What is “nanotechnology?”
What is “nanotechnology?” I”ve heard that nanoparticles are already in consumer products, yet we haven’t really studied their potential health impacts.
—Dan Zeff, San Francisco, CA
Nanotechnology makes use of minuscule objects—whose width can be 10,000 times narrower than a human hair—known as nanoparticles. Upwards of 600 products on store shelves today contain them, including transparent sunscreen, lipsticks, anti-aging creams and even food products.
Global nanotechnology sales have grown substantially in recent years, to $50 billion in 2007, according to Lux Research, author of the annual Nanotech Report. And the final tally isn”t in yet, but analysts had predicted 2008 sales to be $150 billion. The National Science Foundation says the industry could be worth $1 trillion by 2015, when it would employ two million workers directly.
What makes nanoparticles so useful is their tiny size, which allows for manipulation of color, solubility, strength, magnetic behavior and electrical conductivity. Nanoparticles do exist in nature, and they”re also created inadvertently through some industrial processes. What”s new—and potentially hazardous—is the widespread engineering of these particles for commercial purposes.