Maria Anna or Mariannina Corradina Ciccone was born on 29 August 1892 (or 1891 according to different documents[1]) in Noto, Sicily, of Corrado, a rich trader, and Caterina Mirmina.

She started publishing her first papers in Il Nuovo Cimento and in Memorie della società toscana di Scienze Naturali: two articles which would lead to more complex texts in the future.

Between the end of June and the beginning of July 1944, a wing of the already plundered and mined building of the Institute of Physics situated in Piazza Torricelli was blown up by German soldiers.

She faced the officers – she knew German language well since she had worked in Darmstadt - confirming with extreme bravery that she would abandon her workplace for no reason, even at the risk of being blown up with the building.

In the draft of a letter sent to the Ministry of Education on 7 June 1946, Dean Luigi Russo said: "I can’t help but report the merit gained by professor Ciccone during the period of the German siege concerning the preservation of scientific materials and for being always vigilant in her Institute, even when keeping safe from danger would have meant running away from it".

This hypothesis is confirmed by the fact that she had to face organizational problems in the new headquarters: none of the instruments required by Mariannina Ciccone for her job was available so she was asked to leave her activity.

[2][3] The discovery and enhancement the physicist from Noto is really recent and has been promoted by Prof. Marco Piccolino and his research in Tuscany about Nazi massacres that occurred in 1944.