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Taming High-Tech Particles

Cautious steps into the nanotech future

Science News Online
Week of March 30, 2002; Vol. 161, No. 13
By Jessica Gorman

TINY TUBES:
A computer graphic shows carbon nanotubes that became soluble in water after researchers in Richard Smalley's lab at Rice University wrapped them in the polymer polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP). Scientists are seeking water-soluble nanostructures for biomedical uses, such as drug delivery. Yet making the nanostructures water soluble could permit them to move easily though the environment.
Image Credit: Rice University.

"The concerns about what bad things could result from nanotechnology are largely speculative at this point," comments Rice University's Neal Lane, who was President Clinton's science advisor. But "when you're dealing with a new science and a new technology, it's prudent to think ahead and make sure that you're taking whatever protective steps are necessary to ensure bad things don't happen," Lane says.

There are countless ways in which particles having microscopic dimensions could transform medicine and science. From the tiniest of circuits to the finest of filters, technologies made with such nanomaterials just might be the solution for shrinking the computer chip or removing microscopic contaminants from water. These particles, which have dimensions of billionths of a meter, might deliver drugs to targets inside individual cells or perhaps serve as components in sensors that detect chemical and biological agents.

Enthusiasm for an anticipated windfall of such nanotech inventions has been running high. The technology appears to be a new industry in the making. However, as nanomaterials approach commercial development, some researchers are beginning to look at the potential consequences of putting the new materials into the environment or the body. These scientists' goal is to launch preemptive strikes against any problems that might arise down the line.

One of the hot spots of this effort is Rice University in Houston -- an institution known for its nanoscience research. Last fall, the university opened a center focused on developing new nanotechnologies that can solve environmental problems and offer new medical therapies.

A couple of years ago, during discussions about the proposed nanotechnology center, Rice's Vicki Colvin showed a slide demonstrating one of the field's many new wonders. Published by Paul Alivisatos' research group at the University of California, Berkeley, the image showed semiconductor particles, called quantum dots, serving as brightly glowing tags in mammalian cells (SN: 10/24/98, p. 271).
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2002 © Science Service.

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