Ettore Majorana and his heritage seventy years later

The physicists working in several areas of research know quite well the name of Ettore Majorana, since it is currently associated to fundamental concepts like Majorana neutrinos in particle physics and cosmology or Majorana fermions in condensed matter physics. But, probably, very few is known about other substantial contributions of that ingenious scholar, and even less about his personal background. For non specialists, instead, the name of Ettore Majorana is usually intimately related to the fact that he disappeared rather mysteriously on March 26, 1938, just seventy years ago, and was never seen again. The life and the work of this Italian scientist is the object of the present review, which will also offer a summary of the main results achieved in recent times by the historical and scientific researches on his work. (c) 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.