Assorted Spanish and Portuguese dignitaries assembled for the opening for the new International Iberian Nanotech Laboratory located in Braga, Portugal.
Given such an occasion and such an assembled cast of politicos and even royalty we were bound to here some reference to the golden age of Spain and Portugal’s age of discovery. And we were not disappointed.Â
"In the age of discovery, we had a lot of success. With this project, Portugal and Spain will chart a new atlas of innovation and will make new discoveries," said Spain’s president, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.I have commented somewhat skeptically on this research center earlier this year.
I am sure it will be a huge success, as far as we'll ever know. However it turns out, it should prove interesting to see how this center develops since it should serve as a benchmark for other countries who develop large and expensive nanotech research centers without having much of a foundation for it either in their scientific or industrial communities.
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Dexter Johnson
Dexter Johnson is a contributing editor at IEEE Spectrum, with a focus on nanotechnology.
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