Friday 15.7.2022
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Last update – 9:33
Ignacio Picco, 22, is originally from Santa Fe, but currently resides in Buenos Aires where he is studying medicine. In addition, he lives part of the year in England where he researches nanomedicine applied to molecular microbiology at the University of Central Lancashire School of Medicine.
“Many ask me why I decided to study medicine and not engineering, and the answer is that I believe that following this career will continue to motivate me, knowing that I am going to have the life of a patient in my hands and, on the other hand, I believe that there are very few doctors who are dedicated to research, especially physical, chemical and mathematical phenomena, which are the ones that truly excite me”, confesses the young researcher.
Although his career began at the age of 19, when he became the youngest academic to win a place at the University of Central Lancashire, it was at a younger age that he discovered his passion for science. “I think it all started at 14 years old. I knew that I really enjoyed studying physics, especially when I was able to do a science program at Cambridge and found a typical personality of that city who was Professor Stephen Hawking. It was there that I became very interested in his fields of study, mainly that of time. At that moment also began the idea of, in the future, trying to write a book where I can explain the core of time, along with nine other phenomena that are essential for the study of science and for future scientists in the country.
For Picco, that is his target audience. “While age doesn’t matter, and my book is for anyone interested in science learning and outreach, I’m interested in penetrating young minds. Above all, of those 13-14 years old, which was the age at which I became interested in studying science. With a simple language, I seek to raise those existential dilemmas that we all raise at some point: how time works, if it is possible to travel in time as science fiction movies do, if there is another me in another dimension that is doing something else or making other decisions. Once these enigmas are generated in young minds, I believe that science can come to occupy a very important place”.
medicine and mathematics
“I am one of those who believe that these diseases that we still cannot solve and do not understand have certain models and patterns that they follow and I think we should try to replicate them until we understand them in all their complexity,” explains Picco, who is dedicated to the field of nanomedicine.
“We know that the field of nanomedicine presents a kind of solution to things that we still don’t understand; there are certain pathologies such as cancer or some sepsis where we still do not have a complete understanding of how they work”. “I hope to study in depth the behavior and mathematical models that these diseases have, at least if one day we want to find a solution and prolong human life,” he added.
In England he investigates nanomedicine applied to molecular microbiology
gears of the universe
“They ask me where the idea of writing a book came from. After my first year in England, I knew I wanted to write technical and scientific stuff but make it somewhat digestible for the majority of the audience.”
Asked about the title of the book, Picco revealed that it had to do with another of his interests. “I also love studying the workings of clockwork, while I was taking apart a clock one night it came to my head: ‘gears of the universe’ and I said ‘I think I hit the mark’ since everything that is physical science and Mathematics has a basic and elementary model”.
“When I finished my book, I knew I wanted to enlist the world’s leading scientists in the field. So I was lucky to meet a lot of very valuable people along my path in science and I contacted them. After I sent them my material, knowing that there was very little material in Spanish like the one I was writing, they found it more than attractive”, says the author proudly.
Thus, Dr. Robert Peter Gale of UCLA and Imperial College, Dr. Leo Grimaldi of Harvard, Dr. Julio Navarro (who was considered for the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2020) and Dr. Jorge Vila of the French Cancer Institute León Berard introduce the book. “I think they were a great support for me and today I thank them very much because, without them, Gears of the Universe would not be possible.”