As we take a look at some of the latest developments in R&D this month, I’m reminded of a couple of rather tired clich?s: “Necessity is the mother of invention” and “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” Tired, perhaps, but oh so true.

Let’s look at the first clich?. If oil and gas were still to be found in plentiful quantities in highly porous and permeable sandstones onshore at 600 m (2,000 ft) beneath the surface, we wouldn’t have deepwater drillships or subsea factories or multistage fracturing because we wouldn’t need them. Why go after the hard stuff when the easy stuff is still out there?

The second quote, attributed to Thomas Edison, is equally true. Edison, who had one of the earliest R&D labs in the world, is credited with a number of inventions and patents, but in fact he had a team of researchers who worked tirelessly to bring his (and their) ideas to life. A recent article in Time magazine examining the concept of inventiveness indicated that determination may be just as important a factor in innovation as creativity.

“It’s easy enough to recognize a prolific inventor when we see one; if nothing else, just count the patents,” Jeffrey Kluger wrote. “But it’s far harder to define what the act of invention is – how it springs into being, how it visits some of us and not others, how an idea that seems so obvious after the invention has been conceived and built was so opaque, so elusive before. Inventiveness can hit when we’re thinking about inventing, or it can come in sideways, flashing brilliantly on the periphery when we’re focused on something else.

“While that kind of comet strike makes for nice tale-telling … invention is just as often the result of mere doggedness, even cussedness, grinding away at a problem until it finally yields.”

Whether the innovations outlined in this issue are eureka moments or the result of cussedness is probably a secret only the inventors know. But I think you’ll agree that the results are staggering. Take, for example, Saudi Aramco’s “ResBots” (depicted nicely on this month’s cover). They represent reservoir characterization on the nanoscale. The goal is to gather in situ information about the reservoir by sending down tiny sensors that can move through the pore space. Why is Saudi Aramco spending valuable R&D dollars on nanosensors? To increase recovery rates. Necessity truly is the mother of invention.

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