Hope Shand and Kathy Jo Wetter
Nanotechnology—the manipulation of matter on the scale of atoms and molecules—is booming, and it has the potential to alter or completely transform the current state of the art in every major industrial sector. (See Table 5-1, p. 79.) Nanotech offers the potential to develop stronger, lighter materials, low cost solar cells and sensors, faster computers with more memory capacity, filters for cleaning contaminated water, cancer killing molecules, and more. (See Box 5-1, p. 81.)
These small wonders will have colossal impacts, but not all of them will be welcome. The effects of manufactured nanoscale particles on human health and the environment are unknown and unpredictable, though hundreds of products containing nanoparticles are already on the market. In the longer term, but still in the near future, nanotech’s new designer materials could topple commodity markets, disrupt trade, and eliminate jobs. Private patents on fundamental nanoscale materials, tools, and processes are already creating thorny barriers for would-be innovators and could serve to widen the gap between rich and poor and to further consolidate economic power in the hands of multinational corporations.
In a just and judicious context, nanotech could bring useful benefits to the rich and poor alike—cleaner water, cheaper energy, and improved health. Therefore, at a time when truly transforming technologies are emerging far faster than public policies can evolve to address them, it is critical to broaden the community of participants who play a role in determining how new technologies should affect our future. The challenge is to go beyond the tired and familiar approach of technocratic regulations related to “risk” and to gain an innovative capacity for democratic control and assessment of science and technology.
Special Focus, China & India
Box 5-3: China: World Leader in Standardization of Nanotechnology, p. 88
Box 5-4: India: A Growing Market for Nanoscience R&D, p. 90
Hope Shand is Research Director and Kathy Jo Wetter is a Researcher at the Carrboro, North Carolina, office of the Ottawa-based ETC Group.