Science and technology in Italy various astronomical observations, and initial formulation of the first and second laws of motion. Galileo was suppressed by the Catholic Church, but was a founder of modern science. The astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini, who made many important discoveries about the Solar System; the physicist Alessandro Volta, who invented the electric battery, thus providing for the first time a sustained source of current electricity; the mathematicians Giuseppe Peano, Lagrange, Fibonacci, and Gerolamo Cardano, whose "Ars Magna" is generally recognized as the first modern treatment on mathematics, made fundamental advances to the field; Marcello Malpighi, a doctor and founder of microscopic anatomy;
Life Electric lake landscape. On the 5th August 2015, the local newspaper "La Provincia" announced the impossibility of proceeding with the referendum because the construction was at too advanced a stage, and also because of the cost of the referendum, which would have been €180.559 Life Electric Life Electric (also known as The Life Electric) is a contemporary sculpture, dedicated to the physicist Alessandro Volta (1745–1827). Completed in 2015 it is located in Como, Italy. Life Electric was designed by Daniel Libeskind, and was a gift to Como, the city where the architect located his "“Summer Session”" school of architecture, in 1988.