Great news in the August 2006 issue of Nano Today in an opinion piece by two UCLA researchers, Guodong Sui and Hsian-Rong Tseng, titled “Reactions in hand: Digitally controlled microreactors are providing chemists with a new playground for discovery.” First, some background. As an MIT undergrad in chemistry, I tried to make reactions work in… Continue reading Bottom-up nanotechnology to be speeded by nanoliter-on-a-chip reactors
Bill Joy, we at Foresight, and others have called for the use of insurance as a tool to help reduce the potential risks of nanotechnology. This assumes that the insurance industry is willing to take on the task. So it’s reassuring to see a new report, “Nanotechnology: The Plastics of the 21st Century?”, by Guy… Continue reading Making nanotechnology safer through insurance
The International Risk Governance Council held a meeting on nanotechnology in Zurich on July 6-7, 2006, to review and critique their white paper on Nanotechnology Risk Governance (PDF). Normally such events are just about the risks of near-term nanomaterials, but not this one. The IRGC is looking at all sides: both near- and long-term nanotechnology… Continue reading Nanotechnology risks & benefits, near- and long-term, debated at IRGC
Friends of the Earth Australia has published a special issue of their magazine titled Nanotechnology: Small Science, Big Questions! (4.3 MB PDF). It includes over 17 short pieces opposing or questioning the endeavor. On the upside, the group does appear to appreciate the magnitude of the changes that will eventually come from the more advanced… Continue reading Is opposing nanotechnology really being Friendly to the Earth?
In an essay on KurzweilAI.net reprinted from New Scientist, Bill Joy — whose Wired essay titled Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us touched off a big controversy — suggests insurance as a mechanism to reduce risk from powerful technologies including nanotech: We could use the very strong force of markets. Rather than regulate things, we… Continue reading Bill Joy suggests insurance as risk reduction mechanism for nanotechnology
Foresight and other nanotech NGOs and companies have requested the U.S. House Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on Interior and Related Agencies, to allocate US$1 million for an EHS (environmental, health and safety) roadmap, to be prepared by the National Academy of Sciences. Organizations and companies participating in the call were: Air Products & Chemicals, Inc., Altair… Continue reading $1 million requested for nanotech EHS roadmap
Judy Conner here at Foresight brings our attention to a new 55-page report from International Risk Governance Council, based in Switzerland, titled Survey on Nanotechnology Governance: Volume D. The Role of NGOs (400K pdf). Nine organizations are featured: five from the U.S. (CRN, Environmental Defense, Foresight, NRDC, and one I had not previously heard about,… Continue reading NGOs weigh in on nanogovernance
From a piece in Red Herring: “Mark Mansour, an attorney for Foley & Lardner, issued the warning during a talk at the NanoBusiness 2006 conference in New York City. He said nanotech businesses need to step up their efforts to explain the complex technology to the public—before their foes do… ” ‘Friends of the Earth… Continue reading Nanotech industry advocates gear up to fight back
Tomorrow I’ll be speaking on “public perceptions” at the Nanotech & Food conference in DC. Rather than a discourse on public perceptions of nanotech in general — which are as yet pretty vague — I’ll focus on what consumers expect from their food companies in terms of responsible decisions on which engineered nanoparticles, if any,… Continue reading Heading off annoyance from nanofoods
From Joanne Shatkin of Cadmus Group: “The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), has found that nanoparticles were not the cause of the respiratory problems experienced by users of Magic Nano, in fact, the product does not contain nanoscale particles. Magic Nano was labeled as such because it forms a “wafer thin film” on… Continue reading Magic Nano: neither magic nor nano
