Watching me, watching you - Earth & Sky Radio Series, USA

Listen to MIT’s Paula Hammond discuss how we link nanotech to privacy and security. Hammond was one of a panel of experts who explored nanotechnology’s potential to help monitor and keep track of just about everything.

EU looks at the safety of nanomaterials in cosmetic products - NanoWerk, USA
The controversy over the use of nanoparticles in everyday products, such as cosmetics, has been going on for a while now. The cosmetics industry of course argues that their nanoparticle-containing products are perfectly safe because no problem has been reported so far. Consumer, health and environmental groups beg to differ and claim that there is a potential risk because we just don't know enough about this issue and that we rather should err on the side of caution.
The EU's Scientific Committee on Consumer Products (SCCP) looked at the safety evaluation of nanomaterials for use in cosmetic products. It reported its findings in March 2008 in a report titled "The Safety of Nanomaterials in Cosmetic Products"

No Silver Bullets - New York Times Bits, USA
Nano-silver particles won’t attract the same attention as the prospect of global climate catastrophe. But nanotech skeptics are focusing on the materials most widely used in consumer products. The two groups of materials most often spotlighted in this strategy are nano-scale pigments, which are used in sunscreens and cosmetics, and nano-silver particles.

Nanotechnology? What are you talking about? - NanoWerk, USA
Ask 10 people what nanotechnology is and you will get 10 different answers. There are all these terms floating around: 'bottom-up' and 'top-down' fabrication, 'atomically precise manufacturing', 'molecular assembly', 'self-assembly', 'nanorobots', 'nanofactories' and so forth.

And then of course you hear about all these 'nanotechnology' products already hitting the market – but they seem decidedly low-tech, such as golf balls, 'no-smell' socks, toothpaste, scratch-resistant car paint, and so on – that's what we have been investing billions and billions of dollars for? Pretty confusing, huh? Let's start to disentangle...