NC-AFM 2005: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Non-Contact Atomic Force Microscopy

The 8th International Conference on Non-Contact Atomic Force Microscopy, held in Bad Essen, Germany, from 15 18th August 2005, attracted a record breaking number of participants presenting excellent contributions from a variety of scientific fields. This clearly demonstrated the high level of activity and innovation present in the community of NC-AFM researchers and the continuous growth of the field. The strongest ever participation of companies for a NC-AFM meeting is a sign for the emergence of new markets for the growing NC-AFM community; and the high standard of the products presented at the exhibition, many of them brand-new developments, reflected the unbroken progress in technology. The development of novel technologies and the sophistication of known techniques in research laboratories and their subsequent commercialization is still a major driving force for progress in this area of nanoscience. The conference was a perfect demonstration of how progress in the development of enabling technologies can readily be transcribed into basic research yielding fundamental insight with an impact across disciplines.