I sat still in the lab waiting for the synthesis I was working on to come through.

My tools of trade were basic…

A burette (remember from high school titration experiments?)…

Some conical flasks, beakers etc – I won’t bore you with chemistry.

What was my mission here?

I was synthesising a material called a Layered Double Hydroxide – it has nothing to do with sodium hydroxide though..

So why bother with this substance – you may ask…

From what others have done, this substance has many applications…

From energy storage to fertilizers…

From water treatment to medical uses…

It sounds simple but this is precisely the reason why nations like China, India, Singapore, Taiwan have managed to create a functional and profitable manufacturing sector.

Their success could be summed up in many words…

But one word is key – MATERIALS

MATERIAL SCIENCE

Materials science has nothing to do with fabrics.

It has to do with exploring potential functions of natural and man-made solid stuff around us.

It’s all about finding use for this stuff in order to improve our lives.

Now let me take you back to the lab I started with.

Remember some substance I was making called layered double hydroxides?

These are solid substances which can remove agricultural nutrients from wastewater for reuse as fertilizers.

But that’s not all.

These same solid substances could help build better batteries to store renewable energy…

They could help deliver drugs to specific tissues in the body thereby aiding in treatment of complex diseases…

They could help speed up manufacturing of other products through catalysis…

In other words, these are a potential warchest capable of solving several problems at the same time…

Energy, food, water, industry, health.

Where am I going with all this ‘hype’?

Most African nations depend on China for imports because they have honed the skill of transferring research output into innovation and products.

Just imagine how many traders in Nairobi line up at the port of Mombasa to receive goods made in China?

Just imagine how many business people travel to Guangzhou and other Chinese cities to purchase goods that have been mass produced due to Chinese innovation?

Imagine how our needy farmers crave for quality fertilizers yet we walk past wastewater everyday packed with agricultural nutrients.

Imagine how much traction renewable energy is getting yet there are opportunities around us to design batteries to store that same energy?

Imagine how many people in this nation lack clean and safe drinking water yet around us are possibilities that could help us make even the dirtiest water drinkable.

Material science is not for researchers alone.

It’s for those with an entrepreneurial spirit also.

It’s for those willing to look around, identify problems and explore materials that have the potential to solve them.

And after trial and error, prototyping and testing, one could just tailor-make a product that meets customers needs…

A product based on a certain material – either natural or man- made.

That’s what children in nations like China and India are taught everyday.

But to get there, we must change our education paradigm.

And I think CBC seems to be a step in the right direction – despite the hiccups we’re seeing.

Education mustn’t be an end but a means to an end.

Now let me go back to my lab work.

See ya laterz.