Ettore Majorana - theoretical physicist

‘Genius’ who disappeared in mysterious circumstances

Ettore Majorana was seen by colleagues
as both a genius and an enigma

The theoretical physicist Ettore Majorana, whose work in the 1930s is still reaping profound benefits in nuclear, medical and computer science but ended with his sudden disappearance in 1938, was born on this day in 1906 in Catania in Sicily.

Majorana, who became part of a team of scientists working with the Nobel Prize-winning nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi in Rome, was regarded as a genius by his contemporaries, capable of solving in his head problems that others might take years to unravel.

While much of Majorana’s work in such areas as particles, their exchange interaction, matter and anti-matter, might seem dry and beyond the comprehension of non-scientists, it has consequences still seen today.

More reliable designs for nuclear reactors, advancements in medical isotopes used in cancer scans and treatments, more precise radiation dosages in radiotherapy, plus technological developments in quantum computing, can all be traced back to theories put forward by Majorana.

Yet his mysterious disappearance when seemingly on the cusp of achieving immortal status in the scientific world has given rise to as much discussion as the legacy of his work.

Majorana hailed from a scientific family. His father, Fabio, was an engineer in the telegraph and telephone industries, while an uncle, Quirino Majorana, was an experimental physicist at the University of Bologna.

Ettore Majorana enrolled at the Sapienza University of Rome to study engineering in 1923, but switched to physics in 1928 with the encouragement of Emilio Segrè, a fellow student who would go on to become a leading nuclear physicist and radiochemist and, like Fermi, a winner of the Nobel Prize.

A brilliant student, Majorana was still in his early 20s when he joined the group of scientists assembled by Fermi, professor of theoretical physics at the University of Rome, who became known as the "Via Panisperna boys", named after the street address of their laboratory.

Majorana's disappearance, as reported by the
Milan newspaper Domenica del Corriere

Yet, for all his brilliance, Majorana as a person was an enigma. Unlike some of his colleagues, he never craved fame or recognition. He was rarely satisfied with a piece of work and would seldom publish his findings. Colleagues would describe him as distant and withdrawn.

He joined Mussolini’s National Fascist Party in 1933 and spent time in Leipzig, working with Werner Heisenberg, a theoretical physicist who would in time become a scientist on Germany’s nuclear programme in World War Two. The Nazis came to power while Majorana was there and he expressed solidarity with many of Hitler’s views and policies.

Shortly before his disappearance, he had been appointed a professor of theoretical physics at the University of Naples. 

He vanished during or after a trip to Palermo in March, 1938. It was thought he might have been planning to visit his friend, Emilio Segrè, who was a professor at the university there.

But a letter sent by Majorana while he was in the Sicilian capital suggested a different reason for his journey. It was to Professor Antonio Carrelli, the director of the Physics Institute at the University of Naples, seemingly signalling his resignation. It spoke of making “a decision that has become unavoidable”.

Confusingly - before the original letter arrived - Carrelli received a telegram from Majorana apparently withdrawing his resignation and saying that he was returning to Naples.

Majorana bought a ticket for a boat back to Naples but while porters found luggage in his cabin after the passengers had disembarked, there was no sign of Majorana, nor any proof that he had ever been on board. 

Majorana's name is among those on a plaque marking
the Rome base of the "Via Panisperna boys"

Multiple theories have been put forward to explain his disappearance, including suicide, murder, a desire to start a new life in another country, or even that he had decided to seek the anonymity of life in a monastery.

Proponents of the suicide theory suggested that Majorana realised that the research in which he had been involved would eventually lead to the creation of highly destructive weapons and suffered intolerable remorse as a consequence.

Others theorised that, during his time in Germany, he had learned too much about Nazi ambitions to develop a nuclear bomb and was murdered by Nazi agents.

But with no body ever found, and no witnesses to any suicide or murder, neither could be proved.

Leonardo Sciascia, the Sicilian writer, supported the idea that Majorana was appalled at the thought of his works being used to create nuclear explosives but suggested that, as a devout Catholic, he would have more likely sought to live an anonymous life in a monastery or other religious retreat than to take his own life.

The official explanation - reached 77 years after he vanished - is that he emigrated to South America.

A postage stamp issued on the
centenary of Majorana's birth

This gained credence in 2011 when a supposed witness made a statement about meeting Majorana in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, in the years after World War Two. A photo also came to light, taken in Argentina 1955 of a man bearing several facial similarities to Majorana.

The case looking into his disappearance was reopened in Italy as a result. Four years later, the Rome Attorney’s Office was sufficiently satisfied that Majorana had been alive and living in Venezuela in the 1950s to declare the case closed, with no crime to investigate.

In 2025, the civil section of the Court of Rome issued a decree declaring Majorana’s presumed death.

Today, academics in the field of theoretical physics encounter his name recalled in such things as the Majorana equation, Majorana fermions, and Microsoft’s Majorana 1, a device used in the development of quantum computers. 

A Majorana Prize is awarded annually for outstanding contributions to theoretical and mathematical physics. A postage stamp commemorating his life was issued in 2006 on the centenary of his birth.

Catania's Cattedrale di Sant'Agata is a beautiful
example of Sicilian Baroque architecture

Travel tip:

The city of Catania, which is located on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, is one of the ten biggest cities in Italy, with a population including the environs of 1.12 million. A little like Naples, which sits in the shadow of Vesuvius, Catania lives with the constant threat of a natural catastrophe, more so given that its neighbour, Mount Etna, is active and regularly erupts, if not with explosive force. Catania has also been virtually destroyed by earthquakes twice, in 1169 as well as 1693. As such it has a reputation for living life to the full. In the Renaissance, it was one of Italy's most important cultural, artistic and political centres and enjoys a rich cultural legacy today, with numerous museums and churches, theatres and parks, and many restaurants. Catania’s historic centre is a showcase of Sicilian Baroque, rebuilt after the 1693 earthquake using the city’s signature black lava stone. A notable example is the Duomo of Sant’Agata, a monumental cathedral, home to the relics of St Agatha and framed by a grand piazza, at the centre of which is the Fontana dell’Elefante, the symbol of the city - a Roman basalt elephant supporting an obelisk. 

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The University of Naples Federico II has its
headquarters building in Corso Umberto I

Travel tip:

The University of Naples Federico II, where Ettore Majorana was appointed a professor shortly before he disappeared, was founded in 1224 by the Emperor Frederick II. It is one of Europe’s most historically significant universities: the oldest public, secular university in the world.  One of its most famous students was the theologian and philosopher, Thomas Aquinas, who went on to lecture there in the 13th century. Other alumni include Enrico De Nicola, the first President of the Italian Republic, and two other presidents, Giovanni Leone and Giorgio Napolitano. The university’s main locations include the central headquarters in Corso Umberto I, with additional sites in Portici, Torre del Greco, Anacapri, Avellino, and Bellizzi. A former college built in the 16th century in Via Paladino, in the area of Spaccanapoli, has been one of the university’s main buildings since 1777. With more than 70,000 students, 180 degree programmes across 26 departments, and strong research output, especially in engineering, medicine, and agricultural sciences, it ranks second among Italy’s major universities and is the leading university in Southern Italy.

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More reading:

Enrico Fermi, dubbed the architect of the nuclear age

The Italian nuclear physicist who defected to the Soviet Union

Leonardo Sciascia, the writer who denounced complicity between government and the Mafia

Also on this day: 

1607: The birth of Cardinal Antonio Barberini, patron of the arts 

1623: The birth of composer Antonio Cesti

1694: The birth of comic opera composer Leonardo Leo

1953: The birth of Felice Casson, magistrate who exposed NATO’s secret army 

2002: The death of novelist Franco Lucentini

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Giovanni Battista Beccaria - physicist and mathematician

Monk who explained how lightning conductors work

Beccaria was Professor of Physics
at the University of Turin

The physicist, mathematician and Piarist monk Giovanni Battista Beccaria, whose work with electricity confirmed and expanded upon the discoveries of the American polymath and Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, died in Turin on this day in 1781.

At the age of 64 he had been ill and in pain for some years but was working right up to his death on a treatise on meteors.

For much of his life, Beccaria had been occupied in the study of electricity with particular focus on the discoveries made by Franklin, with whom he corresponded regularly.

He successfully explained such things as the workings of the Leyden Jar and the Franklin square, two devices in which static electricity could be captured and stored, and why pointed objects could discharge electrified objects at a distance.

He was also able to explain why lightning rods, or lightning conductors, protect a building by providing a path along which electricity generated in the air in the form of lightning can be directed safely to earth. 

Beccaria wrote and published a complete treatise on Franklin’s electrical theory, called Dell’ Elettricismo naturale ed artificiale (On Natural and Artificial Electricity) in 1753.

Born in Mondovì, a town in Piedmont about 80km (50 miles) south of Turin in the province of Cuneo, in October, 1716, Beccaria entered the religious Order of the Pious Schools or Piarists at the age of 16. 

The Piarists had been founded in 1617 by Spanish priest Joseph Calasanz. It is the oldest religious order in the world dedicated to education.  After studying under the order, he taught grammar, rhetoric and mathematics. 

Benjamin Franklin, with whom
Beccaria often corresponded

He studied mathematics with such success that the order appointed him professor of experimental physics, first in the Scuole Pie of Palermo and then in Rome. 

Beccaria acquired a reputation as an effective teacher but found himself at the centre of controversy in 1748, when he was appointed by royal authority as Professor of Physics at the University of Turin. This was a coveted position and Beccaria was subjected to complaints from rivals that he was not sufficiently qualified for the role. 

In response, his sponsors came up with an idea to silence his critics. They had heard about the work of the French physicist, Thomas-François Dalibard, whose experiment at Marly-la-Ville, north of Paris, had demonstrated that lightning was a form of electricity, and urged Beccaria to make this new field his own area of expertise.

Beccaria followed their advice and set about writing and publishing a complete treatise on the electrical theory of Benjamin Franklin, news of whose work with electricity in the United States had reached Europe in 1751. Beccaria’s Dell’ Elettricismo naturale ed artificiale was published only two years later. 

Devoting himself to research on atmospheric electricity, Beccaria made use of kites, rockets, and iron wire in conducting his experiments. 

Using an early electroscope developed by the English physicist William Henley, Beccaria noted that, in broken or stormy weather, positive and negative electrification were detected, whereas in calm, serene weather, positive dominated.  He attributed the forked character of lightning to the resistance of the air and theorised that the spontaneous rupturing of the shoes worn by a man struck by a lightning bolt was the result of the "moisture of the feet flying into vapour". 

The cover page of
Beccaria's treatise

Beccaria was also among the first to recognize and clearly state that the electrical charge on a conductor is confined to the surface and endorse Franklin’s views about the preventive and protective functions of lightning conductors. He was the first Italian to extract sparks from a conductor pointed to the sky.

His work confirmed the American’s finding that pointed rods could discharge electricity in the air, which eventually led to such rods being attached to tall buildings for the protection in an electrical storm of individuals on the ground. The King of Sardinia, Charles Emmanuel III, was so impressed that he asked Beccaria to install a lightning rod on the Royal Palace, 

In 1755, Beccaria was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London. His work Dell'elettricismo artificiale e naturale was translated into English in 1778. Franklin described the treatise as “one of the best pieces on the subject in any language.”

Piazza Maggiore, the main square of the historic
Piedmont town of Mondovì, near Cuneo

Travel tip:

The historic town - and ancient city - of Mondovì is located in the Monregalese Hills at the foot of the southern Alps, where the Piedmont and Liguria regions meet. It is built on two levels, the upper being divided into several rioni (ancient quarters). The lower town developed from the 18th century when railway connections saw industries emerge. A funicular railway links the Breo quarter with Piazza, the oldest part of the town. Although the origins of Mondovì date back to the Roman Empire, it flourished during the Middle Ages, occupying a strategic position at the intersection of trade routes between Piedmont and the Mediterranean coast.  Piazza was founded around 1198 by the inhabitants of three hamlets, who joined forces to protect their community from outside threats. Nonetheless, the town was seized by the Bishops of Asti, followed by Charles I of Anjou, the Angevins, the Visconti, the Marquisate of Montferrat, the Acaja and, from 1418, the House of Savoy, who would leave an indelible mark on the character and architecture of the town, fortifying its walls and constructing buildings that still stand today.  In the mid-16th century, when it was occupied by France, Mondovì was the largest city in Piedmont and the seat of the region’s first university.

Cuneo's elegant Piazza Galimberti is one of the
largest squares in the whole of Italy

Travel tip:

The city of Cuneo, which developed at the confluence of the Stura and Gesso rivers about 28km (17 miles) west of Mondovì, is set out in a grid system with an elegant central square, Piazza Galimberti, one of the largest squares in Italy, after Piazza del Plebiscito in Naples. Surrounded by neo-classical buildings, it has a large statue of Giuseppe Barbaroux, the author of the Albertine Statute that formed the constitution of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont in 1848. The square is named after Duccio Galimberti, one of the heroes of the Italian resistance in the Second World War.   Cuneo had been acquired by the Duchy of Savoy in 1382 and remained an important stronghold of the Savoy state for many centuries.  Cuneo is the home of a chocolate confection called Cuneesi al rhum - small meringues with dark chocolate coating and a rum-based chocolate filling. They were the creation of Andrea Arione, whose bar and pasticceria, Caffè Arione, is still located in Piazza Galimberti.

Also on this day:

1508: The death of da Vinci painting subject Lucrezia Crivelli

1944: The birth of television journalist Bruno Vespa

1956: The birth of screenwriter and director Giuseppe Tornatore

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