THE SCIENCE of very small things, nanotechnology, is still in its infancy but could revolutionise medicine, electronics and chemistry. This field of endeavour which involves making tiny components, often as small as one thousand millionth of a metre, could lead to advances from windows that repel dirt to the creation of speck-like medical robots that hunt down germs in the human body.
Given its vast possibilities, scientists ought to be looking forward to public discussion of this nascent science. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Many fear that discussion will be limited to the potential risks and dangers of nanotechnologies, and that this could impede or even halt the progress of the new science.
So far there are no indications that nanotechnologies will feature alongside pensions, the health service, terrorism or teenage sex in the concerns of the population at large. Parents are not asking each other worried questions at the school gates. The rank-and-file at party conferences have not been raising the issue. The sinister antics of the Green Goblin, the alter ego of the head of a nanotech firm in the Spider-man films, probably sum up current popular exposure to the subject.Yet most of the bodies involved in promoting the public discussion of nanotechnologies seem to have decided already that the public won’t like them very much. The National Consumer Council and campaign groups such as Greenpeace were out in force for the launch of a debate about nanotechnologies held by the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering.
