Silver Anniversary thoughts from a materials scientist Colin Lea looks towards the frontiers of science and technology and ponders the global socio-political and environmental issues that will steer future developments Anniversaries are loved by all. They give us the opportunity to reminisce, to ponder on life in general, and to reach for the old photograph album. Where would we be now if this or that had or hadn't happened? One of the biggest changes in the last twenty-five years has been the increased awareness of the impact of human activity upon the environment, and the move of the environmentalists into the mainstream. Manufacturing and business decisions are now strongly influenced by environmental legislation, notwithstanding that it is often driven by misinformed public opinion rather than scientific exactitude. In the 1990s, some of industry's most omnipresent chemicals were abandoned and replaced through the Montreal Protocol. I wonder, will you recall in twenty-five years time, and will your children know, just how amazing was the saving of the Earth's ozone layer. Only the global eradication of smallpox offers a comparable example of mankind working together in every country across the globe for a common good. The elimination of ozone-depleting chemicals was an inspirational example of what can be achieved working together, individual by individual, company by company, nation by nation, to respond to a global challenge. During those years, environmental costs, which had hitherto been seen as a burden, became strong motivators for more efficient manufacturing, higher reliability products, and reduced costs. The need to comply with new environmental legislation led to reappraisals of manufacturing processes as well as management and housekeeping procedures. Part of the success of the Montreal Protocol was because the public were informed so well by the media. Greater public concern about the state of the environment spurs governments of all industrialised nations to take action and impose stiffer regulations for the control of substances deemed to be detrimental to the health of humans and the well-being of the planet. Nevertheless, in recent years it has been demonstrated that the best industrial performers are driven by a consumer need for environmental friendliness and a willingness, if necessary, to pay a premium for this perceived greenness. A product, or a brand, or a national industry can gain a marketing cachet for environmentally friendly products. The leadership role shown by the Japanese consumer electronics industry in moving ahead of the field towards lead-free solders, is a good example. The rest of the world has had to abandon the environmental debate about 'going lead-free' or 'not going lead-free'. The scientific validity of the environmental harmfulness of end-of-life electronics in landfill sites is no longer the issue. Consumer electronic products are made using lead-free solders in order to compete with Japan's industry that has implemented the switch to lead-free successfully, driven solely by commercial advantage, and not in response to regulatory pressure. Knowledge-based economy Tony Blair, in a speech on 'science matters', made reference to a meeting he had had with academics in Bangalore, who expressed the blunt opinion to him that Europe has gone soft on science and would miss out as it was leapfrogged by countries such as theirs. They regarded the debate on GM crops in Europe as utterly astonishing. They saw Europe as overrun by protestors and pressure groups using emotions to drive out reason. And they did not think Europe has the political will to stand up for 'proper science'. At the European Union summit in 2000, in Lisbon, the Council Members committed the European Union to become the world's most competitive and dynamic, knowledge-based economy by 2010, creating 15 million new jobs. Brave words indeed. A knowledge-based economy requires commitment to build and maintain a leading-edge science base, and encouragement of innovation and entrepreneurship. Putting this vision into action has hit more than a few problems and, four years into the decade, the goal remains long distant. So what is 'proper science'? When London's prestigious Royal Society was formed in 1660, it was possible for an educated person to encompass all of scientific knowledge. In fact, that was probably true for more than half of the Royal Society's existence. But in the last century, and in particular in the last fifty years, such has been the pace of scientific advance that even the best scientists cannot keep up with discoveries at frontiers outside their own field. More science is being done, it's more global, and it is faster to impact on our lives. Given the great advances of recent decades, it would be easy for non-scientists to think that the great scientific problems have been solved, that today's work is filling in the minor gaps. The general perception is that we know how to do things, but often lack the political and public will to exploit the knowledge further: space exploration, supersonic passenger transport, nuclear power, genetic modification of humans, and what they eat, multi-media communications, electric cars, driver-less cars. The list is as long as one's imagination, of things we know how to do, but don't always feel inclined to. And yet this perception that we know nearly all there is to know, is wrong. We stand on the verge of further enormous leaps forward in science endeavour and discovery. In many scientific fields the massive power available from modern computers can be pulled together to collect data and model the information to move the frontiers of science into a detailed, previously unimaginable, understanding of very complex phenomena ranging from the human genome to our global climate. Indeed, what is most exciting about science is that it does create possibilities that were not even imagined previously. Only ten years ago researchers in elementary particle physics were determined to find a way in which they could share information more effectively. Out of that seemingly simple aim, came the invention of the World Wide Web. The biosciences are drawing much admiring attention at present as both the quality of life and life expectancy increase. Part of this success is coming from the development of an e-science Grid, which will make access to computing power, scientific data repositories, and experimental facilities as easy as the Web makes access to information. A surgeon in an operating room, for example, can make use of (in real time) state-of-the-art equipment a thousand kilometres away to measure, or to image, or to diagnose. The current research in nanotechnology has extraordinary potential. Is this the ultimate in miniaturisation? Programmable and controllable nanorobots will allow doctors to carry out curative and reconstructive procedures in the human body at the cellular and molecular level. Visionaries in this field talk about machines the size of a cell that could identify and destroy cancerous cells, or might target bacteria and other parasites. In manufacturing industry, drill bits, fluted and tipped, are made by powder-route technology at diameters as small as 70 micrometres (the thickness of a human hair). One of these drills has more crystalline metal grains in it that there are stars in our galaxy; if just one grain is oversized or misshapen, the drill could fail prematurely. Communications Once upon a time, a mobile phone only told you the time and let you play a game of solitaire - as well as being a telephone, of course. More and more bells and whistles have been added month by month to the functionality of mobile phones: global positioning coordination, internet access, photography, internet viewing. And the faster these