from the Whatís-Up,-Doc? dept.
A brief overview of the emerging field of nanomedicine appeared in the prestigious British medical journal, The Lancet ("Macrodoctor, come meet the nanodoctors," by K.Morris, 10 March 2001). The article begins with the vision of advanced medical nanotechnology presented by Robert A. Freitas Jr. in Nanomedicine, then moves on to present examples of current research that is laying the foundations for the development of actual medical nanosystems. The article also addresses safety concerns, and makes note of the Foresight Guidelines for safe research and development of nanotechnology. As the article concludes, ìthe beauty of nanomedicine is that systems will be specifically designed then self-built, molecule by molecule, for any function, at any level down to the atom. Perhaps this is why the forward-thinking chair of Foresight, Eric Drexler, predicts that nanomedicine will dominate medical technology research for at least half this century.î
Note: Access to the online version of The Lancet is free, but requires registration.
