NanoWiki

Rapsody in C

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:18:00 GMT

Do molecules have beauty? Is it possible to fall in love with one? Based on what Harry Kroto and others have written about buckminsterfullerene, Chris Toumey thinks that the answer to both these questions is yes.

We know that scientific thought is enriched by human qualities such as curiosity, imagination or a stubborn refusal to go along with conventional wisdom. Perhaps the greatest saint of science-as-humanity was Albert Einstein, but countless others have also shown us that science can thrive when humanistic qualities are part of a scientist’s thinking. Moreover, by being able to imagine things that great scientists have imagined, the non-expert can feel connected to the expert and experience the joy of science.

Beauty is one place to seek this connection. There is quite a cottage industry — books, journals, symposiums and so on — dedicated to the idea that nature possesses beauty, that scientists appreciate it as well as anyone, and that scientists sometimes create beauty in their models and theories. Nanotechnology has its fair share of beauty, but one molecule in particular is more beautiful than the rest — buckminsterfullerene¹.

In 1966, David E. H. Jones, writing in New Scientist, speculated about large hollow carbon cages, 100 nm in diameter², and in 1970 Eiji Osawa predicted that 60 carbon atoms could form a molecule with the same shape as a football — the truncated icosahedron would have 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons³. In 1984 researchers at Exxon’s Corporate Research Laboratory detected carbon clusters of various sizes in experiments, including some clusters with more than 40 carbon atoms (see page 50 in ref. 4).

Then came September 1985. Harry Kroto of Sussex University had detected chains of carbon atoms in interstellar space and wanted to create similar structures in the laboratory. Robert Curl brought Kroto to Rice University in Houston where Richard Smalley, Curl and others were making plasmas of carbon atoms by blasting a graphite disk with a laser. The plasma was then subject to a quick blast of helium, enabling clusters of carbon to self-assemble before passing through a series of detectors. The purpose for this apparatus, said Smalley, was "to make measurements so fundamental that theorist stayed awake at night trying to understand them" (ref. 5).

Kroto, Curls, Smalley and two graduate students - Jim Heath and Sean O'Brien - detected a range of carbon structures, with C₆₀ being the most abundant. And after optimizing the experiment they were able to make samples that were mostly C₆₀, with a small amount of C₇₀ and minimal amounts of other varieties.

But how did the 60 carbon atoms fit together? Originally the team thought that the structures contained four flat sheets of carbon atoms (two containing 6 atoms and two containing 24), but this turned out to be problematic. The Rice-Sussex group then drew inspiration from the geodesic domes of the architect Buckminster Fuller, plus some other ideas, and concluded that C₆₀ must be atruncated icosahedron. Their 1985 article announcing C₆₀ showed a photo of "a football (in the United States, a soccerball)" to illustrate the shape the imagined¹.

Kroto and co-workers had detected C₆₀, and they explained why they believed that it had to be an icosahedron^{6, 7}. They were, of course, correct, but their experiments were not capable of creating enoug C₆₀ to characterize it sufficiently to convince other scientists. However, in August 1990 a collaboration between researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg and the University of Arizona in Tucson was able to make enough C₆₀ to confirm the truncated icosahedron structure and make even more ambitious experiments possible⁸. Buckminsterfullerene was now official, and Curl, Kroto and Smalley shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1996.

Subsequent to the Heidelberg-Tucson work, a series of charming articles appeared about the discovery of C₆₀. The best short memoirs by Kroto⁹(wich emphasizes the connections with interstellar space) and Smalley¹⁰ (wich stresses teamwork, imagination, frustration and other human-interest themes), but the Nobel acceptance speeches by Curl¹¹, Kroto¹²and Smalley⁵ are also worth reading, as is a 1991 Scientific American article by Curl and Smalley¹³, and books by Hugh Aldersey-Williams³and Jim Baggot¹⁴.

Of the central player in this history, Kroto is clearly the scientist most infatuated with the molecule, as the following quotations from references 9 and 12 illustrate. "The story of C₆₀ cannot be recounted without refererences to its beauty"; the results of Krätschmer and co-workers were beautifully consistent with expectations”; the colour of a solution of C₆₀ was “an exquisitely delicate magenta”; this molecule possesses “a charismatic quality that few other molecules possess”; “the molecule was so beautiful that it just had to be right”; and the “molecule’s most delightful property lies in the inherent charisma ... which arises from its elegantly simple ... structure”.

As a truncated icosahedron, C₆₀ is as perfectly round as a sphere of hexagons and pentagons can be (see figure). It is also perfectly symmetrical in the sense that every single atom is a vertex of two hexagons and one pentagon. Moreover, unlike other forms of carbon, there are no dangling bonds that other objects can easily latch on to.

Smalley’s tone was different, but he also had some moving things to say. “This discovery was one of the most spiritual experiences that any of us in the original team of five have ever experienced”, he said in his Nobel lecture, and he concluded by saying that among the many bright personalities who contributed to the discovery of buckminsterfullerene, “the only character of true genius in the story is carbon”. Of course, even before Curl, Kroto and Smalley collected their Nobel prizes, a newer form of carbon — the carbon nanotube — had eclipsed the glory of buckminsterfullerene and, more recently, an even newer form — graphene — has become one of the hottest topics in research.

In elementary school, I once read an article titled The Mathematical Beauty Contest. It praised ellipses and spirals and other shapes for their natural beauty, but it reserved top honours for the author’s personal favourite, the circle. OK, I thought, this thing is beautiful. But a beauty contest for geometric shapes? Aren’t grown-ups supposed to have more serious things to do?

In I Corinthians 13, St Paul wrote that when he was a child, he understood things clearly, but when he became a man he saw “through a glass darkly”. When I quibbled in my childhood about the mathematical beauty contest, I inverted Paul’s aphorism: I was being cynical when a child ought to be more open to the beauty before him. Today I can see better. I can place myself within the pleasures of science by seeing what great scientists have seen. In other words, I can see beauty in nature and beauty in scientific discovery. I can also see why scientists sometimes behave like Immanuel Rath, the professor in The Blue Angel (the film that made Marlene Dietrich famous) who becomes hopelessly infatuated with the sexy siren Lola Lola. Kroto’s fate has been very different from Rath’s, but falling madly in love is still falling madly in love.

What can I say? I’m with Kroto: if it is wrong to love an icosahedral molecule, then I don’t want to be right.

References

^{1. Kroto, H. W., Heath, J. R., O’Brien, S. C., Curl, R. F. & Smalley, R. E. Nature 318, 162–163 (1985).
2. Jones, D. E. H. (pen name Daedalus) New Sci. 245 (3 November 1966).
3. Osawa, E. in The Fullerenes (eds Kroto, H. W. & Walton, D. R. M.) 1–7 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993).
4. Aldersey-Williams, H. The Most Beautiful Molecule (Wiley, 1995).
5. Smalley, R. E. Rev. Mod. Phys. 69, 723–730 (1997).
6. Curl, R. F. & Smalley, R. E. Science 242, 1017–1022 (1988).
7. Kroto, H. W. Science 242, 1139–1145 (1988).
8. Krätschmer, W., Lamb, L. D., Fostiropoulos, K. & Huffman, D. R. Nature 347, 354–358 (1990).
9. Kroto, H. W. Nanotechnology 3, 111–112 (1992).
10. Smalley, R. E. The Sciences 22–28 (March 1991).
11. Curl, R. F. Rev. Mod. Phys. 69, 691–702 (1997).
12. Kroto, H. W. Rev. Mod. Phys. 69, 703–722 (1997).
13. Curl, R. F. & Smalley, R. E Sci. Am. 54–63 (October 1991).
14. Baggott, J. Perfect Symmetry (Oxford Univ. Press, 1994).}

CHRIS TOUMEY
University of South Carolina
NanoCenter, 1212 Greene Street, Columbia,
South Carolina 29208, USA.
e-mail: Toumey@sc.edu

Source: Rhapsody in C. November 2008, Nature Nanotechnology, Vol 3. © 2008 Macmillan Publishers Limited. Post by permision of Chris Toumey

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The cosmos knows a new chemistry for making carbon nanotubes?

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:09:00 GMT

Space apparently has its own recipe for making carbon nanotubes, one of the most intriguing contributions of nanotechnology here on Earth, and metals are conspicuously missing from the list of ingredients.

The finding is the surprising by-product of lab experiments designed by Joseph Nuth at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. and his colleagues to address the astronomical question of how carbon gets recycled in the regions of space that spawn stars and planets. The work also could help researchers understand puzzling observations about some supernovas.

In a recent paper Nuth’s team describes the modest chemical reaction. Unlike current methods for producing carbon nanotubes — tiny yet strong structures with a range of applications in electronics and, ultimately, perhaps even medicine — the new approach does not need the aid of a metal catalyst. "Instead, nanotubes were produced when graphite dust particles were exposed to a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen gases," explains Nuth.

"I am amazed at the implications of this paper, not only for astrophysics but also for materials science," says Dick Zare, the chair of the chemistry department at Stanford University, Stanford, Calif. "Could Nature know a new chemistry for making carbon nanotubes that we have yet to discover?"

Nuth’s approach is a variation of a well-established way to produce gasoline or other liquid fuels from coal. It’s known as Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, and researchers suspect that it could have produced at least some of the simple carbon-based compounds in the early solar system. Nuth proposes that the nanotubes yielded by such reactions could be the key to the recycling of the carbon that gets released when carbon-rich grains are destroyed by supernova explosions.

The structure of the carbon nanotubes produced in these experiments was determined by Yuki Kimura, a materials scientist at Tohoku University, Japan, who examined the samples under a powerful transmission electron microscope. He saw particles on which the original smooth graphite gradually morphed into an unstructured region and finally to an area rich in tangled hair-like masses. A closer look with an even more powerful microscope showed that these tendrils were in fact cup-stacked carbon nanotubes, which resemble a stack of Styrofoam cups with the bottoms cut out.

These observations surprised Kimura because carbon nanotubes are typically grown with platinum or another metal as a catalyst, yet Nuth’s reaction had used no metals. Kimura checked for contamination but "did not find the presence of metallic particles accompanying the nanotube in the sample," he says.

If further testing indicates that the new method is suitable for materials-science applications, it could supplement, or even replace, the familiar way of making nanotubes, explains Kimura. That possibility "is most exciting and invites yet more study," says Zare. Source: From A Stellar, Metal-Free Way to Make Carbon Nanotubes by Elizabeth Zubritsky, Goddard Space Flight Center. This work is detailed in the paper “The formation of graphite whiskers in the primitive solar nebula” by Joseph A. Nuth, Yuki Kimura, Christopher Lucas, Frank Ferguson and Natasha M. Johnson.

Related news list by date, most recent first: astronomy carbon nanotubes

Scientists working with Artists in Nano Science and Technology

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:52:00 GMT

Hodgkin, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was one of example of a scientist who credits their art practice as being important to their scientific creativity.

The second category I previously described is scientists who collaborate with artists to create art works that prove to be powerful art works as well as influential on the scientist's research practice.

Nano-scientist Jim Gimzewski has articulated the way that nano sciences needs the arts to enable the kind of paradigm changes of concepts needed in an article: Nano-technology the end of materialism published in Leonardo Journal (June 2008, Vol. 41, No. 3, Pages 259-264. Posted Online May 21, 2008).

Nanotechnology: The Endgame of Materialism
James K. Gimzewski (educator), Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry,
607 Charles E. Young Drive East, Los Angeles, CA 90095, U.S.A. E-mail: gim@chem.ucla.edu.

Abstract: "Imagine that one could arrange atoms in any form one wanted: What would one create? What kind of mind would it take to change the world through this metamorphosis of rearrangement and design? The ultimate endgame of our current technological capability to make material things is determined by our own creativity. The author examines how technological interfaces join the human mind to objects of experience from the nanometric to the planetary scale and theorizes the impact this perceptual condition will have on the personal and collective psyche.

Gimzewski has created a number of works related to nano science and technology with Artist Victoria Vesna, see examples at :

Gimzewski and Vesna have documented the way that nano science and art can interact in their text:
The Nanomeme Syndrome: Blurring of Fact and Fiction in the Construction of a New Science.

Their abstract states: "In both the philosophical and visual sense, "seeing is believing" does not apply to nanotechnology, for there is nothing even remotely visible to create proof of existence. On the atomic and molecular scale, data is recorded by sensing and probing in a very abstract manner, which requires complex and approximate interpretations. More than in any other science, visualization and creation of a narrative becomes necessary to describe what is sensed, not seen. Nevertheless, many of the images generated in science and popular culture are not related to data at all, but come from visualizations and animations frequently inspired or created directly from science fiction. Likewise, much of this imagery is based on industrial models and is very mechanistic in nature, even though nanotechnology research is at a scale where cogs, gears, cables, levers and assembly lines as functional components appear to be highly unlikely. However, images of mechanistic nanobots proliferate in venture capital circles, popular culture, and even in the scientific arena, and tend to dominate discourse around the possibilities of nanotechnology. The authors put forward that this new science is ultimately about a shift in our perception of reality from a purely visual culture to one based on sensing and connectivity." Via Leonardo/ISAST cooperation with NanoWiki

Related news list by date, most recent first: art

Nanoscale Sunscreen Ingredient Does Not Penetrate Healthy Skin

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 23:01:00 GMT

A team of scientists from the United States Food and Drug Administration and the National Cancer Institute have found that nanoscale titanium dioxide used in sunscreen is unlikely to penetrate healthy human skin. Source: Federal Scientists Find Nanoscale Sunscreen Ingredient Does Not Penetrate Healthy Skin.

"Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is included in some sunscreen formulations to physically block UV radiation. A dermal penetration study was conducted in minipigs with three TiO2 particles... There is no significant penetration of TiO2 nanoparticles through the intact normal epidermis." This work is detailed in the paper “Lack of Significant Dermal Penetration of Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) from Sunscreen Formulations containing Nano- and Sub-Micron-Size TiO2 Particles” by Nakissa Sadrieh, Anna M. Wokovich, Neera V. Gopee, Jiwen Zheng, Diana Haines, David Parmiter, Paul H. Siitonen, Christy R. Cozart, Anil K. Patri, Scott E. McNeil, Paul C. Howard, William H. Doub and Lucinda F. Buhse.

Related news list by date, most recent first: nanotoxicology nanoparticles cosmetics concerns

New Method to Optimize Molecular Self-Organization

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 23:05:00 GMT

Some classes of molecules are capable of arranging themselves in specific patterns on surfaces. This ability to self-organize is crucial for many technological applications, which are dependend on the assembly of ordered structures on surfaces. However, it has so far been virtually impossible to predict or control the result of such processes. Now a group of researchers led by Dr. Bianca Hermann, a physicist from the Center for Nanoscience (CeNS) at LMU Munich, reports a significant breakthrough: By combining statistical physics and detailed simulations with images obtained by scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM), the team has been able to formulate a simple model that can predict the patterns observed. "With the help of the model, we can generate a wide variety of patterns that reproduce surprisingly well the arrangements observed experimentally", says Hermann. "We want to extend this approach to other surface symmetries. Already now the areas of molecular electronics, sensor applications, surface catalysis and organic photovoltaics can profit from our model. Its ability to predict structures formed by self-organization allows optimization of molecular building blocks prior to synthesis." (NanoLetters online, 16 February 2010)

When "mother nature" does the engineering, molecules can self-organize into complex structures - a first step in the formation of membranes, cells and other molecular systems. The principle of self-organization, which allows very economical use of resources, is also exploited in the production of functionalized surfaces required in molecular electronics, sensor applications, catalysis and photovoltaic components. The idea of the manufacturing process is that molecular components are brought into contact with a substrate material, and then "magically" find their preferred positions in the desired molecular network. The starting components are selected to display specific structural and chemical features intended for the envisaged application. However, the optimization of the molecular adlayers depends largely on a trial-and-error approach, and is therefore complicated and time-consuming.

To develop the new molecular-interaction site model, Dr. Herrmann's group collaborated with Priv. Doz. Dr. Thomas Franosch and Professor Erwin Frey within the Cluster of Excellence "Nanosystems Initiative Munich" (NIM). The problem was tackled using an approach from statistical physics known as Monte Carlo method, which allows one to conduct a detailed computer simulation on the statistics of molecular interactions. The structural motifs so generated were compared with experimental high-resolution images of molecular patterns obtained by STM. Marta Balbás Gambra, a doctoral student, began each simulation with a mathematical representation of a collection of hundreds of randomly oriented particles of defined conformation. These schematic molecules were then perturbed by - computationally - adding energy, causing the population to adopt a new configuration. Using this simulation strategy, one can generate a greater variety of patterns than are found naturally, and many of these corresponded closely to the real molecular patterns revealed by STM. "In one case we actually predicted a pattern that was only later verified with STM", reports doctoral student Carsten Rohr.

According to the laws of thermodynamics, physical systems tend to adopt the state with the most favourable (i.e. lowest) energy. Experimental tests showed that different molecular configurations interconvert until an arrangement predominates that is reminiscent of tyre tracks. And indeed, the Monte Carlo approach had predicted that this arrangement corresponds to the state with the lowest energy. "In the end, we were able to show that the molecular geometry and a few salient features encode the structural motifs observed", explains theorist Franosch. "We plan to extend the approach to other types of surface symmetries, but the model already provides an important theoretical tool, because it helps us to forecast the type of surface pattern that a given functional molecule will form. This means that the design of molecules can be optimized during the synthetic phase, so as to obtain surfaces with the desired characteristics", says Hermann. The physicists in the group, who come from different scientific backgrounds and were able to pool their expertise for this project, envisage multiple potential applications for their model in molecular electronics, sensor technology, catalysis and photovoltaics.

Further possibilities include its use for predicting the results of other types of molecular interactions also on partially patterned substrates. Source: When molecules leave tire tracks – A new approach to optimizing molecular self-organization. This work is detailed in the paper Molecular Jigsaw: Pattern Diversity Encoded by Elementary Geometrical Features by Carsten Rohr, Marta Balbás Gambra, K. Gruber, EC Constable, Erwin Frey, Thomas Franosch, and Bianca Hermann.

Related news list by date, most recent first: self-assembly microscope

Nanotechnology: balancing the promises

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:25:00 GMT

A new book about the evolution of Nanotechnology, in electronic (ePub, pdf) and paper editions. This book includes 42 original plates of nanoparticles.

"We would like to start the year with some thoughts on some of the recent news appeared in Nanowiki 2009. In this occasion we would like to focus on probably one of the major impact areas of nanotechnology nowadays, that is, to solve the question of its preasumed potential uses in medicine versus its unknown potential in human health and environment risks. This new thing, does it heal or does it kill? Ultimately, both, the toxicity and the medical applications will emerge from the interaction dynamics between inorganic and organic matter at the nanometric (molecular) scale. The responsible implementation of Nanotechnology will result as a balance between the risks and benefits to society analyzed by a broad spectrum of stakeholders. Our intention is to promote the debate on the evolution of this young discipline, nanotechnology, for its safe and responsible development. In parallel, we would like to approach Nature to society through Science and Nanotechnology."

Download the free ebook at the Internet Archive: Nanotechnology: balancing the promises
(168 MB) pdf_high resolution (print)
(3.14 MB) pdf_low resolution (web)
(8.84 MB) ePub (e-readers). You can download this ePub for multiple reading systems in PCs, mobiles or ebook readers, even read ePub-files in Firefox.

Balancing the promises plates

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:59:00 GMT

The selection of these images question and move us to a playground where it is possible to disclose what apparently seems to be hidden and where we can experience the convergence of art and science. Knowledge, reflection, aesthetic enjoyment, and beauty find here their own place.

The playground opened in front of us is not predefined, neither for the scientist nor for the receiver, if any of these figures could ever be independent one from the other. In fact it is a space where incontigency, what is for itself, it appears in front of us contingently like an objet trouvé.

It is absolutely possible to establish a link between the representation of certain nanotechnological images and their perception by the spectator in a way that can evoke an aesthetic experience leading to sensory-cognitive connections.

I am going to mention two quotes from the article "Balancing the promises" very appropriate for this introduction to the aesthetics of the nanotechnology images: "nanoparticles conjugate composed by an inorganic core coated by a thin layer of organic matter" and "How do we go from chemistry to biology? Nanotechnology". In this way is configured a double corollary, the one of 'covering-uncovering' and the one of 'bridge-path'.

The interpretation and the playground will be opened if we are able to accept the invitation to unwrap and cross objet trouvé,that means, these
images from the nanometric world, with their own potentialities, as if we were contemplating a simple Haiku from Matsuo Basho or a caligram from Apollinaire.

Is not by chance that as first plate it appears a sample of human in an alert position, walking stealthily on tiptoe across 'Nanoland' balancing the promises. The character (main figure) I guess is there, in order to be our guide through this territory full of winding curves, intricate paths, complex nets, floral landscape and bright stars escaped from the Van Gogh picture 'Starry night' It is useless to expect that maps could help us in this trip because maps themselves are part of that magnificent territory. At the end of this enriching walk our tiny guide points us cubic shapes that remind us dice, an then comes to our mind the Mallarme's poem 'A throw of the dice will never abolish chance' concluding that any interpretation along this trek could only be, even tough we have a guide, a matter of chance. Source: Balancing the promises plates by Anna Rierola, Transcultural

Context: The book Nanotechnology: balancing the promises includes 42 original plates of nanoparticles

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Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin: Structure as Art

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:33:00 GMT

In 1964, Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1910-1994) became only the second woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The award was made for her pioneering work on two of the most important complex molecular structures solved up to that time using X-ray crystallographic methods: penicillin and vitamin B₁₂.

While Hodgkin traced her love of chemistry to growing sparkling crystals in school when she was 10 [1], she had a wide range of talents and a broad, eclectic and idiosyncratic education that could have led her into many other professions, including archaeology or the arts. The
child of archaeologists, Hodgkin was home schooled by her mother, Molly Crowfoot, when the family was in Africa and the Middle East. Crowfoot was a talented amateur artist and botanist who became a world authority on Sudanese flowers, ancient textiles and weaving techniques [2]. Hodgkin and her younger sisters were taught to sew, weave, draw, paint and act, activities they pursued into adulthood. They learned botany, archaeology and geology in the field with their parents, and recorded their lessons in reports with pen and watercolor illustrations that show astonishing competence for 10- and 12-year-olds [3]. They learned history similarly by writing their own illustrated books [4], and Hodgkin also wrote and illustrated stories for her sisters.

Hodgkin missed out on the usual foundations in mathematics and languages that her intellectual peers in preparatory schools received, and she only partially made up for it in her teenage years at school in England. The result was a mind later described by her coworkers as neither mathematical nor symbolic, but unusually strong in three-dimensional pattern recognition, imaging and mapping [5]. Hodgkin's talents in these areas were developed further by the technical illustrations she did for her father in her late teen years. Her specialty appears to have been mosaics, whose depictions required her to analyze and accurately record the underlying repetitions within their patterns. From this activity, Hodgkin learned the fundamental principles of two-dimensional symmetries. In a year in Jerusalem (1929) between leaving school and entering Oxford, these insights about structure began to crystallize into formal knowledge: "I began to think of the restraints imposed by two-dimensional order in a plane" [6]. The drawings she began for her father that summer were eventually completed and published (see Article Frontispiece) [7] during her years as a chemistry major at Oxford, where she began to think about the restraints imposed by 3D orders in space as well. She pursued these interests by drawing, photographing and analyzing other forms of art as well, including Celtic knots she observed at the British Museum, Byzantine decoration in Ravenna and church architecture in Spain [8].

Art remained an important, if subsidiary, avocation throughout Hodgkin's life. She learned new techniques for accurately recording crystal structures [9], and took joy in transforming X-ray data into structural pictures. In one letter to her parents written during her years as a graduate student at Cambridge, she remarked, "It really is a relief to have the chemical work mixed up with so much drawing" [10]. During this period, she also went on weekend painting expeditions with the biologists C.H. Waddington and Robin Hill [11]. Her son, Luke Hodgkin, reports that she continued to draw and paint on holiday throughout her life, but rarely finished anything [12]. A severe case of rheumatoid arthritis [13] undoubtedly interfered. What she finished instead were stunning images of natural structures too small for the naked eye to perceive - surely a form of art as creative and inspiring as the mosaics, Celtic knots and architectural innovations she recorded in her earlier years.

References

^{1. E. Ferry, Dorothy Hodgkin: A Life (Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Press, 1998) p. 8.
2. Ferry [1] pp. 15-35.
3. Hodgkin supplementary material, shelfmarks A16-18, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.
4. Hodgkin [3] shelfmarks A12-15.
5. Ferry [1] pp. 244, 254, 310, 312.
6. Ferry [1] p. 39.
7. J.W. Crowfoot, Churches at Jerash
(London: British School of Archeology in Jerusalem, Supplementary Papers 3, 1931).
8. Ferry [1] pp. 69, 80, 118.
9. Ferry [1] p. 68.
10. Ferry [1] p. 66.
11. Ferry [1] pp. 98-99.
12. Luke Hodgkin, personal communication, 23 November 2005.
13. Ferry [1] pp. 177-179.
14. Crowfoot [7]}

ROBERT ROOT-BERNSTEIN
Department of Physiology
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
U.S.A.

E-mail: <rootbern@msu.edu>

Source: DOROTHY CROWFOOT HODGKIN: STRUCTURE AS ART. June 2007, Vol. 40, No. 3, Pages 259-261 © 2007 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Post by permision of Roger Malina

Scientists as Artists in Nano Science and Technology

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:27:00 GMT

In looking at the interaction of nano science and the arts it is interesting to look at the interest of scientists in the arts. These fall into two broad categories:

a) Scientists who have engaged in artistic practice during their scientific career, and this was important to their creativity.

b) Scientists who have collaborated with artists to create art works and this influenced their research practice, as well as creating art work exhibited professionally.

In the first category, Leonardo Co Editor Robert Root Bernstein wrote a note about Nobel prize winning chemist Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin. Dodgkin was a talented amateur artist and botanist who became a world authority on Sudanese flowers, ancient textiles and weaving techniques. She also became an expert on mosaics.

DOROTHY CROWFOOT HODGKIN: STRUCTURE AS ART
June 2007, Vol. 40, No. 3, Pages 259-261
© 2007 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Robert Root-Bernstein: Art Science the Essential Connection
Department of Physiology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824 U.S.A. E-mail: rootbern@msu.edu

Hodgkin credits her drawing practice as being crucial to her development ideas on symmetry groups and chemical structure. At the end her life she drew many drawings.

"What she finished instead were stunning images of natural structures too small for the naked eye to perceive—surely a form of art as creative and inspiring as the mosaics,Celtic knots and architectural innovations she recorded in her earlier years."

With recent work on mirror neurons, we are developing better ideas of how the human mind constructs mental models, and often this involves kinesthetic mirroring. Drawing and other artistic practice can be strategies for scientific creativity and innovation.

Derrick de Kerchove in the recent YASMIN discussion on "Simulation" pointed out that it will also force us to at art practice in a new way: "Though still controversial, if the theory ( mirror neurons) turns out to be verified, it may have consequences for the study of media, of performing arts and of the growing practice of simulation in general. The acting profession from ancient Greek theatre to television, cinema and virtual reality could be no more and no less than a biological strategy to introduce new and complex human experience and behavior in society. It would go at some length to explain the manner by which the spectator accesses emotions that are quite literally projected into him or her by the performance."

As we look at the way that nano scientists and nano technologists are involved in the arts we need to understand the retro active of their art making on themselves and their creativity , as well as the way the art works produced allow viewers to access new domains of the natural world. They in effect are developing new forms of sensuality for sensory awareness mediated by scientific instruments. Via Leonardo/ISAST cooperation with NanoWiki

Related news list by date, most recent first: art

Emergence of Femtomedicine

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:26:00 GMT

Bombarding DNA nucleotides and mammalian meat with ‘femto-neutrons’ has opened up the path to femtomedicine, an entirely new cancer diagnostics, it was reported at First Global Congress on NanoEngineering for Medicine and Biology. Femto-neutrons or ‘femtons’ are fast neutrons of femto-meter wave-length, a million times shorter than the current nanotechnology medical diagnostic probes that operate on nanometer scale. In the first experiment of the kind, a collaboration of California Science & Engineering Corp. (CALSEC) and University of California, Irvine (UCI) College of Medicine, was able to detect oxygen differences as tiny as 1 atom of oxygen per molecule, one foot away, it is claimed. Since ‘hypoxic’ cancerous tumors contain 50% to 90% less oxygen than healthy tissue, if you find an oxygen difference between a tumor and the adjacent healthy tissue – you have diagnosed cancer! The principle is named ‘Differential Femto Oximetry’ or DFO, and the patented diagnostic probe ‘Oncosensor’. “We are ready to test DFO in vivo using double blind animal trials at our center”, said co-author Orhan Nalcioglu, Professor and Director of the Center for Functional Onco Imaging of the UCI College of Medicine, which specializes in evaluation of diagnostic devices.

“Oncosensor’s mission is to provide needleless biopsy with negligible ‘ false negatives’ that is a quantum leap over the current technologies. It should facilitate an early warning, walk-in, painless, instant cancer diagnosis from outside the body, without intravenous fluid” - says Dr. Bogdan Maglich, CALSEC’s Chief Technology Officer and the developer of the core technology that was originally used for defense, one of “50 Champions of Innovation” elected by Fast Company Magazine. The Oncosensor is not an imager. It will be used in tandem with any one of the imaging systems that have achieved very high sensitivity, almost 98%, in detecting tumors; but have a low ‘specificity’, about 70%, in differentiating healthy from malignant ones, thus missing an unacceptably large number of malignancies. CALSEC scientists predict Oncosensor’s specificity will reach 98%, which is equal to or better than the surgical biopsy. This will be accomplished by making patients inhale ‘carbogen’, an oxygen enriched gas, the authors claim. Dr. Nisar Syed, Chancellor of American College of Radiation Oncology emphasized:”Oncosensor has the potential to significantly improve the eradication of malignant tumors by hyperthermia, the heat treatment by pointing to the least oxygenated tissue.”

“The method has also the potential for the forewarning of stroke, Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular diseases which, too, are marked by oxygen change,” says co-author Dr. Anna Radovic, a molecular biologist. Source: EMERGENCE OF “FEMTOMEDICINE”- NEW FRONTIER OF BIOMED SCIENCES - REPORTED AT FIRST GLOBAL CONGRESS ON NANO MEDICINE. More information in the presentation by Dr. Bogdan C. Maglich

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SciArt NanoLab

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:56:00 GMT

nanolab from Art|Sci Center on Vimeo.

NanoLab is a unique program for creative high school students who love both art and science. This program will immerse students in a world renowned research University setting with access to cutting edge science labs and museums. Small groups of students are led by an art-science instructor duo — giving a larger perspective to the sciences being explored.

A two week summer course including lecture, required screenings, lab visits, field trips and outside study, offered through UCLA's Summer Institute. This introductory studio / lab course explores the creative aspects of scientific research and innovation. Students will gain a broad understanding of the impact of science on contemporary art and popular culture and focus on new sciences - bio and nanotechnology. Emphasis will be on development of proposals and ideas that could serve as prototypes for either an art project or a scientific research study.

The advantage of an artistic approach to new science lies in their ability to approach problems from a more holistic and general approach, to conceive of ways to deal with complexity in ways that don't rely on the usual tried and tested methodology of the scientist or engineer and which, when combined with science, provide a powerful new direction for invention and creation.

Sponsored by UCLA's Art|Sci Center + Lab, the department of Design | Media Arts and the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI). The UCLA Art|Sci Center + Lab focuses on multi-disciplinary collaborations addressing social, ethical and environmental issues related to scientific and technological innovation. Source: SciArt NanoLab 2010. Via Leonardo/ISAST cooperation with NanoWiki

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Nano and art: Leonardo/ISAST cooperation with NanoWiki

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:44:00 GMT

"The critical challenges of the 21st century require mobilization and cross-fertilization among the domains of art, science and technology. Leonardo/ISAST fosters collaborative explorations both nationally and internationally by facilitating interdisciplinary projects and documenting and disseminating information about interdisciplinary practice." From Leonardo /ISAST Mission

Currently, "Leonardo, the Journal of the International Society of the Arts, Sciences and Technology, is seeking to publish papers and artworks on the intersections of chemistry, nanotechnology and art for our on-going special section on nanotechnology and the arts. With this special section of Leonardo, we hope to ignite artists' interest in the exploration of nanotech/nanoscience and encourage scientists, scholars and educators to contemplate the implications of an art-nanotech/nanoscience connection. Leonardo, in collaboration with the Exploratorium under the auspices of the Nanotech Informal Science Education Network, will publish a series of special sections periodically over the next 5 years exploring the intersections of nanotech/science and art." From Nanotechnology, Nanoscale Science And Art

In this framework, Leonardo/ISAST begin a cooperation with NanoWiki in the publication of capsules tagged "art", providing one new item a month; an abstract of a paper either accepted or published in one of the Leonardo journals or a related news that deal with nano and art. NanoWiki is a digital online publication, developed in the frame of NanoAracat, to track the evolution of paradigms and discoveries in nanoscience and nanotechnology field, annotate and disseminate them, giving an overall view and feed the essential public debate on nanotechnology and its practical applications.

This is the first post resulting from this cooperation of Leonardo with NanoWiki, send by Roger Malina from a call of Victoria Vesna and edited by NanoWiki team: SciArt NanoLab

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A Transistor Mimics Synapse Functions

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:56:00 GMT

For the first time, French researchers at CNRS and CEA have developed a transistor that can mimic the main functionalities of a synapse. This organic transistor, based on pentacene and gold nanoparticles and known as a NOMFET (Nanoparticle Organic Memory Field-Effect Transistor), has opened the way to new generations of neuro-inspired computers, capable of responding in a manner similar to the nervous system.

In the development of new information processing strategies, one approach consists in mimicking the way biological systems such as neuron networks operate to produce electronic circuits with new features. In the nervous system, a synapse is the junction between two neurons, enabling the transmission of electric messages from one neuron to another and the adaptation of the message as a function of the nature of the incoming signal (plasticity). For example, if the synapse receives very closely packed pulses of incoming signals, it will transmit a more intense action potential. Conversely, if the pulses are spaced farther apart, the action potential will be weaker. It is this plasticity that the researchers have succeeding in mimicking with the NOMFET.

A transistor, the basic building block of an electronic circuit, can be used as a simple switch - it can then transmit, or not, a signal - or instead offer numerous functionalities (amplification, modulation, encoding, etc.).

The innovation of the NOMFET resides in the original combination of an organic transistor and gold nanoparticles. These encapsulated nanoparticles, fixed in the channel of the transistor and coated with pentacene, have a memory effect that allows them to mimic the way a synapse works during the transmission of action potentials between two neurons. This property therefore makes the electronic component capable of evolving as a function of the system in which it is placed. Its performance is comparable to the seven CMOS transistors (at least) that have been needed until now to mimic this plasticity.

The devices produced have been optimized to nanometric sizes in order to be able to integrate them on a large scale. Neuro-inspired computers produced using this technology are capable of functions comparable to those of the human brain. Unlike silicon computers, widely used in high performance computing, neuro-inspired computers can resolve much more complex problems, such as visual recognition. Source: An organic transistor paves the way for new generations of neuro-inspired computers. This work is detailed in the paper An Organic Nanoparticle Transistor Behaving as a Biological Spiking Synapse by Fabien Alibart, Stéphane Pleutin, David Guérin, Christophe Novembre, Stéphane Lenfant, Kamal Lmimouni, Christian Gamrat and Dominique Vuillaume.

Related quotes

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Cancer metastasis mechanism at nanometer level

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:01:00 GMT

A research group led by Professor Noriaki Ohuchi, Senior Assistant Professor Kohsuke Gonda at Graduate School of Medicine, Tohoku University and Professor Hideo Higuchi at Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo has developed an optical system to image with a spatial precision of 9 nanometer in vivo. The optical system enables to visualize protein and drug at single molecular level in tumor-bearing mice which is implanted with human breast cancer cells. The most terrible biological property of cancer is its ability to spread to other organs. The research group labeled the metastasis-promoting protein on the cell membrane with fluorescence particle and has analyzed the protein dynamics with the newly developed optical device. In this study, they firstly discovered following cancer mechanisms using mice:
1. A change of cell morphology is important for cancer metastasis.
2. Cancer cells showed increases in migration speed (diffusion speed) of membrane protein (over 1000-fold) with progression of metastasis. The change of migration speed is important for activation of cancer metastasis.

A cancer metastasis mechanism at molecular level has long been unknown because a spatial precision of previous in vivo imaging was at micrometer level. This study enable to visualize the mechanism of cancer metastasis at molecular level. The results are expected to clarify an activation mechanism of cancer metastasis, evaluate malignant grade by mesuring membrane protein migration speed, and develop a new treatment with improved anticancer drug. Source: Visualization of a cancer metastasis mechanism at nanometer level: Discovery of dramatic changes of membrane dynamics in cancer cells during metastasis. This work is detailed in the paper “In vivo nano-imaging of membrane dynamics in metastatic tumor cells using quantum dots” by Kohsuke Gonda, Tomonobu M. Watanabe, Noriaki Ohuchi and Hideo Higuchi.

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Nanotechnology: What is it and how will affect us?

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:35:00 GMT

"Governments and industry are pouring billions of euros into developing nanotechnology, while the media and consumer goods companies use the word “nano” with ever-increasing regularity. Yet nanotechnology is well understood by very few outside the scientific community even though its impacts, both positive and negative, are likely to affect many aspects of our lives within a decade. This report aims to give the non-scientist a brief yet comprehensive overview of nanotechnology – what it is, what its impacts will be on industry, the economy, the environment and society - and suggests some actions that can be implemented on a regional basis to address the key issues of concern, with particular reference to Catalonia." Source: Nanotechnology: What is it and how will affect us? A non-technical review of nanotechnology from a Catalan perspective — its potential economic and social impacts and the potential role of public policy. Edited by: Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation (FCRI), June 2009. Direction: Judit Castellà. Co-ordination: Dolors López. Author: Boaz Kogon. Scientific revision: Jordi Pascual. Linguistic revision: Montserrat Miras. Design and layout: Iván Barreda

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Nano-motors facilitate communication between brain cells

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 23:06:00 GMT

MRC-funded scientists led by Dr Josef Kittler (UCL Neuroscience) have identified how nano-sized motors in nerve cells help to regulate the balance of communication in the brain.

The findings may also help to explain why communication between nerve cells is disrupted in Huntington’s disease, leading to altered electrical behaviour of nerve cells in this disease.

Nerve cells send signals to each other by releasing chemicals at specialized junctions between the cells called synapses. One key neurotransmitter, called GABA, acts on special proteins (GABA receptors) to generate inhibition, which stops the brain from becoming too excitable. In a paper, Dr Kittler reveals how a protein named HAP1, working together with molecular motor proteins, helps to guide the GABA receptors to the synapses.

Alison Twelvetrees (UCL Neuroscience) first author on the study, said: “This work advances our understanding of how the GABA receptor proteins are delivered to synapses to control the level of inhibition in the brain. We show that the receptors are transported to synapses by small nanometer-sized motors, on intracellular protein tracks called microtubules”.

In the inherited neurological disorder Huntington’s disease, a mutation in the gene for the protein huntingtin leads to the production of a mutant huntingtin protein. This can disrupt several aspects of normal nerve cell function, including the function of the synapses. This altered function of synapses is likely to be an important contributor to the progression of the disorder.

Lead author Dr Josef Kittler said: “Our work shows how the transport of the GABA receptors to synapses is disrupted by the protein that is mutated in Huntington’s disease, and adds another piece to the complex puzzle of how synaptic communication in the brain gets disrupted in this disorder”.

The research is a good example of how understanding the way that tiny, but crucial, cell components such as synapses function contributes to understanding problems that affect whole body systems. Source: Nano-motors facilitate communication between brain cells. This work is detailed in the paper Delivery of GABAARs to Synapses Is Mediated by HAP1-KIF5 and Disrupted by Mutant Huntingtin by Alison E. Twelvetrees, Eunice Y. Yuen, I. Lorena Arancibia-Carcamo, Andrew F. MacAskill, Philippe Rostaing, Michael J. Lumb, Sandrine Humbert, Antoine Triller, Frederic Saudou, Zhen Yan, Josef T. Kittler.

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Feynman Anniversary Symposium

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:55:00 GMT

February 12th— 13th, 2010 — Feynman Anniversary Symposium— at University of South Carolina

The University of South Carolina will convene a symposium to consider the talk, the man, and the field of nanotechnology during the past fifty years.

Context: Richard Feynman and Nanotechnology

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Nanotechnology, Nanoscale Science And Art

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:59:00 GMT

2011 is the International Year of Chemistry! To celebrate Leonardo is seeking to publish papers and artworks on the intersections of chemistry, nanotechnology and art for our on-going special section on nanotechnology and the arts. Since its inception nanotech/science has been intimately connected to chemistry; fullerenes, nanoputians, molecular machines, nano-inorganics and self-assembling molecular systems all spring from the minds and labs of chemists, biochemists and chemical engineers. If you’re a nano-oriented chemist who is serious about art, an artist working on the molecular level, or a chemical educator exploring the mysteries of nano through the arts we are especially seeking submissions from you.

Over the last decade, "nano" has become a buzzword signifying everything from imagined atomic-scale robotic utopias to small electronics. For scientists the shift toward nano has also become ubiquitous; what used to be referred to as molecular has been reframed as nano; 27 journals devoted to nanotech/nanoscience are now published; and the National Science Foundation and other granting agencies have devoted a significant amount of funding toward nanotech/nanoscience. Among engineers, scientists and science-studies scholars, discussions of the potential of nanotech/nanoscience abound, including conferences that debate the pros and cons of a nano-hegemony and attempt to debunk some of the hype. Artists, however, have only begun to explore this emergent scientific field, leaving it wide open for creative interpretation. With this special section of Leonardo, we hope to ignite artists' interest in the exploration of nanotech/nanoscience and encourage scientists, scholars and educators to contemplate the implications of an art-nanotech/nanoscience connection.

Leonardo, in collaboration with the Exploratorium under the auspices of the Nanotech Informal Science Education Network, will publish a series of special sections periodically over the next 5 years exploring the intersections of nanotech/science and art. We are especially seeking submissions of artworks (visual, performance, sound, etc.) with artist's statements explaining the relationship of the work to nanotech/science; essays from scientists, engineers and scholars exploring the connection between nanotech/science and art; and essays and visuals aiming at nanotech/science education that use the arts as a pedagogical tool.

Interested artists and authors are invited to send proposals, queries and/or manuscripts to the Leonardo editorial office at leonardomanuscripts@gmail.com

Resources and related projects:
The Leonardo Scientists Working Group (Tami Spector, Chair)
Nanotechnology and Art discussion on YASMIN Network (co-sponsored by Leonardo), moderated by piratas.de.la.ciencia
Nanotechnology Takes Off and Future of Nanosolar - two short films on nanotechnology from QUEST: KQED's Bay Area Science, Nature and Environment Series.

Source: Leonardo Journal Call for Papers: NANOTECHNOLOGY, NANOSCALE SCIENCE AND ART. Guest Editors: Tom Rockwell and Tami I. Spector

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Nanotechnology information gap widening

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:04:00 GMT

As the global nanotechnology industry continues to produce cutting-edge consumer products, the scientific community is leaving a key part of the U.S. public behind when sharing knowledge of this new field of science, according to a new study by Arizona State University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Researchers found widening gaps in nanotech knowledge since 2004 between the least educated and most educated citizens. Americans with at least a college degree have shown an increased understanding of the new technology, while knowledge about nanotechnology has declined over time for those with education levels of less than a high school diploma, according to the study.

"Unfortunately, people with little or no formal education – those who need outreach the most – aren't getting as much information about this issue, which will likely become even harder to understand over time," says Elizabeth Corley, Lincoln Professor of Public Policy, Ethics and Emerging Technologies in Arizona State University's School of Public Affairs, and co-author of the study. Well-educated people who already are "information-rich" are learning about nanotechnology from traditional outreach efforts such as museums, Corley says. Closing these informational gaps among public audiences "is a necessity, especially in light of a projected 2009 U.S. budget that has reduced spending for ‘educational and social dimensions' of nanotechnology to $33.5 million from $39.2 million in 2007," the article states.

"There is a real urgency to find ways of communicating effectively with all groups in society," says Dietram Scheufele, John E. Ross Professor in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and co-author of the study. "Unless we find ways to close these learning gaps, we will create two classes of citizens – those who are able to make informed consumer and policy choices about these new technologies, and those who simply can't."

But there is a silver lining. The study also found that the Internet is one of the most effective methods in closing gaps and informing the less educated about nanotechnology. "Online and social media are some of the most promising tools for making sure we reach all members of the public with information about science and technology," says Scheufele.

Corley and Scheufele analyzed data from national surveys conducted over the last five years. The study was funded by the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at ASU. Source: From Report: Nanotechnology information gap widening. This report is published in Outreach Going Wrong?. When we talk nano to the public, we are leaving behind key audiences by By Elizabeth A. Corley and Dietram A. Scheufele.

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Context: "In the emerging stages of a new technology - as is the case with nanotechnologies today - the public usually is either unaware or uninformed. This leaves a lot of room for extreme opinion makers to either hype or vilify all or aspects of the new technology. As risk perception and acceptance of a technology go hand in hand, risk communication is a key instruments in informing a largely unaware public." From Communicating nanotechnology by Michael Berger. Bibliography of research on public perceptions of nanotechnology

UK Parliament on Nanotechnologies in the Food Sector

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 23:14:00 GMT

The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee criticises the food industry for failing to be transparent about its research into the uses of nanotechnologies and nanomaterials

In their report, Nanotechnologies and Food, the Committee notes that transparency and honesty are key components for ensuring public trust in both food safety and scientific developments, and argue that the approach of food companies in not publishing or discussing details of its research in this area is unhelpful. The Committee acknowledges that the food industry is right to be concerned about negative public reactions to developments in nanotechnologies but asserts that appearing to be secretive about its research “is exactly the type of behaviour which may bring about the public reaction it is trying to avert.”

The Committee also urges the Government and Research Councils to adequately fund research into potential health and safety risks arising from the use of nanomaterials in the food sector.

The report recommends that the Food Standards Agency should contribute to consumer confidence in the use of nanomaterials in food by maintaining a publicly available register of food and food packaging containing nanomaterials. This register could be made available online. The Committee argues that this is a more appropriate mechanism for ensuring that accurate and up to date information on the use of nanomaterials is available to the public than a requirement that all food products containing nanomaterials be labelled.

The Committee calls for nanomaterials to be defined clearly in food legislation to ensure that all uses of nanomaterials in food are subject to appropriate risk assessment procedures. The report also recommends that the Government work with other EU nations to clarify what is meant by the phrase “properties that are characteristic to the nanoscale” in the draft definition proposed for the revised Novel Foods Regulation, by the inclusion in legislation of a more detailed list of what these properties comprise.

The Committee also raises concerns about the potential for the illegal importation of food products containing nanomaterials not approved for use in food in the EU.

Commenting, Lord Krebs, who chaired the Science and Technology Committee’s inquiry into Nanotechnologies and Food, said: “The use of nanotechnologies in food and food packaging is likely to grow significantly over the next decade. The technologies have the potential to deliver some significant benefits to consumers but it is important that detailed and thorough research into potential health and safety implications in this area is undertaken now to ensure that any possible risks are identified. The Government and Research Councils have a responsibility to ensure that this research takes place and must now take a proactive approach to identifying and funding appropriate research. The food industry must also be more open with the public about research it has undertaken in this area and where it sees nanomaterials being used in food production in the future. The lesson from the public reaction to GM foods is that secrecy breeds mistrust, and that openness and transparency are crucial to maintain public confidence. The public can expect to have access to information about the food they eat, but it is equally important that that information should be comprehensive and balanced. That is why we consider the right approach to providing information about nanomaterials in the food sector is through a public register, rather than by the blanket labelling of nanomaterials which may not be helpful in assisting consumers to make informed choices.” Source: From Lords Science and Technology Committee Criticises the Food Industry for Failing to be Transparent about its Research into the Uses of Nanotechnologies.

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