Blog @ NanoVic - Nanotechnology Blog

Good news that Science Outside the Square in South Australia is re-running the ‘Nanotech for the terrified!’ event. 200 people attended the first event held earlier this year with over 230 more on a waiting list. Such a turnout for an evening of nanoscience is quite an accomplishment and really exciting.

Prof Joe Shapter and Brenton Banham from Flinders University and Kylie Turton from CSIROSEC will provide an entertaining, hands-on exploration of the nano by encouraging people to take part in ‘The Nanotube Challenge’, and make some of the Graffiti Research Lab’s ‘Throwies’. All in the name of discovering more about the possibilities of nanotechnology.

The next ‘Nanotech for the terrified!’ is at The Governor Hindmarsh Hotel, 59 Port Road, Adelaide on Wednesday 2 July 2008 from 6.30pm - 8.00pm. This event is in association with the CSIRO Science Education Centre and sponsored by the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, Government of South Australia; and The Advertiser. It’s free but registrations are essential. Contact Kate for more information or to make a booking.

The recent publication of a research paper describing asbestosis-like pathological changes in mice exposed to carbon nanotubes has captured world attention. Nothing like a bit of bad news to get everyone focussed on nanotechnology, huh?!

The new study was performed by an alliance of researchers from the USA and the UK, and involved injecting multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) into the abdominal cavities of mice. In this animal model, long, rigid MWNTs were found to trigger chronic inflammatory changes in abdominal mesothelial cells, a response comparable to that seen in control mice injected with asbestos fibres. A similar inflammatory response is thought to lead to fatal mesothelioma in some humans exposed to asbestos. Taken in a very broad sense, the findings suggests that human exposure to long, rigid MWNTs could have consequences that we do not yet fully understand. Clearly further studies do need to be conducted in this area. Interestingly, short MWNTs and single-walled carbon nanotubes had no apparent deleterious effects under the same study conditions. So let’s not shut the door on carbon nanotubes just yet…..

……..but now that everyone is watching, what’s going to happen next? Well for a start nanotechnology researchers and industries relying on the future of nanotechnology do need to take studies such as this into account. Social and environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth have a strong and informed involvement in the nanotechnology debate; they are already calling for greater public involvement in nanotechnology research and believe that the health implications of exposure to nano-sized materials need to be better characterised. Public forums like that recently conducted by the Australian Office of Nanotechnology may assist in this regard. I am interested as to whether any general news agencies picked up this story: use the comments option on this blog to let me know if you heard or saw wind of this research on your local radio or news stations. Let’s get a discussion going!

Kristin and I (both from Bridge8) attended the Australian Office of Nanotechnology (AON) public forum in Adelaide on the 8th of May. Host Belinda Barr (representing Primary Industries and Resources, SA and Australian Science Communicators) was not only scientifically literate, but a barrel of laughs to boot. She unashamedly illustrated the itty-bitty scale of what we were talking about by describing the size descrepancy between the tips (blond, diameter = 15-50,000 nanometres) and the roots of her hair (dark, diameter = 50-180,000 nanometres).  Belinda also introduced us to the interactive voting gadgets provided by the AON to gauge audience responses to nanotechnology issues throughout the evening. We managed to ascertain that 80% of attendees thought that the benefits of nanotechnology outweighed the risks, and that 95% of us believed it was worth spending more money on nanotechnology research. 81% of respondants would buy a product that they knew had nanotechnology in it.  Unfortunately, the technology then failed us and we had to resort to good old-fashioned hand raising to answer questions. This raised an interesting point in itself, which was that as soon as the anonymity was removed, most respondants were too shy to publically admit their opinions on issues around nanotechnology. Surely this is a problem! Not just with nanotechnology, but with science on the whole - members of the public don’t feel informed and confident enough to discuss new and emerging technologies. This issue later emerged as a uniting theme across all 3 speakers at the forum.

Joe Shapter (School of Chemistry, Physics and Earth Sciences, Flinders University)
- “Science drives change! The public as a whole needs to be informed and involved in science”.

Georgia Miller (Friends of the Earth, Australia)
- “There is almost no recognition that the public has the right to be involved in decision-making” with respect to nanotechnology and other new technologies.
- “We are here today because we don’t want nanotechnology to repeat the mistakes associated with past technologies”.

Once Asa Janting (National Measurement Institute) reassured us that “Yes, we can measure things we can’t see!”, the evening progressed, and some interesting discussions occurred between the audience and panel members. Topics covered included:
- what is nanotechnology?;
- what can nanotechnology offer us now and in the future?;
- the public should be actively involved in the development and use of nanotechnology.

We look forward to more AON events bringing nanotechnology to the public. Next time, I would be very interested to see a breakdown of the types of people attracted to attend - were they students, scientists, university graduates, teachers? This at least would give us an idea of what societal groups are already aware that nanotechnology exists, and who we need to target to improve public access into the future.

A new television show was apparently launched in the US in April titled the “Power of Small”.   Whilst I am unable to comment on the TV show being located in Australia, the website makes for interesting listening.  A panel discusses the use of nanotechnology in the areas of Privacy, Health and Environment and small videos look at possible scenarios in each of these areas.  For instance under Privacy: would you be prepared to have a loved one tagged in order to monitor their every move? or under Health: would you like to be able to live to 150? 

There are plenty of other scenarios and they all raise interesting moral and ethical questions for everyone to think about.  Would I really want to live to 150, somehow I don’t think so!

One issue that arises as we get older is being able to maintain independence to enable us to stay in our own home.  With my parents now into their twilight years it was with interest I read this article on a “Smart Spaces Center” to be set up by PSU to look into ways to assist elderly people to live safely, comfortably and independently in their own homes for as long as possible. 

Several kinds of “smart spaces” have been defined: personal, living, information and societal.  “Smart information spaces” is where nanotechnology comes in.  “Nanotechnology, information technology and biomedical advances can revolutionize the way people age – if these advances are implemented seamlessly and humanely,” it was noted. “Sensors in our garments, and perhaps even in our bodies, could constantly monitor heart rate and body temperature”.  These technologies could be incorporated into home environments to provide information on medical problems and care, financial questions, and safety and security concerns, as well as opportunities for social networking .  The sensors in garments aspect is interesting as NanoVic was involved in a project in 2007 called “ReSkin / Wearable Technologies”.  The programme, involving artists, explored interactive clothing and design pieces, one of which was an indicator in a garment that responded to the wearer’s respiration.

Hopefully this study can address some of these issues so that by the time I get to that age I can stay at home longer - just so I may continue to annoy my family!  But in all seriousness, I have seen the effects of someone who was placed into full-time care and it was sad to see them lose their passion for living due to the loss of independence.

A recent newsletter from AZoNano.com features a round-up of movies that use principles of the ’small’ and nanotechnology  in their story lines. Apart from old favourites I Robot and Terminator 2 (and the cancelled screen adaption of Prey by Michael Crichton) nanotechnology in the movies seems to be fairly thinly spread. We’ve tried extending this list in the past, but it has not been a fruitful search. AZo Nano suggests Star Trek. Pictured is an example of  the Borg. Apparently the Borg originate from medical nano-machines, but you’ll have to trust Wikipedia for that!

The origins of the Borg seem to be cross-over with biotechnology, an area replete with film examples.  In fact Biotechnology Australia was able to compile a report on the portrayal of cloning in the movies and examine how this related to public attitudes on cloning.

Perhaps this leads us back to the myriad of technologies, applications, risks and benefits that fall under the term ‘nanotechnology’. It is our experience in education and public awareness that discussing the applications and then considering the technologies make most sense for most people. Nanotechnology on its own does not grip the imagination. Our search for nano-related movies will have to be much broader to capture the applications that might use nanotechnology. Anything else from Star Trek???

The ABC Science Show hosted by Robyn Williams is my favourite podcast for brisk strolls around the neighbourhood. This week the show has a nano focus, with topics as follows: 

• Green at work
• Quantum dots and nanowires
• Gene radar
• Nanotechnology in energy generation and use of resources
• Solar cells
• Regeneration of nerves
• New smart materials
• Surface chemistry
• Calcivirus delivers vaccines in humans

Can’t wait to have a listen!

Nanotechnology: The Power of Small, the first major television series to look at the implications of advances in nanotechnology, will begin airing on local US public broadcasting stations in April.

The series’ three programs explore critical questions about nanotechnology’s potential impact on privacy, the environment and human health: Will nanotechnology make you safer, or will it be used to track your every move? Will nanotechnology keep you young, and what happens if you live to be 150? Will nanotechnology help clean up the earth, or will it be the next asbestos?

The programme is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and involves the host asking policymakers, scientists, journalists and community leaders to wrestle with difficult but essential issues about nanotechnology’s potential to impact people’s privacy and security, health and environment. Featured experts include Harvard University researcher George M. Whitesides, PEN chief scientist Andrew Maynard, and author Joel Garreau, among others.

To view the series click here

Yesterday I got to go scout around Cambridge Science Festival for ideas for our upcoming Summer programme of Family events at the Royal Institution.  Cambridge Science Festival has been running since 1993, and is the UKs biggest free science festival.   

It certainly felt like it too, and I got to participate in that most British of pastimes, queuing, to get into quite a few venues.  Highlights of the day for me included getting to make my own rocket car (mine came complete with rear spoiler and red flames along the side), and learning that my recently acquired UK drivers license contains the royal crest stamped all over it which you can only see under UV light.  Quite cool.

The Cambridge Dept of Materials Science and Metallurgy runs a project called NanoFen, and they had a great display set up highlighting nanotechnology at the festival.   There were some nice displays of superconductors and nanotechnology in nature, showing how the nanostructures on butterfly wings alter their light reflecting properties and hence colour (you can see in the picture how the colour changes when the wings are wet). 

They managed to make nanotechnology ‘hands-on’ by giving people the opportunity to make their own buckyball models, try and wet a shirt made of nanotex material and see how not even honey sticks to a spoon with a special nanocoating.  My favourite display though was a demonstration of just how difficult it is to work on the nanoscale, by trying to move Jenga puzzle blocks while wearing oven gloves!   

There was also a bank of computers set up by SEEK running a series of games based around engineering principles. I couldn’t get on as they were so popular and I thought I really should get out of the way for the children they were designed for, although I did see a Space Elevator in one of the games, which can be found online free here.   

COSMOS magazine run an ‘un-scientific poll’ in every issue, and I have been keeping my eye on the recent question they asked about what people thought the biggest impact of nanotechnology would be. Most people (45%) thought that ‘It will spawn amazing new materials’, and I would have agreed that this will be the biggest immediate impact.  Nanomaterials are already here.  The next biggest impact was ‘It will revolutionise drugs and medicine’at 37%.   Clearly the most of the readers of COSMOS are optimistic about the future, as only 10% thought it will end up turning us all into grey-goo! (for those of you who have realised that those percentages don’t add up to 100, the remaining 8% thought it would significantly increase our life-span, whether that’s through looking good with dubious sounding “nano” skincare products, or actually living longer and healthier, I’m not sure!)