I love science, from a safe distance. But why would anyone want to give away £20m to science, even if you had it? In the case of hedge fund star David Harding, part of the reason why he has made the biggest-ever donation to Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory was, he said, to compensate for all the physicists his firm had "poached" from the scientific world.
He was only partly joking: his company, Winton Capital Management, employs more than 90 researchers with PhDs or higher degrees, in subjects ranging from extragalactic astrophysics to artificial intelligence. But the two main reasons why Harding decided to fund the Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability was that, first, he wants to provide the "freedom to discover", the ability to invest in what scientists call blue-sky thinking, and, second, he sees fundamental science as the key to creating the low-carbon, low-impact technologies of the future.
At one point, Harding quipped that Winton Capital succeeds by outsourcing all the things in which it does not excel-and in this case, he noted, the task it was sub-contracting was "the betterment of mankind". Fine, but why the unusual focus on physics? "While it is not quite as simple as using physics to save the world," Harding explained, "this is an opportunity to use, for example, quantum physics to develop materials with seemingly miraculous properties that could combat the growing effect humans are having on the planet."
One key aim of the programme is to find superconductors that can carry electricity while operating at, or near, room temperature. Other goals include the manufacture of batteries with energy storage properties that rival gasoline's and new thermoelectric mechanisms that can scavenge heat from the environment. We have already seen a nanofabrication project creating copies of the scales that give the spectacular colours to butterfly wings. The findings could help to make bank notes and credit cards harder to forge.
Longer term, the challenge for physicists will involve producing materials that can be manufactured at low cost and used on a massive scale, "delivered by the tonne and by the hectare".
John Elkington is executive chairman of Volans (www.volans.com) and non-executive director at SustainAbility (www.sustainability.com)
