Washington, DC--(ENEWSPF)--August 23, 2012. Two commonly used nanoparticles have a significant impact on the growth and yield of food crops, according to a team of scientists led by University of California Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. The study’s conclusions echo similar research findings that show human and environmental risks from nanoparticles are not fully understood, and conclude that a precautionary approach should be used until their fate and toxicity is better understood. The nanoparticles tested in the PNAS study, “Soybean susceptibility to manufactured nanomaterials with evidence for food quality and soil fertility interruption,” include zinc oxide, found in everyday products such as sunscreen, lotions, and cosmetics, and cerium oxide, used in diesel fuels to increase fuel combustion. Zinc oxide nanoparticles enter agricultural fields through the application of biosolid (sewage sludge) fertilizers, which are composed of dried microbes previously used to process wastewater in treatment plants. Researchers discovered that soybean plants grown in soil containing zinc oxide particles bioaccumulate zinc, taking up the metal and distributing it throughout edible plant tissue. This caused a decrease in the food quality of the soybeans, and researchers indicate that it is uncertain whether the zinc that accumulates in the plant’s tissues is safe for human consumption in the form of ions and salts. “Juxtaposed against widespread land application of wastewater treatment biosolids to food crops, these findings forewarn of agriculturally associated human and environmental risks from the accelerating use of MNMs [manufactured nanomaterial],” the study notes. Cerium oxide nanoparticles can contaminate agricultural fields through exhaust fumes from farm equipment, a likely scenario given that most all conventional soybean crops are produced with the help of industrial machinery. Soybean plants exposed to cerium oxide show a notable reduction in plant growth and yield. Though the cerium oxide particles did not bioaccumulate in plant tissues, they did have a considerable effect on the ability of soybeans to fix nitrogen, an important ecological function specific to leguminous crops. The nanomaterial concentrated at the root nodules of the plant, blocking its ability to form a relationship with the symbiotic bacteria that convert nitrogen in the air to plant-available ammonium fertilizer. The impacts of nanoparticles could lead conventional farmers to apply
Transcript
Washington, DC--(ENEWSPF)--August 23, 2012. Two commonly used nanoparticles have a significant impact on the growth and yield of food crops, according to a team of scientists led by University of California Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. The study’s conclusions echo similar research findings that show human and environmental risks from nanoparticles are not fully understood, and conclude that a precautionary approach should be used until their fate and toxicity is better understood. The nanoparticles tested in the PNAS study, “Soybean susceptibility to manufactured nanomaterials with evidence for food quality and soil fertility interruption,” include zinc oxide, found in everyday products such as sunscreen, lotions, and cosmetics, and cerium oxide, used in diesel fuels to increase fuel combustion.Zinc oxide nanoparticles enter agricultural fields through the application of biosolid (sewage sludge) fertilizers, which are composed of dried microbes previously used to process wastewater in treatment plants. Researchers discovered that soybean plants grown in soil containing zinc oxide particles bioaccumulate zinc, taking up the metal and distributing it throughout edible plant tissue. This caused a decrease in the food quality of the soybeans, and researchers indicate that it is uncertain whether the zinc that accumulates in the plant’s tissues is safe for human consumption in the form of ions and salts. “Juxtaposed against widespread land application of wastewater treatment biosolids to food crops, these findings forewarn of agriculturally associated human and environmental risks from the accelerating use of MNMs [manufactured nanomaterial],” the study notes.Cerium oxide nanoparticles can contaminate agricultural fields through exhaust fumes from farm equipment, a likely scenario given that most all conventional soybean crops are produced with the help of industrial machinery. Soybean plants exposed to cerium oxide show a notable reduction in plant growth and yield. Though the cerium oxide particles did not bioaccumulate in plant tissues, they did have a considerable effect on the ability of soybeans to fix nitrogen, an important ecological function specific to leguminous crops. The nanomaterial concentrated at the root nodules of the plant, blocking its ability to form a relationship with the symbiotic bacteria that convert nitrogen in the air to plant-available ammonium fertilizer. The impacts of nanoparticles could lead conventional farmers to apply increasing amounts of synthetic fertilizers to make up for the loss of this natural function.The results of this study underline the urgent need for oversight and regulation of emerging nanotechnology. While the U.S Environmental Protection Agency is required to limit industrial metal discharge into public wastewater treatment plants, there are currently no regulations curtailing the release of metal nanoparticles. Researchers explain, “MNMs — while measurable in the wastewater treatment plant systems — are neither monitored nor regulated, have a high affinity for activated sludge bacteria, and thus concentrate in biosolids.” According to the scientists, “There could be hotspots, places where you have accumulation, including near manufacturing sites where the materials are being made, or if there are spills. We have very limited information about the quantity or state of these synthetic nanomaterials in the environment right now. We know they’re being used in consumer goods, and we know they’re going down the drain.”Nanotechnology is a relatively new technology for taking apart and reconstructing nature at the atomic and molecular level. Just as the size and chemical characteristics of manufactured nanoparticles can give them unique properties, those same new properties –tiny size, vastly increased surface area to volume ratio, high reactivity– can also create unique and unpredictable human health and environmental risks. Many of the products containing nanomaterials on the market now are for skin care and cosmetics, but nanomaterials are also increasingly being used in products ranging from medical therapies to food
additives to electronics. In 2009, developers generated $1 billion from the sale of nanomaterials, and the market for products that rely on these materials is expected to grow to $3 trillion by 2015.At its fall 2010 meeting, the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) passed a recommendation directing the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) to prohibit engineered nanomaterials from certified organic products as expeditiously as possible. While there is overwhelming agreement to prohibit nanotechnology in organics generally, there is still debate over the definition of what exactly should be prohibited and how to prohibit nanotech products in the organic industry. The recommendation deals specifically with engineered synthetic nanomaterials and purposefully omits those that are naturally occurring. Further it would block petitions seeking an exemption, and keep nanomaterials out of food packaging and contact surfaces.http://www.enewspf.com/science/science-a-environmental/35846-study-reveals-nanoparticles-jeopardize-food-quality-and-soil-fertility.html
Welcome to the world of nano foods
'I'd like to drink a glass of water and know that the contents are going into my stomach - not my lungs. We are giving very toxic chemicals the ability to go where they've never gone before'
Willy Wonka is the father of nano-food. The great chocolate- factory owner, you'll remember, invented a chewing gum that was a full three-course dinner. 'It will be the end of all kitchens and cooking,' he told the children on his tour - and produced a prototype sample of Wonka's Magic Chewing Gum. One strip of this would deliver tomato soup, roast beef with roast potatoes and blueberry pie and ice cream. In the right order. Violet Beauregarde snatched it, swiftly ate it and, at the pudding stage, turned bright purple and blew up to three times her size.Far-fetched? The processed-food giant Kraft and a group of research laboratories are busy working towards 'programmable food'. One product they are working on is a colourless, tasteless drink that you, the consumer, will design after you've bought it. You'll decide what colour and flavour you'd like the drink to be, and what nutrients it will have in it, once you get home. You'll zap the product with a correctly-tuned microwave transmitter - presumably Kraft will sell you that, too.
This will activate nano-capsules - each one about 2,000 times smaller than the width of a hair - containing the necessary chemicals for your choice of drink: green-hued, blackcurrant-flavoured with a touch of caffeine and omega-3 oil, say. They will dissolve while all the other possible ingredients will pass unused through your body, in their nano-capsules.
The end of cooking? Probably not. Catch me having friends round for a programmable nanocola? Not more than once. But our reaction to some of the dafter promises of the new science is not really relevant. You may not want it, but the food industry does. Every major food corporation is investing in nano-tech - government in Europe has pumped £1.7 billion in research money into the field over the past eight years. Nano-food and nano-food packaging are on their way because the food industry has spotted the chance for huge profi ts: by 2010, the business, according to analysts, will be worth $20
billion annually. And there is already a prototype of a Wonka-esque chewing gum that, using nano-capsules, promises the sensation of eating real chocolate.
The food industry is hooked on nano-tech's promises, but it is also very nervous. At a conference in Amsterdam to discuss nano-technology, food and health, I found representatives of all the big food corporations, mixing with some bumptious academics, all thrilled with their latest nano-applications, and some less gung-ho bioethicists.
The food people included Unilever, Kraft, Cadbury Schweppes, Tate & Lyle and Glaxo-SmithKline: they were very shy and entirely off the record, if they spoke at all. I was having a friendly chat with a research scientist from Numico, the European baby-foods giant (their brands include Milupa and Cow & Gate) until he found out I was a journalist. Then he refused to tell me his name and asked me to erase the word 'Numico' from my notebook. I thought he was going to snatch it away. It's obvious why they were edgy. Consumers are not ready for nano-food. Among some scientists in the field there is a real sense that nano-technology, in food at least, is a revolution that may die in its cradle - rejected by a public that has lost its trust in scientists and its patience with industry's profi t-driven fooling with what we eat.
At the conference, the media was blamed, of course. The only journalist there, I got some eggs thrown at me. Ignorant, sensationalist journalism was holding back progress, fuelling the public's 'irrational' reaction to novel food processes. But Lynn Frewer, professor of food safety and consumer behaviour at Wageningen University, a leading centre of nano-tech research in the Netherlands, called the scientists to order. It was the public's irrational fears that needed addressing, she said: 'It's human nature. An involuntary risk, however remote, concerns people far more than one over which they have a choice. That's why the public find gene technology more threatening than eating fatty, unhealthy food.'
After the debates over GMO [genetically modified organisms] and BSE, she said, public faith is very low, not just in the food industry but also the food regulators. 'The mechanisms to make [them] transparent must be put in place and enshrined - there need to be principles that the public can understand.'
Dr David Bennett, a veteran biochemist now working on a European Commission project on the ethics of 'nanobiotechnology', felt the prospect was bleak. He thought public rejection of nanotechnology was 'almost certain'. 'Very little risk assessment has been done on this area, even on some products already entering the market - and it's an open question whether it will be done. To Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, it's a gift.' And, he went on, the lack of proper assessment of nanotechnology 'scares me shitless'.
What's to be afraid of, from a technology that offers so much - healthier food, fewer, better targeted chemicals, less waste, 'smart' (and thus less) packaging, and even the promise of a technological solution to the problem of the one billion people who don't get enough to eat? Amid the papers on issues such as 'application of nano-filtration for demineralisation of twarog acid whey' (which will boost the yield in ice cream and yoghurt production) one much-discussed question in Amsterdam was how government should regulate the arrival of nano in the household. There are no new rules in Europe, and some voices - including the man from Unilever's research labs - dismissed the need for any. Nanotech is natural, he insisted: it uses no new substances, just the same ones smaller. But other scientists in the field disagree.
'Matter has different behaviour at nano-scales,' said Dr Kees Eijkel from the Dutch Twente University. 'That means diff erent risks are associated with it. We don't know what the risks are and the current regulations [on the introduction of new food processes] don't take that into account.'
Aluminium, for example, is stable in the 'big world' but an explosive at nano-levels. Some of the carbon nano-structures that are being used in electronics have been shown to be highly toxic if released into the environment. Some metals will kill bacteria at nano-scale - hence the interest in using them in food packaging - but what will happen if they get off the packaging and into us? No one seems to know - and as signifi cant a body as the UK's Royal Society has expressed worries over the lack of research into the health implications of free nano particles being introduced to our environment.
The size question is central to these concerns. Nano particles that are under 100 nano-meters wide - less than the size of a virus - have unique abilities. They can cross the body's natural barriers, entering into cells or through the liver into the bloodstream or even through the cell wall surrounding the brain.
'I'd like to drink a glass of water and know that the contents are going into my stomach and not into my lungs,' says Dr Qasim Chaudhry of the British government's Central Science Laboratory. 'We are giving very toxic chemicals the ability to cross cell membranes, to go where they've never gone before. Where will they end up? It has been shown that free nano-particles inhaled can go straight to the brain. There's lots of concerns. We have to ask - do the benefi ts outweigh the risks?'
Asbestos is the analogy everyone comes up with. Sixty years ago, the stable, cheap building material helped war-devastated Europe put up housing quickly, until it was discovered that asbestos micro-fi bres, once free, could cause hideous and lethal damage to the lungs.
Dr Chaudhry has been leading a team of researchers reporting to the government's Food Standards Agency on nanotechnology and safety. He is worried that the health research is way behind the technology and that a whole range of tests has not been carried out - for instance, on the nano-compounds already being tested for water cleaning in Third World countries. Dr Chaudry's team has told the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Aff airs that it thought companies and researchers introducing nanoproducts should be obliged to notify the authorities about them. DEFRA agreed and launched the list scheme in September, but decided notification should be voluntary, not mandatory. And you and I cannot see the list - it will, out of respect to commercial interests, be kept secret.
This doesn't sound like the sort of openness that will soothe a concerned public, all too wary nowadays of the reassurances of the food industry and science . But the FSA, which is awaiting the results next year of two research projects into nano-tech, food and safety, says it is confident that existing regulations on 'novel' foods, additives and food processes will cover any new products. And, at the moment, it doesn't believe there is any nano-tech in food in Britain - though some scientists think that is wrong.As with GM, we may be overtaken by events in the States, where food regulators have, under the Bush presidency, been steam-rollered by a food industry eager to push in the new technology. So far, however, the list of kitchen nano-products actually on American shelves is unimpressive. The Woodrow Wilson Center, a Washington research institute, runs a database of nano-tech products that are commercially available, and the list under Food and Beverage is only 29 products long, compared with 201 under Health and Fitness (I'm excited by the nano-silverised self-cleaning socks). But the list has grown 50 per cent since March, when it was only 19 products long.Most of these products are self-cleaning and anti-bacterial food-packaging items : cutting boards and so on. There's a couple of Samsung nano-silverised refrigerators. There are nutritional supplements, under the well-established American brand Nanoceuticals. There's a Vitamin B12 spray marketed by Nutrition-by-Nanotech. You simply catch a child with an open mouth and spray the stuff straight in: they'll absorb
the nano-sized vitamins directly through the mucal cells. 'Tastes like candy... Would you believe it, they are asking for more!' runs the copy line, less than enticingly.Only three items on the Woodrow Wilson list are listed as food. One is 'Nanotea', from a Chinese company, that will increase tenfold the amount of selenium absorbed from green tea (that's a good thing), through capsules engineered to bypass the stomach and dissolve in your lower gut. There's Canola Activa Oil, an Israeli invention: nano-capsule-delivered chemicals in rapeseed cooking oil that will stop cholesterol entering the bloodstream - this is exciting technology, utilising nano's ability to suspend or dissolve any substance you like in water or in oil. And fi nally there's SlimShake chocolate - a powdered drink that uses nanotechnology to cluster the cocoa cells, and thus cut out the need for sugar.More important, what of the promise that nanotechnology offers hope to the one billion habitually undernourished on the planet? Nothing yet. Dr Donald Bruce, a chemist who heads a group examining technology and ethics for the Church of Scotland, is doubtful. He sat on a committee 10 years ago examining the moral implications of the introduction of GM. 'The public were told that genetic modifi cation was going to feed the world. And so we looked for evidence of any application of that science that had addressed the needs of a poor subsistence farmer. We couldn't fi nd any. The industry went for agronomic benefits, not for people benefits.'With nano-tech, the food industry has once again got it back to front, he feels. ' Such innovation must be consumer-led - the consumer must be able to see what's in it for them.' Violet Beauregarde would certainly agree.Arrival of the nano state Self-cleaning fridges, turning red wine into white - the future's tinyWhat is it?Tiny technology with big results Nanotechnology is the science of the tiny - the precision engineering of substances at molecular and atomic level. The scale is amazingly small. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter: the width of a human hair is 80,000 nanometers and this industry is manufacturing complex nanomaterials 30 nm wide or less.The industry exploits the fact that physics and chemistry change at nano-scale and common substances behave very diff erently - thus many of the metals and chemicals that industry works with take on startling new properties. 'It's like having a brand new tool box,' says one enthusiastic scientist. The uses these tools can be put to are amazing but, like any only partially explored and tested technology, potentially dangerous. Nanotech is all around you, already: in clothing, electronics, manufacturing and increasingly in health and cosmetics. If you buy a clear sunscreen that promises it blocks ultraviolet light, it is using nano-particles of metals like zinc or titanium - it's clear because the particles are too small to aff ect ordinary light. L'Oreal (backed by the food company Nestlé) is marketing anti-ageing cosmetics that exploit the tininess of the particles, 'nanosomes', and their ability to penetrate deep into skin cells.Nano in the kitchenBacteria-bashing and choice of colour As yet there are officially no foods on sale in Europe that contain nanomaterials, though they exist in the States. But regulation is very light and food, along with health products, are high on an excited industry's target list - that's where big money is.Nano-packaging with 'self-cleaning' abilities will be the first application you'll see - but the science behind that isn't very different from that in the 'anti-bacterial' food containers on sale now. It is with nano-engineered food ingredients that things get mind-boggling. Just arriving are techniques that will turn established food chemistry and processing upside-down. Precisely- engineered nano-scale filters allow you to remove all bacteria from milk or water without boiling. Or take the red out of red wine. Water into oil doesn't go? Nano-encapsulation technology can already allow you to dissolve as much oil in water, and the other way round, as you wish. It does this by encasing the water or oil molecules individually in capsules that the liquid will accept. This has enormous implications for altering the fats and salt content of our foods. For cooks, it will turn sauce-making on its head, allowing the emulsifi cation of any two liquids - just for starters, that's a vinaigrette you won't have to stir together before
pouring. The nanocapsules, 2,000 times narrower than a hair, allow the suspension of almost any substance in clear liquids, without altering their look, or giving any taste.Nano-delivery systems are already making feeding via our stomach out of date: nano-encapsulation can deliver nutrients - and anything else - through the mucal walls in your mouth, or your nose or via your lower gut. This is scary, though useful: many nutrients are destroyed or wasted by the digestive process; releasing them later is a way of ensuring that much more of the substance enters the bloodstream. Already nano-capsule cases are being made that are resistant to stomach acid but can be broken down further on in the digestive process, say, by the bacteria in the colon.Nano researchers talk of being able ultimately to design nano-capsule delivery systems that will take any substance to any part of the body. In the kitchen, the promise is that, with microbiochemistry and nanotechnology, chefs will one day be able to pin down tastes, textures and colours and deliver them to order. They will be able to design dishes at molecular level and build the food that you receive on your plate just as a composer chooses the notes that an orchestra plays. Heston Blumenthal should relax, though - that's a long way ahead.Nano nowChocolate-flavoured chewing gum, milk that tells you when it's off Thanks to nano-encapsulation (see above), some truly Willy Wonka-ish nano products are on their way. An American company has claimed to have created 'the Holy Grail of chewing-gum design' - chewing gum with real chocolate in it. Hazelnut-cappucino fl avour is next. You'll first meet nanotechnology in food packaging. Most people have heard about the 'smart' food packaging that will warn when oxygen has got inside, or if food is going off - research on that is complete and the products are arriving.Samsung has fridges on the market in Asia and America that use nano-silver to kill bacteria. Already in use in brewing and dairy production are nano-filters - screens so small they can fi lter out micro-organisms and even viruses. In lab experiments, the colour has been removed from beetroot juice, leaving the fl avour; and red wine turned into white. Lactose can now be filtered from milk, and replaced with another sugar - making all milk suitable for the lactose-intolerant. This could mean less use of chemicals and heat treatments in food processing.Also available in American supermarkets is cooking oil that, in theory, can be kept fresh and soluble forever - thanks to nano-ceramic particles that enable clustering of dirt molecules. Nano-engineered molecules, which lock onto contaminants, will simplify the process of cleaning drinking water - potentially hugely important for the developing world. Parents are a big market for nano, obviously. Nano-encapsulation means no more bribing your kids to eat fruit and oily fish: vitamin C-enriched cooking oil and omega-3 fi sh oil-carrying juices are already available. In Australia, you can buy a bread - Tip-Top - that contains undetectable nano-capsules of omega-3.Nano soonTeeth cleaning chewing gum, self-cleaning cutleryFancy a programmable drink? Beverage companies such as Kraft are working on prototypes of soft drinks containing nano-capsules that will carry a range of fl avours, colours, preservatives or nutrients. You buy the drink and then choose which elements to activate. Your milk carton will tell you when its contents are sour, thanks to particles that sense the gases of decomposition and change colour, and nano-molecules in the ink on the label that tell you how old it is and duly change colour. Kraft and Unilever have products on test.The food industry is excited about sell-by dates and self-preserving food. Nano-coatings will make the life span of manufactured food even longer. Mars has a US patent for nano-scale fi lms that have been tested on M&Ms, Twix and Skittles. The coatings are made from oxides of silicon or titanium, are undetectable, could kill bacteria, and would increase the life of many manufactured foods, even after they are opened.
Packaging that absorbs oxygen, making food last longer, is on its way. Kodak already has it in development for photographic film. Food manufacturers including Unilever and Nestlé plan to use nano-encapsulation to improve shelf life and engineer taste sensations in fat-based foods like chocolates, ice creams and spreads. There could be huge reductions in fats and salts in processed foods. Unilever believes it can reduce the fat content of ice cream from 15 per cent to one per cent.When it comes to chewing gum, nano-particles will shortly be able to carry teeth-cleaning chemicals that you won't be able to taste. Pleasing to the lazy, as will be self-cleansing cutlery, an advance made possible by the engineering, at atomic level, of hydrophobic surfaces that allow substances to break down and drop off . This is already in use with industrial glass products. Nano-fi lters will allow you to choose the amount of caffeine you want to remove from your coff ee. Making tap water sterile should be possible too.Nano-scale sensors are in development that will monitor toxins and bacteria at all stages of food processing. This will help producers spot salmonella in chickens, or E-coli in spinach, long before the products reach the shops. Self-monitoring food packaging will mature into technology like the nano-tongue. Wired into your fridge, it will detect and warn you of a whole range of chemicals given off by rotting food, or the presence of bacteria. And then clean them.Nano in the futureInteractive chicken, nano-nosesAtomic-level encapsulation techniques will get more sophisticated. Food processors will offer engineered food catering to your specific tastes, and all sort of options to shoppers. If your chicken is going to sit in the fridge for a while, just activate the nano-encapsulated preservatives held dormant in its flesh. Fancy a fillet with a tarragon-and-butter taste? Trigger a different nano-capsule. Nano-encapsulation could let chefs choose, exactly, how strong a taste or smell should be and when it should be delivered, and design a food's mouth-feel. The capsule's casing is to be made of substances ranging from starches, proteins and fats, and can be tailored to break down and release its contents to order.A chef might decide that some flavours in his dish would only be released to the eater a certain number of seconds or minutes after chewing, or when they sip a glass of wine. Another nano-system to excite cooks uses stable molecules to tie down volatile ones: manufactured starch such as cyclodextrin is being used to bond to those frustratingly evanescent fl avours in food - like the fast-fading taste of dill, for example. The perfume industry is already using this to make scents perform longer.Go food shopping, or out to a restaurant, and you could carry your own nano-nose, a personal tasting sensor programmed to test food for things you don't like, or chemicals and allergens which may make you ill. Meanwhile, nano-sized bar codes will enable random molecules of an animal's meat to be tagged and monitored from farm to every end product.Further ahead, the industry is looking at food that is pre-engineered to cater for your tastes, your dislikes and your allergies. Or just built from scratch. Ultimately, says Franz Kampers, a scientist at the Netherland's Wageningen University, 'The Holy Grail of the food industry is to create something like this' - he shows a picture of a glistening roast turkey with all the trimmings - 'from plant protein. That would be really something!'. You may not want it, but the scientists are already halfway there.http://observer.theguardian.com/foodmonthly/futureoffood/story/0,,1971266,00.html
There is lots of speculation about how nano could help enhance foods, from futuristic ideas about foods that change to respond to your nutritional needs or taste preferences - to more down to earth applications - such as better ways to add flavours, create textures or enhance nutritional benefits.At the moment, though we can't be certain, there seems to be very little use of nano in food in the UK, though many companies, large and small, are researching what it could do. The known uses are confined to wrapping nutritional ingredients into nano-sized parcels for better absorption in food or mineral supplements, though nano is likely to be used more widely in packaging.Companies don't talk much about their research because they don't want their competitors to know and becausethey are concerned about a negative consumer reaction to the idea of nano in food.For these reasons it is likely that in the near future nano will be more about enhancing existing foods than creating new materials or new food products.What's nano and what's not?On a fundamental level, foods like milk have natural components on the nanoscale, while processes such as flour milling, some cheese making and certain sorts of food processing, which have been used safely for many years, can in some forms also be described as nanotechnologies. This is what adds to the confusion that exists about nano in food.But we use the term today to mean when we deliberately use tools, processes, and materials that work at the nanoscale to develop new, and hopefully improved food products, e.g. with less salt or fat, but tasting like the real thing. Some of these are likely to be an extension of existing technologies and others more complex.NATURAL NANONano particles are also found in nature. Milk is in fact an example of a nanotechnology in which incredibly small particles of protein are suspended in water.Ricotta Cheese is another example of nanotechnology which is made by creating the conditions for nanoparticles of protein to stick together to form gels which give it that special texture.http://www.nanoandme.org/nano-products/food-and-drink/
Nanomedicine - a 'Fantastic Voyage'?Many of us will remember the miniature submarine in which Rachel Welch travelled through the human body to zap a bloodclot in the film Fantastic Voyage. Some will be disappointed to know that this is not going to be possible and will never happen. But the good news is that nanotechnology may be able to help do the job of targeting and zapping diseases in our body much better than the Proteus ever could, and without the risk of becoming submarine-sized halfway to finishing the job!
Social and ethical issues
Some of the more exciting developments which may be enabled, or made cheaper and more accessible by nano may also give rise to some social and ethical issues. How much do we really want to know now about what diseases we may get in the future? What are the implications of enhancing our minds or bodies to make us smarter or live longer?
Go to our Social and Ethical section and explore some more
Healing nanoNanotechnologies may have the greatest impact in the medical and healthcare fields. There are some nano-enabled uses at the moment, with others not so far away. However many of the much talked about applications - creating artificial body parts or remotely diagnosing and delivering drugs may be a long way off, or may not even be possible.
The most notable changes will come from improvements in diagnosing illnesses more easily and treating them by better targeting of drugs. It will also make existing medical applications much cheaper and easier to use in different settings like GP surgeries and homes.
http://www.nanoandme.org/nano-products/medical/
Nano in textiles and clothingNano styleNano is used in textiles mainly to provide stain-resistance or anti-bacterial properties. Some clothes made from these textiles can now be purchased in high-street shops, usually with these properties described on the tags attached, though they may not mention the words nano or nanotechnologies.
Stain-resistant fabrics
If you spill something, even something as drastic as red wine, down the front of your nano-enhanced shirt or suit, all you have to do is wipe it off with a dry cloth and it looks like new. This is often called The Lotus Effect
The leaves of a lotus plant actually repel water and other liquids, even glues. They are structured so that when it rains, little beads of water form on the plant’s leaves and instead of spreading out, they just roll off.
The plant does this using its own nanotechnology. Basically, nano-sized hairs combine with the wax coating of the leaf to make the water droplets sit up on the surface without dispersing onto the leaf’s surface below.
This doesn’t just happen with lotus leaves. A similar process works for some insects, the wings of butterflies and the proverbial ‘water off a duck’s back’. Whenever a textile, or other product like glass or paint, repels water in this way, it is referred to as the Lotus Effect.
The 'Lotus Effect' in fabrics
Nano coatings (such as Teflon-like substances) are created and bond with the textile, so that little nano-sized molecular hooks attach to the fabric of the garment and the hair-like structures repel the water like the lotus leaf. But because these are nano-sized they don’t make the fabric stiff, so keeping the softness of whatever is coated.
ANTI-BACTERIALFABRICS
Silver nanoparticles are being included in a lot of different fabrics as anti-bacterial agents to stop smelly socks and odorous armpits. They are also used in pillows, bedding and fabrics of other products to kill bacteria.
These silver nanoparticles are either incorporated into the fibres of the fabric, or coated on afterwards. If they are impregnated into the material then the useful effect lasts longer than if they are coated on the surface.
Goose-down jacket fillings clump up when the garment is washed, but some no longer need to be washed ever because they are anti-stain, and use the silver nanoparticles to keep them fresh.
Nano in cosmetics and personal careThere are a number of nano-enhanced products available in the UK ranging from sunscreens and anti-ageing products to razors and curling tongs, (though at the moment we can't give a comprehensive listing.)
Here are some of the main areas and what they claim to do:
SunscreensIt's long been known that titanium dioxide (TiO2) and zinc oxide (ZnO) block the harmful effects of ultraviolet light - the stronger the sunblock the whiter the lotion, with total sunblocks becoming a thick white paste.
But when you break down these substances to nano-sized particles, they become transparent. So you get the beneficial effect without the 'face pack' look.
So when you see a high-factor sunscreen in a moisturiser or sun cream which is clear, not white, you know that it is nano.
This use of nano-sized TiO2 and ZnO2 in sunscreens and moisturisers is one of the largest uses of nano in the cosmetics and personal care markets.
Killing bacteriaSilver nanoparticles and so-called colloidal silver, which contains silver nanoparticles, are used in many personal care products, because they are very effective at killing bacteria.
They are mainly used to ensure cleanliness in equipment, such as make-up instruments, hair brushes, curling tongs, foils for electric razors, foot massagers, tooth brushes, bottle brushes, rubber gloves, hair dryers, hearing aids, facial ionic steamers, and even bidets, though most of these are more likely to be available in Asia.
Outside the UK also, nano silver is used in soaps, toothpastes, wet wipes, deodorants, lip products, as well as face and body foams.
Smooth movesNano is used in curling tongs for example, as it is purported to smooth the hair and reduce static through a nano ceramic and silver coating.
Moisturisers and anti-ageing creamsForty years ago cosmetic companies started using nano-sized parcels of ingredients (also called liposomes or now nanosomes) to improve the solubility of ingredients and add shimmer.
Essentially, liposomes are made out of the same material as a cell membrane and act as small capsules or bubbles able to hold and deliver active ingredients and cosmetic materials such as Vitamin E. In the healthcare sector, they are used to deliver therapeutic drugs or vitamins.
Nano emulsions are another process in skin creams. Emulsion just means mixing two unblendable liquids (like oil and vinegar in a salad dressing) where one of the liquids is suspended in the other. With nano emulsion, as opposed just plain emulsion, one liquid disperses in nano-scale droplets throughout the other.
Nano emulsions, unlike normal emulsions are so fine that they can be sprayed on. Companies that sell them claim that nano emulsions can transport beneficial compounds deep into the skin and in high concentrations.
Nano gold is also being used in one moisturiser available in the UK, allegedly bringing healing and anti-oxident properties.
Fullerenes, or bucky balls as they are also known, are carbon molecules that are only about one nanometre in diameter and resemble the structure of some footballs. They are allegedly used for anti-oxidant and smoothing properties in moisturisers.
One product using fullerenes was withdrawn from the UK market because of concerns about its safety as a cosmetic ingredient, though they are thought to be used in some moisturisers and anti-ageing formulas in other parts of the world.
What is nano?Nano is short for ‘nanotechnology’, although the word itself just means really, really small.
Nanotechnology, or more accurately nanotechnologies, describe the many ways that scientists can now work with the actual molecules and atoms that make up our world. It’s basically a way of making things.
We measure things in metres and centimetres, but nano scientists work in nanometers, that’s a billionth of a metre. That’s very very VERY small!
Why does small make a differenceAt this nanoscale things don’t always behave as they do when they are larger. They might be stronger or lighter, or, more reactive or because they are so small, they can be used in different ways than in their larger form.
What scientists do with nanotechnologies is takecontrol of these reactions to make new products or processes, from mobile phones to sunscreens, airplanesto medicines.
http://www.nanoandme.org/what-is-nano/
The science bitHere you can explore some of the science behind nanotechnologies:
What is the 'nanoscale'?A nanometre is a millionth of a millimetre, a billionth of a metre.
Nanotechnology is usually referred to as working with materials at between 1 and 100 nanometres in size, however this has not been properly defined yet and sometimes people use 1-300nm as the definition of nano. Scientists argue a lot about this stuff, but it matters because it has an implications for safety, for regulation and for research. What really matters is what size the properties change, not particularly the size when that happens.
VIZ LAB IMAGE SCALER
There is an image scaler that lets you see the amazing difference between human scale andnano scale.
Take a look at it here.
The nano effect...Scientists are interested in the nanoscale because when we get down to these tiny sizes, many materials start to behave in different ways. They are sometimes much stronger, or conduct more electricity, opaque substances can become transparent, solids become liquids at room temperature or insulators become conductors. This is often down to the change in their surface area when they are used at this tiny scale.
THE SURFACE AREA THING
The Surface Area Thing is what makes nano really interesting - that is the surface area to volume ratio - and it gets talked about a lot in nanotechnology. But what on earth does it mean?
WHAT IS THE SURFACE AREA?
Well, the surface area of an object is the amount of surface it has and the volume is a measure of how much space it takes up. When we talk about the ratio between these two things, we are comparing how much of each quantity it has.
WHY'S THAT INTERESTING?
In a nanoparticle, the amount of surface area the particle has is larger compared to its volume. This means there are more atoms on the surface of the particle than in the middle of it, and that makes them the most important. Surface atoms act differently to atoms inside a particle, so when there are more surface atoms than inside atoms the way they behave dominates the whole behaviour of the particle.
The opposite is also true, when the particle is bigger it has a large volume compared to its surface area and the number of atoms inside the particle is much higher than the number of atoms on the outside (the surface) of the particle. What the inside atoms are doing is the most important thing and the behaviour of the particle will be decided by them.
How surface atoms and inside atoms behave can be very different. This means that when we get a very small piece of material, with comparatively large numbers of surface atoms, the material can act very differently to what we are used to (aluminium nanoparticles explode!). In nanotechnology we are making use of particles with lots of surface atoms and the fact that this makes them behave differently – it allows us to do new and exciting things.
What counts as a ‘nanotechnology’?Any technology that makes use of the properties of atoms and molecules at the nanoscale or is able to observe and manipulate at the nanoscale is a nanotechnology. In fact, it is one of the few research areas that overlaps physics, chemistry, biology, medicine and engineering.
So how will nano help us?As with many new technologies there’s lots of hype about what nano might do, some of which may come off, some won’t. Also not everyone is keen on everything nano could do.
Some think that nanotechnologies will be used where less technological solutions would be better and some that its use will marginalise those countries who can’t afford it, while others are concerned as to where such advances may take us as human beings and as a society. Take a look at the Social and Ethical section for a little more detail
There are also some uncertainties about the safety of some nanomaterials, take a look at the safety section for a little more detail.
Nano nowBut at the moment nano is being used to change some every day things - for example reducing the size of particles in something like sunscreen to the nanoscale makes it clear, not white and sticky like it used to be. A nano-coating on clothes can stop them getting dirty or smelly, while another can improve the acceptance of medical implants like hip replacements in the body.
Take a look at the our Nano products page to findout more.
What next?This new ability to work with atoms and molecules means that nano processes or materials could enable some exciting new breakthroughs - though some people think a lot of these futuristic applications are more nano-hype than real possibilities.
But whatever happens in the deep future, there won’t be many areas of product manufacturing over the next few years which won’t be enhanced in some way by the various nanotechnologies, though for that to happen successfully the safety issues in many areas need to be satisfactorily resolved.
Nano future?In the future, products made using nanotechnologies may enable us to heat our houses through solar panels that are printed like wallpaper, deliver medicines straight to the bit in the body which needs it or run our cars on hydrogen not petrol.
But we don’t yet know what will turn from potential to reality. As we have seen with new technologies before, what may look like a promising application now, might never turn into a sensible product, but something we haven’t even thought about might be 'The Next Big Thing' in 2020.
Have a look at our Nano Products section for current uses, but, some of the most talked about future areas include:
As society tries to find alternatives to fossil fuels, renewable energies are high on the priority list. Solar panels are likely to be very useful in supplying some of our energy needs in the future. Even here in the UK we get enough sunlight for a substantial part of our energy needs to be supplied by the sun.
Nanotechnology might even allow us to ‘spray’ solar panels onto our roofs, or, pretty near to happening at the moment, to make them from new materials that are lighter, more flexible and cheaper to make.
Clean waterFresh water is being talked about as ‘the oil of the 21st Century’, because of its scarcity in many countries, including the UK. Nano holds out great hopes in three very important areas of water treatment - simple filtration, recycling or desalination techniques; sensing and detecting contaminants at very low levels and preventing pollution in the first place.
Even speedier computersComputers are already significantly faster and with greater storage capabilities and processing power than they had 10 years ago, but there are still improvements to be made.
The computer industry is reaching its limits of making things smaller and faster, but nanotechnology holds out promise to overcome these limits and allow computer technology to continue its path of smaller, faster and stronger.
Nano-medicineThere are many ways that nanotechnology may be be useful in medicine. One potential application is to use nanoparticles to ‘stick’ blood vessels together in surgery, instead of the surgeon having to stitch them. Another is to search out and kill cancerous tumours. This kind of technique would significantly reduce side effects because nanoparticles could be targeted directly at tumour cells – leaving the rest of your body alone.
Space elevatorOne slightly less probably idea that has been around for a long time, but was seen as an impossible dream is a ‘space elevator’ – a real-life Jack’s beanstalk! It would be a kind of lift to take people and objects like satellites into space.
What makes it slightly less of a dream now is that carbon nanotubes, at least in theory, are strong enough to build this lift - but as is sometimes the case, what is possible in theory is actually very difficult to do in practice - so don’t hold your breath on this one! (By the way, that’s what’s flying up and down on our home page!)
Incremental nanotechnologyThe nanotechnology in the products available today and in the near future, like most of the applications above, have been called ‘incremental nanotechnology’. In other words, they are just lots of small improvements to fields like chemistry, physics and advanced materials.
The 'really big thing' - molecular nanotechnologyThe next, and really BIG THING, which has been talked about for almost 25 years, has been the promise ofmolecular nanotechnology, or ‘radical’ or ‘advanced’ nanotechnology, as a real paradigm shift in the way products are manufactured. With molecular nanotechnology, ordinary objects, like the computer you are using to read this website, would be assembled atom-by-atom by machines that operated on the molecular scale.
Some obstacles in how physics operates on the scale of atoms have made the practical development of this sort of thing difficult to realise. But it has long been argued that since this is the way nature produces its products, it’s conceivable that we could do something like this too.
Scientists are trying to duplicate nature’s methods, by building with biological molecules like DNA rather than with weird nanobots made out of inorganic materials.
Groundbreaking work is now being done in creating and programming a machine made out of DNA molecules so that it will move molecules around where we want them to go.
It’s an early step in this area and huge challenges remain, not least of which are the major social and ethical issues which will come out of this area of science. However a future in which manufacturing is more efficient and cheaper is a long way off, but somewhat more conceivable within the coming decades.
