In an article in this week's Nature, "Safe handling of nanotechnology", a team from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars argues that "the pursuit of responsible nanotechnologies can be tackled through a series of grand challenges." (Full text is openly available) The editor summarizes thusly: The spectre of possible harm — real or imagined — is threatening to slow the development of nanotechnology. If they and their colleagues can rise to these challenges — which include development of new ways of measuring exposure to nanomaterials and assessing the health and environmental impact of that exposure — the true extent of any risks involved should become clear.
The Wilson Center covers itself with a press release: Society is in danger of squandering the powerful potential of nanotechnology due to a lack of clear information about its risks. "We are running out of time to ‘get it right.’"
These are the five challenges: 1. instruments to assess environmental exposure to nanomaterials 2. methods to evaluate the toxicity of nanomaterials 3. models for predicting the potential impact of new, engineered nanomaterials 4. ways of evaluating the impact of nanomaterials across their life cycle, and 5. strategic programs to enable risk-focused research
The lead author has a Q&A: It's very clear that we are moving into a new era in many ways. It's very clear that conventional ways of doing things and thinking just aren't going to be up to the job of dealing with some of these new technologies and products.
They go on: TR: Have you considered a Wikipedia for nanotechnology research? AM: The Wikipedia idea is something that has been talked about. And I think that either that or something like that is a very exciting idea. Of course you've always got the issue of validating the information which is there. But certainly I think that's one of the innovative ways that we can look at this. TR: Has anyone actually looked into establishing a sort of nanowiki? AM: Not to my knowledge. But there are the beginnings of it.
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