CJR: The Man with Van »
Posted By JamesMarcus 8 months, 1 week ago in NewsIn early March, in a mountainous, quake-prone patch of central Italy, the readings on Gioacchino Giuliani’s patented radon detector suddenly spiked. He concluded the jump could only mean one thing: impending seismic activity. Giuliani immediately dispatched a fleet of vans equipped with loudspeakers throughout the Abruzzo region, blaring warnings to evacuate.
In most of the early coverage, however, specifics on the “mad scientist” who “accurately prophesized the earthquake in L’Aquila” were sketchy at best. Giuliani was called a “seismologist” (WSJ, New York Times, Independent, Reuters and several others), a “volcanologist” (Daily News), physicist (another WSJ article) and “Dr. Giuliani” (Evening Standard). According to several outlets, Giuliani is an employee of the “National Institute of Astrophysics,” “an Italian national nuclear research center,” “Institute of Nuclear Physics at nearby Gran Sasso,” and the “National Physical Laboratory of Gran Sasso.”
But Giuliani is none of these things. Eugenio Coccia, the director of the Gran Sasso National Laboratory, where the now-famous researcher actually works, said in an interview with Nature that Giuliani is “a technician.” “His work on earthquakes is a hobby,” he said. “Nothing to do with the research project here.” Coccia also told Nature that the research center has been a “bit embarrassed” by the media reports.
Read Full Story at cjr.org »
87 Views Share Story 0 Comments Report
Submitted By:
JamesMarcus
James Marcus is a writer, translator, critic, and editor. He is the author of Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot-Com Juggernaut and ...
More News
LA Times
Senate passes last hurdle and prepares for final healthcare action before Christmas
Afghan police hunting insurgent kill parliament member instead
2 critically injured when Metrolink train hits pickup truck involved in car crash
GOP challenges favors given to ensure Senate passage of healthcare reform bill
Add a Comment
Sign In With Your Propeller Account
Please keep your comments relevant to this story.
To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.