Rick Smalley shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996 for his pioneering research in nanotechnology. He discovered carbon 60, which he named buckminsterfullerene—buckyballs for short—because the molecule carries the structure of geodesic domes created by Buckminster Fuller. Buckyballs have led to the development of carbon nanotubes, used in many contemporary developments in nanotechnology. Smalley, who teaches at Rice University in Houston, is using his Nobel Prize as a bully pulpit to discuss energy, an issue he calls the most important problem facing humanity.
What is the energy problem, and why are you, a chemistry professor, so concerned about it?
S: The core of the energy problem is that we have a lot more people on this planet than we used to have. Right now most of the billions of people in the underdeveloped world are not consuming energy at any significant rate, yet they certainly will as time goes on. Either we find a way of enabling energy prosperity for everyone on this planet, or we will inherit a plague of troubles.
Such as?
S: Prosperity is determined by the abundance, quality, and cost of energy. We are used to living in a world where we are incredibly rich in energy, driven primarily by low-cost oil. That will not go on for much longer. It cannot because rapid economic development in China, India, and Africa, combined with increasing demand for fuel in the developed world will soon outpace worldwide oil production.
