Materials technology

NanoCity Planet 2014

NanoNextNL, the Dutch consortium on research into micro and nanotechnology, asked Betase to make a newspaper for the two-day event NanoCity 2014. On this event, which took place on October 27 and 28 in De Fabrique near Utrecht, about 500 ‘NanoCitizens’ visited the exhibiting companies, presentations in plenary and parallel sessions, scientific posters of (mainly) PhD students, and there was plenty of time for face-to-face interactions. STW executive director Eppo Bruins was the proud mayor of NanoCity for this occasion. He welcomed big names as Stuart Parkin (hard disk guru), Shuichi Takayama (works on micro channels to model parts of the human body), Margaret Murnane (laser pioneer), Hans Clevers (KNAW president) and Dave Blank (nanotechnology stimulator).

Off course, NanoCity would not be a real city without a city newspaper. Betase realised an 8-page tabloid, NanoCity Planet, with serious nanotechnological content such as items on the recently awarded Nobel Prize on nano microscopy, and the keynote presentations of the people mentioned above. Furthermore, the newspaper contained less serious items such as a nanoscope – a horoscope which can predict the future even better by using nanotechnology – and an item on the Nanolympics.

NanoCity Planet 2014

Through the enthusiasm of the paper boy (‘breaking news, breaking news’), the newspaper was received well, as the enclosed Tweet of @NanoCity2014 (photographer: Bram Saeys) shows.