings in an attempt to reconstruct the profile of a community, probably Essen, disappeared with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD by the Roman legions of Titus.
Don S. Barbaglia, acute biblical scholar, but also a deep connoisseur of Qumran, brings us his interpretation on the origin, culture and objectives of this religious Jewish community of the time of Jesus Christ.
In the late spring of 1513 takes place near Novara what has been called the last battle of the Middle Ages. In the resort of Pernate, around the farm Ariotta, the French army of Louis XII led by General La Tremoilleand and Swiss mercenaries, funded by the papacy and led by the Duke of Milan Massimiliano Sforza, face each other in battle. On June 6, the Swiss army defeats the French troops after a bloody clash that left thousands dead of both sideson the field. As a result the power of the Duke Maximilian Sforza is restored, but for a short time.
Dr. Mario Troso, historian of this event and author of important publications on the subject, will reconstruct the events of that fateful day.