Small advances

摘要

Most people agree that the environmental and health effects of nanoparticles need a lot more study. David Goldston looks at why so little progress has been made. For at least the past four years, experts have been calling, even pleading, for a tightly coordinated, well-funded US government research programme on the potential effects of nanotechnology on the environment and on human health and safety (see Nature 444, 267-269; 2006). But despite those efforts, bolstered by support from Congress, the Bush administration has yet to produce even a strategic plan for how such a programme would work. Why?