Antonino Zichichi passed away on 9 February at the age of 96

by Carmelita Brunetti

Zichichi was not solely an experimentalist and a theorist of fundamental interactions. Alongside his scientific activity, he developed an epistemological reflection aimed at clarifying the limits and the domain of validity of scientific knowledge in relation to the ultimate questions of human existence. He argued for a clear methodological distinction between science and faith, considering them nevertheless non-antagonistic: the former grounded in empirical verifiability and mathematical formalism, the latter oriented toward questions of meaning, origin, and transcendence that lie beyond the scope of experimental investigation.

Within this perspective, progress in particle physics and cosmology was not interpreted as a reduction of reality to its material dimension alone, but rather as an expansion of the cognitive framework within which questions not answerable by the scientific method—yet not contradicted by it—can be meaningfully situated.