News

The arrival of a new 3D printer marks the start of a "mechatronic" age at SISSA. The new laboratory will enable SISSA investigators to be increasingly self-sufficient in designing and constructing the experimental setups and machinery needed for their studies.

Thanks to sophisticated equipment, including a new-generation 3D printer, and to the laboratory's expertise, scientists will no longer have to adapt their research to the constraints of existing technology but will be able to work more creatively, developing technology that fits the needs of scientific investigation.

A research paper published in the journal Nature Materials, the result of the collaboration between a group of theoretical physicists from the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste and a group of experimental physicists from the University of Basel, reveals the secrets of the nanofriction produced when an atomic force microscope observes the surface of certain materials.

Stefan Hell

December 19, 2013 - 11 am

SISSA, Main Lecture Hall

Via Bonomea, 265 - Trieste

Until a short time ago scientists thought it was impossible to observe objects smaller than 200 nanometres under an optical microscope. Stefan Hell, a physicist of the Max Plank Institute, found a way to overcome this limit, inventing a method to observe biological tissues down to the molecular scale. The physicist talked about his research at a public conference at SISSA. 

The genome of viruses is usually enclosed inside a shell called capsid. Capsids have unique mechanic properties: they have to be resistant and at the same time capable of dissolving in order to release the genome into the infected cell.

The scientists of the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) of Trieste have coordinated a study on the mechanic properties of viruses that have improved their understanding, so much that they were able to make conjectures on the behavior of still little-known viruses

Licia Verde

December 11, 2013 - 3.30 pm

SISSA, Main lecture hall

Via Bonomea, 265 - Trieste

Increasingly small robots that carry out their functions even inside the human body. No, this isn't a sci-fi dream but a close possibility. On one condition: the miniaturization of these devices requires them to acquire the same "softness" and flexibility as biological tissues.

The International School for Advanced Studies of Trieste (SISSA) took part in a study on a sample of professional women volleyball players to better understand the relationship between the cognitive and motor systems.

According to the research, the brain's involvement in motor actions is more complex than was thought so far.

DOWNALOAD > Press release

The key pathway by which viruses "attack" consists in releasing viral DNA into the infected cell, taking over the host cell's transcription mechanisms and using them to reproduce itself.

In order to fight or exploit to our benefit the action of viruses, scientists are trying to understand this process in detail. A group of researchers – one of whom from SISSA – has studied the timescale of DNA "ejection" (how long it takes and what is the precise sequence of events), and found that it depends on the degree and manner of entanglement of the double strand of DNA inside the virus.

Helping people waste less food: this is the aim of the project of three former students of the SISSA Master's in Complex Actions, among the ten finalists for the YES 2013 award offered by the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition.

The project, started while attending the Master's course in 2012, proposes a new way of recording and reducing the amount of food that families waste, and is especially aimed at young people (with the collaboration of schools).

Paolo Budinich, founder of SISSA and creator of the "Trieste System", which made the city a centre of excellence in the international science scene as well as an important beacon for science education in developing countries, died on November 14, 2013. SISSA, the International School for Advanced Studies pays tribute to this great man, who will also be celebrated on the occasion of the Welcome Day, the annual public event to welcome new students, which will be held on November 20.

November 20th 2013 

From 9.30 AM onwards

SISSA, Main Lecture Hall

Once again this year, Sissa hosted the traditional Welcome Day to welcome new students and publicly present its activities. The event provided an opportunity to make an assessment of the past year's work, to award a number of students and staff members for their achievements and to introduce the latest projects, like this year's Sissa Carpooling. 

As of November 1, enrolments are open for the fourth edition of the Master's in Complex Actions (MCA) promoted by the Interdisciplinary Laboratory of the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) of Trieste, a course that combines the frontiers of science with business practices, to provide an innovative response to global challenges.

Course announcement and online enrolment form on the MCA website

A point may sound like a trivial matter and yet it is a key concept in science and one that has engaged not only mathematicians – who have tried to define it since the early days of this science – but also philosophers, physicists, and theologians. Researchers from different disciplines met at SISSA to discuss this "elusive" topic.

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Riboswitches are RNA segments that switch genes on and off, either during DNA transcription or during protein translation, but little is known about the precise workings of this process. A study at SISSA uncovers some of the basic steps in this complex mechanism and paves the way for future research.

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Microrobots of the future, whether surgeons, cleaners or transporters, will have to be able to move about in an efficient and precise manner. To make this possible and improve the locomotor skills of these artificial devices, scientists like Antonio De Simone and his group at the International School of Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste are studying the movement of unicellular organisms. De Simone has just been awarded a Advanced Grant of the European Research Council (ERC) amounting to 1,300,000 euro.

The scientist, for years a professor of physiology at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) of Trieste, was appointed scientific director of the European Brain Research Institute (EBRI) in Rome, the foundation at the leading edge of brain research established by Rita Levi Montalcini in 2005.

DOWNLOAD > Press release (PDF)

Thomas Cremer

October 23rd 2013, at 2.30 pm

SISSA, Main Lecture Hall

Among the most interesting discoveries in recent decades, the one that cellular DNA does not appear as a shapeless tangle, but rather is arranged into discrete "geographic" territories may be considered truly revolutionary. The first to suggest these chromosome "maps" was Thomas Cremer, a scientist whose studies represent a milestone in the fields of biology and genetics. Cremer gave a public lecture at SISSA, on Wednesday October 23.

The MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses) on Iversity, the online platform offering free university courses, is available starting from 15th October. Among the teachers also Paolo Salucci, an astrophysicist of the International School for Advanced Studies of Trieste.

DOWNLOAD > Press release

It so happens that we interpret other people's emotions based on our own and thus sometimes make mistakes. Luckily our brain is equipped with correction devices: scientists at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Trieste, have identified the area where this mechanism should be located.

DOWLOAD >Press release

The Nobel prize in the field of Physics was awarded to Peter Higgs and François Englert, the physicists who theorized the existence of the well-known Boson, the particle whose field gives mass to some fundamental particles across the Universe. The International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) at Trieste, who only a few weeks ago bestowed Higgs the PhD honoris causa in Theoretical Particle Physics, expresses great satisfaction for this important reward.