1. GAS: MIT CHEMIST INVENTS THE HYDROGEN ECONOMY.
You may recall that in his 2003 State-of-the-Union Address President George W. Bush promised energy independence with Freedom Car, (WN 31 Jan 03) , "powered by hydrogen and pollution free." He forgot to say where the hydrogen would come from. MIT chemist Daniel Nocera said last week in Science online that he has the solution: "artificial photosynthesis." Did he invent artificial photosynthesis, you ask? Not exactly, evolution "invented" photosynthesis. Nocera isn't about synthesizing anything; he wants to break up water using electric power from solar cells. So he invented solar cells? No, other people did that. Nocera wants to use solar cells to do electrolysis. Nocera invented electrolysis? Not quite, that was invented by Lavosier before his beheading in 1794; Nocera found a catalyst that he says does electrolysis better. Does it? We don't know; it hasn't been replicated. MIT says it's a "major discovery."
