Project Press Releases
- January 8, 2009pdfSynthetic Biology: Is Ethics a Showstopper?Synthetic biology promises to enable cheap, lifesaving new drugs to treat the 350-500 million people who suffer from malaria, and to create innovative biofuels that can help solve the world’s energy problems. But are synthetic biologists playing God? Will synthetic biology’s expected products and profits be stymied by policymakers and the public? Join us and explore these unresolved questions with Dr. Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.
- December 18, 2008pdfExperts Argue Nano Food-Additives Require New OversightNanotechnology policy experts are urging that food additives containing nanoscale materials be subject to new safety testing to ensure that their use does not pose unintended risks. The call comes as nanotechnology emerges as a major regulatory challenge facing the incoming Obama administration.
- December 10, 2008pdfPanel Blasts Federal Nanotech Risk Research StrategyA National Research Council committee today issued a highly critical report describing serious shortfalls in the Bush administration’s strategy to better understand the environment, health and safety risks of nanotechnology and to effectively manage those potential risks. The report calls for a significantly revamped national strategic plan that will minimize potential risks so that innovation will flourish and society will reap nanotechnology’s benefits.
- December 8, 2008pdfNanotech: To Know It Is Not Necessarily To Love ItA new experiment conducted by the Cultural Cognition Project at Yale Law School in collaboration with the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN) and published Dec. 7 on the Nature Nanotechnology Web site found that how people react to information about nanotechnology depends on cultural predispositions.
- November 14, 2008pdfSynthetic Biology: Coming up Fast!Synthetic biology is being touted by scientists and venture capitalists as “the next big thing.” Researchers claim to be on the brink of creating artificial life in a laboratory and making the world’s first synthetic microbes. But will the promises and pitfalls of synthetic biology catch governments, ethicists, biosafety and biosecurity experts, and the public by surprise?
- October 14, 2008pdfThe Frontiers of NanotechnologyThe future of how the world communicates, and how we power our lives, will likely come from the same source: nanotechnology. According to the latest NanoFrontiers newsletter and Trips to the Nanofrontier podcast, nanotechnology will be central to developing and using new electronics and energy technologies in the 21st Century.
- September 30, 2008pdfNanotech and Synbio: Americans Don’t Know What’s ComingA groundbreaking poll has found that almost half of U.S. adults have heard nothing about nanotechnology, and nearly nine in 10 Americans say they have heard just a little or nothing at all about the emerging field of synthetic biology. This new insight into limited public awareness of emerging technologies comes on the cusp of a major leadership change in the nation’s capital.
- September 9, 2008pdfNanoscale Silver: No Silver Lining?Widespread use of nanoscale silver will challenge regulatory agencies to balance important potential benefits against the possibility of significant environmental risk, highlighting the need to identify research priorities concerning this emerging technology, according to a new report by Dr. Samuel Luoma. Existing information about the impact of silver on the environment offers a starting point for some assessments of nanosilver, the report argues.
- September 8, 2008pdfNanotechnology and the FDA: Size Matters!In July 2007 the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) issued its Nanotechnology Task Force Report. This report acknowledged that nanoscale materials potentially could be used in most product types regulated by the agency and that those materials present challenges complicated by the fact that properties relevant to product safety and effectiveness may change as size varies within the nanoscale.
- August 21, 2008pdfConsumer Product Safety Commission Not Ready For NanotechThe inability of the Consumer Product Safety Commission to carry out its mandate with respect to simple, low-tech products such as children’s jewelry and toy trains bodes poorly for its ability to oversee the safety of complex, high-tech products made using nanotechnology, according to a new report written by consumer product expert and Harvard lecturer E. Marla Felcher.
