FEI opened their new NanoPort building today, including a spectacular new applications and demo suite next to their former offices in Eindhoven.
The take-home message of all three speakers, however, is that tools are crucial to our understanding of the nanoworld.
Without the Scanning Tunnelling Microscope we would never have been able to see and manipulate individual atoms, as Don Eigler did at IBM. Without the Atomic Force Microscope, nanometer imaging would not have become routine as it now is. We are now at the stage where nanotech is making the great leap forward, from the lab to the factory floor, as coincidentally reported in Fortune, and FEI and Veeco are very aware of the opportunities to both capitalise on this growing market, and also where they may slip up and fall prey to a nimbler competitor.