Aspen, CO -- MIT scientist Daniel G. Nocera did a fabulous job of explaining not just the science but also the underlying strategy behind his successful search for an artificial leaf, one that will enable cheaper and more-effective use of the sun to create useful power for humans.
Nocera's breakthrough was to find cheap catalysts that enable an electrical current to break water apart into oxygen and hydrogen -- the energy-generating step in photosynthesis.
The fulfillment of current environmental aims like reducing fossil fuel consumption or greenhouse gas emissions entails the development of new technologies that enable the use of cleaner, cheaper and renewable energies.
One area where the private sector may contribute is as a source of "disruptive innovators" - organizations who develop simpler and cheaper services that enable the participation of new sets of consumers previously excluded from conventional markets[ 6].
It must allow the tech-forward innovation that enables better, cheaper and more convenient mobility services, while promoting public safety and fair employment.
Overwhelmingly, it is increased wealth, not past energy savings, that enables people to buy cheap, inefficient air-conditioners.
There are more than a dozen documents that are variously accepted as proof of identity - a 'ration card' that enables the poor to buy cheap food and cooking fuel, a voters card which enables people to cast their ballots, a driving licence and a PAN card are only some of them.
It is easy not to notice progress while it is happening, and one development that this retrospective makes clear is the impact of high-throughput data collection, in particular that enabled by cheap and rapid sequencing technology, in expanding our appreciation of the diversity of biological life.
Lenovo, for example, is going after the developing world's rural markets with a cheap, customised PC that enables farmers to become networked.Some of these innovations have global potential.
It was, indeed, this artificially-induced flood of cheap foreign cash that enabled us to borrow so much money in the first place.
