As you may have heard in international news: seven Italian scientists (scienziati) who worked for the State’s civil protection agency are on trial for manslaughter.
The prosecution has accused the scientists, who are in charge of assessing national risks, for not being able to predict an earthquake. (Earthquake in Italian is terremoto, which is terra = earth plus mot o= movement).
While the content of the trial is nuanced (How much did the scientists know? Are earthquakes predictable?), the bottom line is that “science failed.” More specifically, little warning was given to the people of l’Aquila in 2009 when an earthquake there killed over 300 people.
If you thought, like most people and experts, that earthquakes cannot be predicted, well you may be wrong after all. We will see what the judges (giudici) come up with.
At a glance, it looks like science (scienza) is on trial (processo). Look out for heated arguments from all sides. Oh, and if you are a seismologist and love Italy, you may want to move there only after you retire.
