Minister Goes High-Tech

Mr Willetts was in Oxfordshire to launch a major initiative promoting the county as a centre for scientific excellence and innovative technology, and took the opportunity to visit one of the UK’s leading businesses that is supporting the growth in nanotechnology based research and product manufacture. Oxford Instruments (UK) was the first commercial spin-out from Oxford University in 1959 and has a worldwide reputation for its innovative, high-technology tools and systems.

Mr Willets was shown the company’s bestselling X-MET hand-held metals analyser which can give an accurate result in seconds. It was also used by the developers of the UK Olympic site to analyse the soil for hazardous substances to great effect. The Minister also saw the most advanced cryogen-free dilution refrigerator, Triton, which is currently at the core of the next generation quantum processors. Triton was in the quantum computer recently purchased by Google and NASA for advanced research. Pulsar, its most recent tool that is used for the analysis of oils and fats in food was also demonstrated. Pulsar is based on magnetic resonance technology and leads the field in low cost, high performance instrumentation.

Jonathan Flint, Chief Executive said, “Scientific excellence and innovative technology is at the heart of Oxford Instruments’ growth and success and we were delighted to demonstrate our flagship products to the Minister. Nanotechnology is shaping our future, and we are proud to be supplying tools to enable that future.”