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The path followed by Merli, Missiroli and Pozzi in the realization of the most beautiful experiment originated in the educational activity carried out in the Dept. of Physics of the University of Bologna, in particular by the oldest of the three scientists, Gian Franco Missiroli. The scientific foundations and technical know-how had been acquired in the Lab of Electronic Microscopy of Prof. Valdrè, and they allowed to modify the electron microscope in such a way as to convert it into a research lab proper. In this lab indeed it was possible not only to experiment new techniques of observation, but also to demonstrate and to study fundamental phenomena such as, appropriately, the interference of electrons. Let us see how the”leading men” remember the motivations and the background which paved the way to the realization of the most beautiful experiment.

Q. Which elements made it possible to transform an experiment until then considered “thought experiment”, hence of difficult realization, in a real experiment?

Q. How did the experiment of interference of electrons come to be?

Q. How come that an educational activity might have been chosen by two scientists like Merli and Pozzi, hitherto engaged in applicative research? And after observing the first fringes, what prompted you to go ahead in order to demonstrate in a “visual” way the interference of a single electron?

Q. Thus the educational exercise of electronic interference represents in this case the starting point, both for the realization of the most beautiful experiment, and for the setting up of an observation technique, electron holography, which had then, as it has now, a great potential for applications in the field of material science ....

Q. But how much value was attributed in your research milieu to the realization of educational experiments?

Q. What resonance did the experiment and the film illustrating it produced at the time?

Q. What prompts you to still devote your interest to fundamental experiments within the field of electron interferometry?

Q. How important in your motivations is the interest for the so called “fundamental research”?

Q. How important do you consider popularization within science?