Nano Rubbish

There is a lot of hype surrounding nanotechnology, usually stemming from sensationalist, rather than realistic media reporting. This can lead to misunderstanding of the realities of nanotechnology. There are a couple of myths and scare-stories that seem to continually crop up, when in reality they actually have very little scientific basis.

Nanobots and grey goo are terms used to describe tiny self-replicating nanomachines that will supposedly devour the world. It is said that science will become so advanced that the ‘bots’ will be so efficient at using natural resources to build more of themselves that, if left unchecked, this would reduce the environment to grey goo. Michael Crichton’s best-selling novel ‘Prey’ helped to perpetuate the tales of nanobots. The book sees the tiny machines evolving out of the lab, and becoming independent enough to fight the scientists that attempt to control them. To create such machines as the proposed nanobots would require a level of science and sophistication that is just not possible, and is unlikely to be for many generations. Mainly, this is because only living organisms can take simple building blocks from their environment in the form of nutrients and minerals and create new molecular structures. However, even the simplest living organisms are a complex pool of genes, proteins, and chemical reactions, all of which must act together under well-defined conditions to create new structures and compounds. Furthermore, the purpose of such nanobots would be as 'molecular assemblers', i.e they would be used to assemble molecules together into other devices rather than making more of themselves.

© Copyright 1996 by Scientific American

‘Grey goo’ was first described in the 1980s by the prominent nanotechnologist Eric Drexler, founder of the Foresight Institute. He warned of billions of tiny nanomachines multiplying and massing over the earth, effectively resembling grey goo. In 2004 he retracted this, stating that he had only wanted scientists to consider this scenario as a theoretical possibility when developing nanotechnology. He even went as far as to say that such machines “cannot be built with today’s nanotechnology toolset”.

As with any technology there are potential risks, and nanotechnology is no different. To find out more visit the Societal Impacts and Nanoparticles pages.