“If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles”, said the Chinese warrior Sun Tzu. As our enemies in a battle, viruses can differ a lot, each of them with their own weapons to cause diseases, and strategies to spread in the population. Knowing the characteristicsContinue reading “How we work with viruses in the lab”
Category Archives: Women in STEM
Summary of my 2022 and happy 2023!
You may have noticed that my activity on this blog has been reduced compared to 2020 and 2021. But this doesn’t mean that I’ve been unproductive! On the contrary, I have participated in other projects and I have reaped the fruits of my first year with the new research group! Last February I contribuited toContinue reading “Summary of my 2022 and happy 2023!”
Riassunto del 2022 e tanti auguri per il 2023!
Avrete notato che nell’anno che sta volgendo al termine la mia attività sul blog è stata un po’ ridotta rispetto ai due anni precedenti. Ma ciò non significa che sia stata con le mani in mano! Nel 2022 infatti ho partecipato ad atri progetti che mi hanno dato grandi soddisfazioni, e ho anche raccolto iContinue reading “Riassunto del 2022 e tanti auguri per il 2023!”
Why don’t we all produce the same amount of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2?
What we already knew about the antibodies against SARS-COV-2 In our first study on patients who had recovered from COVID-19, we saw that some patients had more antibodies in their blood, and that in others the level of antibodies declined very quickly. Moreover, looking at different groups of patients all over the world (including ours),Continue reading “Why don’t we all produce the same amount of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2?”
Immunology is cool!
Last week I attended the British Society for Immunology Congress in lovely Edinburgh. At last a “real” in-person congress (the online option was also available) with real interactions with other scientists from all over the United Kingdom and some international guests. When I take part in big congresses like this, with parallel sessions on differentContinue reading “Immunology is cool!”
Florence Nightingale: una pioniera dell’epidemiologia e del controllo delle malattie infettive
Florence Nightingale era un’infermiera dell’Inghilterra vittoriana, anzi sarebbe meglio dire che fu la prima vera infermiera. Fu lei infatti a definire l’infermieristica come professione (all’epoca e per molti anni riservata unicamente alle donne) e a codificarne principi e regole nel suo saggio Notes on nursing for the labouring classes (1868). Nata in una famiglia dell’altaContinue reading “Florence Nightingale: una pioniera dell’epidemiologia e del controllo delle malattie infettive”
Florence Nightingale: a pioneer in epidemiology and infectious disease control
Florence Nightingale was a nurse during the Victorian age in England, or to be more precise, she was the first real nurse. She was the first to define nursery as a profession (for a long time exclusively for women), and to define its rules and principles in her book Notes on nursing for the labouringContinue reading “Florence Nightingale: a pioneer in epidemiology and infectious disease control”
Un anno di divulgazione scientifica (e che anno!)
Dicembre, tempo di bilanci. Un anno fa ho deciso di aprire un blog di divulgazione scientifica per raccontare il mio lavoro, per rendere più accessibili le informazioni scientifiche e per combattere la marea di notizie e convinzioni false in cui spesso ci imbattiamo su internet. Ho scelto di parlare di virus perché è ciò diContinue reading “Un anno di divulgazione scientifica (e che anno!)”
One year of scicomm (and what a year!)
One year ago I decided to start a science communication blog to share with you my job, to make science more accessible, and to fight fake news and false believes that spread on the internet. I chose to write about viruses because is what I have worked on in the lab for more than sixContinue reading “One year of scicomm (and what a year!)”
Per aspera ad astra: failure and success in (and beyond) science
As scientists, we are familiar with the concept of failure. The experiments that do not work are more than those that actually do, the papers that need revisions and corrections exceed those published without any correction, the number of rejected grant applications is greatly larger than the number of applications that are accepted. The effortContinue reading “Per aspera ad astra: failure and success in (and beyond) science”
Virus&Co. 