Ligabue Magazine 43

The figure with the 22 zeros is, however, by no means definitive. The stars counted are only those that are our telescopes can see, there could be many more according to Driver, and some think they may even be infinite, just as the number of angels in heaven is infinite. Incidentally, not everybody knows there is a virtual relationship between stars and angels. Even in the earliest times, in the days of the patriarchs, the founding fathers of the Church, theologians raised umpteen questions about the nature of the angels, not only about their gender, but above all the functions and number of what in Genesis and Deuteronomy is called the “army of heaven”.

The Gospel according to St Matthew mentions twelve legions of angels sent by the God the Father to those who asked for help. But twelve legions in Imperial Roman times meant 70,000 men, therefore there were 70,000 angels per person. In 1953 the Swiss scholar Otto Ophan, held to be one of the leading experts in angelology, published a book entitled The Angels containing everything it is possible to know about these sublime creatures. He mentions that the most reliable suggestion is that “their number is in relation to the number of stars, on the basis of the idea that beside each star there is a spirit moving it”.

This brief excursion into space is actually an invitation to read the article by Bruno Berti on page 102 on the formation of the solar system 5 billion years ago and the idea of how and when life appeared on Earth. Berti is a naturalist researcher, well known to our readers. He collaborates with the Venetian Society of Natural Sciences, and is head of photography at the Ligabue Study and Research Centre.

Now, guided by the polar star, we come to Antarctica, a still unexplored territory and according to Carla Poma, on page 224, a natural ideal laboratory for studying the atmosphere, hydrosphere, crysosphere, lithosphere and biosphere. This is all we need to know to realise the great interest this immense mass of ice has for scientists from all over the world, without mentioning the intemational disputes over fishing rights for krill, the tiny crustaceans weighing 1.2 grams and capable of reproducing a billion at a time.

The director of the training unit for the ENEA personnel management, Carla Poma unveils many of the mysteries endosed in those 14 million square kilometre of ice, also containing thousands of meteorites, some imprisoned since the Antarctica was part of the supercontinent Gondwana. We’re going back more than 4 million years. Some people, like Lucia Simion are utterly fascinated by “the icebergs, jutting up like enchanted castles”. She was a doctor of medicine who, having abandoned the white coat, left Milan for Paris, became a professional journalist and first-class photographer, and took part on four expeditions to Antarctica.

On page 236 Lucia Simion describes the life of around eighty Italian scientists, who from October to February, the Austral summer months, live in the village of Terra Nova Bay on the Ross Sea to carry out the studies planned as part of the Italian National Antarctic Research Project.
Antarctica is a relatively unexplored world where extraordinary things happen, The most disparate discoveries are gradually being revealed about meteorites or penguins and the intriguing mystery poetically called the “the first cry of the new-born universe” in the initial stages of the Big Bang.

A few years ago an American impresario tried to organise a concert with four famous violin soloists who were to have played together simultaneously the same Paganini sonata. This musical extravaganza never took place because all the soloists invited refused to participate in the cacophony of trills. Ligabue Magazine, however, has managed to bring together in a single article four anthropology virtuosos. In fact on page 134 you will find a rare artide on the life and culture of Stone Age men, the outcome of long studies in the Eastern province of Indonesia by Gunter and Ursula Konrad who for twenty-five years have publicised the work of Asmat artists through various publications. Monsignor Alphonse A. Sowada, on the other hand, has since 1969 been Catholic bishop to the Asmat area. He is a missionary, anthropologist and founder of the Museum of Culture and Progress in Agats/Asmat. The fourth member of the exceptional group is the palaeontologist Giancarlo Ligabue.

This article reveals many surprises including how much we still have to learn from people living in the virgin forest.
Unfortunately, I have run out space so I will only mention the titles of the other articles which surely deserve more fitting treatment: on page 184 Luis M. Chiappe, curator and director of the Department of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the Museum of Natural History of Los Angeles County describes the inexhaustible research fieldwork on dinosaurs in Centrai Asia, where the discoveries continually bring surprising new developments.

On page 38 Adriano Favaro, an explorer and collaborator with this magazine who has taken part in many Ligabue SRC expeditions, recounts the discovery of Caral, the earliest city in South America. Lastly, an unusual article: on his travels through all the continents, Piero Gratton has collected the strangest and most original musical instruments. He describes them on page 70 together with Luizio Capraro, our excelient art designer, responsible for the successful image of the Ligabue Magazine.

Good reading.