Smalley raises problem of fossil fuel depletion at Nanoforum

During a keynote speech on the first day of NanoForum, Richard Smalley,
director of the Carbon Nanotechnology Laboratory at Rice University in
Houston, Texas, identified the shortage of fossil fuels as the most
significant problem facing human civilization. Nanotechnology has the
potential to provide an energy storage capability so that alternative energy
sources can be widely adopted. “We need new technology to solve the energy
problem,” he said.
However, Smalley warned that the U.S. would experience a shortage of
future scientists to find solutions to these problems. That’s because fewer
young people were pursuing science and technology as careers. “Where are the
new Edisons?” he asked.
“The era of Sputnik and the moon shot were the only time we were
successful in getting American kids into science and technology,” said
Smalley, who won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1996 for his discovery of
“buckyballs” — the soccer ball-shaped molecule which is the third carbon
element.

PR Newswire