Posted: November 22, 2007 |
China prioritizes tiny science with big future |
(Nanowerk News) China is looking at the big picture with a huge injection of funds into the science of nanotechnology - or manipulating single atoms and molecules.
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Xie Sishen, a chief scientist of nanotechnology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in Shanghai yesterday that the nation has earmarked a fund of more than 620 million yuan (US$83.66 million) for research and development involving nanotechnology from 2006 to 2010.
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This is 20 million yuan more than its overall investment in the area from 1991-2005.
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The technology can be used in myriad ways, Xie said, from treating serious diseases, to improving air and water quality. But he added a word of warning.
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"Nanotechnology is a double-edge sword," Xie said during the Third Shanghai International Nanotechnology Cooperation Symposium. While the technology has undoubted scientific clout, care should be exercised, as with any innovation.
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The increased state funds will be used to research and industrialize nanotechnology for the treatment of pollution, serious and terminal illnesses and the production of renewable energy.
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However, nano-level material can also challenge people's lives. For instance:
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Some particles in sandstorms from northern China are at nano levels and cause extreme health problems;
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Toxic emissions from many vehicles contain nano-level particles;
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The fumes produced while welding include disease-causing metal particles at nano levels.
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"We will use nanotechnology to fix the nano problems," said Xie. Nanotechnology refers to the manipulation of matter that is only a nanometer, or one-billionth of a meter across.
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At such a small scale, the ordinary rules of physics and chemistry - including those related to strength and conductivity - no longer apply. Carbon "nanotubes," for example, are 100 times stronger than steel but six times lighter.
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The purpose of the symposium, held every two years by the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission, is to collect global ideas to accelerate domestic research.
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More than 350 experts, business executives and government officials from 15 countries and regions - including the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom and Germany - are attending the three-day meeting which began yesterday.
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