 |
|
New nanotech products hitting the market at the rate of 3-4 per week
April 25, 2008WASHINGTON - New nanotechnology consumer products are coming on the market at the rate of 3-4 per week, a finding based on the latest update to the nanotechnology consumer product inventory maintained by the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN).
One of the new items among the more than 600 products now in the inventory is Swissdent Nanowhitening Toothpaste with "calcium peroxides, in the form of nano-particles." Today, in testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee, PEN Project Director David Rejeski cited Ace Silver Plus-another of the nine nano toothpastes in the inventory-as an example of the upsurge in nanotechnology consumer products in stores. The hearing marks the start of U.S. Senate debate on the future direction of the annual $1.5 billion federal investment in nanotechnology research and development (R&D).
The number of consumer products using nanotechnology has grown from 212 to 609 since PEN launched the world's first online inventory of manufacturer-identified nanotech goods in March 2006. Health and fitness items, which includes cosmetics and sunscreens, represent 60 percent of inventory products. The colorful and searchable list of nanotechnology merchandise-containing everything from nanotech diamonds and cooking oil, to golf clubs and iPhones-is available free at www.nanotechproject.org/consumerproducts.
There are 35 automotive products in the PEN inventory, including the Hummer H2. General Motors Corporation bills the H2 as having a cargo bed that "uses about seven pounds of molded in color nanocomposite parts for its trim, center bridge, sail panel and box rail protector."
Nanoscale silver is the most cited nanomaterial used. It is found in 143 products or over 20 percent of the inventory. Carbon, including carbon nanotubes and fullerenes, is the second highest nanoscale material cited. Other nanoscale materials explicitly referenced in products are zinc (including zinc oxide) and titanium (including titanium dioxide), silica and gold.
While polls show most Americans know little or nothing about nanotechnology, in 2006 nanotechnology was incorporated into more than $50 billion in manufactured goods. By 2014, Lux Research estimates $2.6 trillion in manufactured goods will incorporate nanotechnology-or about 15 percent of total global output. Despite a 2006 worldwide investment of $12.4 billion in nanotech R&D, comparatively little was spent on examining nanotechnology's potential environmental, health and safety risks.
"Public trust is the 'dark horse' in nanotechnology's future," says Rejeski in his testimony. "If government and industry do not work to build public confidence in nanotechnology, consumers may reach for the 'No-Nano' label in the future and investors will put their money elsewhere."
According to Rejeski, "The use of nanotechnology in consumer products and industrial applications is growing rapidly, with the products listed in the PEN inventory showing just the tip of the iceberg. Public perceptions about risks-real and perceived-can have large economic consequences. How consumers respond to these early products-in food, electronics, health care, clothing and cars-is a litmus test for broader market acceptance of nanotechnologies in the future."
Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies
There are 35 automotive products in the PEN inventory, including the Hummer H2. General Motors Corporation bills the H2 as having a cargo bed that "uses about seven pounds of molded in color nanocomposite parts for its trim, center bridge, sail panel and box rail protector."
Nanoscale silver is the most cited nanomaterial used. It is found in 143 products or over 20 percent of the inventory. Carbon, including carbon nanotubes and fullerenes, is the second highest nanoscale material cited. Other nanoscale materials explicitly referenced in products are zinc (including zinc oxide) and titanium (including titanium dioxide), silica and gold.
While polls show most Americans know little or nothing about nanotechnology, in 2006 nanotechnology was incorporated into more than $50 billion in manufactured goods. By 2014, Lux Research estimates $2.6 trillion in manufactured goods will incorporate nanotechnology-or about 15 percent of total global output. Despite a 2006 worldwide investment of $12.4 billion in nanotech R&D, comparatively little was spent on examining nanotechnology's potential environmental, health and safety risks.
"Public trust is the 'dark horse' in nanotechnology's future," says Rejeski in his testimony. "If government and industry do not work to build public confidence in nanotechnology, consumers may reach for the 'No-Nano' label in the future and investors will put their money elsewhere."
According to Rejeski, "The use of nanotechnology in consumer products and industrial applications is growing rapidly, with the products listed in the PEN inventory showing just the tip of the iceberg. Public perceptions about risks-real and perceived-can have large economic consequences. How consumers respond to these early products-in food, electronics, health care, clothing and cars-is a litmus test for broader market acceptance of nanotechnologies in the future."
Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies
Nanotechnology News and Current Nanotechnology Events RSSUNC study: shape, not just size, impacts effectiveness of emerging nanomedicine therapies
In the budding field of nanotechnology, scientists already know that size does matter. But now, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have shown that shape matters even more - a finding that could lead to new and more effective methods for treating cancer and other diseases, from diabetes and multiple sclerosis to arthritis and obesity.
A world-leading UK science project switches on first neutrons
The UK's ISIS Second Target Station Project moved a major step closer to completion today when the first neutrons were created in the ISIS Second Target Station.
The emerging scientific discipline of aeroecology
In the history of science and technology, there is an infrequent combination of empirical discoveries, theories and technology developments converge that make it possible to recognize a new discipline.
Scientists determine strength of 'liquid smoke'
Researchers have created a 3D image of a material referred to as "liquid smoke." Aerogel, also known as liquid smoke or "San Francisco fog," is an open-cell polymer with pores smaller than 50 nanometers in diameter.
Golden Scales: Nanoscale Mass Sensor from Berkeley Can Be Used to Weigh Individual Atoms and Molecules
There's a new "gold standard" in the sensitivity of weighing scales. Using the same technology with which they created the world's first fully functional nanotube radio, researchers with Berkeley Lab and the University of California (UC) at Berkeley have fashioned a nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) that can function as a scale sensitive enough to measure the mass of a single atom of gold.
UC Santa Barbara chemist goes nano with CoQ10
If Bruce Lipshutz has his way, you may soon be buying bottles of water brimming with the life-sustaining coenzyme CoQ10 at your local Costco.
'Nanonet' circuits closer to making flexible electronics reality
Researchers have overcome a major obstacle in producing transistors from networks of carbon nanotubes, a technology that could make it possible to print circuits on plastic sheets for applications including flexible displays and an electronic skin to cover an entire aircraft to monitor crack formation.
Nanotech: A regulatory blueprint for the next administration
Nanotechnology will significantly change virtually every facet of the way we live. The next president has the opportunity to shape these changes and to ensure that nanotechnology's benefits will be maximized and its risks identified and controlled.
Nanotechnology: Learning from past mistakes
A new expert analysis in Nature Nanotechnology questions whether industry, government and scientists are successfully applying lessons learned from past technologies to ensure the safe and responsible development of emerging nanotechnologies.
Multitasking nanotechnology
Confocal microscope image of a self-assembled monolayer of a polychlorotriphenyl methyl radical patterned on a quartz surface. This multifunctional molecule behaves as an electroactive switch with optical and magnetic response.
More Nanotechnology News Articles
 | Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns by Clayton M. Christensen, Curtis W. Johnson, Michael B. Horn |
 | The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology by Ray Kurzweil |
 | The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (Bantam Spectra Book) by Neal Stephenson |
 | The First Patient by Michael Palmer |
 | Immortality by Kevin Bohacz |
 | Seeing What's Next: Using Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change by Clayton M. Christensen, Erik A. Roth, Scott D. Anthony |
 | Prey by Michael Crichton |
 | Medici Effect: What Elephants and Epidemics Can Teach Us About Innovation by Frans Johansson |
 | Subject To Change: Creating Great Products & Services for an Uncertain World: Adaptive Path on Design (Adaptive Path) by Peter Merholz, Todd Wilkens, Brandon Schauer, David Verba |
 | Open Business Models: How to Thrive in the New Innovation Landscape by Henry Chesbrough |
| © 2008 BrightSurf.com |