Tuesday, 03.25.08
Delicious Gray Goo
NASA
The report, "Out of the Laboratory and On To Our Plates," identifies 104 products -- like Miller beer brands, Baby Dream's "Nano Silver" milk bottle, and Samsung refrigerators -- with particles artificially manipulated at the atomic level. Nanoparticles are more chemically reactive than their larger counterparts, can be more toxic to human cells, and can more easily invade our tissues and organs. The authors advocate a moratorium until governments test their safety -- and, perhaps more critically, require companies to label products that contain them.
Potential advantages of nanotech abound for the food industry, from fine-tuned pesticides to packaging that can sense spoiling and deploy antimicrobials to counteract it. But what nanotech holds in common with other controversial avenues of scientific inquiry -- from stem cell research to robotics -- is the possibility that our technical capabilities may outpace our moral reasoning. Someday we may see a dietary revolution that alleviates global hunger through nanotechnological advances. But in the near-term we're more likely to see profoundly unhealthy foods engineered to be slightly less unhealthy without sacrificing taste or texture. (Think Lipitor-coated chili dogs.)
In its subversion of nature for our own intensified pleasure, nanotech may not differ conceptually from domesticating cattle, or from damming rivers. But as it evolves from concept to reality -- and as its implications extend beyond the purely legal and commercial -- nanotechnology may so revolutionize our basic habits of nourishment, and so efficiently infiltrate our food chain, that restricting its use will prove impossible. Caveat emptor.
From the atom upAdam Keiper provides an excellent introduction to the sometimes misinformed debates over nanotechnology. |
Nano apocalypseSun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy described his nightmare of nano-engineered "gray goo" run amok in a seminal Wired essay. |
Let's be realisticRichard E. Smalley says that fears of nanobot overlords subduing humanity are slightly overblown. |
Hamstrung by hysteriaLawrence Lessig argues that cowardice and bad politics have conspired to constrict nanotech's true potential. |
Down to earthRichard Jones offers a pragmatic vision for beneficial, non-catastrophic nanotechnology development. |
