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A post fossil fuel world
CULTURELAB
The world after fossil fuels Robert Laughlin’s vision of our energy future has a few blind spots, says Fred Pearce Powering the Future: How we will (eventually) solve the energy crisis and fuel the civilization of tomorrow by Robert B. Laughlin, Basic Books, £17.99/$24.99
Nikada/vetta/getty
ROBERT LAUGHLIN, a Nobel laureate for his work in quantum physics, starts his study of our energy futures with an absurd proposition – that it doesn’t matter much whether we burn all our coal and oil or leave it underground. It’s a cop-out, of course. If we burn all the coal, we would probably burn too. But for the purposes of Powering the Future, it means “we don’t have to analyze contemporary energy struggles”. Instead, he moves swiftly on to imagine what a world that does not burn carbon might look like. He likes nuclear best, and fast breeder reactors in particular, because they will extend the lifetime of available nuclear fuel to “about 20,000 years”. But he also has a soft spot for solar energy, especially solar thermal energy, which uses mirrors in the desert to heat pipes full of liquid. Deployed in the Mojave desert in south-eastern California, he says, is too spread out by the time it the technique could make Los reaches us. Catching its rays on Angeles “the world’s first great a huge scale needs far too much solar city”. land to be practical. Laughlin sees a “coming There is more room in the conflict” between nuclear and ocean depths, which Laughlin solar energy for global supremacy. sees as the must-have real estate Ever the physicist, he points out of the future. In a century or so, that the two are fundamentally “Ever the physicist, the same thing, since “the sun is Laughlin points out that really just a big nuclear reactor in the sun is really just a big the sky”. But he figures nuclear will win, because the sun’s energy nuclear reactor in the sky” 46 | NewScientist | 1 October 2011
once we have sorted out how to mass-produce cheap undersea robots, he says that we will be mining the deep for energy. The robots won’t be tapping tides or harvesting ocean currents, though. The physics doesn’t add up to make that worthwhile, he says, and the latter might shut down the thermohaline circulation which helps determine the world’s climate. Instead he imagines those undersea robots
Robert Laughlin forecasts an ever-growing demand for energy
will be drilling into mid-ocean ridges to grab geothermal heat, and superintending huge bags of compressed air as a global energy storage system. Laughlin says many useful things with a pleasing directness. He points out that ultimately the planet won’t care much about our carbon dioxide emissions because
For more books and arts coverage and to add your comments, visit newscientist.com/culturelab
Medical marvels A tour through historic breakthroughs shows how far modern medicine has come Great Discoveries in Medicine edited by William and Helen Bynum, Thames & Hudson, £24.95/$45 Reviewed by David Cohen
WALK into any modern hospital and you would be forgiven for thinking medicine is a precise science that can identify any disease you may be unfortunate enough to have, quantify it with whizz-bang technology based on a sound understanding of human physiology, and then treat it with a tried-and-tested pill or procedure that has run the rigours of a randomised controlled trial. It can be surprising, then, to reflect on the many treatments The first successful caesarean delivery was some 500 years ago
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
“in about a millennium” the gas will all end up in the ocean. He is less good on how we humans might get by in the meantime. For the planet, though, what we are currently doing to biodiversity will matter more, he points out. Once extinct, always extinct. He is also frank that electric cars aren’t a solution. A world of electric automobiles would produce a global garbage nightmare, spreading millions of tonnes of toxic metals across the planet. “Present-day searches for ever better batteries are, as a practical matter, searches for evermore toxic metals to put in them,” he says. Greens, please take note. Yet, like a distressing number of books by Americans on global topics, this one reads as if Laughlin doesn’t have a passport. He is too obviously writing for a domestic audience, more willing to talk about the complexity of California’s energy tariffs or discuss driving through its deserts than go into what he actually thinks about climate change. Also worrying is his oddly blinkered view of Homo sapiens’ social future. “It’s a very safe bet that thousands of years from now... people will have electricity, cars and airplanes.” Why? We will still want cars “because they’re status symbols”, he says. Like ostrich feathers in Victorian times, I guess. Laughlin is, at root, a cornucopian. He sees a world of endless economic advance. “Demand for energy will grow,” he says. Period. Forever. “Notwithstanding everyone’s wish that we could stop this trend.” Demand for what energy produces may well grow, but who wants energy for itself? He says nothing about energy efficiency. A Stanford University professor for a quarter of a century, I fear he has persuaded himself that, millennia hence, the world will think and live like today’s Californians.
Withering received reports that an old lady in the west of England was having unparalleled success in curing a mysterious condition that lead to swelling in the legs. Then called “dropsy”, the ailment now known as oedema is characterised by fluid accumulation in between body tissue, and can be caused by heart failure. Withering determined that the active ingredient in the woman’s tincture was digitalis. The compound is now marketed as the drug digoxin and has become the mainstay treatment for certain heart conditions. These are just two of the entertaining stories among
and procedures performed by doctors today that have rather accidental and unscientific origins. Take for example the caesarean section. Today, in some countries as many as 46 per cent of live births are by caesarean. And yet the first successful operation reported was not done by an obstetrician, but by the Swiss pig gelder Jacob Nufer. He performed “Many of the treatments the procedure on his wife in used by doctors today 1500 – without anaesthetic or have rather accidental antiseptics. Miraculously, the and unscientific origins” woman not only survived, but some reports suggest she went the 70 entries in this glossy on to have five more children. compendium of seminal Another peculiar story is that moments in the history of of the compound digitalis, now medicine. From the discovery of commonly used to control some the origin of disease and advances heart conditions. Extracted from in our understanding of human the leaves of the foxglove plant, physiology, to the development the medicinal value of digitalis of surgical procedures and other was originally identified by medical triumphs, this tome William Withering in 1775. A botanist and prominent physician, devotes just a few pages each to what the editors have deemed the key highlights. It is a book the medical establishment will be proud of, touring through major breakthroughs that advanced the practice of medicine such as the development of X-ray imaging, the use of opium as an anaesthetic, the origin of the stethoscope and the identification of influenza. It also includes more modern discoveries such as HIV, medical robots and beta blockers. While the book may sometimes err on the side of weightiness and occasionally verge on being dry – you probably wouldn’t want to read more than a handful of entries at a time – it is still a potent reminder of just how far we have come in recent years. A wonderful addition to any armchair medical historian’s coffee table. 1 October 2011 | NewScientist | 47
The world after fossil fuels Robert Laughlin’s vision of our energy future has a few blind spots, says Fred Pearce Powering the Future: How we will (eventually) solve the energy crisis and fuel the civilization of tomorrow by Robert B. Laughlin, Basic Books, £17.99/$24.99
Nikada/vetta/getty
ROBERT LAUGHLIN, a Nobel laureate for his work in quantum physics, starts his study of our energy futures with an absurd proposition – that it doesn’t matter much whether we burn all our coal and oil or leave it underground. It’s a cop-out, of course. If we burn all the coal, we would probably burn too. But for the purposes of Powering the Future, it means “we don’t have to analyze contemporary energy struggles”. Instead, he moves swiftly on to imagine what a world that does not burn carbon might look like. He likes nuclear best, and fast breeder reactors in particular, because they will extend the lifetime of available nuclear fuel to “about 20,000 years”. But he also has a soft spot for solar energy, especially solar thermal energy, which uses mirrors in the desert to heat pipes full of liquid. Deployed in the Mojave desert in south-eastern California, he says, is too spread out by the time it the technique could make Los reaches us. Catching its rays on Angeles “the world’s first great a huge scale needs far too much solar city”. land to be practical. Laughlin sees a “coming There is more room in the conflict” between nuclear and ocean depths, which Laughlin solar energy for global supremacy. sees as the must-have real estate Ever the physicist, he points out of the future. In a century or so, that the two are fundamentally “Ever the physicist, the same thing, since “the sun is Laughlin points out that really just a big nuclear reactor in the sun is really just a big the sky”. But he figures nuclear will win, because the sun’s energy nuclear reactor in the sky” 46 | NewScientist | 1 October 2011
once we have sorted out how to mass-produce cheap undersea robots, he says that we will be mining the deep for energy. The robots won’t be tapping tides or harvesting ocean currents, though. The physics doesn’t add up to make that worthwhile, he says, and the latter might shut down the thermohaline circulation which helps determine the world’s climate. Instead he imagines those undersea robots
Robert Laughlin forecasts an ever-growing demand for energy
will be drilling into mid-ocean ridges to grab geothermal heat, and superintending huge bags of compressed air as a global energy storage system. Laughlin says many useful things with a pleasing directness. He points out that ultimately the planet won’t care much about our carbon dioxide emissions because
For more books and arts coverage and to add your comments, visit newscientist.com/culturelab
Medical marvels A tour through historic breakthroughs shows how far modern medicine has come Great Discoveries in Medicine edited by William and Helen Bynum, Thames & Hudson, £24.95/$45 Reviewed by David Cohen
WALK into any modern hospital and you would be forgiven for thinking medicine is a precise science that can identify any disease you may be unfortunate enough to have, quantify it with whizz-bang technology based on a sound understanding of human physiology, and then treat it with a tried-and-tested pill or procedure that has run the rigours of a randomised controlled trial. It can be surprising, then, to reflect on the many treatments The first successful caesarean delivery was some 500 years ago
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
“in about a millennium” the gas will all end up in the ocean. He is less good on how we humans might get by in the meantime. For the planet, though, what we are currently doing to biodiversity will matter more, he points out. Once extinct, always extinct. He is also frank that electric cars aren’t a solution. A world of electric automobiles would produce a global garbage nightmare, spreading millions of tonnes of toxic metals across the planet. “Present-day searches for ever better batteries are, as a practical matter, searches for evermore toxic metals to put in them,” he says. Greens, please take note. Yet, like a distressing number of books by Americans on global topics, this one reads as if Laughlin doesn’t have a passport. He is too obviously writing for a domestic audience, more willing to talk about the complexity of California’s energy tariffs or discuss driving through its deserts than go into what he actually thinks about climate change. Also worrying is his oddly blinkered view of Homo sapiens’ social future. “It’s a very safe bet that thousands of years from now... people will have electricity, cars and airplanes.” Why? We will still want cars “because they’re status symbols”, he says. Like ostrich feathers in Victorian times, I guess. Laughlin is, at root, a cornucopian. He sees a world of endless economic advance. “Demand for energy will grow,” he says. Period. Forever. “Notwithstanding everyone’s wish that we could stop this trend.” Demand for what energy produces may well grow, but who wants energy for itself? He says nothing about energy efficiency. A Stanford University professor for a quarter of a century, I fear he has persuaded himself that, millennia hence, the world will think and live like today’s Californians.
Withering received reports that an old lady in the west of England was having unparalleled success in curing a mysterious condition that lead to swelling in the legs. Then called “dropsy”, the ailment now known as oedema is characterised by fluid accumulation in between body tissue, and can be caused by heart failure. Withering determined that the active ingredient in the woman’s tincture was digitalis. The compound is now marketed as the drug digoxin and has become the mainstay treatment for certain heart conditions. These are just two of the entertaining stories among
and procedures performed by doctors today that have rather accidental and unscientific origins. Take for example the caesarean section. Today, in some countries as many as 46 per cent of live births are by caesarean. And yet the first successful operation reported was not done by an obstetrician, but by the Swiss pig gelder Jacob Nufer. He performed “Many of the treatments the procedure on his wife in used by doctors today 1500 – without anaesthetic or have rather accidental antiseptics. Miraculously, the and unscientific origins” woman not only survived, but some reports suggest she went the 70 entries in this glossy on to have five more children. compendium of seminal Another peculiar story is that moments in the history of of the compound digitalis, now medicine. From the discovery of commonly used to control some the origin of disease and advances heart conditions. Extracted from in our understanding of human the leaves of the foxglove plant, physiology, to the development the medicinal value of digitalis of surgical procedures and other was originally identified by medical triumphs, this tome William Withering in 1775. A botanist and prominent physician, devotes just a few pages each to what the editors have deemed the key highlights. It is a book the medical establishment will be proud of, touring through major breakthroughs that advanced the practice of medicine such as the development of X-ray imaging, the use of opium as an anaesthetic, the origin of the stethoscope and the identification of influenza. It also includes more modern discoveries such as HIV, medical robots and beta blockers. While the book may sometimes err on the side of weightiness and occasionally verge on being dry – you probably wouldn’t want to read more than a handful of entries at a time – it is still a potent reminder of just how far we have come in recent years. A wonderful addition to any armchair medical historian’s coffee table. 1 October 2011 | NewScientist | 47