Editorial Overview of Issue 8

April 20, 2009.  This issue of ESNF contains interesting " firsts“.  One is the article ST-113 by May et al. on the first superconducting sub-millimeter wavelength camera for astronomy (SABOCA) conceived and developed entirely in Europe.  Its readout includes, to our knowledge, another “first”: a SQIF (superconducting quantum interference filter) amplifier device.  Still another “first” is the subject of article ST-114 by Espy et al. of Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA), who demonstrated a promising low-field NMR system for explosive liquids detection in an airport setting.

The critical review by Braginski and Donaldson (CR12-I) is devoted to SQUID activities in Europe.  This first part of the overview provides a concise historical overview and then concentrates on SQUID devices.  In one of the following issues we expect to publish Part II, where SQUID applications will be reviewed.  A related Regional News article by Schurig and Trahms (RN-9) describes the status of SQUID device- and application-related work at PTB-Berlin, the German National Metrology Institute.  Another Regional News article by de Rijk (RN-10) presents the new European particle accelerator project EuCARD, specifically its high-field magnet “work package”, which was inaugurated on April 1st, 2009. 

In the future we intend to report on its progress.