Tag Archives: food

Canada, nanotechnology, and food

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On the heels of last week’s House of Lords report (Nanotechnologies and food) I thought I’d take a look at the Canadian scene. Here’s what I found after a fast online search.  Health Canada has a nanotechnology web page here. It doesn’t seem to have been updated since early 2007.  There are no links or reports posted, just a promise such as this found on the web page,

Regulating products to ensure the health and safety of Canadians and the environment is a priority for Health Canada. Currently, the Department is using the existing legislative and regulatory frameworks to regulate applications of nanotechnology, but it is recognized that new approaches may be necessary in the future to keep pace with the advances in this area.

There is a description of the Canadian situation on a webpage hosted by the International Union of Food Science and Technology and Institute of Food Technologists here, titled An Overview of Food Related Nanoscience in Advanced Foods and Materials Network (AFMNet) and in Canada authored by Rickey Yada and Lorraine Sheremata [sic]. This doesn’t appear to have been updated after late 2007. From the web page,

In conclusion, although nanoscience research efforts in Canada have progressed substantially over the past few years with the activities of AFMNet, NINT [National Institute of Nanotechnology] and regional nodes, a number of issues still remain to be addressed: major gaps still exist in our understanding of the health, safety, environmental and societal impacts of nanotechnology – filling these gaps will be critically important to the long term success of nanotechnology; in order for the benefits of science and technology at the nanoscale level (e.g. reproductive and genetic technologies, regenerative medicine, synthetic biology, food science) to be realized and accepted, public trust will have to be gained via a coherent and rational approach to stewardship and finally; careful planning and strategic research coordination is necessary to avoid duplication of research efforts, thereby, allowing for synergistic and complementary efforts.

You can visit AFMNet here if you’re curious about this academic organization which gives information useful to researchers.

Interestingly and since the last time I looked (probably mid-2009), the National Institute of Nanotechnology has added a NE3LS (Nanotechnology Ethical, Environmental, Economic, Legal and Social Issues) research programme here. Coincidentally, Lorraine Sheremeta (one of the authors of the food science and nanotechnology web page I referenced just previously) is a member of this research group. From the web page,

The NE3LS researchers focus on understanding the development of nanoscience and technology within a broader societal and transnational context. Current and ongoing research is focused on the development of a deeper understanding of issues related to the environment, human health and safety, law, policy and ethics, public opinion, commercialization and the development of a socio-historical analysis of the growth of nanoscience and technology.

NE3LS research has an important role to play in ensuring that acceptance or rejection of nanotechnology by society is based on a genuine understanding of specific technologies and the appropriate weighing of risks and benefits (both known and potential).

As I’m coming to expect, there are no posted reports and no links to more information.

I gather the Canadian government believes that food, health, and safety as regards nanotechnology is important but no additional information is to be shared with the rest of us.

Textiles that can detect counterfeiting devices, bacteria, and dangerous chemicals; a 22 nm chip; copyrighting food?

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I’m going to watch at least part of the live stream for the PEN event (Transatlantic Regulatory Cooperation) that’s taking place this morning (9:30 PST), so this is going to be a quick posting.

In my master’s project (The Nanotech Mysteries wiki), I featured a 2007 news item about a student designer at Cornell University who used textile fibres coated with nanomaterials in her clothing designs. (You can see the wiki page here.) Today, I caught a news item on Azonano about some textile scientists at Cornell University who launched a start-up that markets these kinds of fabrics.

Fabrics with embedded nanoparticles to detect counterfeiting devices, explosives and dangerous chemicals or to serve as antibacterials for hospitals, law enforcement or the hospitality industry are just a few of the products that a new company, [iFyber LLC] launched by two Cornell researchers, will produce.

This is exciting as I’ve gotten to follow the story a little further than usual. Generally, I find out about a product and then learn that it had its origins in an academic laboratory.

Intel has announced a new 22 nanometre (nm) chip. From the news item on Nanowerk,

Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini today displayed a silicon wafer containing the world’s first working chips built on 22nm process technology. The 22nm test circuits include both SRAM memory as well as logic circuits to be used in future Intel microprocessors. “At Intel, Moore’s Law is alive and thriving,” said Otellini. “We’ve begun production of the world’s first 32nm microprocessor, which is also the first high-performance processor to integrate graphics with the CPU.

I posted about the 32 nm chip and Intel’s investment in retooling three of their manufacturing facilities to produce the chip here. As I recall, IBM has a 28 nm chip.

I’m not sure what to make of all this. I find these innovations exciting but I always wonder about the practicalities. Since these chips aren’t visible to the naked eye, how does your computer get fixed (e.g. chip replacement) by your average computer repair shop? How reliable are these chips?

Finally, here’s a posting I found on Techdirt about copyrighting hummus, etc. There is a group in Lebanon who are planning to sue  Israel for using words like hummus, tabbouleh, etc. to describe their food products. It seemed a little odd to me when I scanned the headline but as Techdirt sardonically points out, the word champagne is for the exclusive use of wine producers in  France and there have been other successful attempts at this type of copyright claim. (As I recall,  not even French wine producers from  regions other than Champagne can call their product champagne.) I followed one of the Techdirt links here for more information. My understanding after viewing a tv clip and reading the article (both Israeli-produced) is that the Lebanese group is motivated by the fact that Israel has been more successful at marketing and selling these products internationally.  I also wonder how the other countries that market and sell these products will react to Lebanon’s proposed copyright claim.

Nano safety…it’s everywhere

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Nature Nanotechnology just published (advance online edition) a commentary titled Nanotechnology: Learning from past mistakes. It’s the first time I’ve seen an article which advises humility as an important factor when developing new sciences and technologies.  The authors Stefan Foss Hansen and Anders Baun of the Technical University in Denmark, Andrew Maynard of the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, and Joel Tickner at the University of Massachusetts are drawing on an earlier report by the European Environment Agency which examined 14 case studies where early warnings about a new technology were ignored and resulted in some serious health issues.  Foss, et al are comparing nanotechnology’s emergence to these earlier cases and the outcome is mixed ie, there’s some good and there’s some bad. Unfortunately, the full article is behind a paywall. There’s a bit more info. here at Science Daily or here at Phys.org.

Still on the safety train, there’s a study of Swiss consumers which suggests that they accept the idea of nanotechnology applications being used in food packaging. This seems unusual and I haven’t had time to track down the study but there’s a bit more about it here.

More on memristors and a little bit on food packaging and nano

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The folks at HP Labs have figured out a  way to control memristors and the information is being published in the July issue of Nature Nanotechnology (article will be behind a paywall). Memristors first came up in May this year when scientists at HP Labs confirmed that they existed. (Take a look at my June 19 posting and May 9 postings for more about memristors.) Briefly, a memristor retains information (memory of value) about current that passes through it. They’ve now created a memristor switch (50nm x 50nm) which the can be set to ‘1’ or ‘0’ or something in between. That’s right it can be used in a  binary (digital) fashion or an analogue fashion. One of the potential applications (noted in the earlier postings) is for saving energy and another is a computer that learns. There’s more info. here at HP Labs.

A friend told me about a report from Friends of the Earth called ‘Out of the Laboratory and Onto Our Plates’. It’s about nanotechnology being used in food packaging and agriculture. I find their approach a bit strident especially when taking into account their acronym, foe. Still, the report itself is well written, except for the strident bits, has a substantive set of references and can be downloaded from their website. There’s also a March 2008 article  in Scientific American here which discusses the report and includes some commentary from other interested parties to provide some journalistic balance.