Small is beautiful

摘要

Oxford instruments' recent pledge to put nanotechnology at the heart of its growth strategy provided more evidence that the nano-sector is rapidly moving from the domain of pure science into serious commercial applications. The UK advanced instrumentation specialist has identified nanotechnology as one of three high-growth sectors — the others are environmental monitoring and molecular bioscience — which merit significant investment for the future, even if this has a short-term impact on profitability. Like others operating in the field, Oxford Instruments has worked out that the burgeoning variety of nano-applications will require an array of associated technologies in areas such as monitoring, measurement and analysis.