More about nanotechnology

1. Health: nano-medicine and nano-food

Background information

Nanotechnology plays a crucial role in realizing cost-effective diagnostic, therapeutic and prevention tools. On the one side, the change in chemical and structural properties of the engineered nanoparticles could lead also to not fully studied toxicological effects and carcinogenicity, volatility, flammability, and persistence and accumulation in cells. Regulation is certainly an issue, as nano-derived products are considered chemical products, and not yet aggregated compounds or devices. At present, we are in a still very early stage in the toxicological evaluation, and few data on the safety and toxicity are available, some of them could cause serious concern. On the other side, nanotechnologies innovations promise very innovative medical solutions for different diseases and for longer lives. Among them, imagine “nanorobots” capable to deliver nano-surgery inside your body and monitor numerous health parameters which can be directly sent to your personal health account.

Foreground dilemmas

Researchers are currently working at a nano-robot prototype that will navigate the human blood vessels in order to reach specific organs (e.g. the heart) and deliver therapies and/or nano-surgery. To what extent would you accept similar devices injected in your body?

In the future nanobots injected into the blood stream are expected to continuously monitor numerous health parameters, enabling almost instant diagnosis and thus early treatment of e.g. heart attacks, strokes or cancer. However, the information generated by these nanobots can also be abused by health insurances, e.g. by cancelling coverage when the parameters indicate health problems in the near future. How should society deal with this issue?

2. Impacts on environment and energy 

Background information

Nanotechnology offers new solutions through particles and filter systems that can detect, bind and remove or inactivate pollutants within land, sea and air. Moreover, in the energy field, they aim to “copy” biological processes (as the photosynthesis) to increase efficiency in the use of solar energy. The promise is of more efficient use of resources, renewable energy, environmental monitoring and many more benefits. On the other hand nanoparticles are a still relatively unknown area, and little information is available on the environmental distribution and effects of nanomaterials: how long nanomaterials will remain in the environment? How readily will nanomaterials bind to environmental contaminants? Will these particles move up through the food chain and what will be their effect on humans? Also, it should be analysed that the very same properties, desirable for the degradation of organic pollutants, water decontamination, air purification may become hazardous if they are active in the wrong place.

Researchers are developing nanocapsules that can be incorporated into food to deliver chosen nutrients without affecting its taste and appearance, as well as nanocapsules containing flavour or colour enhancers. These would remain dormant in the food and would only be released by the consumer when desired, leading to much more interactive meals, where the same food could have different colours, tastes, and nutrients. What would your nanomenu be like?

3. Safety and privacy (Ambient intelligence, RFID, ICT)

Background information

Ambient sensor systems can provide useful information such as pollution levels, traffic conditions and transmit this rapidly to portable devices, but they can also transmit information about individuals’ activities. As such the potential for abuse is present and the limits on the type of information that can be captured and collated need to be clearly defined by society in general through the legislative system. Privacy issues may also arise through advances in medical diagnostics allowing doctors to routinely screen people for the presence of genetic disease. Should such technology be made compulsory to allow earlier treatment? If so, then what about a patient’s right to choose? If not, then will health insurance companies demand it as a prerequisite? Who will have access to all this information and how will it be kept protected?

Foreground dilemmas

Extreme miniaturization in nanoelectronics may soon allow tracking every single fruit or vegetable from its field to your plate. Thanks to wireless networks and widespread electronic tags, alimentary security will be much more guaranteed. In the meantime, if one could tag a fruit, one could tag a man (or a woman). Will you feel much more secure knowing somebody can monitor each of your act and motion?

In some countries, all horses from breeding are tagged with a chip under their skin – just like a biometric passport that they carry on all the time. No more trouble about the identity of each horse, no more cheating with their age or origin for races. Easy access to every check point. If such kind of chips would be available for human too, will you be the first to be tagged?

4. Nanodivide: Distribution of knowledge and wealth.

Background information

As with previous technologies such as IT, nanotechnology could have the effect of widening the divide between the rich and the poor, or more specifically the developed and developing world. Primarily this can be through advances in healthcare, transport, energy supplies, etc which may be more available to the wealthy. However, paradoxically it may also come about through a decreased use of natural resources, because many of the precious metals and minerals that new nanomaterials are expected to replace are mined in the developing world. The loss of this revenue without a strategy for its replacement, will have a negative impact on the economy and development of these countries. And, on the other hand some think that there is a failure to adequately consider and understand how nanotechnology can bring benefits to 5 billion people in developing countries.

Foreground dilemmas

Nanofilters promise cheap, pure drinking water for third-world countries. However, development costs are high. Who should pay?

The distribution of knowledge on nanotechnology is unequal between rich and poor countries: this can make the rich richer, and the poor poorer. How nanotechnology can improve the world inequality, instead of worsening it?

Nanotechnology has the potential to fight serious diseases and to make the living conditions much better with developments such as nanofilters, that promise cheap, pure drinking water for third-world countries. However, development costs are high and the huge financial effort that might be necessary to develop the right product may mean that only big multinational companies have the resources to invest in research. If they then protect their inventions through patents, not everybody on earth might benefit from them.

 5. Ethics, enhancement: chimeras, superman and superhuman.

Background information

In the long-term nanotechnology will be able to fully manipulate molecular and atomic structures, with the ability to change human tissues and cells at the molecular level. This will open doors in medicine thought impossible, also opening the door to "enhancements" of the human body and skills. The more controversial enhancements would likely be "unnatural" enhancements to human talent: extreme intelligence and memory capacity, significantly heightened sense of awareness, astonishing athletic capability and strength, and beauty enhancements are just a few examples: they will bring up important moral, ethical, and legal questions that human society has not yet had to face.

Foreground dilemmas

With the development of nanotechnologies, it may be possible to incorporate auxiliary memory chips into our brains, enhance our intelligence, sensory capacities and physical endurance. What nano-powers would you choose to have?

It will be possible to create super human with super powers or maybe even super armies by nanotechnological advances. The power that the countries will obtain through super armies will be a huge military force. What would be the effects of such a potential super-nano equipped military power?

The accumulation of mutations during the process of cell reproduction may lead to some diseases and also to ageing. Imagine a nanodevice working inside the cells, detecting and correcting those mutations. This research could lead to synthesize organisms from vegetal and animal realms, the "chimaeras". How far can we accept to go on this research? Is it ethical acceptable to "play God" with living beings, and under which conditions?
Will we become “immortals” using this technology and is our planet ready for that?