This past year has brought some very interesting new discoveries. Here’s my list of those that just might have the most impact on my future:

• Electricity has been very difficult and expensive to store. The battery technology in use today hasn’t changed dramatically in the past twenty years or more. I’ve kind of thought that the breakthrough will not be in battery technology, but in the ability to generate electricity as needed, on demand. Recent work at MIT will probably make fuel cells much cheaper and more readily available using a catalyst to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen. This is interesting work! Now couple that with the new solar shingles that Dow is bringing to the market, and a 24-hour-a-day capability is born.
• Gene sequencing has really taken off in 2009 with the cost of sequencing a person’s genome dropping below a thousand dollars. Some of the most interesting work is happening in the research on autism, alzheimers, and obesity. While some of the work is still being stymied by drug companies patenting gene sequences (a very stupid practice that needs to be outlawed). I think the prediction that my great-grandchildren may never have to die may be possible.
• We’ve been taught that oil has an organic base and is the result of eons of chemical reactions on long-dead creatures. That has never quite computed in my brain and this year scientists figured out that isn’t the whole story. Oil can be produced in a variety of non-organic processes, meaning that current methods of prospecting for oil are probably missing vast reserves. I want very much for our dependence on so-called fossil fuels (we now need a new name!) to go away entirely. That’s why electricity is at the top of my list and will continue to be there for a long time.

There have been many other discoveries this past year, some significant and game changing, others just interesting. We continue to discover planets out in the universe with a recent discovery of a planet with water. The exploration in the seas are turning up more and more unknown creatures. The work in physics, and quantum mechanics in particular, are turning up more and more strangeness that needs to be understood. But, this is my list of the three areas where incredibly beneficial outcomes are just over the horizon.

Ta ta for now!