Electronic update: 'the chemical and electronic industries are inseparable, even if this is not immediately obvious from looking at the finished products'.(Degussa AG. opening new science-to-business nanotronics centre )

In the 1930s and 1940's 'a computer' still meant a person who did calculations. Fully electronic computers weighing tonnes appeared in the late 1940s, But it was the production of the first doped silicon monocrystals by German chemists 50 years ago that led to the invention of the silicon chip in 1961 and a revolution in the computer age. These chips miniaturised technology, paving the way for modern computers, mobile phones, CD players and nearly everything else we use today.

Another chemical invention, photosensitive coatings, meant that patterns could be etched into microchips using light. But German chemical companies have for the most part failed to advance …