Oddone Longo (Venice, 1930) is an emeritus professor at the University of Padua, where he taught History of Greek scientific thought and literature. He is also president of the Accademia Galileiana di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti of Padua. His publications include: Tecniche della comunicazione nella Grecia antica (1981), La storia, la terra, gli uomini. Saggi sulla civiltà greca (1987) and Scritti su Galileo and il suo tempo (2004). From his double work as a philologist and historian of science the Saperi antichi volume was born recently. Theory ed esperienza nella scienza dei Greci, which gathers twenty-two essays on the relationship between ancient thought and modern science. The universe of the Greeks. Actuality and distances, published in Italian in the year 2000, was finalist of the Viareggio Prize 2001.