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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Nov 26, 2010 11:56 am
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(NHI Nanoblog) Carbon nanotubes are rapidly emerging as the most prominent short-term concern in the exploding area of nanotechnology. In a new study, University of California, Berkeley researcher Mark Philbrick proposes one way to protect worker and public safety without waiting until regulators can get their arms around the entire field.
Philbrick’s paper, published in a special issue of the journal Risk Analysis that’s dedicated to nano safety issues, says we need “anticipatory governance” to deal with carbon nanotubes.
In other words, he says, we should treat the material as if it’s harmful until we know for sure that it isn’t — which means not using it without protection, or in ways that could expose people, animals or the environment.
Philbrick said CNTs are basically the poster child for nanotechnology, an amorphous field that uses super-small with super properties to develop new medicines and commercial products.
The carbon tubes, which can be single- or multi-walled, “seem to be able to do just about anything, and at the same time are probably among the most challenging of nanomaterials to characterize,” he said.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Nov 23, 2010 2:20 am
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U. Michigan Photo
Andrew Maynard, science blogger and new director of the Risk Science Center and the University of Michigan.
(NHI Nanoblog) Andrew Maynard has been thinking about nanotechnology for a decade, both as a scientist and as a policy wonk. As he looks ahead at the next several decades, he says one of the most difficult problems lies in helping the public understand what scientists are even talking about — and what they should, and shouldn’t, fear from the burgeoning field.
“What we’ve ended up with is not nanotechnology as a science, or as a discipline, but nanotechnology as a brand,” Maynard said. “You can’t ask the question, ‘Is a brand safe?’ That’s not a question you can answer. You end up trying to answer a question like, ‘How does yellow taste?’”
Maynard, who recently became the first permanent director of the Risk Science Center at the University of Michigan, says nanotechnology — the science of using really, really small stuff to do often amazing things, using tiny particles with super-properties to make new consumer products and medicines — needs to be explained better. Part of that process, he said, is creating a new way to understand the risks of nanomaterials, a key part of his new job.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Nov 19, 2010 11:20 am
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(NHI Nanoblog) A new report from the environmental advocacy group Friends of the Earth takes aim at the promotion of nanotechnology as the “green” answer to energy and climate issues. The group argues that nano-based solutions often use lots of energy, and that some pose potentially serious risks to the environment and people.
The study slaps at the promotion of nanotechnology as a panacea and questions whether we have enough answers about the possible downside of nano-based projects.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Nov 15, 2010 3:12 pm
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Gwyneth K. Shaw Photo
UNH Professor Shannon Ciston and student Nicole Reardon in the lab where they’ll add nanoparticles to water from the Long Island Sound.
You might find the slimy stuff that collects at the bottom of your birdbath or the hull of your boat a bother, or just plain gross. But for Shannon Ciston and Nicole Reardon, the tiny ecosystems embedded in the goo offer a way to study how nanoparticles interact with our environment — and, ultimately, us.
Ciston, an assistant professor at the University of New Haven’s Tagliatela College of Engineering, has been working with the growths, formally known as biofilms, for several years. Since this summer, she’s been collaborating with Reardon (pictured, with Ciston), a student, to collect and study biofilms from Long Island Sound.
Over the next several months they plan to begin introducing nanoparticles — specifically, titanium dioxide and carbon nanotubes — into the Sound water to see how the biofilms react to the new substances. They hope to get a better sense of what happens when these tiny particles turn up in our water.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Nov 12, 2010 11:35 am
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(NHI Nanoblog) A new study tracking how inhaled nanoparticles move through the lungs and lymphatic system, then out of the body, offers more weight to the growing sense that even in a field defined by size, it matters how big something is.
Nanotechnology, of course, is all about size. Anything nano has to be super-small: the generally-accepted, if loose, definition covers particles under 100 nanometers. (One nanometer is a billionth of an meter.) At that size, particles take on super-properties that are now being used in new consumer and medical products.
When it comes to working with living organisms and nanoparticles, however, more and more scientists are finding that smaller is better if the material isn’t supposed to stick around in tissues or organs.
Now researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, part of Harvard Medical School, MIT and the Harvard School of Public Health are seeing the same thing, and finding that the surface chemistry of the particles also make a difference.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Nov 11, 2010 12:03 pm
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(NHI Nanoblog) As regulators, industry, academia and activists wrestle with how to safeguard workers, the public and the environment in the exploding field of nanotechnology, Daniel J. Fiorino has a few ideas.
The main thrust is simple: start with self-policing, then build and expand on early best practices to create a government-led regulatory framework.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Nov 5, 2010 1:16 pm
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(NHI Nanoblog) The National Nanotechnology Initiative—an umbrella program that’s supposed to offer a framework to support the assortment of government agencies working in the burgeoning field — is asking for input on its blueprint for the next three years and beyond.
The NNI, launched in 2001, will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a big conference early next month. But this week, the project, part of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, released a draft strategic plan. You can comment on the plan until Nov. 30 via this portal, although you do have to log in.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Oct 29, 2010 11:10 am
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NASA/JPL-CalTech
This artist’s illustration shows an infrared photo of the Small Magellanic Cloud taken by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. The image on the right is a magnified view of an example of a buckyball — 60 carbon atoms arranged like soccer balls.
(NHI Nanoblog) Here’s a cool coincidence: As scientists (and science buffs) around the world celebrate the 25th anniversary of the discovery of “buckyballs,” NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has allowed researchers to prove that the soccer-ball-like carbon assemblies have been lurking in the cosmos all along.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Oct 25, 2010 12:27 pm
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(NHI Nanoblog) The European Commission has released a draft recommendation on how to define “nanomaterial,” taking at least a small step in a process that is bedeviling regulators worldwide.
The proposal, which is open for public comment until Nov. 19, basically defines a nanoparticle as something containing particles between the sizes of 1 and 100 nanometers (one nanometer is a billionth of a meter). It’s broad, and encompasses internal surface structure and other basic properties.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Oct 22, 2010 11:42 am
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Central Michigan University
(NHI Nanoblog) Potomac, Md. — Donald Tomalia wants to create what he calls a “common language” to help nanotechnology pioneers relate to biological and chemical researchers. He thinks he’s found the Rosetta stone, of sorts, through analyzing patterns displayed by nanoparticles — trends that, he hopes, can help create a kind of periodic table for nanomaterials, the super-tiny particles that acquire new properties and serve as building blocks for new super-medicines.
“These are real, fundamental building blocks that are just as precise at atoms, but they are nanoparticles,” Tomalia said.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Oct 21, 2010 7:53 pm
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(NHI Nanoblog)POTOMAC, Md. — After a whirlwind string of presentations highlighting some of the most mind-blowing research in nanomedicine, two toxicology experts stepped forward with a sobering message: a new frontier comes with new, and often unknown, risks.
Both said that while there are reasons to be concerned about the human and environmental impact of nanomedicine — cures developed for super-small “nano” particles that acquire new super-properties— the most immediate issue is a simple lack of knowledge about exactly what these new materials will do.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Oct 20, 2010 5:10 pm
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POTOMAC, Md. — For Esther Chang, treating cancer using nanomaterials is like delivering a package by FedEx: what you need goes right to your door.
“They have the address,” she said. “The difference between a FedEx truck and a crop duster is that airplanes have no address.”
In medicine, of course, the crop dusters are traditional treatments that circulate throughout the body — often with toxic side effects. Now, with nano-based treatments — new medicines developed for super-small “nano” particles that acquire new super-properties — that target tumors directly, Chang said, so much more is possible.
Gwyneth K. Shaw Photo
Esther Chang, president of the American Society for Nanomedicine, brainstorms with Peter Kim of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“In any type of therapy, if it’s not targeted, it’s not going to be beneficial,” said Chang (pictured), a professor at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University. “The field is moving very rapidly. People are rapidly realizing that targeting is a must. It’s not a luxury.”
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Oct 18, 2010 3:48 pm
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(NHI Nanoblog)POTOMAC, Md. — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is still evaluating whether its policies need tweaking to deal with the increasing development of drugs that use nanomaterials, but the agency’s current procedures are “adequate” for the time being, an official told a conference here.
Nakissa Sadrieh, associate director of research and policy implementation in the FDA’s Office of Pharmaceutical Science, said that the agency’s existing guidelines for submitting new products for approval should cover most questions for applicants.
“There’s no need right now … to issue guidance documents specifically for nanomaterials,” Sadrieh said. “The existing framework can accommodate the kind of nanoparticle therapeutics under development.”
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Oct 8, 2010 3:28 am
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(NHI Nanoblog)The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is working up new proposals aimed at nanotechnology products, some of which could be a precursor to formal regulation.
But the agency is not expecting to make quick work of these projects: The timetable for the lengthy process of collecting comments from industry, environmental activists and the public is likely to be a year or more.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Oct 7, 2010 2:08 am
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Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
(NHI Nanoblog) Wondering what the heck graphene is? It’s the impetus for this year’s Nobel Prize in physics, awarded this week to professors Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, both of the University of Manchester. It’s yet another promising carbon-based material in the emerging field of nanotechnology. But it’s less well-known than other nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Oct 5, 2010 6:31 am
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Gwyneth K. Shaw Photo
UMass Lowell researchers Candace Tsai and Michael Ellenbecker are pushing nanotechnology companies to adopt safer practices for handling the promising but largely unknown materials.
LOWELL, Mass. — From a brick building that symbolizes this industrial city’s 19th century heyday, Candace Tsai and Michael Ellenbecker are helping today’s cutting-edge manufacturers make their factories safer.
Just as workers in Lowell’s fabled mills faced illness from inhaling tiny cotton fibers, their 21st century counterparts at groundbreaking nanotechnology companies are contending with a tiny and largely unknown threat: super-small “nano” particles that make lots of products better but can get into lung tissue or even cells.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Sep 29, 2010 11:02 am
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NIOSH Photo
This image of carbon nanotubes came from an air sample collected during a NIOSH visit to a manufacturer. The agency is offering advice to companies to try and reduce the risk to their workers.
LOWELL, Mass. — How do you protect someone from something they can’t see?
That’s the trick for researchers trying to ensure that workers in the growing business of nanotechnology aren’t threatened by their livelihood.
But while U.S. regulators and scientists are mindful of past disasters — from lead to asbestos — they also know super-small nanoparticles present a huge challenge.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Sep 29, 2010 6:53 am
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(NHI Nanoblog)A team of researchers at Virginia Tech are adding to the growing body of evidence suggesting that nanosilver — which is growing in popularity as an anti-bacterial agent — is invading our water and sewer system.
Courtesy Michael Hochella
Led by Michael Hochella (pictured), a geosciences professor, the team used an electron microscope to pinpoint nano-sized silver sulfide particles in the end-stage sludge of a municipal water plant (in other words, they found the silver after the sewage had been treated).
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Sep 28, 2010 12:42 pm
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(NHI Nanoblog) The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced $2.75 million in training grants last week, including one nanotechnology project based at Rice University.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Sep 27, 2010 9:32 am
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(NHI Nanoblog) LOWELL, Mass. — When Susan Braunhut started thinking about how to detect super-small “nanoparticles,” she turned to an old technology for inspiration: The canary in the coal mine.
What Braunhut (pictured), a professor of biological sciences at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and her research team have come up with has no feathers and won’t chirp a warning to those nearby. But their “nanocanary” might solve a difficult problem for the growing field.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Sep 22, 2010 2:51 pm
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(NHI Nanoblog) Rice University’s summer undergraduate nanotechnology research program will be able to expand with the help of a grant from the National Science Foundation, the school announced Tuesday.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Sep 22, 2010 9:31 am
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N.C. State University
N.C. State pharmacology professor Jim Riviere, one of the study’s three authors.
(NHI Nanoblog)Three North Carolina State University researchers report developing a way to predict what will happen when nanoparticles interact with “biological systems” (read: humans and other living things). Their work could help scientists and regulators figure out which nanomaterials are harmless to people, animals and the environment, and which are dangerous.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Sep 21, 2010 11:06 am
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UMass Lowell
(NHI Nanoblog) The University of Massachusetts at Lowell is hosting a nanomanufacturing conference Wednesday and Thursday, bringing together researchers and representatives of the government and business sector.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Sep 20, 2010 10:03 pm
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(NHI Nanoblog)One of the selling points of carbon nanotubes is their Superman-like strength. So the construction industry should find a new study from University of Southern California scientists interesting: the tiny cylinders can sustain twice as much force as previously thought.
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Gwyneth K. Shaw
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Sep 20, 2010 2:36 pm
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Koser Lab
An image of a ferrofluid under development in the laboratory of Yale professor Hur Koser.
Inside Yale professor Hur Koser’s lab, magnetic liquids known as ferrofluids are under development. Someday, they could help diagnose cancer in people whose disease is barely progressing.
Mark Saltzman, another researcher at the university, is pushing for ways to target cancer cells where they’re centered, which could spare future patients from the full-body assault of traditional chemotherapy.
