The unseen, seen: Uncle Emilio, Clyde Wiegand, and Owen Chamberlain view evidence of the antiproton, the discovery that earned Emilio and Chamberlain the Nobel Prize. Credit: Bettmann/Corbis

In September 1955, just off the boat from Italy and not yet 17, I enrolled as a freshman at Harvard College. Luckily, I already knew English. Although I was born in Florence just before the outbreak of World War II, my family had taken refuge in New York during the conflict, not returning to my birthplace until 1947. Eight years later, when it was time for me to go to college, my parents decided I should do so in the United States. My trip to Cambridge began with their delivering me to Florence's Santa Maria Novella train station and waving good-bye. The Ferrovie dello Stato, Italy's train system, conveyed me to a boat at Le Havre, which in turn transported me to New York. Another train landed me in Boston. With a bulging suitcase in hand, I took the subway from South Station to Harvard Square.

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