Nanoforum.org, a nanotechnology gateway site in Europe, has published results from a workshop “Nanotechnologies for Environmental Remediation” (free reg req’d):
The issues of environmental remediation are quite substantial and poorly addressed by conventional technologies. They include access to clean drinking water, removal of airborne pollutants, and the clean-up of industrially contaminated sites (in particular ex-military sites in the new Member States). Although there have been a number of laboratory demonstrations of nanotechnology applications for environmental cleanup, there remains the issue of translating these into industrial level processes.
This is just the very beginning of what we hope will eventually be a huge effort to repair the damage that’s been done and is still going on. The long-term goal is for nanotech to build cleanly, with atomic precision where desired, with complete control over leftover molecules. —Christine
