Nano And The Environment: Boon Or Bane?

摘要

Nanoscience and nanotechnology have undergone rapid growth over the past decade, arguably because of three driving forces: advances in synthesis techniques that have made manufacturing of nanomaterials increasingly facile and accessible, refined and improved imaging/ analysis tools that permit quantitative study at the nanoscale, and increased funding from myriad agencies to pursue nano research and innovation. The latter driver can, domestically, be largely attributed to the Clinton Administration's National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), enacted in 2000, but that program was arguably a public recognition of scientific and technological advances over the previous two decades.rnThe March 1, 2005, special issue of ES&T was entitled "Nanoscale Environmental Science and Technology: Challenges and Opportunities". In that issue's Feature, Mihail Roco spoke to the environmentally responsible focus of the NNI {Environ. Sci. Technol.