Nanotechnology has huge potential to provide us with new cures for cancer, more efficient solar cells, and even quicker and smaller computers,\u00a0but there are also risks \u2013 and no one can really say whether these risks are enormous, or quite small. Nils-Eric Sahlin, an ethics researcher at Lund University, Sweden, said, \u201cThe difficulty with this risk assessment is that we don\u2019t know how much we don\u2019t know. There are major gaps in our knowledge.\u201d Current applications of this emerging technology include many \u201ctrivial\u201d products, such as shoe sprays, car paints, and anti-wrinkle creams, but around the corner, await more important applications like better cancer drugs, more efficient solar cells, new catalytic converters, and cheaper and more energy efficient nano-LEDs. \u201cTherefore you cannot be just for or against nanotechnology. It offers enormous possibilities, but also applications that appear completely superfluous\u201d, said Sahlin. Knut Deppert, the director of Lund\u2019s Engineering Nanoscience programme at the Faculty of Engineering, for his part, views many of the sunscreens and anti-wrinkle creams with nanoparticles as unnecessary and perhaps inappropriate, calling them \u201ca large-scale experiment with many participants.\u201d Lars Samuelson, Lund\u2019s most internationally renowned nano-researcher, said he sees nanoparticles from traffic as a clear health risk, but calls nano-creams a conceivable risk. \u201cBut in the past there was not the awareness there is today. Now major scientific conferences are being held on the possible risks of nanotechnology, and there is a political will to develop a system of regulation for the field,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.lunduniversity.lu.se\/o.o.i.s?id=24890&news_item=5682<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nanotechnology has huge potential to provide us with new cures for cancer, more efficient solar cells, and even quicker and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology-update"],"yoast_head":"\n