I'm a partner in a small furniture family business. A few years ago, I had solar panels installed on the roof of the building that we use as factory and warehouse. It was a big investment, but now I save a lot of money when it comes to paying my company's electricity bills. Plus, a choice like this is beneficial to the planet, too!

I’m training to run the Barcelona Marathon. To improve my training, I bought a bracelet to monitor my heart rate at all times. The other day, flipping my bracelet, I noticed that there was a green light on the side that touches my wrist: as it couldn’t be decoration, I researched a bit on the internet and discovered that the wearable device gets the information about my pulse by measuring the green photons that interact with my skin.

Living in a mountain village with few shops, I usually buy everything I need online. However, there are many people in the village, including my grandmother, who would rather spend more than one hour in the car to the nearest city than leave their data on the internet, because they are afraid of cyberattacks.

Although this is a serious danger, I’m not worried, because I read that there are also many people who are studying new ways to improve the security of our communications, and it seems that the most promising techniques have to do with the exotic properties of quantum physics!

We share on a daily basis a lot of private information (personal, financial or health data) that could be intercepted: the cryptographic protocols that currently protect them would not work with more powerful computers in the future.

A solution could come from quantum physics: it allows you to design cryptographic protocols that would withstand the attacks of any computer (present or future). There are still many technological challenges to the integration of quantum cryptographic systems into the telecommunications network: solving them is the goal of CiViQ, a European Quantum Flagship project that ICFO coordinates and in which others research centers, universities and large and small companies participate, including Quside, an ICFO spin-off founded in 2017.

Photo: One of the ICFO laboratories where technologies for quantum cryptography are being developed

There are things our eyes cannot see. For example, infrared and ultraviolet radiation (which our eyes and conventional cameras cannot capture) carry information that can help us control the quality of food, monitor the health of our body, or see in adverse conditions (darkness, fog).

With the graphene-based sensors being developed at ICFO in collaboration with Qurv (an ICFO spin-off born in 2020), it would be possible to do all of these things and even more with small, low-cost detectors easily integrated into current electronic systems and wearable technologies.

Photo: Prototype of graphene-based wearable device to detect vital signs

For a blood test, we have usually to go somewhere where they fill several tubes with our blood and we then have to wait a few days for the results. Thanks to the effective interaction between photons and gold nanoparticles, a blood analysis laboratory can fit inside a chip of a few centimeters that allows us to obtain the results in just 10 minutes from a single drop of blood.

This technology developed by Droplite (an ICFO spin-off company born in 2018) is currently validated to detect hormones linked to the reproductive cycle, allergies, antibodies for some veterinary or human diseases (such as malaria and COVID-19), but it has many other potential applications.

Photo: Prototype by Droplite

Some organisms can transform sunlight into the energy they need to live with photosynthesis. This process, resulting of millions of years of evolution, is incredibly efficient: they can transform 95% of the light that reaches them into energy. In contrast, the best solar commercial panels today translate only 20% of energy into electricity.

At ICFO, we use ultrafast laser pulses to "photograph" the molecules responsible for capturing light energy found in photosynthetic organisms in order to better understand this process and improve the efficiency of solar panels.

Photo: Experimental setup to study some of the relevant molecules for photosynthesis

Fundamental research, such as in certain fields of photonics, needs financial resources, and often has no direct application in the short-term at the commercial or industrial level. On the other hand, if one does not invest in fundamental research, it is difficult to reach the level of development required to to generate economic wealth with technological products, since this implies a deep knowledge of its basic concepts.

How can we solve this "circle"?

Many people argue that knowledge should be property of all mankind as a whole. On the other hand, applications development often takes place in industry, which is the one that makes the big investments in exchange for an economic return, often privatizing knowledge.

How can we combine public and private interests in scientific research?

The pandemic that arose in 2020 taught us that public health is an important sector that affects many more aspects of society. A tiny virus can affect the lives of millions of people in all its aspects, not only health, but also the economy, industrial structure, labor market ...

That’s why it’s important to focus most of our efforts on research projects that can improve and care for people’s health.

We live in the information age. More and more companies and institutions are collecting and analyzing large amounts of data to improve industrial processes and services for the population. In addition, digital technologies are essential to communicate with each other, whether for work or fun. If information systems fail, strategic structures such as energy networks, traffic control, hospitals, governments, etc. fail, too. Thus, ensuring data security for quick and massive data transfer is of fundamental importance for a digitized society like ours.

That is why it is important to focus most of our efforts on research projects that can improve data collection, analysis, transmission and security.

We are in the middle of a climate emergency: to be able to solve it we need new environmental policies and the commitment of society as a whole. Science and technology can accelerate the change of paradigm that we need to save the planet with discoveries and innovative technologies. If we do nothing now, the Earth will be uninhabitable and unsustainable, but there’s still time.

That’s why it’s important to focus most of our efforts on research projects that can help us take care of our planet.

Photonics is everywhere and has a positive impact in many different aspects of our lives. Sometimes, the same technology (such as the laser) can improve health, information and care for the environment at the same time. There are many global issues and it is difficult to set a priority, especially because they are interconnected.

That’s why it’s important not to focus our efforts on a single field of application: it’s better to diversify our efforts to have more chances of success.