The smaller the scale, the bigger the problems

Last month the UK government announced the setting up of an independent study into the risks and benefits of nanotechnology. Whether intended as such, or merely the result of fortuitous timing, this was a welcome riposte to the recent rumblings in the media and elsewhere over what many see as the latest 'emerging' technology to threaten life as we know it.

Now while 'nanotechnology' may be a handy, and useful, label to put on application forms for research grants at the moment, it - the technology, that is, rather than the name - is hardly new.

Nano-technology is effectively an umbrella term for a host of long-standing scientific and engineering studies concerned with investigating chemical and physical phenomena at the nano (10-9m) scale.

What is new, however, is a growing public interest in the subject. Although this may have been partly fuelled by the sort of science fiction-influenced journalism that has brought the debate on genetically modified organisms to the 'Frankenstein foods' level, it is right that the government has taken note of that interest and concern and responded in a positive way.

Announcing the study, to be compiled by the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering, the science minister Lord Sainsbury said: 'Nanotechnology has the potential to create huge benefits in many areas, but we need to understand whether it raises new ethical, health and safety, or social issues, which are not covered by current regulations.'

To this end, the study will report on the need for new regulations, having looked at the subject in perhaps more detail than might be found in the popular press.

The study team's brief is wide-ranging, covering everything from the current state of scientific knowledge, through the identification of current and future applications of the technology, to a thorough consideration of its safety, health, environmental, ethical and social implications.

The government hopes the ensuing report will form the basis of a wider public debate on the subject. Meanwhile the scientific researchers and engineering developers will carry on, if not quite regardless, then quietly confident of their ability to tackle the technological problems, while the politicians help raise public awareness of their work.

As discussed in A matter of scale, one such technological problem is that of adapting traditional process engineering unit operations, such as solids handling and processing, to the nano scale. Despite the orders of magnitude involved in scaling down these essentially bulk techniques, considerable work has already been done. Milling and grinding is one 'top down' approach, while nanoparticles can be produced from the ground up by chemical reaction techniques.

Once made, however, nanoparticles appear to have boundless uses. All the more reason then to test the limits of their application at the earliest possible stage of development - and have a far better informed debate on the subject as a consequence.