Nano and its Risks

February 8, 2007

A report on Nanowerk notes that the NSF’s budget for next year includes additional spending on nanotechnology risk research. It reminds us that by a curious use of language this research is categorized by the NSF under its heading of “Societal Implications.” Of course, environmental risk has societal implications (that is, it could make us sick or kill us, and those are certainly “implications” for “society”). But this taxonomy has two big problems. On the one hand, it implies that these are not frontline technical issues, and need not be funded from the main research budget line. On the other, it enables the totals being spent on “Societal Implications” to look a good bit bigger than they really are. Most people expect that term to cover ethical, legal and similar societal issues (NELSI for short), not toxicity. And as everyone who has followed the progress of the National Nanotechnology Initiative knows well, the spend on NELSI has been both relatively little and relatively late.

As the report also notes, the budget of the NNI is split between many agencies (with Defense taking a large chunk), which raises other questions about the logic of the project as it has been devised.