Commentary

After over a quarter of a century, the doors of the world's first synchrotron radiation source have closed. Its contribution to materials science in the past and the future should not be underestimated.

With some nanomaterial-based medicines having entered the marketplace, and more on the verge of doing so, nanomedicine is expected to become an exciting playground for chemists and material scientists.

Nuclear energy offers a low-carbon footprint and less dependence on fossil fuel, but several materials challenges must be met to advance nuclear technology.

As interest in new generations of nuclear reactors is increasing worldwide, renewed research effort into new materials more tolerant to extreme conditions is crucial.

As economic competition in the region increases, Hong Kong has to reinvent itself as a knowledge-based society.

The fast-paced economic development in China needs to be complemented by strong support for fundamental research, particularly in the materials sciences.

Although the Internet has fundamentally changed the way we communicate, science publishing is remarkably hesitant in making full use of the potential offered by new technology.

Several approaches are capable of beating the classical 'diffraction limit'. In the optical domain, not only are superlenses a promising choice: concepts such as super-oscillations could provide feasible alternatives.

New dosimeters are needed to measure radiation up to extreme levels created by particle accelerators and nuclear fusion reactors. The time to develop these dosimeters is now.

From its inception, the polymer industry has engaged theorists in materials design. Despite the maturation of the industry, the need for theoreticians to contribute to the development of new materials for established and emerging applications is as relevant as ever.

Integrated electronics has come a long way since the invention of the transistor in 1947 and the fabrication of the first integrated circuit in 1958. Given feature sizes as small as a few nanometres, what will the future hold for integrated electronics?

The African Institute of Mathematical Sciences offers a successful template for other disciplines to teach science in Africa.

Scientific research in Korean universities has developed rapidly in the past twenty years. However, the quality still lags behind other advanced countries, and Korea faces many challenges in building premier research universities.

Numerous prototypes of electric power devices based on high-temperature superconductors have been successfully demonstrated. Materials research over the next decade will improve cost-performance and accelerate commercialization.

Conducting scientific research in Korea has not always been easy. The country has made rapid progress in encouraging research, but how did it come to be able to hold its own on the world stage, and what could the future hold?

The increasing complexity of teaching and research poses significant challenges for public universities. The University of California, Berkeley, might provide a successful model for the 21st century.

Focusing a laser on the dirt covering a precious work of art may seem like a dangerous thing to do, but this unexpected technique has found a variety of cleaning applications. Analogies from other fields of materials science can provide guidance for its use, and model experiments ensure it doesn't all end in disaster.

Academic participation in nanomedicine research is welcomed by European industries. The recipe for success may or may not include creativity, but it will certainly require awareness of drug development and approval processes.

Organic materials can offer a low-cost alternative for printed electronics and flexible displays. However, research in these systems must exploit the differences — via molecular-level control of functionality — compared with inorganic electronics if they are to become commercially viable.

With industrial research increasingly under pressure to produce rapid profits, and universities rightly concerned with primary research, can university spin-off companies fill the gap between invention and commercialization?