MARCH 1999

Gedea Multimediale '98-'99

In the last years major publishers (in the field of encyclopedic publications) took a step forward; a step, which could no longer be delayed, in the direction of multi media comunication. In fact the use of cd-rom has been becoming a real support to traditional books. An opportunity not to miss in particular for De Agostini and Zanichelli, specialized in dictionaries, vocabularies and geographic guides. What are the real advantages of cd-rom: they are practical, easy to consult, and provide a rich catalogue of pictures. Last but not least, they are not expensive, in comparison with the vast amount of information they contain. May be people with more thirty years has longing for “dear old books”, but the new frontiers of comunication, obviously, reached also book industry (and the World Wide Web'success has been changing again the situation). This premise only serves to introduce the new edition of “Great Encyclopedia De Agostini” (GEDEA) and its two cd roms. 1999's GEDEA presents important changes: a sort of make-up regarding content as well as layout. The new edition includes 320.000 among voices and subjects, hundreds of which completely new. On a strictly tecnichal point of view De Agostini wanted to ease the consultation, by a simple method of research and the possibility of working on two contemporaneous researches. As regards the second cd rom, it can be considered as a real “Multi media gallery”: baside the usual pictures we can find a collection of animations and 3d reconstructions. Furthermore all the images have much better quality than before. Finally De Agostini announced that GEDEA multimedia will be soon complete. The dimension? Twenty-three cd roms.

Il cervello, la mente e l'anima.

Scientists consider the way human brain works as a real miracle. Edoardo Boncinelli - former president of Italian Society of Biophysics and Molecular Biology - summarizes the last three decades of this particular field, which represented a real turning point, thanks to the discovery of new techniques of investigation, the development of molecular biology and perspectives opened by genetics. Brain, mind, soul: the author tries to go through these three complicated terms - which usually people confuse - in such a way that also common readers have the possiblity to enter this complex and fascinating world.