A graduate in Literature and Philosophy from the University of Rome La Sapienza, she has been a professional journalist since 2004. She holds one PhD in Science Communication and another in Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. She has been teaching Environmental Communication at Vita-San Raffaele University in Milan since 2021.

For more than 20 years she has contributed to newspapers la Repubblica and Il Venerdì, as well as National Geographic Italia, Il Sole 24 Ore, and the weekly magazines L’Espresso and Focus. Her work has been recognized publicly several times over the years. Honors include being named “Best Science Journalist of the Year” by the Armenise-Harvard Foundation, as well as “Environmentalist of the Year,” and “Ambassador of Nature.” Her work has been awarded two Medaglie di rappresentanza by the President of the Italian Republic.

In October 2022 she directed the Mestre Politics Festival, with the theme of the environment. In 2024 she toured “Flower Power,” a theatre show on the rights of plants, with violinist Sara Michieletto and stage direction by Rosalba Vitellaro.

Her books include Chiedi a una pianta. Come semi, alberi e fiori ci insegnano ad essere felici [Ask a Plant: How Seeds, Trees and Flowers Teach Us to Be Happy] (Laterza, 2024), Andare per Orti Botanici [Going to Botanical Gardens] (Il Mulino, 2021) and Flower Power: Le piante e i loro diritti [Flower Power: Plants and their Rights] (Einaudi, 2020). Together with Stefano Mancuso, she also wrote the award-winning bestseller Brilliant Green: The Surprising History and Science of Plant Intelligence (English tr. Joan Benham, Island Press 2018), which was translated into seventeen languages, and Trash. Tutto quello che dovreste sapere sui rifiuti [Trash: Everything You Need To Know About Rubbish] (with Piero Martin, Codice edizioni 2017), both winners of the National Award for Science Writing.

The author of six young adult novels, in 2020 she won the Elsa Morante Ragazzi prize.

For over a decade she has been facilitating science education workshops throughout Italy, at festivals and other events with high audience participation. In addition, she also delivers academic lectures, seminars and university courses.