Showing Nanotechnology Who's Boss

Nanoscience has enormous potential to benefit our society, but we still need to regulate it.

“Nanotechnology” is a word that has come a long way. Until recently, most people associated nanotechnology with science-fiction-based accounts that tended to focus on fantastical devices and applications. Due to recent developments, nanotechnology has entered the commercial realm, and people have simultaneously begun to raise questions about how to regulate it appropriately.

Nanotechnology involves the creation of organic and inorganic matter on an atom-by-atom or molecule-by-molecule basis, and its vast array of applications is transforming medicine, biotechnology, agriculture, manufacturing, materials science, aerospace, information technology, and telecommunications, to name just a few examples. In essence, nanotechnology represents a revolution in constructing devices with atomic precision where novelty can be exploited. In terms of scale, one nanometre is one billionth of a metre, or approximately 10 atoms of hydrogen, in width, and nanotechnology is often defined as the creation of materials with at least one dimension between one and 100 nanometres in size.

Put differently, nanotechnology is the study, manipulation, or manufacture of very small particles and structures, and the exploitation of novel properties that result from particles and structures being at this scale.

Since nanotechnology is powerfully transformative, it is critical to understand many complex issues before the technology becomes too difficult to manage. Nanotechnologies are diverse, their effects are manifold, and it is likely that several decades will be required to take place before these effects are fully felt. Consequently, nanotechnology will coexist with established technologies rather than suddenly replacing them. The range and diversity of products on the marketplace and in laboratories that contain particles or structural features produced through applications of nanoscience is staggering. This is also somewhat alarming given the global absence of regulations specifically dedicated to nano-based products, of which there are more than 1,000 in North America alone.

The applications of nanotechnology, particularly in the biomedical realm, involve a postulated trillion-dollar impact with otherwise undreamed of benefits for health care, public safety, environmental monitoring, and forensics. For example, nanoscale manipulations may enable tissue regeneration, facilitate medical monitoring by way of nanoscale devices within the body, and offer precise and convenient drug delivery, novel drug formulations, real-time molecular pathology, affordable testing for the purposes of diagnosis, the monitoring of a wide variety of diseases, and sophisticated health care in remote locations.

Furthermore, the development of hand-held devices implementing nanoscale molecular manipulations is likely to facilitate accurate, sensitive, and fast monitoring of air and water quality in the field to determine environmental safety, identify environmental pollutants, and inform cleanup efforts. Similar devices could rapidly identify potential threats to public safety through sensitive detection and the identification of infectious agents.

By optimizing medical intervention through faster and more precise medical testing, we can make high-quality health care more affordable, thereby providing significant economic benefits while maintaining social values. Automating technically complex tests using platforms that incorporate nanotechnology has a high probability of improving health-care delivery by lowering the costs of analysis and increasing the availability of testing. Such benefits will enable health professionals to customize treatments for each patient, detect diseases earlier, and develop better preventive strategies.

Unfortunately, there are few comprehensive studies for characterizing the risks associated with nanotechnology. At the moment, there are no standardized-testing protocols, or even reference materials, for characterizing and assessing nanomaterials, and some have argued that evidence of their harmful effects is mounting.

As with previous technologies, nanotechnology is outpacing our collective ability to understand and direct its course. Scientists have opened up the “Pandora’s box” of nanotechnology, and, as a result, have unleashed a transformative (or disruptive) suite of technologies onto the world. Now, more than ever, Canada needs a regulatory system specifically designed to manage nanotechnology.

Photo courtesy of Reuters.