Science & pulp fiction

Northern Sweden smells of money. More exactly, of pulp and paper mills and iron ore. The area's raw materials are increasingly being refined in the region, and today's new export products are high-technology materials and sensor systems worth millions.

The stocks of listed companies from northern Sweden have risen 328 per cent since 2000, outperforming those from the rest of Sweden by a long shot. In the university town of Umeå, the Umeå Plant Science Centre has earned world renown for its groundbreaking work on the poplar and aspen tree genomes. Its scientists are moving on to the industrial cloning of spruce trees, highyielding transgenic trees and revolutionary new materials based on that most renewable material, cellulose.

Scientists take building blocks from nature with useful properties and rebuild them into science fiction materials. Imagine water-repellent paper and tree-based materials as easy to shape as plastic. In a few years, we may see toys that can be composted and intelligent drug packaging that changes colour when the contents are past the sell-by date. Does it all seem a bit fantastic? Well, think about ordinary industrial paper machines that produce 100 kilometres of paper an hour, all with a perfectly smooth, uniform surface. At the Luleå University of Technology, computer science and processing experts are developing systems to fine tune complex industrial processes such as mining, steelmaking and paper production. Systems that integrate functions more smoothly or predict production stops before they occur can save millions. A paper mill, for instance, must be completely dependable. Production runs24 hours a day, and an unscheduled stop costs something like SEK 3 million. According to Process IT Innovations, an umbrella organisation, northern Swedish start-ups specialising in this area are attracting considerable customer and investor interest.

Yes, but it's not rocket science, you may say. Well, northern Sweden can boast that as well. Rocket scientists at the northernmost European space base, Esrange in Kiruna, preside over one of the best places in the world to launch rockets and satellites for scientific and commercial purposes. And over the past few years, a new range of guests has started to check in at the space hotel - space tourists. Virgin Galactic is one of the involved interested parties. The nearby Ice Hotel might add to the attraction.

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