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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Apr 20, 2012 7:00 am
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H. Wang/Environmental Protection Agency Photo
Radish plants at various level of exposure to bulk and nano-sized copper oxide. On the far left is an unexposed plant; on the far right is a plant exposed to nanoparticles at the level of 1,000 parts per million.
(NHI Nanoblog) Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, have found that super-small copper oxide particles can pile up in plants—and stunt their growth, adding to the questions over whether nanomaterials pose a risk to the food chain.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Apr 19, 2012 11:43 am
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Gwyneth K. Shaw Photo
It was a moment that most research scientists will never experience: Nearly two years ago, an angry citizen rose from an audience full of Louisianans coping with a massive oil spill that threatened their way of life. An accusation flew at Paul Anastas, then a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official: You don’t care enough about how much this is hurting us.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Apr 9, 2012 7:11 am
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PLoS One
(NHI Nanoblog) Swedish researchers have found that ultra-tiny particles can survive through the food chain — from algae to zooplankton to fish — raising questions about the long-term impact of the increasing use of nanoparticles in everyday products.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Apr 4, 2012 1:42 pm
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(NHI Nanoblog) The British newspaper The Guardian has just published a big package on nanotechnology, its potential risks and benefits, and the debate overseas about both.
It’s chock full of user-friendly information, especially consumers, who are increasingly exposed to super-small materials in everyday products — often in ways we don’t think about.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Apr 2, 2012 1:28 pm
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(NHI Nanoblog) As the European Commission starts thinking about creating new rules for medical devices that use super-small materials to gain big advantages, an associated research group is asking for input.
The Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks, or SCENIHR, recently put out a call for information about problems associated with medical materials that use nanomaterials. These applications are growing fast, and range from catheters coated with nanosilver to block germs to bone cement fortified with carbon nanotubes.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Mar 29, 2012 2:29 am
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Christine Daniloff/National Science Foundation Image
As super-small carbon cylinders slip their way into products like computer chips and smartphones, the potential risk to workers, consumers and the post-landfill environment is coming under scrutiny. New research from a group of University of Florida scientists may have identified a way to minimize some of those hazards.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Mar 23, 2012 9:37 am
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(NHI Nanoblog) What does Scotch tape have to do with the burgeoning development of super-small devices and materials? This week and next, some local museums are offering you the chance to find out.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Mar 7, 2012 1:00 pm
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(NHI Nanoblog) Want to work with super-small materials and be a good steward of your business, your reputation, and safety? A European research organization has some advice.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Feb 23, 2012 12:51 pm
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Gwyneth K. Shaw Photo
Salzman in his Yale lab.
W. Mark Saltzman has been trying to cure brain tumors for decades. Time after time, he hit a common roadblock: A delivery device that works is too toxic, but a good treatment doesn’t work if it’s not in the right place.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Feb 20, 2012 3:20 pm
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In the race to figure out whether super-small particles in food, packaging and other workaday consumer products could hurt us, chicken intestines may be a crucial window into potential dangers.
Most of the research into the safety of these ultra-tiny nanoparticles — found more and more in a wide variety of products — uses test-tube experiments, or small marine organisms, to look at toxic effects. But a group of scientists has developed a method they think is better, based on the intestinal linings of chickens.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Feb 17, 2012 2:22 pm
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(NHI Nanoblog) President Obama’s newly-minted budget request would increase funding for a number of efforts to promote the development of nanotechnology — and safeguard the health of people, animals and the environment.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Jan 26, 2012 9:56 am
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(NHI Nanoblog) Seeking to halt the sale of a nanosilver-based pesticide until more health and safety information is available, the Natural Resources Defense Council filed a federal suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Thursday.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Jan 26, 2012 9:22 am
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(NHI Nanoblog) Joining a chorus of concern about the long-term implications of products that include super-small particles, an all-star National Academy of Sciences panel is pushing for prioritizing research on the health and environmental effects of nanomaterials.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Jan 13, 2012 12:06 pm
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(NHI Nanoblog) In the debate over the safety of super-small particles in mainstream products, consumers are often left out: In the U.S., there’s no requirement for a product that uses nanotechnology to be specifically labeled. Two Swiss researchers set out to test how a nano-specific label might influence people’s sense of risks and benefits, and found that more information did change their perceptions.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Jan 5, 2012 12:47 pm
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In a blunt new report, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s internal watchdog finds that the agency lacks both the data and the administrative ability to effectively deal with the challenge posed by super-small materials that are increasingly finding their way into consumer products.
The report, released late last week by the EPA’s inspector general, raises few new issues. But it makes plain the difficulties facing a host of federal agencies as they try to ensure safety without stifling innovation in the ever-broadening field of nanotechnology. While a growing body of evidence suggests there are real questions about the impact of nanomaterials on people, animals and the environment, there are few absolutes in this arena.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Jan 4, 2012 4:02 pm
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NIST Photo
A scanning electron microscope image of NIST’s material.
(NHI Nanoblog) In an important development for the urgent task of understanding the behavior and implications of super-small materials, the National Institute of Standards and Technology recently released the first certified “reference material” for carbon nanotube soot.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Jan 2, 2012 12:45 pm
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Konarka Photo
The secret to better solar panels just might be in a big magnet.
The industrial-strength magnet is inside a roomful of experimental work on New Haven’s Hillhouse Avenue, where it makes ultra-tiny “nanowires” all stand up in one direction.
For Yale engineering professor Chinedum Osuji and his colleagues, this is a breakthrough: It allows energy to travel through channels in a polymer matrix, rather than meandering about. The end result is more energy produced, since less is lost in the chaos of disorganization.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Dec 22, 2011 1:42 pm
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Gwyneth K. Shaw File Photo
Yale’s Charles Ahn and SCSU’s Christine Broadbridge.
Southern Connecticut State University will offer a master’s degree in applied physics beginning next fall, after the Connecticut Board of Regents for Higher Education approved the program Tuesday.
The degree will offer two tracks: optics and optical instrumentation, and materials science and nanotechnology. Both fields will help boost local students’ chances at scoring jobs in Connecticut’s high-tech sector, university officials said.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Dec 21, 2011 5:16 pm
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Gwyneth K. Shaw file photo
A coalition of consumer advocacy groups filed suit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Wednesday, the latest move in a long effort to force the agency to regulate sunscreens, cosmetics and other products containing super-small particles.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Dec 15, 2011 7:00 am
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(NHI Nanoblog) A court settlement with an environmental group will force the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to finally make a judgement on the controversial chemical bisphenol A by next spring. Will similar petitions on nanotechnology products get the same result?
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Dec 8, 2011 11:34 am
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(NHI Nanoblog) Andrew Schneider, an investigative journalist who’s been tracking the emergence of nanotechnology in food and food-related products, has an interesting story about a recent report on the latest developments.
