To remedy this problem, Kylie Catchpole of the Australian National University in Canberra and Albert Polman of the Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics in Amsterdam have been trying to redirect the light that falls onto the surface of a cell in such a way that all colours are efficiently absorbed.

ECONOMIST: Solar energy

"Administrative capitals are normally a feature of federation, such as in Brazil, Australia and the US, " says Professor Peter McDonald of the Australian National University, a well-known demographer and long-time Canberra resident.

BBC: Canberra: Deathly dull at 100?

In the view of Peter Larmour, a specialist on the Pacific islands at the Australian National University in Canberra, corruption is better tackled by reducing institutional opportunities for it, rather than by dictatorial moral crusades from a strong-arm regime that sets itself up as detective, judge and juror.

ECONOMIST: And of their contrasting attitudes to democratic reform