by Andrew Maynard | Feb 8, 2008 | Communication, Nanotechnology, Public Perception
What determines your view of nanotechnology—the message, or the messenger? Most of us would like to think it is the message that governs our internal risk-benefit analysis. But research published this week suggests other factors may be at work. Dan Kahan at Yale Law...
by Andrew Maynard | Feb 1, 2008 | Communication, Nanotechnology, Policy
Labeling – is there anything more contentious in the safe nanotech debate? Some are fearful that too much knowledge will confuse and worry muddle-headed consumers. Others can only see the marketing opportunities of a “nano-inside” label. Then you have the...
by Andrew Maynard | Jan 12, 2008 | Ethics, Nanotechnology, Religion
With apologies to Arundhati Roi for “borrowing” the title of her moving book, what—if anything—has nanotechnology got to do with religion? Barnaby Feder of the New York Times takes on this issue in his latest posting to the Bits blog: “There may not be a lot of...
by Andrew Maynard | Jan 11, 2008 | Nanotechnology
What do Alzheimers and body armour have in common? The answer could lie in the structures formed when proteins self-assemble at the nanoscale. At the end of last year, The Daily Telegraph Science Editor Roger Highfield wrote in an article: “The protein linked with...
by Andrew Maynard | Jan 4, 2008 | Nanotechnology, Policy
In 2004, the US National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) had a strategy – and it was OK. But what has happened since then? Has progress been made against planned actions? What have been the major challenges to progress? Have effective solutions been found? And...
by Andrew Maynard | Dec 22, 2007 | Nanotechnology
So you’ve developed an obsessive nano-silver Benny the Bear paw-chewing habit, and on the advice of your hairdresser, you’re quaffing silver nanoparticle suspensions by the pint. What do you get? Well, according to a story airing on CNN this week, what you get is…...