The UKs Micro and Nano Technology Network roars into 2005 with the establishment of a rather antediluvian sounding new club. Not the usual type we are promised, no leather armchairs, cognac, cigars or retired colonels, but a new national MEASUREMENT CLUB.
It all looks vaguely familiar, with its promise to help service providers, manufacturers of MNT tools & equipment and end users in industry and academia by supporting the development and exploitation of products and systems at the micro/nanoscale and by the application of measurement to solve critical MNT problems. In particular, the club will focus on the development of techniques for controlling and analysing the chemical composition and physical structure of systems such as nanomaterials and nanopowders; the measurement and control of positioning and physical dimensions of micro and nano systems; and the measurement and understanding of the properties that give the systems their function in applications such as nanoelectronics and sensors, communications and informatics, healthcare and nanobiotechnology.
Worthy aims, but isnt a lot of this already being funded under the five billion dollars of public money being pumped in to nanotechnology by global governments in 2005? At least attendance is FREE although the organisers note that at subsequent meetings a charge may be made.
Measurement and standards are an important aspect of the development of nanotechnology, but we hope that we will not see the emergence of competing standards.