Nanotech moves the future to a new level
Fear of the science of the small 'is focused on the wrong things'
Tim Radford, science editor
Monday July 28, 2003
The Guardian
http://www.guardian....1007148,00.html
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Nanotechnology, which is predicted to grow into a $1 trillion industry within a decade, could like GM food technology become a political battleground, an economic and social research council report published today says.
Nanotechnology is the science of manipulating material at the atomic scale, to make tools measured in billionths of a metre.
The report, by three Sheffield University academics, says the debate on its implication has become polarised between visions of utopia and planetary catastrophe.
"The utopian vision predicts the technology will clean up the environment, free humanity from disease, ageing and death, and provide material abundance that will eradicate poverty," they say.
"The dystopian vision is the 'grey goo' scenario, predicting that nanotechnology could signal the end of the world, as the biosphere is destroyed by out-of-control, self-replicating robots."
Another report, commissioned by Greenpeace from a researcher at Imperial College, London, says that informed debate is vital, to avoid a technology out of control.
"While the danger seems slight, even a slight risk of such a catastrophe is best avoided," it advises.
The first uses of nanotechnology have already appeared in sunscreens and cosmetics, and in new fabrics that will accelerate computer speeds and data storage.
In the near future "smart" packaging will begin to indicate the freshness of the food wrapped inside. The next wave could be in biomedicine, including dramatic new ways of delivering drugs, and new kinds of medical implants.
For more than a decade the speculation has focused on nanorobotics: tiny devices which may one day be released to search for and dismantle toxic chemicals, or cruise the bloodstream looking for the first signs of cardiovascular disease.
Both reports stress the value of public debate and awareness. Both examine questions about the safety of products at the nanoscale, how future advances can be monitored and controlled, and who may profit from them.
Stephen Wood, one of the Sheffield authors, said: "Our position is that there should be a debate, but the debate at the moment is being framed wrongly and in extreme ways.
"Most of the applications so far are pretty mundane, shampoos and so on.
"But even the scientists who are just getting on with the job can see some pretty radical things coming out of this. We may be able to break with fossil fuel energy by a combination of solar cells, hydrogen storage, fuel cells and so on."
This month the government announced a £90m investment in nanotechnology development over the next six years.
It has also recently commis sioned a study of whether the technology raises new questions about safety.
Some groups have already expressed anxiety about the use of "nanoparticles" in commercial products.
The Sheffield scientists point out that if toxicity was inher ent in the size of a product, the human race would already be extinct: all matter exists at the scale of atoms and molecules.
But scaling down machines could have unpredictable effects.
"Computers could become extensions of the human body. Images could be formed directly on the retina. Nerve impulses could be translated directly into computer inputs.
"There are even speculations that advanced technologies will eventually allow us to upload our minds, thus enabling immortality and survival without biological roots," the authors say.
Professor Wood said: "The possibility of making machines on a molecular scale is not as infeasible as people imagine. They will never be self-replicating, because humans will always be in control of the situation. The interface between living things and artefacts will change.
"We talk about living things coming into contact with artificial things and this may change people's concepts. There are things we should really be worrying about."
Small wonders
1990 Eric Drexler in Engines of Creation forecasts a world of invisible robots assembled atoms at a time.
1997 Scientists at Cornell fashion a nanoguitar with strings only billionths of a metre in diameter.
2000 Micromechanical devices millionths of a metre across are widely used in industry.
May 2003 Dupont opens US laboratory to fashion uniforms that could make soldiers invisible, and "smart" fabrics that could treat wounds.
July 2003 UK science minister Lord Sainsbury announces £90m over six years for commercial development such as nanochips to monitor blood sugar levels in diabetics, and self-cleaning nanoglass.
July 2003 Rice University at Houston makes blood immunoassays from gold "nanoshells" so small 700 could fit inside a human hair.
July 2003 Berkeley engineers announce the smallest ever motor - a rotor on a nanoshaft small enough to ride on the back of a virus.
