Nanotech to get cash boost from Dti

Wednesday, 2 July 2003 12:00 AM

The Government today gave its backing to nanotechnology, when it announced a six-year funding programme to help business benefit from commercial opportunities relating to the atomic science.

The £90m from the Dti will be spent on joint research and a network of micro and nanotechnology facilities, which should help UK companies access the latest information and resources in the industry.

Nanotechnology involves the manufacture or manipulation of objects that have dimensions of less than 100 nanometres - that's 80,000 times smaller than the width of an average human hair.

Its most obvious uses are in the fields of information technology, electronics and medicine, although it is already used in everyday objects such as cosmetics, where titanium dioxide is used at the nano-level to provide UV protection.

Lord Sainsbury commented: 'Nanotechnology promises huge benefits for the environment and our health and wealth."

"Some estimates predict a global market in nanotechnology worth over $1 trillion in a decade."

The new investment is also securing additional industry and regional spending anticipated to exceed £200m, and should provide a boost
to future advanced manufacturing in the UK.

Lord Sainsbury also acknowledged the concerns that have been raised about nanotechnology, some of which appear to border on science fiction.

"It is important that as this technology develops people feel confident about it," he said, confirming that the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering are now looking at current and future developments in nanotechnology with regard to ethical, health and safety, and environmental issues.

The fears that nanotechnology could run riot and turn our world into a mass of "grey goo" - a phrase first coined by Eric Drexler in his seminal book on the subject, 'Engines of Creation' - have been voiced by many in the scientific community as well as by lay people such as Prince Charles.

But the idea of creating nano-bots that could destroy the world is a long way from the present reality, and many scientists believe that the UK will only get left behind if the Government stalls on this issue.

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