From the Laboratory to the Market: The Metrological Arenas of Research-Technology

Abstract

The construction of metrological systems is an important topic in the study of research-technology. Research-technologists have to elaborate materials and procedures that help certify the reliability of the instruments they develop. Building an instrument’s metrology is a task involving much more than strictly technical work: diplomacy, financial risk-taking, social know-how and certain negotiation skills are among the ingredients intervening in the metrological elaboration of research-technology. Particularly, this work requires the anticipation of the way in which an instrument’s reliability and precision will be evaluated by different audiences, in order for the device to conform to their criteria of relevance. The recent development of a measurement technology, Differential Optical Absorption Spectrometry (DOAS), illustrates the difficulty of this task. An application of spectroscopic technology to the monitoring of the atmosphere’s chemical composition, DOAS was developed during the 1980s in several laboratories and firms in Europe. It seemed to offer new solutions for the detection of low-concentration chemical components. Such components, like ozone or sulfur dioxide, are present only at a very low rate in the atmosphere but can have a high degree of toxicity for human health or for the environment. For the researchers and engineers who, in France, Germany, England, Belgium and Sweden, engaged in the construction of DOAS instruments, the technology presented — and it still presents — a great number of interesting advantages when compared to the other measurement technologies then available. But as we will see, it also raised serious metrological questions.