Mission Impossible?

摘要

There was a focus on energy at the Los Angeles meeting of the Society. The plenary lecturer, Nate S. Lewis, of the California Institute of Technology, gave a sobering and compelling talk on the looming energy crunch that will be created when the petroleum runs out. Taking the "large view" of the planet as a whole, he argues that many technologies will make a contribution to the replacement of petroleum fuels, but many of them are not sufficient alone to fill the role. In addition, conservation of energy will help to delay the total depletion of gas and oil, and the additional time can enable the development of alternative solutions. Several symposia at the meeting addressed the subject of energy as well. The Battery Division had symposia on lithium batteries and other technologies. The Energy Technology Division (ETD) and Battery Division jointly sponsored a symposium on energy for transportation, and ETD also co-sponsored sessions on photovoltaics and electrochromic materials. Several Divisions co-sponsored a fuel cell symposium in honor of Supramaniam Srinivasan. There were other symposia with energy-related themes as well. The snapshot of papers at this meeting is an indication that many of our Society members are involved in research and development activities in energy production and storage.