On October 17th at 5:30 PM, at the Antico Caffè San Marco, a seminar titled "La metamorfosi del nulla" (i.e. The metamorphoses of Nothingness) will take place, featuring Professor Claudio Bartocci as the speaker. The event is part of the "Dialogues of Science" seminar series organized by the Interdisciplinary Laboratory of SISSA.
La metamorfosi del nulla explores the concept of zero in mathematics, the void in physics, and nothingness in philosophy. These three closely intertwined ideas have subtly crossed the history of thought from East to West. What unites these ideas is the disorientation of logic, the intoxication of paradox, and the richness of the non-existent.
Claudio Bartocci teaches geometry, mathematical physics, and the history of mathematics at the University of Genoa. He has authored numerous scientific articles in international journals and two specialised monographs. He edited the anthology Racconti matematici (Einaudi 2006) and co-directed with Piergiorgio Odifreddi the four-volume work La matematica (Einaudi, 2007-2011). His most recent books are Una piramide di problemi (Raffaello Cortina, 2012), Dimostrare l'impossibile (Raffaello Cortina, 2014; finalist Galileo Prize 2015 for scientific divulgation), Numeri (with Luigi Civalleri, Codice 2104; ii ed. 2017) and Zerologia (with Piero Martin and Andrea Tagliapietra, il Mulino, 2016).