Testing, testing

An old-fashioned hardback book often still beats the internet, doesn't it? When you can get hold of one. Right now, there's one, in a package with my name on it, stuck somewhere between a second-hand bookshop in Portland, Oregon, and the UK: the only published biography - that I can find - of Thomas Midgley Jr.

- MATT SAUNDERS

Once a figure of celebrated repute, Midgley is now just the answer to an increasingly obscure pub quiz question. He was primarily responsible for mixing lead with petrol in the 1920s; and then, in one of the 20th-century's most environmentally ruinous encores, for putting chlorofluorocarbons in refrigerators and air-conditioning systems in the 1930s. Imagine having both on your CV - and still making president of the American Chemical Society.

I've been particularly interested lately in the circumstances and context that gave rise to two of the most infamous chemical innovations of the past 100 years or so. Might there be parallels with those surrounding research into battery technology and synthetic fuels right now? Could the car be due another Midgley moment? Well, having reflected a bit on the subject, I'm relieved to have concluded that no, probably not.