Science in the News

Koonin says he spent his first year and a half in the job learning about energy, a process that changed his views. "I was more skeptical about climate change a few years ago. Now I've come round more toward the IPCC view." (The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has concluded that temperatures are rising in part as a result of human activity.) Like most energy pundits, he sees no silver bullet that will save the planet from climate change, but some ammo has a bigger caliber than others." He advocates large-scale efforts in carbon sequestration at fossil fuel -burning plants, as well as a new generation of nuclear power stations. And he says it would be "irresponsible" not to investigate other ways to deal with global warming, such as geoengineering. increasing Earth's reflectivity by pumping material into the upper atmosphere. One area claiming much of his attention is biofuels. Current biofuel efforts, he argues, are strapped onto agricultural food production and are "not optimal." Koonin wants to galvanize geneticists, biotechnologsts, agricultural scientists, engineers, and others to "do biofuels right." BP has put up  million over to years to create an Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI). This initiative has won plaudits. "Koni thought hard about how to structure the EBI, and it will have a lot of impact;' says carbon sequestration expert Robert Soclw of Princeton University. "BP has made a commitment to go big in energy bio sciences. I doubt this would have happened without Steve "Koonin" says Ernest Moniz Professor of Physics at MIT. Koonin is pleased with the buzz the Ebi has caused. "Plant geneticists are talking to chemists and engineers.... Researchers are coming alive to the challenge.

European level through the creation of European technology platforms (8). Several exist in the energy field, including for hydrogen and fuel cells. photvoltaic, zero-emission fossil fuel power plants, and smart grids. Nonetheless, we have seen investment in energy research being reduced in national budgets over the past  years or so. And the research that is carried out is more often than not done in a fragmented, uncoordinated way, leading to duplication in some areas and to other important aspects being underfunded or ignored. This is the risan of the Strategic Energy Technology Plan, which will, once agreed on, provide a basis for all energy technology efforts in Europe, over-coming the lack of coherence that has unfortunately been present to a greater or lesser extent in the research programs at the national and European levels up to now. During the first half of zoo7, the European Commission will consult intensively with all those who have a role to play in such a strategic plan. On the basis of these consultations, a text will be drawn up toward the middle of the year, upon