May 2007: Public consultation on SCENIHR Opinion on
The appropriateness of the risk assessment methodology in accordance with the Technical Guidance Documents for new and existing substances for assessing the risks of nanomaterials

Only scientifically based comments requested under:
http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_risk/committees/04_scenihr/scenihr_cons_04_en.htm

Deadline for submission of comments: May 23, 2007

Report as PDF>>

April 2007: Svedish hospital found a patient with bacteria that is resistant against silver particles. The use of silver (nano) particles has to be limited.
Read the article in Danish in Ingeniøren:

http://ing.dk/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007104270002&NL=1&Category=BIO

February 2007: EU-report available on 'Nanomedicine - Nanotechnology for health' , Cordis calls it the 'Visions on Nanomedicine in Europe'

January 2007: An Opinion about the toxicity of Carbon Nano Tubes by Jörg M. Wörle-Knirsch and Harald F. Krug (found in Nanotoday)

November 2006: Maynard et al. 'Safe handling of nanotechnology'
The authors state several actions to be taken to ensure a save future with the promising nanotechnologies.
'Understanding and preventing risk often has a low priority in the competitive world of research funding.'
Find the often cited article in Nature, 444, 267 (2006).

Safety of Nano: There are different studies available about the possible risks of Nanoparticles

April 2006: Nano particles were not the cause of health problems triggered by sealing sprays
Read the article by the Federal Institute for risk assessment

April 2006: Strategic Research Agenda in Photonics, Recommendations to the EU , get the PDF here >>

November 2005: Strategic Research Agenda
European Technology Platform Nanoelectronics, get the PDF here >>

September 2005: European Technology Platform on NanoMedicine
Nanotechnology for Health, Vision paper, get the PDF here >>

July 2004: Study commissioned by the UK government on ethical, health and safety or social issues which are not covered by current regulation.
http://www.nanotec.org.uk/finalReport.htm
Here you will also find the governmental response to the report and other intersting links.

July 2005: 'Nanotechnology-a key Technology for the Future of Europe'
This is a report provided by the EU. It lists some state of the art investigations as well as opinions in which direction we should move with research addressing important global needs. This might be important to have in mind when applying for FP7.

April 2006:Tom Hausken: Nanophotonics means products, not markets

Nanotechnology has long promised to revolutionize the optics industry, but major commercial success for nanophotonics products has remained elusive. Tom Hausken argues that the revolution is happening, just not in the way that we anticipated.

this article appeared in optics.org: http://optics.org/articles/ole/11/4/2

December 2005: Rob Ritchie: While the nano revolution has taken materials
science by storm, it is the union with biology that
has real potential for life-changing advances
Article appeared in Materials Today, Dec. 2005, vol.8, 72
Get the PDF here>>

September 27: What does the public know about 'Nano'?

The UK's NanoJury has announced its recommendations for the future of nanotechnology. The article can be read here >>.

Most interesting was the way the debate started. 16 members of public spend five weeks listening to a selection of experts. But they were actually not invited to discuss nanotechnology in the first place but rather start with another topic- youth crime. The reason for this was that the organizers feared that jurors would not sign up for a nanotechnology discussion, and they were probably right as several of the jurors dropped out when they found out about the topic nanotechnology.

"When people first said to us 'nano' it meant nothing," said one of the jurors. "When we had the chance to question the witnesses, they unveiled things for us. We're much better informed now." Another juror agreed, adding, "We became more aware of what technology could do - the more we got to know, the more interested we were."

It might be a good idea to keep this in mind when writing a popular article next time. It seems that many scientist are too far from their audience.

Safety of Nanoparticles:

July 2004: Study commissioned by the UK government on ethical, health and safety or social issues which are not covered by current regulation.
http://www.nanotec.org.uk/finalReport.htm
Here you will also find the governmental response to the report and other intersting links.

August 2004: Industrial Application of Nanomaterials - Chances and Risks Technological Analysis