De Pretto himself however, understood the significance of his discovery. Speaking of E=mc2 he wrote: "To what astonishing result has our reasoning brought us? Nobody would easily admit that stored in a latent state, in a kilogram of whatever material, completely hidden from our investigations, there comes into play such a sum of energy. The idea would be adjudged crazy!” De Pretto was 46 years old when he made this discovery. Unfortunately, he would never be in a position to take credit for it.