Characteristics of Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology (NT) is the production and
use of materials with purposely engineered
features close to the atomic or molecular scale.
NT deals with putting things together atomby-
atom and with structures so small they are
invisible to the naked eye. It provides the ability
to create materials, devices and systems with
fundamentally new functions and properties.
The promise of NT is enormous. It has
implications for almost every type of manufacturing
process and product. Potential NT
applications in the next few decades could produce
huge increases in computer speed and
storage capacity, therapies for several different
types of cancer, much more efficient lighting
and battery storage, a major reduction in the
cost of desalinating water, clothes that never
stain and glass that never needs cleaning.While
the benefits are almost limitless, they will be
realized only if the potential adverse effects of
NT are examined and managed.
NT is new, but the effort to understand and
manage its effects will be long-term. As the
world community tries to reduce the adverse
effects of the technology, our understanding of
these effects will steadily increase. At the same
time, as the technology advances and commercial
applications multiply, new challenges and
problems will arise.The topics covered in this
paper will be with us for decades.
Three aspects of the technology are relevant
to questions of how to manage it.The first is its
definition. NT covers a wide variety of
processes and materials. One must consider
whether it makes any more sense to talk about
regulating or managing NT than it does to talk
about regulating or managing things that are
blue or things that are very large.The second is
the rapid development of the technology. It has
quickly found new applications and it will
continue to expand into new materials and
new uses. The third is NT’s possible adverse
effects. Right now, we know very little about
these effects.
1. Defining NT
The definition of NT is subject to some confusion
and controversy, and is complicated by
the fact that there are naturally occurring
nano-size materials and other nano-size particles
that occur as byproducts of combustion or
industrial processes. Size is critical in any definition
of NT, but there are a variety of definitions
in circulation. Some of the differences
over definition are of only academic interest,
but the way NT is defined in a regulatory context
can make a significant difference in what
is regulated, how it is regulated, and how well
a regulatory program works.
The U.S. National Nanotechnology
Initiative (NNI) defines NT as “the understanding
and control of matter at dimensions of
roughly 1 to 100 nanometers … nanotechnology
involves imaging, measuring, modeling,
and manipulating matter at this length scale”
(www.nano.gov accessed 10/6/05). The
Europeans tend to define it more simply as the
technology dealing with applications and
products with engineered structures smaller
than 100 nanometers (Swiss RE 2004 p.11;
The Royal Society 2004,p.5).For comparison,
a single human hair is approximately 80,000
nanometers wide, and a red blood cell is
approximately 7,000 nanometers wide (Royal
Society 2004, p. 5).
In the context of this paper, the question of
definition raises at least two important further
questions: 1) Does it make sense to regulate or
manage a collection of processes or materials
on size alone? 2) Can a definition be formulated
that allows both manufacturers and regulators
to know what is included and what is not?