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This work presents the ASIMOV Prize for scientific publishing, which was launched in Italy in 2016. The prize aims to bring the young generations closer to scientific culture, through the critical reading of popular science books. The books are selected by a committee that includes scientists, professors, Ph.D. and Ph.D. students, writers, journalists and friends of culture, and most importantly, over 800 school teachers. Students are actively involved in the prize, according to the best practices of public engagement: they read, review the books and vote for them, choosing the winner. The experience is quite successful: 12,000 students from 270 schools all over Italy participated in the last edition. The possibility of replicating this experience in other countries is indicated, as was done in Brazil in 2020 with more than encouraging results., Comment: Presented at ICHEP 2022 (Bologna, 6-13 July 2022)

This paper presents an update on women and physics in Italy over the past five years. The numbers of women with physics degrees and the statistics on women with careers in universities or in the main Italian research institutions (National Institute for Nuclear Physics, National Institute of Astrophysics, and National Research Council) are given. Also, results are reported from European projects, such as Transforming Organisational Culture for Gender Equality in Research and Innovation and Gender Equality Network in the European Research Area in which Italy is involved.