Spallanzani goes pop, with music, sport and ‘impossible questions’

Rome. Not a night at the museum, amongst old display cases and dinosaurs that suddenly come to life, but a night in the courtyard of the Spallanzani, the National Institute for Infectious Diseases that the city came to know during the Covid pandemic, when, tucked away round a bend in Via Portuense, its courtyard had become, in the collective imagination, a lifeline for a Rome taken by surprise by the virus: the site of the first diagnoses (the famous ‘patient zeroes’), but also of the first glimmers of hope and the first vaccinations, honoured by the praise of the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, and with the regular presence of the then Governor of Lazio, Nicola Zingaretti, and the Regional Health Councillor, Alessio D’Amato, standing motionless in the freezing cold to welcome the first doses. Six years on, the Spallanzani Institute itself is opening its doors to the city with four days of events, metaphorically ‘taking to the streets and amongst the people’, as Lucio Dalla might say, with words, music, sport and cinema, to celebrate ninety years of activity and host Science Week (until tomorrow evening). The programme ranges from a running race for all ages (entitled ‘Run for Science’, based on the idea that ‘every step changes the future’) to a concert by Gerardo Di Lella’s ‘Pop Orchestra’ (tonight, featuring a song for every decade of the institute’s history) to the ‘Night of Impossible Questions’ (tomorrow): an evening where members of the public can pose serious or outlandish questions (“How do you extract DNA from bananas?”; “How do you save a patient in bio-containment?”, or, for children, “How do you perform CPR on an Avenger?”) to a group of Italian and European researchers, spread across open-door laboratories throughout the building. Researchers who, says Spallanzani’s Director-General Cristina Matranga, “work even when you can’t see them”. Preventive work on viruses, in fact, is all the more valuable in the run-up to any potential resurgence. “During Science Week,” explains Matranga, “we focus on prevention, including with regard to sexually transmitted diseases, with mornings dedicated to schools, and we highlight the issue of the gender gap in STEM subjects – scientific disciplines that are still rarely chosen by girls.” The aim is to make the study of physics and mathematics more appealing, as they serve as a gateway to the world of work. Having become a symbol of the pandemic emergency, the INMI now acts as a guide through a ‘Rome within Rome’, offering journeys under the microscope into the ‘world invisible to the naked eye’, and hosting ‘science aperitifs’ with national and international experts. A ‘pop’ version of Spallanzani that proudly celebrates its 90th anniversary, even if it doesn’t feel its age.