“Is it the next best thing to sliced bread…or the next asbestos?” – Dr. Mark Wiesner, a Duke University professor.
Reports are sketchy about what really went on at the grand opening of Minatec*, Europe’s primary center for practicing innovation in nanotechnology, in Grenoble, France.
An apparent press-blanket kept news coverage of the event to a minimum, but what appears certain is this: on June 1 2006, roughly a thousand protesters crashed Minatec’s opening party, causing the French President to pull-out of his planned attendance, and delaying the center’s opening by a day. According to activist group Earth First!* there was a “military-like control & siege” of the French town, “with riot police wading in and injuring people.”
Since then the center has managed to remain open and in business, protests aside. But the questions remains: what is nanotechnology all about, and perhaps more importantly, why is it worth waging war against?
War on very small things
To start to understand the war on nanotechnology, we have to grasp at least some of the concept of what nanotechnology is. If, like me, you aren’t employed in applied physics, materials science, interface and colloid science or supramolecular chemistry, it’s worth pointing out that nanotechnology is the science of the very very small. Word experts at Princeton University describe it as the branch of “engineering that deals with things smaller than 100 nanometers”; and to answer your next question, a nanometer is equal to one billionth of one of our regular meters– which makes a nanometer very very small.
So why are people becoming hostile to nanotechnology? Well, the practice of nanotechnology itself generally involves manipulating nature at the atomic and molecular level; reconstructing matter, and even creating entirely new living organisms; from the cell up. The impact this could have on our future lifestyle is tremendous. An article* published in 1995 in Wired magazine spoke about biologist Leeroy Hood’s vision of being able to “rewrite human genes” and cure diseases in an instant. Over a decade on, medical scientists are trying to realize these dreams; but now nanotechnology isn’t being restricted to medicine. An India Daily article on current and future developments in the field of “Military Nanotechnology” spoke of the terrifying “Nano-bomb that contain engineered self multiplying deadly viruses that can continue to wipe out a community, country or even a civilization.” Researchers in the US are already trying to find out just how advanced China’s research into the field of nanotechnology is.
The war against this potentially dangerous science of the very small rages on. Protests at the potential health implications of clothing modified by nanotechnology, to be “stain- and wrinkle-resistant”, has taken place outside stores selling these goods in Chicago. A spokesperson for the protesters described nanotech as “a radical and unpredictable new technology”. In Jürgen Altmann’s report Military Nanotechnology* he concluded that it “could trigger a new arms race and gravely threaten international security and stability”. A study* carried out by a professor of life sciences communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, rocked the world with news that 70.5% of Americans found nanotechnology morally unacceptable. “They are rejecting it based on religious beliefs,” said Dietram Scheufele, the author of the study. He stated they don’t want people “playing God.”
Regulating nanotech
With the scientific giants like Minatec still doing business, and the Eddie Bauer store in Chicago still selling nanotech clothes; there seems to be no end in sight for the technology which last year was incorporated into $50 billion worth of consumer goods– and neither for the war against it. As the debate becomes more and more popular, and the implications of nanotechnology come further and further into the realm of our daily lives; it’s good to hear a voice of reason amongst all the hysteria. Nanoethics* is a research & education organization, which like many similar organizations, was set up “to move nanotech ahead responsibly”, and work “to develop real safeguards before we unleash such a powerful technology on our world”. Whether Nanoethics and there contemporaries will have their desired effect on the science remains to be seen; but one thing is for sure: the war on nanotechnology has only really just begun.
References
* Minatec… http://www.minatec.com/minatec_uk/index.htm
* Earth First!… http://www.earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/?q=node/1397
* Wired… http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.09/hood.html
* Military Nanotechnology… http://www.amazon.com/Military-Nanotechnology-Technology-Contemporary-Security/dp/0415371023
* Nanoethics… http://www.nanoethics.org/
Popularity: 29% [?]
_03.gif)
_03.gif)
