Olimpio Ritota, a high school teacher, who fascinated the judges by using a “Cartesian devil” to illustrate Archimede’s principle of density and Pascal’s law of fluid-pressure, and Maria Grazia Filippone, a doctoral student in genetics and molecular medicine, who spoke about the effects of sun radiation on unprotected skin. Both contestants have won a place at Italy’s FameLab national final which will take place in Perugia on 4 May.