Cesare Marchetti

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Cesare Marchetti (* 1927 in Lucca ) is an Italian physicist and systems analyst . He is particularly known for his work in the field of energy technology and related system-theoretical analyzes and is the namesake of the Marchetti constant and the Marchetti curve .

Career

Marchetti graduated from Pisa University with a degree in physics in 1949 . Between 1950 and 1955 he researched the production of heavy water at the CISE Institute in Milan, before moving to the Battelle Institute in Genoa , where he worked on lubricants. In 1958 he became head of the physical chemistry division at Agip Nucleare, and from 1959 he held a managerial position at the Ispra (Italy) and Petten (Netherlands) branches of the European Commission's Joint Research Center . From 1974 he worked as a systems analyst at the IIASA Institute in Laxenburg, Austria .

plant

Cesare Marchetti published numerous specialist articles on topics of systems analysis, nuclear physics and the energy industry in general. In addition to the topics mentioned, he also dealt with a future hydrogen economy .

10 12

Marchetti became known to a wider audience in 1979 with his article 10 12 - A Check on Earth Carrying Capacity for Man , in which he attempted to refute the study The Limits to Growth of the Club of Rome with a far-reaching theoretical concept . The number (one trillion) refers to the earth's carrying capacity assumed by Marchetti ; this far exceeds the values ​​given by almost all other authors. It should be achieved through the creation of self-sufficient garden cities , whereby food production should be ensured through indoor agriculture (comparable to vertical farming ) and the use of microorganisms that can convert any organic substrate into food. To secure energy production, Marchetti primarily relied on nuclear energy and solar energy . By recycling should be achieved by the cities as closed systems, except heat generation no further impact on nature have should; Furthermore, according to his vision, it should be possible to keep 90% of the earth's surface in its natural state.

Marchetti constant

A concept developed in 1994, which was later referred to as the Marchetti constant , describes the fact that at least since the Neolithic the time that a person spends every day with mobility , including his “ travel time budget ”, has remained roughly the same, culturally independent of place and region and is equal and is about an hour and a half. The constant is used, among others, by Peter Newman in his work on sustainable urban planning .

Innovation waves and Marchetti curve

Between 1978 and 1986, after analyzing the market share of the energy sources wood , coal , crude oil , natural gas and uranium in the 19th and 20th centuries , Marchetti developed the thesis that the cycles of the use of energy sources can be calculated and given in curves that reflect the Lotka-Volterra rules derived from biology followed. These usage cycles lasted about 52 years (see Fifty Year Pulsations in Human Affairs , 1986) and are linked to a bundle of basic innovations that Marchetti called innovation waves. These cycles and curves are called Marchetti curves .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b C. Marchetti: Ten to the Twelfth. A Check on Earth Carrying Capacity for Man (PDF; 361 kB), 1979
  2. ↑ C. Marchetti: Anthropological Invariants in Travel Behavior, Technological Forecasting and Social Change (PDF; 2.6 MB), No. 47, internal publication of the IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria
  3. ↑ [Basic knowledge] The constant travel time budget. In: Zukunft-mobilitaet.net. Martin Randelhoff, May 11, 2016, accessed December 26, 2017 .
  4. ^ Peter Newman: Why we're reaching our limits as a one-hour city , Sydney Morning Herald , April 26, 2004
  5. ↑ Cesare Marchetti: After nuclear energy comes nuclear fusion (PDF; 2.8 MB), Bild der Wissenschaft , Ed. 8/1988, pp. 110–118

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Marchetti, Cesare
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian physicist, systems analyst
DATE OF BIRTH 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Lucca