nanotechnology
sb admin | June 24, 2008As weâve noted before, research on nanotechnology safety has lagged behind the use of nanomaterials in consumer products. Three recent stories describe the potential rewards and risks of nanotechnology and some of the efforts to learn more about nanomaterialsâ effects on humans and our environment.
Much of the use of nanotechnology in todayâs consumer products is of questionable value to society â the tiny particles are used to make tennis rackets more lightweight, skin cream more sheer, and socks less smelly. But nanomaterials also hold great promise for making solar cells and water…
sb admin | June 6, 2008By Michael Stebbins, originally published at Scientists and Engineers for America Action Fund
The House just passed the National Nanotechnology Initiative Amendments Act of 2008 by a vote of 407 to 6. H.R. 5940 reauthorizes and refines the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), notably strengthening the commitment to environmental and safety research. This seems particularly important considering the recent news on the potential danger of carbon nanotubes.
According to House Science and Technology Committee chairman, Bart Gordon (D-TN) âThe federal interagency nanotechnology research…
nisbetmc | May 22, 2008
An artist's take on the "scary wonder" of nanotechnology.
The asbestos of tomorrow? As we wrote in our article last year at The Scientist, that's not the type of frame device that augurs well for public perceptions of nanotechnology. But it's exactly the perceptual lens by which the New York Times covers a new study appearing this week at Nature Nanotechnology. As Kenneth Chang opens the article, setting the train of thought for readers:
Nanotubes, one of the wonder materials of the new age of nanotechnology, may carry a health risk similar to that of asbestos, a wonder material of an…
sb admin | May 21, 2008The story of asbestos in this country ought to serve as a cautionary tale: A seemingly miraculous fiber was widely introduced into common consumer products; only after it was already in millions of homes did the general public realize that it causes a particularly terrible form of cancer. Now, treating victims and cleaning up contaminated communities is costing billions of dollars, while thousands of people endure the toll of a debilitating and deadly disease.
Nanotechnology is another innovation that promises to bring consumer products to a whole new level â and, once again, it looks like…
sb admin | May 12, 2008By Olga Naidenko
After lead, asbestos, aromatic amine dyes, Minamata disease, Bhopal, and fluorochemicals, we presumably have learned something about worker safety, especially when it comes to large-scale production in cutting-edge chemical industries. So here comes the test: can we use this knowledge to ensure worker safety in the up-and-coming nanotechnology industry?
An international survey published in the May issue of Environmental Science and Technology addressed precisely this question: are nanomaterials firms and laboratories installing adequate, nano-specific environmental health and…
sb admin | May 2, 2008Companies have evidently realized that marketing anti-bacterial products to U.S. consumers is a good way to make money, and are pushing a wide array of products that claim to have bacteria-fighting properties. (I've seen socks, computer products, toys ... and even a handy hook you can use to avoid touching a potentially germ-ridden door handle.) This might seem like a good thing - bacteria cause some pretty nasty diseases, after all - except that they're using nano-sized silver particles to fight the bacteria, and we don't know nearly enough about the effects of all the nano-sized particles…
grrlscientist | January 3, 2008tags: robofly, microrobotic fly, engineering, biobot, nanotechnology, streaming video
Robotics researchers have long been envious of flying insects, many of which are able to perform all sorts of spectacular acrobatics despite their small wings and smaller brains. Researchers at Harvard University created a robotic fly the size of a penny that is actually able to fly using a wing structure and motions based on a fly. The robofly weighs 60 milligrams (the equivalent of a few grains of rice), and beats its 1.5cm wings 120 (!) times per second. Most impressively, the actuating composite motor…
nisbetmc | November 25, 2007
My colleague Dietram Scheufele is lead author on a study in the latest issue of Nature Nanotechnology. In their survey work, Scheufele et al. find that experts are more concerned about the health and environmental risks of nanotech than the public at large. This gulf in perceptions is despite a widespread lack of knowledge about the issue among citizens. See the press release.
The findings are consistent with a study I published earlier this year with another University of Wisconsin colleague Dominique Brossard. In our survey analysis examining American perceptions of plant biotechnology, we…
sporte | November 13, 2007Congratulations to George Cachianes (who I've written about before), his amazing students from Abraham Lincoln High School, and collaborators at UCSF!
These students, from a public high school no less, placed in the top 6 finalists, along with only one other US team. The other top teams were: Peking University (China), University of Science and Technology (China), University of Paris (France), University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), and UC Berkeley. I'm really impressed that these public high school students managed to beat students from MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Caltech, and Princeton, but…
neurophilosophy | October 18, 2007Smart dust refers to a network of wireless, autonomously-acting microscopic devices. Built with microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and using molecular manufacturing processes, these devices would act as sensors, detecting anything from light and vibrations to chemicals and pathogens, and communicating the information over long distances.
Microscopic devices such as this are still hypothetical, and the only place smart dust can be found is within the pages of science fiction novels. (For example, Michael Crichton's Prey, published in 2002, is based on the idea of the emergence of organised…
neurophilosophy | September 10, 2007
(Image credit: William Ormerod/ Unversity of Wisconsin-Madison)
A recent study into the biophysical properties of a highly reflective and self-organizing squid protein called reflectin will inform researchers about the process of "bottom-up" synthesis of nanoscale structures and could lead to the development of thin-film coatings for microstructured materials, bringing scientists one step closer to the development of an invisibility cloak.
Reflectin comes from the Hawaiian Bobtail squid, Euprymna scolopes, which is native to the Central Pacific ocean. E. scolopes leads a nocturnal…
nisbetmc | June 29, 2007
To date, nanotechnology has followed a public trajectory similar to that of plant biotechnology in the United States. Relatively low levels of attention have been paid to the still nascent issue in the media, with coverage concentrated at the science and business beats. This coverage has been framed heavily in social progress and economic development terms with a few stories focusing on elements of the uncertainty of possible risks and/or regulatory matters involving the accountability of industry and scientists. Given low amounts of media attention and the heavy focus on the promise of…