I do some work for OnEarth Magazine; you and readers here might like the feature and podcast we published last fall. The feature article, written by NY Times Magazine contributor Robin Marantz Henig, looks like it’ll be in some best-of-2007 anthologies.

I would hardly call nanotechnology a fad, it is the inevitable next step in our technologies constant trend of scaling down. Also, nanosilver may be hazardous but the biggest potential for disaster in the realm of nanotechnology lies in self replicating nanobots.

I hate to be the voice of reason here but, Michael Cricthon’s Prey is a FICTIONAL novel. To make the story more interesting he had to use some logical leaps and assumptions that don’t actually apply. The scale of devices he mentions are in the picometer range which is two orders of magnitude smaller than individual atoms. Even the idea of a camera that self-assembles in the blood stream is wonderful but difficult to implement. In order to get fluid flow and access to all areas of the body, it would have to be on a size scale similar to a red blood cell. At this size, a camera obscura would have resolution of less than 100 pixels!

Fabuwarrior is actually quite correct. The prevailing theory for protection from nano-attackers is an active nano-shield. Sort of a designed nanobot immune system. The body would be in a perpetual state of attack and defense and those without may well perish. Not a very pleasant thought.

Luckily we are many years away from any sort of self-replicating intelligent nanotechnology. At this point it really is just chemistry and surface science. NanoTECHNOLOGY is just a misnomer until someone creates a complicated structure assembled at the nanoscale. Microprocessors, nanocars, and pumps are just very clever applications of chemistry. The way all these things improve and advance should be carefully monitored. If a given group wants to create molecular assemblers, ultimately, they cannot be stopped but until then, do it in a confined lab and hope for the best!

Why don’t they just create self-replicating nano-bots that can be injected directly into the bloodstream that swim around collecting and filtering nano toxins after which they swim to the colon and are excreted naturally?

Scientists can be so dense sometimes.

Not that nanotechnology development and progress – which holds a lot of promise – should be halted, but this is definitely something for VC’s, investors, startups, corporations, and governments to think about when allocating resources for nanotechnology.

They should consider investing in ensuring public safety, developing the tools to remediate a contamination, and avoiding a repeat of the 1981 chemical spill…