They are the smallest things ever designed by human beings, but their impact on our lives could be bigger than anything else we have ever constructed. That theme resonated through the sixth annual Frontiers in Research lectures on November 13, which was devoted to the subject of nanotechnology.
Speakers from Europe and North America considered various aspects of this rapidly growing new field.
“I continue to be impressed with the calibre of the people who address us on these topics,” said vice-rector, research, Howard Alper, who originally established the Frontiers in Research series. This year marked the largest and perhaps the most diverse attendance yet, Alper noted. “And I am even more pleased to see the numbers of young people in the audience. These are the leaders of tomorrow, and this is where we can inspire them.”
As several of the presenters remarked, their subject matter often veered into areas that sound like a science fiction movie script. And yet, the research they were describing — along with its economic, social, and even ethical implications — is anything but hypothetical.
Speak Out: Tell us what you think about this subject.
Carlo Montemagno, a UCLA investigator who is leading many of the most advanced projects on nanotechnology and biomedical engineering, even paid homage to this connection by referring to a notorious “X Files” episode about tiny extraterrestrial robots resembling cockroaches. In fact, he and his colleagues are examining precisely such devices, which could literally be grown from basic components and powered in much the same way as living organisms.
Rather than sending these mechanisms to outer space, however, Montemagno and his colleagues are looking at inner space. Our own bodies could be the site for some of the most significant nanotechnology applications, such as sophisticated membranes that could correct the fluctuations of a fibrillating heart without the need for a pacemaker.
Marie D’Iorio, acting Director General of the National Research Council’s Institute for Microstructural Sciences, suggested that there was “plenty of room at the bottom”. She was referring to the prospect of manipulating crystals at the atomic level so they can store and process information in the form of single electron charges. The use of these so-called “quantum dots”, which would be measured in millionths of a millimetre, could dramatically enhance the capabilities of information technology.
That vision was also shared by Gloria Platero, a member of the Spanish Research Council’s Material Science Institute in Madrid. She noted that quantum dots are sometimes regarded as “artificial atoms”, which can in turn be combined to form “artificial molecules”. As we hone our ability to define the features of matter at this most fundamental level, Platero argued, we can create new materials at the macroscopic level, defining their properties as we see fit.
Nor are those properties restricted to a world of inanimate machines and structures. Joseph Zyss, a physics professor in the École normale supérieure in Cachan, France, compared two complementary streams of investigation that are carrying nanotechnology into the biological arena. Distinguishing between semi-conductor design as a “top-down” approach, and molecular chemistry as a “bottom-up” approach, he suggested their combined efforts would arrive at techniques uniquely adapted to photonics, especially the application of photonic energy to catalytic reactions.
Vicki Colvin, the Director of Rice University’s Centre for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology in Houston, Texas, has based the work of her research group on the interaction of nano-sized particles with organic molecules.
Those interactions could represent entirely new directions for processes such as bioremediation, the elimination of toxic substances from soil or water. At the same time, she cautioned that such interactions could likewise extend to those biochemical processes that maintain our health. That makes it is essential to determine if any specially targeted nano-particles could also pose a problem for people or animals that consume them.
Such problems could be among the least of the ethical challenges facing the implementation of nanotechnology in any broader way. Peter Singer, who holds the Sun Life Financial Chair in Bioethics at the University of Toronto, insisted that a popular public backlash could mount against many of these innovations. In much the same way that the advent of genetically modified foods spawned an opposition premised on potential environmental hazards, he envisioned nanotechnology facing a similar critique.
Singer added that some applications could also impinge on human rights, including basic compromises of the right to privacy, as well as fanning an ongoing conflicts between developed and developing nations over how best to take advantage of these advanced technologies.
