Fusion Power

Nuclear fusion (you know, like, in the sun) has the potential to be a safe and clean source of practically unlimited energy. To generate power by fusion, the nuclei of two light hydrogen isotopes are fused together, releasing energy. To do this, the isotopes must be heated to 100 million degrees celcius and held in a small space for at least 1 second.
Research on this topic is led by Joint European Torus (JET), a conglomeration of European scientists based in Culham, UK. Their research could--this is a little dramatic, but whatever--change civilization as we know it. A safe, clean, and renewable energy source would be pretty slick.

I visited these blogs

Ryan, Eric, Mica, Chrissy

The general goal of the applications of chemistry that people researched can be summarized as making the world a better place. It's great that this is the case, because it really feels like a lot of people don't care much about that. A lot of decision-making today is based on principal, not logic. And I don't mean political or "real world" logic. I mean the kind of logic that you would use in your role as a human being.

Interesting Chemsitry Applications

Nuclear Fusion: http://www.fusion.org.uk/
Self-Cleaning Glass: http://optics.org/cws/article/research/9905
Detection of concealed explosives: http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5668342-description.html
Scramjet: http://www.nasa.gov/missions/research/f_scramjets.html
Photovoltaics: http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/MSD-full-spectrum-solar-cell.html

The use of nanoparticles in photovoltaic cells is amazing because it dramatically increases the efficiency of the cells. The commercialization of this technology will have a significant impact on the entire world: reduced global dependence on fossil fuels will turn the current geopolitical situation upside down. Production of nanoparticles is fairly inexpensive, so use of photovoltaic cells could be possible even in developing nations--with a little help from the rest of us.