However diverse nanotechnologies are, they share one vision: elucidating and using the finer properties of matter at the nano-scale. Before the late 1990s, scientists weren't always able to fully comprehend, modify or build structures at the nano-level. Now, our understanding of the intimate structure of matter has grown wider and deeper; nanotechnological development wants to make the most of this whole new world of knowledge.
Nanotech around your neck
Chris Van Hoof is head of the “Human++ Programme” at the IMEC research centre in Leuven; his team develops nano-solutions for human health. "Our population is ageing, and the costs of health care are rising," he explains.
So nano-enthusiasts hope that miniaturising electronic circuits would allow for much smaller devices able to perform precise, cheap, fast, personalised diagnosis and monitoring – essentially, a "lab on a chip". Instead of going in person to the medical lab and then wait for the analysis results, doctors could test patients for many parameters in one go with a single, small device.
For instance, Van Hoof is proud of IMEC's Electro- CardioGramm (ECG) necklace, a palm-sized, pebbleshaped device that you can wear around your neck while you work, shop, do the dishes or play chess (or tennis, pictured). Typically, if you need to monitor your heartbeat, you go to the hospital. There, the cardiologist uses a bulky machine linked to electrodes taped to your chest. The machine measures your heartbeat, and you go home with a snapshot on a sheet of paper.
Instead, the ECG necklace measures your heartbeat data over a longer period of time and then stores the data or sends them to your doctor via your cell phone. It is obviously more comfortable, and hopefully more complete and reliable than a classical ECG recording.
"We even tested the necklace successfully on patients while they were jogging," Van Hoof recalls. The rechargeable mini battery requires little energy, and since there are no signals going into the body, the device should be safe. Van Hoof expects that the ECG necklace will be on the market in about three years – with a €50 price tag. IMEC is also developing a disposable version, which the researcher hopes would be recyclable or bio-degradable.
Nanoethics
Nanotechnologies bring about many questions and challenges. How can we define and combine sensible caution and safe development?
Some researchers argue that nanotechnologies have already been with us for some time. Van Hoof says that some drugs already use nano-particles, while more mundane processes, such as our bathroom soap, also work at the nano-level. “Size itself is not an issue,” the researcher explains.
On the other hand, nanoscientists and industrialists mostly rely on a discourse of novelty and progress – one that comes with legitimate excitement and anxiety. “There is nothing worrisome in using benign materials that interact with the human body,” says Van Hoof. However, he agrees that “we have to be careful in selecting those materials.”
The researcher thinks that public bodies such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provide adequate, strict approval procedures. “Regulation is a very good thing, and medical companies are well aware that they have to be careful.”
Phil Macnaghten, Professor at the University of Durham, led the three-year, EU-funded DEEPEN project (Deepening Ethical Engagement and Participation with Emerging Nanotechnologies). He believes that, more than formal, top-down regulation, a wider governance framework should integrate ethical thinking right into scientific practice. This could help create a positive foundation for responsible development that truly benefits most – if not all. “If and when we get advances, they are likely to be at the top-end of the market,” Macnaghten says.
Nanotechnologies are supposed to help make the world a cheaper, faster, more comfortable place. But Macnaghten calls for caution: “We can’t accept the promises at face value,” he says, referring also to the earlier debate around Genetically Modified (GM) food development. “GM crops manufacturers often argued that their products would benefit third-world countries, but did GM organisms really benefit consumers or poor farmers?”
There are many important questions, and no simple answers. Nanotechnologies are already with us and will certainly remain with us for many decades to come, so we might as well embrace that complexity now.
To find out more about DEEPEN and to download the project’s final report (Reconfiguring Responsibility), visit: www.geography.dur.ac.uk/Projects/deepen
Leuven is home to the headquarters of IMEC (Interuniversity MicroElectronics Center), one of the largest research institutes in nanoelectronics worldwide. It was founded in 1984, when nanotechnology wasn’t even a word yet, with a grant from the Flemish Region.
Around 1991, the institute took a big strategic turn that boosted its growth. Instead of working with one industrial partner, it invited several competitors faced with similar challenges to work together. IMEC acts as neutral ground, while private companies share the risk and costs – and hopefully also the fruits of research and development. As researcher Chris Van Hoof explains, it is a fine balance of open innovation and technological exclusivity: private companies find common answers and solutions but then “develop their own products and find their specificity further down the development line.”
IMEC has offices in the Netherlands, Taiwan, the United States, China and Japan and currently employs over 1,650 people. It also teams up with university researchers, including some from the Catholic University of Leuven. Its 2008 revenue amounted to €270 million.