Last week I spent a couple of days in Basel being shown various research projects into nanoscience; there’s a lot of work going on with huge microscopes (because that’s the only way to see teeny, tiny things). There are a few more articles to come out of it, but the first is here, on nanomedical research in progress. What didn’t get into that piece, for lack of space, is the concern several of these researchers - notably Martin Stoltz - expressed about the potential dangers of nanoparticles. This is apparently a big issue already in Switzerland - the Green party wants to regulate nanotechnology and there is a government group working on an action plan that seems likely to produce some regulations in the next year or two. None of the researchers seemed to think this unreasonable. Hunziker said that as a doctor he’s very concerned about the risks of going too fast and some of the philosophical implications of being able to treat human beings at the molecular level. Stoltz told us (a pan-European group of journalists) that we *should* be asking questions about the dangers: nanoparticles, like today’s drugs, can penetrate the cell wall, so the potential for health risks is just as high.

It’s interesting that in the case of the Internet early regulation was seen as a bad thing because politicians didn’t understand the technology and experimentation was important, whereas in this technology early regulation to create safeguards is seen as important. It’s not just that the technology is not being invented in the libertarian enclave of Silicon Valley, either - the US’s Center for Responsible Nanotechnology has been with us for several years now. (They are doing their first conference in September, and I’m hoping to get to it.)

wg