ChemIONS

Eventhough im a keen observer of changing trends in chemical industry and research this new research idea came to me only recently. What I feel is this has more potential than superconductivity (allan rov's blog) as far as Chemists are concerned. there has been a lot of discussions going on in Bio-inspired chemistry and RSC arranged some meetings and conferences last year(?).

Maintaing a healthy and clean environment and tackling the increasing fuel and oil prices and decreasing fossil fuel supplies are beeing big manace for scientists. I think we chemists can effectively address these current problems by giving importance to bio-inspired chemistry. There is notion that only solar cells and wind energy is available for tackling these problems. Very few are looking towards Chemistry for alternative energy sources. (ofcourse some university researchers).

Chemists, by understanding the basic processes of some biological models can  create systems that mimic biomolecules and produce energy in an efficient and cost effective manner. This simple idea is nowdays termed as Bio-inpired chemistry. Some recent advances are already been made in this new topic of research. Creation of artificial photosynthetic systems and enzyme based fuel cells are worth to mention. Bioinspired catalysts for spliting water is another emerging idea.

I think these new trends are going to create more impact.