Japan is a country renowned for its high-tech expertise. Frankly, any nation that can produce a toilet that raises and lowers the seat automatically counts as genius level in my book.

On a recent trip to the country I visited Tokyo's National Museum of Emerging Science & Innovation, in the hope that as well as seeing some cool stuff like the amazing ASIMO robot I might find some insights into future print and communications technology.

Along with fascinating exhibits on 3D inkjet printing and nano-technology, I discovered something new in the museum's information science and technology for society section that could well help in our collective battle against the anti-paper "save trees" e-tosh spouted by the ignorant (regular readers will know this is a recurring topic, as this misinformation drives me nuts).

Japanese scientists have been busy looking at wood on a molecular level, and I quote: "trees have a hidden power that we have yet to learn to manage. In the future, we may make all sorts of products from trees instead of petroleum."

The key to it all is lignin, typically a substance that is surplus to requirements in the pulp used for fine paper making. Scientists are using it to make a new material called lignophenol that can be used in a variety of fields as "a petroleum-substitute macromolecular material".

Alternatives to our dependence on diminishing fossil fuels are never far from the headlines - today marks the opening of the giant Whitelee wind farm in Scotland, for example - so developments such as lignophenol will surely help to bolster the virtuous circle represented by responsible papermaking.

UPM chief Jussi Pesonen recently described the company's business as being "biomaterials" and this is a good description and one we can expect to hear more frequently in future. He also said that if paper didn't exist and someone was to invent it today, they would be hailed as an environmental genius. I'm with him on that, and it's a message we in the industry should all do our bit to propagate.