The 2003 Nobel Prize was awarded in part to Peter Agre of Johns Hopkins for his discovery, around 1990, of a membrane protein that allows water to pass through cell walls. The discovery of aquaporin solved a longtime problem in biochemistry. The Danish company Aquaporin has developed a new approach to seawater desalination that eschews the polymer-layering of traditional industrial films for the elegant complexity — and energy efficiency — of biological membranes.