My thanks to my colleague who masquerades as “The Nanoclast” for bringing nanoSMILE to my attention.
Try to imagine a FP6 (or an FP7, for that matter) European Union (EU) project on the risks of nanomaterials first translated into a website that is supposed to be simplified language for the layman and then translated again via an online translator into English and you have the EU’s unintentionally fascinating NanoSMILE.
It’s one of those EU funded projects that simply beggars belief. I’ve pulled out of a few in the past, such as NanoForum, when no one seemed to be able to provide any answer whatsoever to a simple question – “what is it for?”
While NanoForum was just pointless but harmless, I initially thought nanoSMILE was a spoof, or at least the work of a crazed but enthusiastic amateur. Unfortunately it all seems to have been paid for and approved by the European Commission using our money. It’s so hideous in the same manner as the DEEPEN project I recently mentioned, one has to wonder if there is something in the water in Brussels that causes mental enfeeblement?
nanoSMILE is appalling on so many levels that it hard to imagine that those responsible could ever have stood back and gazed upon their finished masterpiece with pride. Even the usually simple process of giving feedback is turned into a tortuous process of downloading a two page word document and emailing back to someone. If someone delivered something like this to me I’d send them back to do it again, properly. Lets hope the same fate awaits whoever is responsible for nanoSMILE.