More than 14,000 students from 350 secondary schools took part in the jury for the science publishing prize promoted by INFN
A popular science essay exploring the human brain, from emotions, dreams and stress to the mechanisms of falling in love. Winning the 11th edition of the Asimov Prize is The happy brain. How it falls in love, makes mistakes, gets stressed and dreams by Anaïs Roux, a psychologist specialising in neuroscience and socially engaged in combating bullying in schools by promoting the development of psychosocial and emotional skills in children and adolescents.
The Asimov Prize is a science publishing award and a project for secondary schools, promoted by the Third Mission Coordination Committee of the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN). Now in its 11th edition, this year the project involved more than 14,000 students from 350 schools across Italy reading and reviewing the shortlisted books as jurors for the Prize. “This year the theme of the Turin International Book Fair coincides with our mission. The world will truly be ‘saved by young people’ like our jurors: young people who do not passively accept science, but question and challenge it. Our deepest thanks go to them and to their generous teachers”, commented the project’s creator and INFN researcher Francesco Vissani.
The winning book was announced during the award ceremony held in the Sala Rossa at the Turin International Book Fair. Present were the winner Anaïs Roux and nominees Anna Parisi and Valentina Schettini, who met some of the student jurors of the Prize, along with representatives from several publishing houses, including Cecilia Maraldo of Edizioni Sonda, publisher of the winning book.
The happy brain. How it falls in love, makes mistakes, gets stressed and dreams by Anaïs Roux is a popular science essay intertwining neuroscience, psychology and everyday life to explain how the human brain works, addressing topics such as falling in love, mistakes, stress and dreams. Through concrete examples, everyday experiences and accessible language, the book guides readers in discovering the mechanisms that shape emotions, behaviours and relationships. From the review by Rocco Ramaglia, from the “Quinto Orazio Flacco” Classical High School in Potenza, we read that Roux “translates the complexity of neuroscience, making it accessible even to beginners” and that the book “is not a manual that claims to close the discussion on the mind, quite the opposite; rather, it is an invitation to look at it with curiosity and compassion”. For the young student, one of the work’s most significant aspects is its reflection on error: “the brain is not a machine aimed at truth, but an organism constantly trying to predict the world, correcting itself with every mistake”. Walter Sciarrone, from the “A. Volta” Scientific High School in Reggio Calabria, instead highlights the author’s ability to “give us back control over our emotions” through “the natural simplification of complex concepts with examples from everyday life”. According to the student, the volume “breaks down the barriers of academic language” and represents “the first step towards beginning to discover” the secrets of the human brain. For Giulia Mirulla, from the “M. Cutelli e C. Salanitro” High School in Catania, the book is striking because “the brain is not designed to make us happy, but to ensure our survival”, thereby helping readers understand many everyday reactions linked to anxiety, stress and the constant search for gratification. The student also highlights how the book’s central message is “not to fight the brain, but to learn to understand it and work together with it”.
Alongside the winning book, this year’s shortlisted titles were Mathematical salads by Silvia Benvenuti (AlphaTest), The revolution of gravitational waves by Matteo Barsuglia (Hoepli), How many quanta? Quantum physics for everyone by Anna Parisi and Valentina Schettini (Salani), and Machina Sapiens. The algorithm that stole the secret of knowledge from us by Nello Cristianini (Il Mulino).
Asimov Prize
The Asimov Prize was established in 2015 from an idea by Francesco Vissani, physicist and researcher at the INFN National Laboratories of Gran Sasso. It is a science publishing award and a project for secondary schools and, since 2023, for middle schools, promoted by INFN in collaboration with numerous bodies, institutions, universities and associations. Its aim is to spread scientific culture among young people, encouraging interaction between schools, universities and the world of research, while fostering exchanges and opportunities for mutual enrichment with the humanities. For this reason, the Asimov Prize jury is made up of students from participating schools, whose task is to read, vote on and review the shortlisted books selected by the Prize’s Scientific Committee. All student reviews are read and evaluated by the Regional Scientific Committees, which this year involved the collaboration of more than 1,300 people, including teachers, researchers from INFN, universities and the National Research Council (CNR), as well as journalists, writers and figures from the worlds of scientific and literary culture.
After the entirely Abruzzo-based first edition in 2015, thanks to the support of INFN and the great enthusiasm of all participants, the project has year by year involved an ever-growing number of students, teachers, researchers and cultural figures. Today, 350 schools and more than 14,000 students from Abruzzo, Basilicata, Campania, Calabria, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Lazio, Liguria, Lombardy, Marche, Molise, Piedmont, Puglia, Sardinia, Sicily, Tuscany, Trentino-Alto Adige, Umbria and Veneto take part. Since 2018, the Asimov Prize has become a national project carried out by INFN through the Third Mission Coordination Committee (CC3M), which supports Public Engagement projects promoted by the research community through an internal peer-review process. In 2023, the first edition of the Asimov Junior Prize, dedicated to middle schools, took place, initially involving only the Tinozzi School in Pescara, which coordinates the project together with INFN. This year, for its fourth edition, the project has expanded to include 25 schools from Abruzzo, Calabria, Campania, Lazio, Molise and Tuscany. The award ceremony for the winning book of the Asimov Junior Prize will take place on May 28 in the Council Chamber of the Municipality of Pescara. During this year’s award ceremony at the Turin International Book Fair, Marta Inversini and Chiara Bortolini of Fondazione Volta, together with Francesco Vissani, announced the participation of the Asimov Prize in the celebrations for the Bicentenary of Volta, scheduled between 2026 and 2027 to commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of Alessandro Volta’s death through exhibitions, scientific conferences and educational activities. In autumn 2026, as part of one of the planned events, the shortlist of five finalist books competing for the 2027 Asimov Prize will be announced.
