all papers
Quentin Skinner
Skinner reflects on his intellectual path over the past twenty years, from theorizing a third concept of freedom, to reconstructing the concept of State and defending it in our normative discourse against oversimplifying theorizers of the «death of the State», to the crisis of contemporary democracies.
Marco Ferrari
Recent assumptions about the nature and physiology of plants could revolutionise our perspective on the world of plants. But orthodoxy is not easy to change. The first of this two-part article deals with plant neurobiology.
Marylin Strathern
During the COVID-19 pandemic, divergent as well as convergent narratives cried out for attention. Strathern discusses them through the anthropological response and its reception in the UK while questioning individual responsibility and the usefulness of “common humanity” as a universal concept.
Peter Brown
Susannah Gold interviews Peter Brown and his Balzan research project leader, David Michelson, about the process of “reconceiving the historical reference work” with the online historical reference for Syriac studies, syriaca.org, the cornerstone of Figures in a Landscape.
In presenting the work of Jean-Jacques Hublin, 2023 Balzan Prize for the Evolution of Humankind: Paleoanthropology, Francesco Ranci traces a ‘genealogy’ of Balzan Prizewinners who have done research in or related to the field.
François Rosset and Michel Porret
The authors reflect on philosophical historian Bronisław Baczko’s research project (2011 Balzan Prize), Dictionnaire critique de l’utopie au temps des Lumières, an embodiment of his conception of utopia and a complex view of the socio-political and literary culture of the era of the Philosophes.
Paolo Rossi Monti
In discussing the work of the historian of science, with “La scienza e la sua storia” Paolo Rossi Monti provides an interesting overview of long-forgotten objects, theories, methodologies, formulations of problems, career paths. The essay comes with a profile of Paolo Rossi Monti where Nicolette Mout outlines his contribution to the history of science as […]
Khalid Barkaoui
Science journalist Senne Starckx interviews astrophysicist Khalid Barkaoui from the SPECULOOS project, led by Michaël Gillon (2017 Balzan Prizewinner for The Sun’s Planetary System and Exoplanets). The project, involving six universities, uses robotic telescopes in Chile, Tenerife and Mexico to find Earth-like planets around red dwarf stars using the transit method.
Johannes Oerlemans
2022 Prizewinner Hans Oerlemans reports on Balzan excursions he led in Upper Engadine, where participants were able to experience first-hand how glaciers shape the landscape and learn about his research on glaciers, in particular, the MortAlive project.
Reinhard Jahn
Despite decades of research, scientists are only beginning to unravel the complexities of the brain’s functions, which surpass high-performance computers. Reinhard Jahn focuses on understanding synaptic transmission and neurotransmitter release, shedding light on this intricate system.
Jürgen Osterhammel
Osterhammel surveys global history’s evolution, noting its establishment in academe while highlighting its fragility. He calls for methodological awareness and pluralism in an approach balancing movement-building and the field’s transformative potential.
In this interview with journalist Evgeny Utkin, Luigi Ambrosio, winner of the 2019 Balzan Prize, talks about his life as a mathematician, touching on his areas of research, his career in education, and the responsibilities of scientists today.
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