Trafika Europe 14 - Italian Piazza

Piero Schiavo Campo

a nail. There was a dark mark on his right temple: but even by tilting the visual angle as much as possible, I couldn’t see any better. After rewinding several times to look at the faces again and to study the movements of those present, I concluded that I wasn’t getting anywhere. I gave up and decided to focus on the problem of De Ruiter ’s replacement. CEPS had announced the Stelline experiment on March 12, 2061, during a press conference held by Goldbach himself as head of public relations. The official promulgation stated that the actual experiment would be conducted personally by Jan De Ruiter, director of the Parisian research institute. From then onwards, the media had done nothing but talk about this event. De Ruiter had become a worldwide star, and quantum teleporting the subject of numberless debates, interviews to scientists, and even comic strips. The better-informed commentators maintained – probably rightly – that this couldn’t possibly be the first-ever teleport experiment. Obviously, they said, CEPS knew what was what, or they wouldn’t have risked failing in public. I could clearly remember the questions that had bothered me in the days when the ‘frozen professor ’ (as later dubbed by the media) was still very much alive and kicking. Why choose Milan? Why transform a scientific experiment into a worldwide media event?

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