Next week sees the debut of the PBS science program NOVA’s new series Making Stuff – a four part special “exploring the materials that will shape our future”, hosted by NY Times technology columnist David Pogue.

You may recall that I expressed some reservations over the program’s approach to bioengineered materials a few weeks back – reservations that plenty of others didn’t share I hasten to add…

The sequence – which wasn’t necessary the final version of what will air on January 19th – involved the production of spider silk protein from a genetically modified goat.  What worried me was the rather off-hand way safety and ethical concerns were handled.

So it was interesting that, following those comments, NOVA’s David Levin asked me to record a podcast with him on the darker side of another set of materials covered in a later program – nanomaterials.

The podcast was posted yesterday (and can be listened to here).  Despite the rather scary title of “The Dangers of Nanotech” I thought Levine did a good job of taking the conversation through some of the concerns surrounding new nanoscale materials.

The associated NOVA episode – Making Stuff: Smaller – airs on January 26.  I’m interested to see what David Pogue makes of nanomaterials, and the broader field of nanotechnology.

In fact, I must confess that I’m eagerly anticipating the whole series.  Despite my reservations over the whole goat thing, the series has the potential to delve into some rather exciting new developments in the field of materials science.  It starts with strong materials (Jan 19), followed by small materials (nanomaterials – Jan 26), leading into materials designed to make the world a cleaner, more sustainable place to live (Feb 2) and ends up examining the world of “smart” materials (Feb 9).

Making Stuff kicks off January 19 – watch the series, and let me know what you think!