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recent book reviews from ACS journals.
Dance of Molecules: How Nanotechnology Is Changing Our Lives, by Ted Sargent
(New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2006; ISBN 1560258098) Reviewed by Dana Roth, Caltech
Dance of Molecules is a readable account of current accomplishments, although a little hyperbolic in places, gives a reasonable view of the possibilities of nanoscience and nanotechnology.
The book is divided into sections on health, environment, and information. It concludes with an epilogue and an extensive list of references, including those specific to text passages and general references for each section.
Quoting from the epilogue:
Nanotechnology is an active search for convergence among traditionally disparate disciplines, a quest to see the unity of ideas. ... Nanotechnology is a rebirth of renaissance science in a time when to be a true Renaissance scientist is no longer possible. ... Fortunately, though, within this new framework a researcher’s discoveries are not limited to what he can fit inside his own mind. If he can find partners with complementary skills and knowledge, together they can assemble the expertise needed to carry on work of exceptional quality and practical importance.
While giving brief mention of research at Rice University on the toxicity of buckyballs, Sargent seems to talk around the possible adverse effects of nanoparticles. He simply calls for applying the “regulatory framework that worked well for suspected environmental and human toxins” and for the “need to recognize that ... new materials have the potential for harm as well as good.”
Given recent revelations of nanoparticles breaching the blood–brain barrier and concerns about likely harm to lung function, this wait-and-see approach seems overly optimistic. Concern about nanoparticles possibly being a new “asbestos” is legitimate, especially because they can be both catalysts and very persistent. There also seems to be an optimism that equates the toxicity of the bulk material with its nano form, at least in the manufacturing sector. Nano researchers hopefully will realize that commercial development could be permanently discouraged by any kind of general health scare.
Fortunately, the literature list on legitimate environmental concerns is growing rapidly. Some examples follow.
Nanotoxicology: An emerging discipline evolving from studies of ultrafine particles
Oberdorster G, Oberdorster E, Oberdorster J
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES 113 (7): 823-839 JUL 2005. (cited 76
times in Web of Science) http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1257642&blobtype=pdf
Nanomaterials: Toxicity, Health and Environmental Issues
Challa S. S. R.
Kumar (Editor) Wiley-VCH (August 30, 2006)
ISBN-10: 3527313850
ISBN-13: 978-3527313853
Nanotechnology: Consequences for Human Health and the Environment
Roy M. Harrison & Ron Hester (Editors)
Royal Society of Chemistry (31 Mar 2007)
ISBN-10: 0854042164
ISBN-13: 978-0854042166
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