Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Editor's note: A version of this was previously published on the author's blog. anything superlative is the most-whatever of its type; the coldest winter a researcher with the Geological Survey of Egypt was in the southwestern section of his country participating in an Egyptian-Italian expedition to the site of "Lybian desert glass." The glass is an unusual yellowish material now thought to have formed from a high-pressure impact an inch wide and a little thinner than an inch caught his eye because it didn't look like other rocks in the area Partly buried in the dirt, it was shiny gray-black and weighed just over an ounce. At first Barakat thought it might be a tektite. A tektite is a stone formed by the melting of rocks hit by meteorites and their subsequent cooling examination in the field showed it was not The pebble was studded with microscopic diamonds Diamonds typically form in the Earth's mantle about 90 miles underground in super-hot and super-pressurized conditions where naturally present carbon deposits are squeezed and heated volcanoes may shove diamond-bearing formations to the surface diamonds form through the impact of asteroids — the enormous pressure and heat of the strikes are enough to do the job And microscopic diamonds called nanodiamonds have been discovered in meteorites the result of high-speed collisions of rocky debris in space Small pieces of the stone were examined independently in labs in Egypt, Italy and South Africa. "All these studies proved that the material contains the first record of tiny grains of diamond in Egypt," Barakat wrote at drbarakataly.wordpress.com He said the material is dubbed the "'Hypatia Stone' after Hypatia of Alexandria (c Major contributors to our understanding of the matter are Jan Kramers and Gregory Belyanin of the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Their university reportedthat they "found exotic micro-mineral compounds in the 'Hypatia' stone that are not known to occur on Earth In a paper to be published officially on Feb. 18 by the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, but whose abstract is already available on line, Kramers Belyanin and colleagues wrote that their extensive studies indicate the material is of "pre-solar origin." A 2013 study by the group posited that the stone might be a remnant of a comet's nucleus But Kramers told The Evening News in a Jan "We have now found that it does not contain any silicates at all (except in the fractures where minerals of terrestrial origin have formed All studied cometary material (interplanetary dust particles and in situ collected dust from NASA's Stardust mission) has silicate minerals." "Further there are exotic minerals which we think must be presolar a nickel phosphide compound with extremely high Ni/Fe (nickle to iron) ratio (around 80) that cannot be formed in the solar nebula by any process aluminium (which we Americans call aluminum) "All in all we now think that the stone's parent body formed by dust agglomeration in the outermost solar nebula and remained cold until its encounter with Earth." Kramers doubts that the stone is a wanderer from another star system, like the asteroid or comet spied flying through our own in October, which NASA says originated from elsewhere in the galaxy "We don't think that the object comes from outside the solar system because its xenon isotopes are similar to those of carbonaceous chondrites," he wrote Carbonaceous chondrites are a rare type of meteorite "But it certainly contains extrasolar dust One important conclusion is that the solar nebula was primarily not quite homogeneous containing regions without silicate grains." the Hypatia Stone is a relic of a period around the time the solar system condensed from a vast interstellar cloud of hydrogen this cloud was seeded with elements from previous generations of stars that went supernova The new study indicates that this strangest rock comes from the nebula that was clumping up before the solar system finished condensing And now we know that elements were not distributed evenly in the cloud Important donation for the Royal Museums of Turin will welcome the installation Nuvola Rossa (1975) by Leonardo Mosso (Turin a precious donation from the heirs of the Turin architect It is a tribute to the high value of the author’s complex identity and an opportunity to approach and learn about the poetics of one of the protagonists of 20th-century Turin Nuvola Rossa (Red Cloud ) is a structure made of linden wood laths with a 3-millimeter section painted red and joined by elastic neoprene joints Conceived for the Museo del Risorgimento in Turin it was made in flat parts in early 1975 at Ca’ Bianca the artist’s atelier at Villa Nuytz Antonielli in Pino Torinese and later transported to Palazzo Carignano where the joining of the pieces and the spatial completion were carried out had a total development of about 400 square meters and the realization was organized and coordinated by architect Gianfranco Cavaglià with the collaboration of a group of students close to Professor Mosso it appears that more than 1,500 hours were required for assembly.The birth of Nuvola Rossa takes place on the occasion of the 30th Anniversary of the Liberation when the National Museum of the Risorgimento in Turin dedicates some rooms to the setting up of the Museum of Resistance The project is entrusted to Leonardo Mosso and the Centro Studi Alvar Aalto: the first plates are dated September 1974 and the museum is opened to the public on April 25 The project immediately takes on a highly symbolic value In the introductory part dedicated to the Resistance and anti-fascism Mosso imagines a solution “with two integrated components”: a building structure formed by two large black plates and As Mosso himself writes in the article published in issue 55 of “New Society” (May 1 the installation is: “A large red ”kinetecture,“ or kinetic structure with rigid elements and universal elastic joint twenty meters on a side; suspended in the void of the large hall - almost an open courtyard - and hovering over part of it respected and used with critical intervention because it is semiologically foreign on all levels-as Franco Antonicelli pointed out in a valuable critical reading of this project-with the contents of the new museum and their translation into constructed forms the constructive watermark of ’kinetecture’- with the aid on the ground of white wings of modest height - will still allow the space of the hall and the decorative and pictorial elements to be fully grasped without being heavily involved in it; while at the same time it will be sufficient to prevent the visitor from conceptual and visual dissipation and to introduce him to the ’other’ museum.” Nuvola Rossa would later be dismantled and inappropriately removed in 1984 and the fragments are now preserved at the Ca’ Bianca Attention to its symbolic and civic significance resurfaced in 1997 thanks to the Spontaneous Committee for the Preservation of Contemporary Works of Art and Architecture intellectuals and politicians not only from Italy on the heels of the inauguration of the restorations of the Italian Parliament Hall at Palazzo Carignano-the same spaces previously occupied by Mosso’s museum installations-with the aim of urging the rescue restoration and recomposition of Mosso’s installations in their original spaces The donation by the heirs Laura Castagno Mosso and Stefano Mosso brings back the Red Cloud now located in the staircase of the Manica Nuova of the Royal Palace of Turin a building constructed between 1899 and 1903 by Roman architect Emilio Stramucci (1845 - 1926) and inspired by the princely residences of 18th-century Italy and Juvarra’s masterpieces with a first phase of removing consistent and inconsistent dirt deposits from the surface of the wooden elements and a subsequent phase of revising the elastic joints between the wooden rulers and repairing or replacing broken or deformed elements to restore the correct kinetic functionality of the structure in the staging phase The intervention required the analysis of the constructive configuration of the parts in order to reconstitute the unity of the individual fragments of the work in accordance with their law of formation and for proper display The replacements of degraded elements were carried out using the same materials employed by the artist: linden wood and EPDM rubber bands a man of culture and activist for the preservation of the architectural heritage of the 20th century was among the promoters with Maria Adriana Prolo of the National Cinema Museum Association of Turin in 1953 and founder in 1979 of the Alvar Aalto Institute later the Museum of Architecture Applied Arts and Design he graduated in Architecture from the Turin Polytechnic in 1951 and worked in the studio of his father an important exponent of rationalist and futurist architecture Fundamental to his human and professional growth was his meeting with Alvar Aalto one of the most important figures in 20th-century architecture and design The rooms and tree-lined garden of Ca’ Bianca in Pino Torinese have housed the Alvar Aalto Institute since 1979 founded by Leonardo Mosso and Laura Castagno with friends and fellow architects and artists then merged into the Museum of Architecture The institute preserves important collections and evidence of 20th-century Europe and the ateliers and archives of the two founding artists Mosso and Castagno; Nicola Mosso’s house-atelier in Turin and Graglia A founding member of the National Cinema Museum in Turin Leonardo Mosso held the chair of Architectural Composition at the Faculty of Architecture of the Turin Polytechnic and has taught at many European universities He has carried out research and experimentation in the field of design theories Informative meetings dedicated to the return of lunar missions the prospect of space tourism and the role of women in science and technology conferences on Piedmontese aerospace industry and its important contribution to satellite and exploration projects film screenings and book presentations with experts in the sector guided tours of some of the most representative aerospace companies in the world as well as exhibitions of prototypes and model aircraft live shows and experiential moments with the use of virtual reality science and science fiction aims to tell the fascination of the stars and the secrets of the universe to curious people storytelling and information will be hosted in different places in the city and in locations such as Politecnico di Torino the Planetarium Infini.To in Pino Torinese the Pinacoteca Agnelli with the Pista500 at Lingotto the Aula Magna of the University of Turin and the Cavallerizza Reale which will open the doors of its research and production centre to visits from the public The Space Festival 2023 intends to strengthen the national leadership of Turin and Piedmont in the aerospace sector and to enhance as an increasingly important component in the local economic system made up of more than 300 companies and aerospace research poles among the most important in the world capable of establishing itself internationally as one of the main players in the design and construction of everything that orbits our planet The "Contest delle startup spaziali" initiative was devised by Marco Berry the European Space Agency programme that supports the best startup initiatives for space-related projects in presence at the Aula Magna of Politecnico di Torino (Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24) and will begin with a presentation by ESA BIC Turin The event will include a lecture led by Roberto Battiston internationally renowned physicist and astrophysicist former President of the Italian Space Agency from 2014 to 2018 Battiston will tell the audience about plans for future space exploration and the prospects of the new Space Economy while from 17:30 there will be an award ceremony for the start-up that has presented the most promising innovative idea for the space exploration sector To join the event, or the others in the programme of the festival, it is necessary to register online, free of charge, on the official Space Festival website Colle Don Bosco – agosto 2024  - On 15 August 2024,  the occasion of the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary an informal fraternal gathering of some of the Mayors and civil authorities of the Land of the Saints (Terra dei Santi) took place around the Rector Major in the presence of the Salesian community.  The authorities present were: The Assessor of Castelnuovo Don Bosco,  Mr Giuglio welcomed and presented the dignitaries and thanked them for their presence The Mayors and the Civil authorities in their  turn expressed their sense of belonging to Don Bosco and the Salesian Mission They also expressed their gratitude to the Rector Major for all his initiatives for the cause of the welfare of the young people expressed his gratitude to the mayors and civil authorities for their support and friendship He recalled  that  in the past year close to 50,000 young people had visited Colle Don Bosco which  remains  a holy land for the young people ANS - “Agenzia iNfo Salesiana” is a on-line almost daily publication the communication agency of the Salesian Congregation enrolled in the Press Register of the Tibunal of Rome as n 153/2007 This site also uses third-party cookies to improve user experience and for statistical purposes By scrolling through this page or by clicking on any of its elements