The European Union has kicked off the "human genome project" of metallurgy, which European Space Agency head of advanced materials and energy research David Jarvis says promises to be as revolutionary in the fight against global warming as the multibillion-dollar push to map our DNA has been in medicine. At last month's Paris air show, Jarvis said the €22 million ($31.7. million), five-year "Accelerated Metallurgy" pilot project promises to start unlocking the mysteries of metal alloys that thousands of years of trial and error and laboratory research have barely begun to reveal. Just 5% of all possible three-or-more element alloys have been thoroughly investigated, says Jarvis, but an ESA-patented 30s automated process for mixing powdered elements and testing for attractive properties will for the first time make it possible to scour the periodic table for performance "sweet spots". Promising candidates can then be sent to the International Space Station, where ESA runs the world's only microgravity materials science laboratory, which was delivered to the ISS in September 2009 (see box).
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