The extraordinary developments of modern physics in Padua, from the late nineteenth century to today, are well represented by the Poleni Museum collection. Angelo Drigo, for example, a researcher at the University of Padua, developed during World War II equipment for the study of radioactivity in the thermal area of the Euganean Hills, collecting mud samples, still preserved in the Museum today.
In the 1930s, Padua then welcomed one of the giants of modern physics, Bruno Rossi, who in 1932 introduced research on cosmic rays. Among his instruments is a cloud chamber, designed to visualize the traces of particles. Unfortunately, Rossi was forced to leave Padua in 1938 due to racial laws, but his instrumentation proved valuable in the post-war period.
After the war, Italian physics was effectively in a disastrous situation, but the study of cosmic rays offered a low-cost way out, at a time when accelerators were not economically accessible. This was a crucial period for the rebirth of physics in Italy. In Padua, under the guidance of Antonio Rostagni, the Institute of Physics returned in less than ten years to a prominent role at the international level.
Among the instruments of this period, the bubble chambers of the group led by Pietro Bassi stand out. One of these chambers was the first to be used at CERN in Geneva in the late 1950s. These instruments reflect not only the difficulties and successes of Paduan and Italian physics in the post-war period but also the beginning of major international collaborations.