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LA STAMPA

In Italy, Training War Refugees To Preserve Antiquities

The rubble of Palmyra after Syrian regime forces took the site back from ISIS
The rubble of Palmyra after Syrian regime forces took the site back from ISIS
Fabrizio Assandri

TURIN — Refugees have come to Italy from all across war-torn Iraq and Syria, from the monasteries of Mosul to the Assyrian villages of the Khabur valley and the Christian churches of the Nineveh plains. Among the millions now languishing in refugee camps are people from all walks of life, including government bureaucrats, university professors, archaeologists, and museum curators who saw artworks and monuments destroyed in war.

With that in mind, the Italian government is introducing a program that allows a small number of asylum seekers to take advanced courses on protecting cultural heritage sites from attack, weather damage and antiquities smuggling. The hope is that refugees will later be able to return to their home countries and help rebuild damaged cultural sites.

Launched by Project X-Team, a collaborative effort between the Polytechnic University of Turin and several universities and institutes in Turin and Venice, the program seeks to build an "educational corridor" for asylum seekers in Italy.

The program is just one of many such projects the government has launched to help educate refugees. To date, Italy is the only country to follow through on a European Parliament proposal that universities in member states provide online courses so that refugees can continue their studies if they return to their home countries. "This makes us proud," says Italy's Education Minister Stefania Giannini, .

The pilot project will begin in September with 50 students from war-torn countries. The students will primarily be Syrian refugees in Italy, as well as some at camps in Jordan and Lebanon. The intensive courses on artistic and cultural heritage will last eight months and be held first in the northwestern Italian region of Piedmont and later in a monastery in Veneto, in the northeast.

Under siege

The destructive reach of the Islamic State (ISIS) goes far beyond the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. "There's a cultural genocide going on in the Middle East designed to destroy works of art," says one of the program organizers.

Marco Gilli, rector of the Polytechnic University of Turin, says the courses will focus on interdisciplinary themes, from architecture to information technology and materials science. There will also be classes on cartography, museum archiving and drone surveillance techniques. Business incubators are involved in the program as well, helping to create jobs and give refugees the prospect of a safe return home.

The 1.5 million euro project still faces a few hurdles, including bureaucratic issues over how to verify applicants' education levels. The Polytechnic University of Turin accepts refugees that can't provide proof of a school diploma, on the condition that the university receives a guarantee from their home country or the Italian Education Ministry before they graduate.

Romano Borchiellini, one of the professors at the school, says the program is a bridge to the post-war future. "The armed forces must defend historical sites," he says. "But the experts we're training will supervise and rebuild them."

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Green

Forest Networks? Revisiting The Science Of Trees And Funghi "Reaching Out"

A compelling story about how forest fungal networks communicate has garnered much public interest. Is any of it true?

Thomas Brail films the roots of a cut tree with his smartphone.

Arborist and conservationist Thomas Brail at a clearcutting near his hometown of Mazamet in the Tarn, France.

Melanie Jones, Jason Hoeksema, & Justine Karst

Over the past few years, a fascinating narrative about forests and fungi has captured the public imagination. It holds that the roots of neighboring trees can be connected by fungal filaments, forming massive underground networks that can span entire forests — a so-called wood-wide web. Through this web, the story goes, trees share carbon, water, and other nutrients, and even send chemical warnings of dangers such as insect attacks. The narrative — recounted in books, podcasts, TV series, documentaries, and news articles — has prompted some experts to rethink not only forest management but the relationships between self-interest and altruism in human society.

But is any of it true?

The three of us have studied forest fungi for our whole careers, and even we were surprised by some of the more extraordinary claims surfacing in the media about the wood-wide web. Thinking we had missed something, we thoroughly reviewed 26 field studies, including several of our own, that looked at the role fungal networks play in resource transfer in forests. What we found shows how easily confirmation bias, unchecked claims, and credulous news reporting can, over time, distort research findings beyond recognition. It should serve as a cautionary tale for scientists and journalists alike.

First, let’s be clear: Fungi do grow inside and on tree roots, forming a symbiosis called a mycorrhiza, or fungus-root. Mycorrhizae are essential for the normal growth of trees. Among other things, the fungi can take up from the soil, and transfer to the tree, nutrients that roots could not otherwise access. In return, fungi receive from the roots sugars they need to grow.

As fungal filaments spread out through forest soil, they will often, at least temporarily, physically connect the roots of two neighboring trees. The resulting system of interconnected tree roots is called a common mycorrhizal network, or CMN.

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