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Asked by lduffy to Adam, Chris, Eleanor, Jessamyn, Sinead on 12 Nov 2013.
Question: Could nanotechnology be dangerous for the world?? i.e. weapons/drugs e.t.c.
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Christian Wirtz answered on 12 Nov 2013:
Hey,
the answer is yes, but not in any way that we don’t have already. Nanotechnology has enabled modern microchips and many other technologies. Those are used in your smartphone but also in missile guidance systems. Does that make it dangerous? That’s something you’ll have to answer for yourself.
There are some concerns that nanoparticles may cause cancer so we shouldn’t work with them. At the same time there are plenty of other non-nano things (for example cigarette smoke) that can cause cancer, so it’s not exclusive to nanoscience.
Any technology can be used in dangerous ways so I suppose the real question you have to ask yourself is: Is it more dangerous than what it is replacing? That is something I cannot answer but I hope not.
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Eleanor Holmes answered on 12 Nov 2013:
Yes.
I mean, anything can be dangerous for the world. We have shown ourselves to be very adept at taking new technologies and turning them in to weapons. Last century Radioactivity and Nuclear power were the big ones. We use radioactive isotopes in medicine and nuclear power to cut down carbon emission – but we also built a bomb and used those same isotopes to poison people!
Something that has been proposed for medicine using nanotechnology are medicines that can be absorbed through the skin with no need for needles. But what is to stop drug users from absorbing their drugs through the skin as well? Someone will sell them the technology. Maybe it will even be safer.
A big area for nanotechnology is computer chips. There are computer chips in everything now. Fridges, coffee mugs, Drones. Hackers can use computers to access the top secret data of countries. Is this nanotechnology being dangerous or is this People being dangerous?
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