Small size - large impact - Nanowerk

The American and
Japanese perspectives
Phillip J. Bond is Under
Secretary of Commerce for
Technology, United States
of America
Opposite:
Southeastern United States
10 +6
1,000 kilometers
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Responsible nanotechnology
development
Phillip J. Bond
Dawn has broken on the Age of Nanotechnology. Sustained global investments by
governments and private companies around the world are already beginning to deliver
on the economic and societal promise of nanotechnology. In the near term, nanotechnology
is likely to deliver evolutionary advances in existing products and processes; in the longer
term, nanotechnology is likely to deliver revolutionary advances – amazing, economydisrupting,
life-changing advances – across a broad swath of industries.
Anything revolutionary is unnerving to some. And so, as with other technologies
throughout history, some have responded with a call for a slowdown or outright
moratorium on nanotechnology research and commercialization. To those who advocate
such a position, I have three messages:
First, nanotechnology is coming, and it won’t be stopped. The economic promise, the
societal potential, and the human desire for knowledge are forces that cannot be held
back. Across the globe, research is underway. Wealthy and developing nations alike are
investing more each year to reap the economic and societal rewards of nanotechnology.
With this level of investment, nano-based innovation is inevitable.
Second, given nanotechnology’s extraordinary economic and societal potential, it
would be unethical, in my view, to attempt to halt scientific and technological progress
in nanotechnology. Nanotechnology offers the potential for improving people’s standard
of living, healthcare, and nutrition; reducing or even eliminating pollution through
clean production technologies; repairing existing environmental damage; feeding the
world’s hungry; enabling the blind to see and deaf to hear; eradicating diseases and
offering protection against harmful bacteria and viruses; and even extending the length
and the quality of life through the repair or replacement of failing organs. Given this
fantastic potential, how can our attempt to harness nanotechnology’s power at the
earliest opportunity – to alleviate so many earthly ills – be anything other than ethical?
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