To build a top scientific research institute in a ruined town, Italy uses higher education to make earthquake-stricken areas shine.

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After crossing the 10-kilometer tunnel, there is no need to shout sesame to open the door, and the thick and huge metal door in the cave automatically slides open. There is no gold and silver treasure of Alibaba, but there is a treasure trove of knowledge to explore the origin of the universe and mysterious particles.

Scientists in the cave use the most advanced research to attract talents to the earthquake-stricken areas.

Italy's Stonehenge National Laboratory (Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso) is located in the depths of the Apennines, with 1400-meter-high peaks above, is currently the world's largest underground nuclear physics laboratory. Wearing an oversized "helmet" is to insulate cosmic rays like heavy rain from the radiation of nature, so that elusive neutrinos (neutrino) and dark matter (dark matter) can be observed.

Located in the mountains as if in an iron wall, the laboratory was unharmed in the central earthquake in 2009, but hundreds of buildings collapsed in nearby L'Aquila, killing more than 300 people, including 55 college students. Seeing the city in ruins and students dying young, Eugenio Coccia, director of the Stonehenge National Laboratory, was so worried that no one wanted to study or work in L'Aquila anymore.

Turning grief into strength, Cocha and his colleagues decided to use their talents to help the disaster area be reborn: to plan an advanced research institute in the mountain city of L'Aquila to attract world-class scholars and train young scholars with the reputation of the Stonehenge National Laboratory, not only to curb the outflow of population, but also to attract talents.

Scientists and engineers install the "heart" (courtesy of Stonehenge National Laboratory)

Why is the ancient city of Italy always full of charm? Historic plastic surgery rooms grow from the ruins, and people insist on guarding history.

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