The "Ford Fiesta" of lasers...

In April I was due to open the Fraunhofer Centre for Advanced Photonics in Strathclyde University but I was ill and had to miss the event.

Today however I paid a visit and heard - from the University Principal Sir Jim MacDonald - about Strathclyde's determined approach to securing the first Fraunhofer Centre in these islands ( part of the entrepreneurial underpinning of high level technological innovation at the University) and also securing the Fraunhofer Institute UK HQ , run by one of my hosts Professor Tim Holt.

Then I saw the very unusual laser engraved and lit commemorative plaque that I hadn't unveiled and got to hear about some of the world class research going on in the centre , directed by Professor Martin Dawson.

It included this laser above, described to me by Dr David Stothard as "the Ford Fiesta of Lasers" but , to extend the analogy, now in the process of being souped up in the Centre to detect gasses that would normally be invisible.