For a company credited with many serious scientific achievements, Corning expends a lot of hot air. The air – containing exhaust gases from car engines – is being produced to test the performance of new filters that are beneficial to the environment.

Corning hopes that these environmental products – filters to clean up the exhaust streams of diesel cars, trucks and industrial plants – will help its growth in the next decade. Their development was not rapid: creating the right materials, based on aluminium titanate, took 10 years.