Scientific innovation is the basis of automation, and I always enjoy following the scientific Nobel prizes each year. I thought I had figured out how quantum computers work, but the physics prize this year had me stumped. It was for “the discovery of macroscopic quantum-mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit”, or more simply, for developments in quantum mechanics that helped give birth to quantum computers. Even Sweden’s Royal Academy of Science prize committee had trouble explaining the underlying science in an understandable way, and the news was mainly received with bafflement.
Both classic and quantum computers are macroscopic devices, but quantum mechanics is usually relevant only to the microscopic world of atoms and subatomic particles. The prize was for bridging the gap between the microscopic and macroscopic worlds. We’ve covered quantum computers a few times in this magazine and it’s still early days. Whether quantum computers will live up to the hype which now surrounds them remains to be seen.
The chemistry prize is a bit easier to explain. The prize was given to three researchers for their work on metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). These are a bit like hotels for chemicals or self-assembling houses, as the committee explained. MOFs are artificial crystals whose molecules are organised into a regular, repeating structure. These metallic clusters spaced at regular intervals are linked with long organic molecules. It’s the empty space in this molecular scaffolding that makes MOFs so interesting. A MOF can attract and store large quantities of other ‘guest’ chemicals. This makes them useful for everything, from removing carbon dioxide from industrial smokestacks to extracting water from desert air. MOFs are a hot topic today. Researchers have created substances that can pull oil spills out of water, store large quantities of hydrogen or methane, remove pollutants from drinking water, and absorb and enzymatically break down antibiotics in the environment. They have huge potential for making the world more sustainable.
Alongside the Nobels, I came across an interesting question: what scientific advancement has brought the most joy to humanity? I researched it a bit and asked a few people, and came up with a long list of joy-bringing breakthroughs. These are some of my favourites, but you will probably have others.
Of the medical ones, vaccines and antibiotics are top of my list. Without the advent of lifesaving penicillin in the 1940s and smallpox and polio vaccines, there are many people walking around today (including me) who otherwise would not have been here. The other one is cancer treatments. I don’t think there’s anyone who hasn’t been affected by cancer, but nowadays, two thirds of those afflicted are cured and this number is rising all the time.
I would definitely choose the internet. Remember the excitement in the early days when you logged on through your landline at night to save on the phone bill and listened to the beeps that put you in touch with the world, bringing the joy of discovery. And I think of the joy it has brought to countless people keeping in touch with their loved ones.
Electricity has to be one as it makes everything possible; and it certainly brought us joy when we heard the fridge start up when the lights came on after loadshedding. On a smaller scale, what about the ball and the simple pleasure it brings just hanging out with your mates and kicking it around; or the pneumatic tyre that makes it possible to head out on the open road on a roadtrip into the wild?
AI is not on my list. It’s amazing what it can do and is quite useful, but it’s annoying the way it creeps into everything. I also worry about the uncountable loss of jobs, and whether it’s going to get out of control. It’s more like ‘shock and awe’. So far, I haven’t seen it bring much joy.
This led me to a list of scientists ranked by the number of lives they have saved. To my surprise, top of the list were Carl Bosch and Fritz Haber, who developed the Bosch-Haber process for ammonia and made the fertiliser industry possible, and got the Nobel prize in 1936. They are said to have saved 2,3 billion lives through agriculture. Alexander Fleming was also there, saving 203 million lives with penicillin. There is also the team who discovered that the HIV virus causes Aids. They saved an estimated 22 million lives; and the team who developed the COVID vaccine is estimated to have saved 14 million lives.
You will probably have your own list, it’s a lot of fun to do.
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