Rock me Avogadro
Some of you from just the right generation, after reading this title, might have a wickedly awesdome 80's tune running through your head. The rest of you - well, tough.
I just read in American Scientist a proposal to standardize Avogadro's number by defining it explicitly as a whole number. Right now, NA is the number of atoms in 12 grams of carbon-12. And the mass of the gram is defined as 1/1000 of the mass of Le Gran K (see a picture on the American Scientist link) a fancy block of metal in France whose mass changes due to cleaning and maintenance, but which in theory is the standard kilogram. The kilogram is the last standard based on a physical artifact - I didn't know that.
Philosophically I think it's a major testament to how far we've come that if a few micrograms of material falls of Le Gran K from a cleaning, that we can actually notice it. I think that's the sign - now that science and technology have advanced to the point that measurement precision has exceeded the stability of the standard, it's time for an improved standard, preferably artifact-free.
It's a nice problem to have - to have come so far that we can consider an artifact-free mass standard. So I think it's a great idea and hope others do too.