Ferdinando Gianotti was born on August 22, 1920, in Corsico, a small town near Milan, Italy (Figure). He came from a very poor family, and at age 13 years he worked in a tannery where he lost his left hand in an accident. The owner of the factory refused to use his car to take him to the hospital because he did not want to soil the interior of the car. After the death of his mother and sister from tuberculosis, he was at risk of dying from the same disease but was saved by having the phrenic nerve incised as the treatment.