Nanotechnology: small science, big questions!

Nanotechnology is being heralded as the basis of the next industrial revolution. Yet, amidst the hype, there are serious questions about the health, environment and social impacts of this powerful new technology (click here for links to FoE publications on nanotechnology).

The FoE Nanotechnology Project aims to catalyse debate on what is set to be one of the defining issues of our time.

To visit the FoE Nanotechnology Project website go to: http://nano.foe.org.au

Nanotechnology is a powerful new technology for taking apart and reconstructing nature at the atomic and molecular level. The APEC Centre for Technology Foresight has predicted that major breakthroughs associated with nanotechnology will result in rapid technological change, which will be associated with large-scale social upheaval.

“If nanotechnology is going to revolutionise manufacturing, health care, energy supply, communications and probably defence, then it will transform labour and the workplace, the medical system, the transportation and power infrastructures and the military. None of these latter will be changed without significant social disruption”.

Yet despite nanotechnology’s potential to reshape our world, its commercialisation has so far taken place in the absence of public debate or awareness. In the midst of the global race to come out ahead in a future world of “nano haves” versus “nano have-nots”, governments and corporations have so far failed to address pressing public interest issues surrounding nanotechnology. Ethical problems, the risks posed by nanotoxicity, socio-economic disruption and the erosion of democracy have to date been trivialised or ignored.

The FoE Nanotechnology Project website provides general information about nanotechnology developments and implications. It also includes writings and briefings from Friends of the Earth, as well as reference materials from other organisations and news.

To visit the FoEA Nanotechnology Project's website, click here
http://nano.foe.org.au

To receive monthly ‘Nano News’ or to find out more about the FoEA Nanotechnology Project contact: Georgia Miller georgia.miller@foe.org.au

To donate to the nanotechnology project, please visit:
https://egive.org.au/egive/payments/new_payment.aspx?id=39