Alan Heeger: Creativity, Discovery and Risk Lecture from “Creativity, Discovery and Risk: Nobel Prizes Past and Future” at Brno University of Technology in Brno, Czech Republic
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- 13.05.2008
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- Event Details
Supplimentary Materials
Chapter 11 of 16: Printed Solar Cells
Global warming is a problem that has to be solved if we want to avoid a catastrophe, and the electronic inks Alan Heeger has developed may well be the solution to producing economically efficient solar cells. (4 minutes, 55 seconds)
Chapter 1 of 16: Toy soldiers
Alan Heeger's life as an experimental scientist began at four years old, when he took great care to fire sticks from a toy canon at just the right angle. (4 minutes, 59 seconds)
Chapter 2 of 16: What is creativity?
Even as a child, Alan Heeger experienced the indescribable joy in science that comes from conceiving an abstract idea and finding out that it matches reality. (4 minutes, 55 seconds)
Chapter 3 of 16: Creativity to Discovery
Creativity and discovery are related, yet not the same. It took a hugely creative leap for Watson and Crick to find the structure of DNA from the data available and to then have the insight to see its potential relevence… (4 minutes, 55 seconds)
Chapter 4 of 16: Einstein's Creativity
Whereas Penzias and Wilson's creativity in inventing a beautiful new piece of equipment allowed them to observe the remnants of the Big Bang, Einstein's discoveries were created entirely in his head. (4 minutes, 55 seconds)
Chapter 5 of 16: Dreaming up Conductive Plastics
The whole basis of the discovery for which Alan Heeger shared the 2000 Nobel Prize for Chemistry was created in a few hours one afternoon. (4 minutes, 55 seconds)
Chapter 6 of 16: History of Polymers
The history of polymer science is a complicated one, littered with Nobel Prizes. Heeger takes us on a journey from the early work in the 1920s to the present day. (4 minutes, 55 seconds)
Chapter 7 of 16: Seeing the Potential
Alan Heeger could see the potential in the materials he had dreamt up, and he was willing to put his reputation on the line to publish his ideas, no matter what his physics colleagues thought. (4 minutes, 55 seconds)
Chapter 8 of 16: Creating Materials to Solve Problems
Alan Heeger's groundbreaking paper was rejected on the basis that there must be a mistake, but he fought through and produced a whole field of fascinating and extremely useful new materials. (4 minutes, 55 seconds)
Chapter 9 of 16: Risks are Risky
“Great discoveries can be found by exploring new directions in interdisciplinary science – but moving into such new directions requires going well beyond one’s core knowledge and therefore involves serious risk.” (4 minutes, 55 seconds)
Chapter 10 of 16: Electronic Inks
Receiving the Nobel Prize was a particularly surreal experience for Alan Heeger, but it is the possibilities for his electronic inks that really capture his imagination. (4 minutes, 55 seconds)
Chapter 11 of 16: Printed Solar Cells
Global warming is a problem that has to be solved if we want to avoid a catastrophe, and the electronic inks Alan Heeger has developed may well be the solution to producing economically efficient solar cells. (4 minutes, 55 seconds)
Chapter 12 of 16: Cost of Solar Power
The major hurdle for solar power is capital cost - as Alan Heeger found out when installing this himself. (4 minutes, 55 seconds)
Chapter 13 of 16: Science of the Plastic Solar Cell
The secret of the plastic solar cell is based on mixing Alan Heeger's conductive polymers with the brilliant electron trap buckminsterfullerene, creating a charge splitting system similar to photosynthesis. (4 minutes, 55 seconds)
Chapter 14 of 16: Optimizing the Ink
The idea for the ink was only the beginning, optimizing the idea and materials for real world use took a further leap of creativity. (4 minutes, 55 seconds)
Chapter 15 of 16: Letting an Idea Mature
Alan Heeger is determined to take an idea he had more than 25 years ago through to completion; he's determined to see risk pay off. (4 minutes, 55 seconds)
Chapter 16 of 16: Be audacious
“Cherish creativity, be bold, have the audacity to think you can and to seek to discover." (1 minute, 32 seconds)
Description
Alan Heeger says that science is more creative than a lot of people imagine, and making the biggest discoveries requires taking some risks with your research.
