Scientists have found a tree fungus "in the Patagonian rainforest, [which] naturally produces a mixture of chemicals that is remarkably similar to diesel."

In a startling move, China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has terminated all but two coal liquefaction projects. According to Zhou Dadi, former director of the Energy Research Institute of the NDRC, development of the technology had proven too risky an investment as domestic expertise and equipment was simply inadequate. With an investment of 120 billion yuan (US$17.55 billion)，the combined output capacity of the existing and the planned coal-to-liquid (CTL) projects was to be about 16 million tons. In a revealing statement Zhou added that, “many small CTL projects…were financed by bank loans. It will be troublesome if the loans default, which will hurt the interests of many depositors…Small investment in coal-to-liquid projects does not make sense. Heavy investment, however, is likely to turn sour if the mid-and-small enterprises cannot be freed from the technology obstacles." Falling oil prices nailed the coffin on many of the unprofitable projects.

A lightweight, silicon-based solar cell that can be installed on curved surfaces such as fabrics could be used for a broad range of applications. A paper online this week in Nature Materials (http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nmat2287) describes the new device, one of the most efficient flexible solar cells designed so far.

During a workshop on the future of energy conducted at National University of Singapore, our experts were divided into several groups and asked to develop a model for a research center supporting transformative science and innovation. The question we put them was: