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Front Page News
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How cool is this: A nanotech-enabled labcoat to protect the user against… well, nanomaterials presumably, amongst other things! The labcoat—which uses Nanotex technology to make it stain resistant—is part of a major update to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies...
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Time for a nano-break. I’ll be taking a break from the SafeNano blog over the next three weeks, as my family try to convince me there really is life beyond nanotechnology (I’m sceptical). In the meantime, I couldn’t resist giving loyal readers something...
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Addressing potential nanotechnology environment, health and safety (EHS) impacts up-front makes good business sense – doesn’t it? The US-based advisory firm Lux Research certainly thinks so. The latest document from the organization— “Nanomaterials State...
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As the rate of technological progress advances, are we learning the lessons of past successes and failures? And are we applying these lessons successfully to nanotechnology? In 2001, the European Environment Agency (EEA) published a seminal report on...
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Into the babble of conflicting and confusing terms surrounding nanotechnology, let me introduce another one: “wysinwig nanoparticles” —what-you-see-is -NOT -what-you-get nanoparticles. It describes particles that have an annoying habit of revealing their...
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A terse statement from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today [ available here. PDF, 16 KB ] confirmed that Dr. John Howard’s tenure as director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health ( NIOSH ) will not be...
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Last December I highlighted the case of Benny the Bear—a soft toy using nano-silver to give it antimicrobial properties ( Benny the Bear, and the case of the disappearing nanoparticles ). It appeared at the time that the manufacturer was being rather...
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Painted metal roofs are cheap, convenient, and usually very durable. But over the past two years, a rash of accelerated ageing has blighted pre-painted steel roofing in Australia. And intriguingly the ageing—which affects the coating—seems to be localized...
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Read Thomas L. Friedman’s “The World is Flat” or Neal Stephenson’s “Cryptonomicon”, and you get a glimpse into how the hacker culture that emerged at the tail end of the twentieth century revolutionized the digital world. Will a confluence of emerging...
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It seems that significant nanoparticle risk studies are just like London buses, you wait ages for one to arrive and then two come along together. Last month we had the Poland et al. study concerning the hazardous nature of MWCNT. This highly reported...
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Emulated around the world, the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) has set the pace for government-driven nanotechnology research and development. Yet as the science and technology of working at the nanoscale mature, the challenges of transforming...
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Why nano? Why care? For non-nanotech initiates, an obsession with nanotechnology must sometimes seem a bizarre occupation of the sad and lonely. And even within the nanotechnology community, who hasn’t had occasional doubts over the legitimacy of singling...
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Mix carbon nanotubes and asbestos together (metaphorically) and you get an explosive mix—at least if news coverage of the latest publication coming out of Professor Ken Donaldson’s team is anything to go by. The research— published on-line today in Nature...
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"Nanotechnology" as an overarching concept is great for sweeping statements and sound bites, but falls short when it comes to real-world decision-making. As nanoscale technologies are increasingly used in everything from antimicrobial socks to anti-cancer...
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My worst nightmare—I’m sitting at the back of a small plane (by the bathroom), my knees up round my ears (because someone else with a bigger case got to the overhead storage before me), and a small child screaming its head off two rows down. But unlike...
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The author Neal Stephenson got it wrong—at least, if this week’s nano-news is anything to go by! In his landmark 1995 novel “The Diamond Age,” Stephenson described a future built on nano-innovation. But thirteen years later, nanotechnology seems to be...
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If you want proof that nano is mainstream, just pick up the U.S. May edition of fashion magazine “Elle.” Sharing cover-space with Madonna is the latest article on nanotech and the beauty business. Elle might not be your first choice of reading for cutting...
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The most recent estimate from the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) puts nanotechnology risk research investment at $68 million for 2006 (the only year complete figures are currently available for—apparently). Yet the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies...
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Here’s a small diversion for a slow Sunday afternoon: Take sixty jellybeans and ninety cocktail sticks, and try to construct a model of a buckyball—a carbon-60 molecule. It’s tricky, but not impossible. Constructing a candy buckminster fullerene is one...
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After spending a fair bit of time ‘hibernating’ at SAFENANO HQ (well, that’s how I wish it was!), this month sees the beginning of a fairly busy period for the team, and the start of a number of very important new projects in nano HSE. The first of these...
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Read some accounts of nanotechnology risks, and you might be forgiven for concluding that a single engineered nanoparticle can kill you. Of course, a little critical thinking soon dispels this notion—we are constantly bombarded with incidental nanoparticles...
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Not a full blog entry I'm afraid, but if you need something to brighten a dull day, Michael Berger's latest entry on the Nanowerk site is a must-read. A taster: "The newly created U.S. Nanotechnology Protection Agency (NPA) announced today, April 1, 2008,...
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The small American town of Sunnyville is a town in crisis. Against a backdrop of job losses that have decimated the local community, citizens are struggling to decide whether to welcome two major nanotech-enabled industries into the town, or whether to...
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On March 18th, the science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke died in his home in Sri Lanka at the age of 90. A master developer and assembler of ideas, Clarke will be remembered fondly by many for igniting their enthusiasm for science, and how it might...
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The US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has a plan for nanotechnology , and it’s a good one. But can they afford it? You have to hand it to NIOSH, this is an agency that actually seems to understand the word “strategy.” Unlike...
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