The turnover of the products that use nanotechnology-based materials has almost reached $ 150 billion and could reach 3 trillion by 2015: this is the way out of crisis or new potential risk for people and the planet?
In 2001, after the Internet bubble burst, the most optimistic had already assumed a recovery driven by an innovative and revolutionary new technology such as IT, nanotechnology, the ability to observe, measure and manipulate matter at atomic, molecular and macromolecular.
The idea of \u200b\u200bmanipulating and producing materials in size between 1 and 100 nanometers (a nanometer is a billionth of a meter, equivalent to about ten atoms of hydrogen) seemed like science fiction of interstellar travel, but did note the scientists, was already something feasible, so that the U.S. Congress has created right in 2001, the NNI (National Nanotechnology Initiative) to optimize and support an investment of over $ 10 billion to be allocated to research; development of nanotechnology.
was probably too soon. Investors and hedge funds have preferred to focus on subprime mortgages and the housing bubble specualazioni for their shareholders. Growing up without the boost from equity capital, the turnover of products that already incorporate nanotechnology materials, however, has reached 146 billion dollars globally and estimates of the company Lux Research predicts exponential growth, reaching the 3.1 trillion (3,100 billion dollars) for 2015 (only a few months ago the prediction was raaggiunge a trillion)
Today with nanotechnology will produce clothing, cosmetics, protective materials for paints, coatings for various surfaces, and even memory chips and hard disk capable of recording large amounts of data at very high densities. In the coming years are expected medical products as drugs and prostheses, but the potential applications are virtually endless and may even be able to ensure an improved eco-friendliness of the materials we use. Could this be one of the fields trainer that innovation needed to create the economic miracle claimed by Obama and other heads of state to revive global economies.
Unlike other technologies most experimental, in fact, even in Italy research and industrial activities related to nanotechnology are in turmoil. This may be an important signal because, you know, our country is generally reluctant to risk investing in technologies that do not offer major opportunities for gain in the short to medium term.
In 2003 he created the Italian Centre for Nanotechnology (Nanotec IT) with the mission to promote the development and application of nanotechnology in Italy, in order to enhance the competitive position of the country. Ben 20 companies have already entered a Nanotec IT (including giants such as Finmeccanica, Pirelli Labs, STMicroelectonrics, ENI), together with 18 research institutes of the CNR and nine other national universities.
The future of this technology is flourishing, and, more than many other areas, it might be strategic but must deal with a strong ideological resistance to the idea of \u200b\u200bmanipulating materials at the molecular level davvvero without knowing the full implications of these processes . It's irrational fears related to the unknown or are at risk, our health and the planet itself?
To try to address these legitimate concerns and know more fully the potential of nanotechnology and above all economic, next March 23 the American Association Project on Emerging Nanotecnologies held a conference (which you can participate via the Internet at www.wilsoncenter.org) with the participation of numerous scholars and experts in this field.
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