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N.C. team picked for plant experiment in space
Chris Brown, Kenan Institute; Wendy Boss, Imara Perera, botany
Deja
vu looms over General Assembly next year
Andy Taylor, political science
Cooperative
purchases products from members to create livestock feed
Leonard Bull, animal science
New ICU
Enhances Care at NC State Veterinary Teaching Hospital
Bernie Hansen,
Teresa DeFrancesco, College of Veterinary Medicine
edge3
Iniative Focuses on High-Tech Textiles
College of Textiles
Weaving
a Relationship with NCSU
College of Textiles
N.C.
State Police Capture Suspect Accused of Stealing Computer Equipment
from Campus
campus police
3Plus1
Technology Delivers First Compiler and Demonstrates Development Flow
With JPEG
Tom Conte, Center for Embedded Systems Research
Analysis:
Nano Needs Research Before Rules
Nancy Monteiro-Riviere, toxicology
N.C. team picked for plant experiment in space
Dec. 21, 2004
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By staff report
© Copyright 2004
RALEIGH - NASA has asked four N.C. State University researchers to determine how greens could be grown on the red planet.
The space agency selected biologists at N.C. State's Kenan Institute to design experiments for the international space station to test how plants adapt to life in space or on another planet.
If Americans go to Mars, live plants would greatly aid the mission, but people don't yet know how to grow crops or anything else there.
"Plants support us here on Earth, and plants will support us on Mars," said Chris Brown, director of space programs at the institute.
The experiments look for ways to build on the strengths of plants, which cope well in adverse conditions. When water supplies dry up, they conserve moisture. If they get knocked down, they make their leaves reach toward the sun and their roots toward the ground to stay alive.
In space, those adaptations may be difficult to complete.
"If they get that confused, they are dead," Brown said.
If the molecular mechanisms that make their coping possible can be harnessed and altered, science one day might engineer plants better suited to conditions on other planets, Brown said.
Mars has less than half of Earth's gravity and an atmosphere that's nearly 95 percent carbon dioxide. Winter temperatures plunge as low as minus-180 degrees.
"There are a lot of important things that we have to do" before trips to Mars are feasible, said Terri Lomax, NASA's deputy associate administrator for research. This experiment is one of them, Lomax said.
In the experiments, expected to occur in about two years, Brown and his team will use Arabidopsis, a mustard weed frequently tinkered with in molecular biology labs. The scientists will ship normal weeds, as well as weeds made less sensitive to gravity, to the space station.
Using genomics tools, they will try to capture the molecular means the plants use to try to adapt.
"In the absence of gravity, other factors might become more important. If there is any light, is that how plants will orient?" asked researcher Imara Perera, who created the genetically modified plants for the N.C. team.
The scientists can't be sure when a space shuttle can ferry their experiments to the space station. A shuttle has not flown since Columbia disintegrated during re-entry in February 2003. Discovery is expected to launch next year.
The space station also has had trouble recently. Earlier this month, an American and Russian aboard the station were instructed to eat less to save their dwindling food supplies.
Still, the scientists are confident their projects will get there.
Wendy Boss, another N.C. State team member, said the experiments also could deliver insight on how other creatures, including people, function.
"We need to understand the fundamental biology of all different organisms," Boss said. "They all represent different pieces of the same pie."
Dec. 20, 2004
WTVD
By Tim Nelson
© Copyright 2004
N.C. State police say they have captured a man who had been stealing computer equipment from campus.
They say the suspect even used the universities network to send out threatening emails. Now he faces felony charges.
Although the suspect was a person who was very savvy with a computer, the suspect was logged on inside an N.C.S.U. building, someone out of state helped track him down.
Stephen Hamilton may look like a student, but investigators say that he is a thief.
"He's probably the second or third person that we have the most dealing with here on the criminal side on campus," Sgt. Jon Barnwell of N.C. State University Police said.
The 21-year-old has been arrested about a dozen times in recent years on charges of breaking and entering and trespassing.
Late last week, authorities say he struck again.
"It appears from the outside to be really serious," Barnwell said.
Police say Hamilton broke into Brooks Hall late Thursday night, stealing CD's and a computer memory stick. It is believed he then made his way to Dabney Hall, where he illegally logged onto a computer.
Hamilton allegedly went to a website called otherside.net, a chat room used by folks who know a thing or two about computers.
Police say he started communicating physical threats online; turns out he chose the wrong group of people.
"These folks that visit this web site are pretty computer savvy, so they are able to get the IP address, realized that it was something radiating from N.C. State University," Barnwell said.
One of those threatened called campus police, who got a hold of the universities IT staff. In no time at all, they had located the computer Hamilton was using, and a short time after that they tracked him down inside the building.
Hamilton faces felony charges of breaking and entering, larceny, and use of a government computer.
He does not yet face any charges on the alleged threats, but campus police say those charges may be coming.
Hamilton is now behind bars at the Wake County jail.
Deja vu looms over General Assembly next year
Dec. 20, 2004
Associated Press; Greensboro News & Record; NBC-17
By STEVE HARTSOE
© Copyright 2004
In the closing hours of the 2003-04 legislative session, House Co-Speaker Jim Black remarked that the term "began in terrible fashion and ended up with a good result."
That line may again come in handy for the Mecklenburg Democrat.
As at the start of the 2003-04 session, new and returning lawmakers who will report to Raleigh next month will face a projected budget shortfall in excess of $1 billion.
A lot of what happens in 2005-06 will depend on how solid state coffers are when tax receipts start arriving next year.
But with an election year behind lawmakers and an apparent power shift in the House, many issues that were deemed too controversial for serious debate this year will likely get their due in 2005.
"We've got some sort of leftover business as far as high-profile issues," says Andy Taylor, a political science professor at North Carolina State University.
Among the topics likely to get serious attention in 2005:
With an eye on the election, legislators plugged this year's budget holes with one-time or temporary revenues and budget cuts, eventually settling on a $15.9 billion spending plan that secured money for many of Gov. Mike Easley's pet education projects.
Several voter-friendly bills were signed into law, including anti-domestic violence and anti-methamphetamine legislation, and a contentious school calendar bill pushed by parents and teachers.
One big difference between the opening of next year's session on Jan. 26 and the start of the 2003-04 session will be who is in charge of the state House.
Black and Republican Richard Morgan, who leads a faction of moderate Republicans, served as co-speakers for the last two years when the chamber was closely split between the two parties. But Democrats picked up five seats in the November election, and will hold a 63-57 edge next session.
This time, Black will likely run the chamber alone. He's already picked up the nomination of all 63 House Democrats, and says he has the support of some GOP representatives.
That could bode well for supporters of a death penalty moratorium, including Black, who say executions should stop to allow a study of how fairly capital punishment is dispensed.
Black and Morgan typically would not allow floor votes on bills they disagreed on or that they deemed controversial. With moratorium opponent Morgan likely out of the top power slot, supporters are confident 2005 is their year.
"I think we had enough votes last session, but a lot of measures were not brought to the floor," said David Neal of the North Carolina Coalition for a Moratorium. "I think this year there's a better chance. ... A lot of the stumbling blocks are gone."
Black says a moratorium is "an issue we'll deal with one way or the other."
Another issue that has stalled in committee is a proposed tax hike on a pack of cigarettes.
Supporters say raising the nation's third-lowest cigarette tax from 5 cents to 75 cents would generate several hundred million dollars that could offset taxpayer-funded health care or other fast-rising expenses.
Black said last week he would favor using revenue from a cigarette tax hike for education.
"I think it's huge progress for the speaker to be talking about this at this stage," said Rep. Jennifer Weiss, D-Wake, who plans to introduce another bill to raise the tax.
But hungry mouths on Jones Street are already jostling for a piece of that potential revenue pie.
When Black signaled that a cigarette tax hike will be on the table, the joint Blue Ribbon Commission on Medicaid Reform was listening.
The next day, the panel recommended that the state begin phasing out counties' share of Medicaid financing over six years. That proposal would add $777.9 million in new costs to the state in 2011.
The panel listed the cigarette tax as a potential revenue source to cover that cost.
"The suggestion was if we put in a tobacco tax (hike), a portion could be used to offset costs of things we're trying to do to help take over the counties' share," said Sen. William Purcell, D-Scotland, a co-chairman of the panel.
Lawmakers also must grapple with satisfying a court order to increase the share of education money spent on the poorest districts. Poor school districts filed the suit 10 years ago, saying urban school systems were getting too big a share of the state's education resources.
The State Board of Education has estimated it will cost $220 million to fully comply with the court order in the so-called "Leandro" case.
"Leandro is sort of a big white elephant in the room as well," said Taylor.
Cooperative purchases products from members to create livestock feed
Dec. 21, 2004
Durham Herald-Sun
By ANNE KRISHNAN
© Copyright 2004
DURHAM -- Animal feed has become a bit more sophisticated since the Nativity's livestock relied on mangers filled with hay.
At Southern States Cooperative's feed mill in central Durham, workers use computers and dozens of ingredients to create feed geared specifically to the needs of particular animals and farmers.
The mill, which is located on a 2.5-acre site on Mallard Avenue, produced 38,000 tons of feed last year in mash and pellet forms. Mash is a loose combination of grains and supplements that farmers can mix with hay or their own ingredients. Alternatively, the mill compresses mash to make feed pellets.
Feed for dairy cows is the facility's main product, followed by feed for beef cows, poultry, horses and swine, said mill manager Cary Fleming.
Each type of animal gets a different mix of feed. For instance, dairy cows need a lot of fiber to help produce milk, while chickens and pigs need more corn for their systems to run well.
The mill may add supplements such as vitamins or butterscotch flavoring, as well, Fleming said.
All of its recipes, however, come from Southern States' home office in Richmond, Va. The farmer-owned cooperative purchases, manufactures or processes feed, seed, fertilizer, farm supplies and fuel. Southern States had pretax profit of $3.6 million in its fiscal 2004, plus a $64.3 million one-time gain. The firm had recorded losses in the past three fiscal years.
The Durham feed mill began in 1966 as a facility for Central Carolina Farmers Inc., a cooperative that served farmers from Siler City to Oxford, according to mill superintendent Bill Cone. In the 1970s, CCF merged with a Raleigh cooperative called FCX, and the firm later filed for bankruptcy.
Southern States bought the operation in 1986. It now supplies customers -- both co-op members and non-members -- throughout North Carolina, northern South Carolina and parts of Virginia. The company has nine other mills from Georgia to Pennsylvania.
The Durham facility is one of only three Southern States mills that deals in bulk feed, delivering tons of its product directly to farms rather than bagging it for retail sale, Cone said.
"It never really touches human hands," he said. "You might say we feed their animals."
And despite its age, the mill is in good shape, Fleming said. He and his employees recently added fresh coats of paint to some areas, and his goal for next year is to paint the mill from top to bottom.
"All of us are very proud of this facility," he said. "Employees here take a lot of pride in what they do."
The mill tries to buy most of the nearly 100 ingredients in its feed from Southern State's members. While some of its ingredients have their first use in feed, many others arrive as byproducts of other processes. The mill makes use of cottonseed hulls, brewer's greens, distiller's greens, soy hulls and citrus pellets.
Except for corn, which the mill grinds as needed, all of the other feed ingredients arrive ground and ready to mix.
To avoid the threat of mad cow disease, the facility doesn't use any beef-based products in its feed. The only animal products used in the feed are derived from pork, which isn't considered a restricted-use protein, Fleming said.
Quality control and protection of the animal and human food supplies are major concerns for the mill -- extending even to examining suppliers' recent jobs for other customers, he said.
"If a truck comes in and it last hauled a restricted-use protein, it's rejected immediately," Fleming said. "Safe feed equals safe food."
The mill keeps samples from each ingredient delivery for six months, recording the date it was received, the origin and the supplier. It also keeps for three months samples of each batch of feed produced.
Several dairy farms that left Southern States to try its competitors' feed have returned to the cooperative's products, Fleming said.
"We make quality, top-notch feed, and the proof's in the pudding," he said.
The mill, which sits adjacent to railroad tracks, receives many of its ingredients by rail. Southern States' employees inspect each car from the top and the bottom, making sure there's no mold and that the product is what it's supposed to be.
The mill then stores the individual ingredients in huge silos and smaller containers until it's needed to make the feed.
Southern States produces each batch of feed to order for its customers, Fleming said. When an order comes in, employees create an invoice that lists the order number, customer information and feed type -- details that will allow the mill to track the feed and its ingredients long after they've left the plant.
The invoice is sent to the panel room, where a technician keys the work order into the computer. He routes the orders to specific machines to avoid contamination, keeping each type of animal feed on separate equipment.
The computer then controls the mixing process, dumping ingredients into the mixer to make a mash. If that's what the customer has ordered, the system sends the feed straight to the loading dock's storage area.
If the customer orders pellets, the computer feeds the mash into a pellet machine. That machine heats the mash as high as 150 degrees to gelatinize the fats, then squeezes the mixture through holes much like a pasta machine. Knives cut the pellets into the farmers' desired lengths. The pellets then are transported into the mill's basement, where they cool to room temperature.
At the end of the process, the feed is poured into a tanker truck, then sampled once more to ensure it's what the customer ordered.
The mill usually has a two-day turnaround from the time an order is placed to the time it's shipped out, Fleming said, although sometimes an order will be made and shipped in the same day.
While years ago there were a number of locally owned and managed feed mills, Southern States now is one of the larger feed producers left, said Leonard Bull, a professor of animal science at N.C. State University. Large corporate farms now make their own feed rather than purchasing it from manufacturers, he said.
Indeed, Southern States has looked for niche markets with smaller operators and specialty animals, Cone said. The Durham feed mill supplies a pigeon farm, while other plants with different technologies produce feed for the trendy tilapia fish or llamas.
That's exactly what the company should be doing, Bull said. Southern States' strict quality control and infrastructure allow it to generate safe, nutritious food that might not be reliably produced otherwise, he said.
"They have a very important role to play, but it's a different role than they had a decade ago," he said.
edge3 Initiative Focuses on High-Tech Textiles
Dec. 17, 2004
Business Report (Raleigh Chamber of Commerce)
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
For a copy of this article, contact News Services at 5-3470.
Weaving a Relationship with NCSU
Dec. 17, 2004
Business Report (Raleigh Chamber of Commerce)
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
For a copy of this article, contact News Services at 5-3470.
New ICU Enhances Care at NC State Veterinary Teaching Hospital
Dec. 21, 2004
Lincoln Tribune
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
Raleigh - The Veterinary Teaching Hospital in the College of Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina State University has designed a new Intensive Care Unit, allowing critical-care clinicians to help additional numbers of seriously ill or injured companion animals.
In addition to accommodating greater numbers of recovering pets at any given time, the new ICU includes a formal station for nurses, an office area, a kitchen to prepare patient meals, and a special visitation room where an owner can spend quiet time with an ailing animal companion.
The new 1,080-square-foot ICU can treat and care for an estimated 1,600 dogs and cats annually. In comparison, 1,140 patients were treated in the course of a year in the previous 723-square-foot unit.
“We outgrew the original space,” says Dr. Bernie Hansen, who manages the Veterinary Teaching Hospital’s critical-care program and oversees the ICU with Dr. Teresa DeFrancesco. “The original area was just a part of the hospital construction in 1983 and was not designed for our specific needs. It was used heavily and became outdated. Our new facility was designed with the patient in mind and to support today’s critical-care program,” he said.
The fulltime ICU team includes Hansen and DeFrancesco – who are the region’s only practicing board-certified critical-care specialists – and 11 veterinary technicians.
Patients are transferred to the ICU after being referred to and seen by veterinarians in one of the hospital’s 10 specialty clinics or having been admitted to the hospital’s Small Animal Emergency Service.
“The Veterinary Teaching Hospital has become the tertiary referral center where area veterinarians transfer their most critically ill patients,” says DeFranceso. “This means our unit cares for the most critical of the patients who require a hospital stay for a serious illness or who are recovering from surgery. Post-operative care and complicated internal medicine issues both require intense ICU monitoring.”
Specific types of ICU medical issues include diabetes, spinal injuries, animals that cannot walk, cardiology patients, and patients with infectious disease, which requires an isolation room monitored by cameras.
The average stay in the ICU is two to three days, after which the recovering patient is transferred to the general hospital ward. The goal is to return the patient to the home environment as soon as medically advisable.
Hospital revenues and a private donation funded the new $298,000 ICU. The private donation from the Nord Family Foundation is in memory of “Normin,” a golden retriever who was referred to the oncology service and cared for by hospital staff during a six-week period.
Agribusiness: New seed treatment controls thrips longer, suppresses plant bugs
Dec. 20, 2004
Southwest Farm Press, KS
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
Researchers have also reported significant activity on western flower thrips from Gaucho Grande.
Gustafson LLC’s new Gaucho Grande insecticide seed treatment could be just what the doctor ordered for farmers who seem to be battling wet springs a lot more often than they used to.
Research shows that Gaucho Grande, which contains a higher rate of the active ingredient imidacloprid than Gaucho, appears to be giving growers longer control of thrips and aphids compared to that of competing products. It may also reduce plant bug numbers for up to 40 days after planting.
“I think farmers are going to find that Gaucho Grande can provide up to 35 days of thrips control, which is seven to 10 days longer than the competing seed treatments,” said Bobby Hendrix, southern region sales manager for Gustafson. “By using Gaucho Grande, producers may be able to eliminate over-sprays for thrips.”
“When you go out to the fourth or fifth true leaf is when you really see the difference with Gaucho Grande,” said Chip Graham, product development manager for Gustafson’s Southern Region. “At five weeks, that’s when you start to see a separation in treatments.”
Not having to spray a foliar insecticide in the first five weeks of the season can be a plus for farmers who have had difficulty getting back into their fields because of sporadic rains following planting. But it can also make a difference in the kind of insect pressure a producer faces for the remainder of the season.
“One of the hot topics at this year’s Mississippi Entomology Association annual meeting was that plant bugs are getting more and more prevalent,” said Graham. “Anything that delays insecticide applications and protects beneficials could help.”
Farmers say they are seeing a difference in their fields.
“Gaucho held longer than anything else this year in controlling thrips,” said Rusty Wright, a producer from Sledge, Miss. “Where I have root-knot nematode I used 5 pounds of Temik and two shots of Vydate. Where we don’t have a nematode problem, I use Gaucho and generally don’t have to spray for 20 days after planting.”
“We use Gaucho on everything,” said George Mankin, a grower from Watson, Ark. “Gerald Dean, our consultant, said Gaucho holds as good or better than anything else. This is our second year to use Gaucho. The first year we treated our cotton seed on the turnrow; this year we had Helena treat our seed.”
Mark and Louis Fratesi, who farm near Leland, Miss., said Gaucho helped them reduce foliar applications of insecticides, helped assure their cotton grew off properly and was cheaper and easier to use than alternatives.
Research appears to be backing up those observations.
In a seed treatment demonstration conducted by Angus Catchot, Extension cotton entomologist with Mississippi State University, Gaucho Grande plots were rated at a 1 (on a scale of 1-5) compared to a 1.5 for regular Gaucho, 2 for a competing product and 3.5 for the untreated check at three weeks after planting.
A similar test by Glenn Studebaker, research entomologist at the Northeast Research and Extension Center, Keiser, Ark., put the thrips damage at 1.1 (1 being no damage) for Gaucho and Gaucho Grande vs. 1.4 for a competing product and 2.1 for the untreated four weeks after planting.
Similar findings were reported by Jack Reed, professor of entomology at Mississippi State University, and Gary Lentz, an entomologist with the West Tennessee Experiment station in Jackson, Tenn.
Gaucho Grande also increased yields in research entomologist Gene Burris’ plots at the Northeast Research Station, St. Joseph La., and those of entomologist John Ruberson at the University of Georgia Experiment Station at Tipton, Ga.
Researchers have also reported significant activity on western flower thrips from Gaucho Grande. J.R. Bradley, research entomologist at North Carolina State University, conducted a study with caged western flower thrips on cotton that produced 75 percent mortality on adult western flower thrips compared to 47 percent for the same active ingredient of a competing product.
Gaucho Grande was born in response to the major seed companies’ move to seed count packaging, according to Hendrix. “In recent years, distributors have played a more active role in seed treatments because growers have been making variety selections later than before.
“Our rate structure was based on an active ingredient per hundredweight, but the seed count can now vary greatly from one variety to the next,” he said. “So we increased the rate of imidacloprid to make the treatments more uniform among the different seed counts.”
The increased rate not only helps make sure farmers receive the proper amount of insecticide in their seed treatment, but it also provides longer protections against thrips and aphids, suppression of plant bugs and control of western flower thrips, said Graham.
We were seeing roadblocks, but we saw that farmers needed added flexibility in protecting their plants,” he noted. “So we went through the roadblocks and came out with a better product for our growers.”
3Plus1 Technology Delivers First Compiler and Demonstrates Development Flow With JPEG
Dec. 21, 2004
TMCnet; Business Wire
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
SARATOGA, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- Dec. 20, 2004 -- Heterogeneous Multiprocessor Architecture Creates Low-Power, High-Performance CoolProcessor(TM) Family With C Compiler-Based Software Development Flow
3Plus1 Technology Inc., a Silicon Valley-based fabless semiconductor company, today announced shipment of the first alpha release of a non-native compiler for its advanced multiprocessor architecture. The architecture has been used as the basis for a series of CoolProcessor(TM) devices aimed at addressing the low-power needs of mobile-system manufacturers, running multimedia and communications applications concurrently.
In addition, 3Plus1 announced that working with a partner in Japan, it has successfully demonstrated the software application development flow of JPEG for the first member of the CoolProcessor family 3P3200.
"The smooth integration of hardware and software layers with a well accepted, industry-standard development flow has been one of the goals of the company since inception," said Allan Cox, President and CEO. "Partners successfully using the first version of the compiler in addition to the existing assembly, simulation and kernel library tools, to create full applications such as JPEG, is not only a validation of this smooth integration, but also of the CoolProcessor ultra low power, low area, and high performance, and of the underlying programmable architecture itself," he added.
Based on consumer demands for operation of both multimedia and communications applications, 3Plus1 Technology has created an architecture specifically designed for low-power, concurrent execution of specific applications, including MPEG 2/4, H.263/4, JPEG/2000, 802.11 a/b/g, 802.16 Bluetooth, GSM/GPRS/EDGE, CDMA 2000/WCDMA, MP3, and GPS, in various combinations. This has been accomplished in a sub-100mw processor when implemented in a standard 130nm low-power CMOS process.
"The non-native compiler is an important first step in the 3Plus1 compiler roadmap. It allows customers to compile their existing applications with their own software build environment while linking properly to the advanced 3Plus1 algorithm kernels library," said Prof. Wen-mei Hwu, Walter J. ("Jerry") Sanders III-Advanced Micro Devices Endowed Chair at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an advisor to the company. "Such a capability immediately gives 3Plus1 access to a wide customer base. The success with the partner in Japan demonstrates this capability."
"The non-native C compiler enables users to integrate cycle-accurate simulations of heavy duty algorithms from the 3Plus1 kernel library with the voluminous control code written in C and compiled by the non-native compiler," said Dr. Amir Zarkesh, Executive Vice President. "3Plus1's algorithm kernel library includes highly efficient standard DSP algorithms like FFT, DCT, Viterbi, and VLC."
"The non-native compiler provides a powerful and efficient way to develop code for the CoolProcessor architecture while still enjoying the benefits of a native platform," said Prof. Tom Conte of North Carolina State University and an advisor to the company. "It will seamlessly integrate with the cutting-edge native compiler and optimizing high-level assembler technology that 3Plus1 is actively developing for release."
The company is addressing the needs of the 600-million-plus mobile handset, camera and PDA market. 3Plus1 has assembled a group of world-class technologists, including leading academics in their fields, addressing the problems of real-time voice, video and data processing -- at ultra low power levels and minimum silicon die size -- from the fundamental software and hardware architectural perspectives.
3Plus1's CoolProcessor family comprises six members, all upwardly code compatible with a single programming model. Development of software applications follows a standard DSP tool flow, and the company is currently delivering its initial applications-development software and modeling tools to early evaluation partners. The first member of the CoolProcessor family, the 3P3200, is capable of running scenarios where combinations of H.264 MPEG, JPEG, GSM and 802.11 operate concurrently. The 3P3200 is planned for release in Q3, priced at $10 in quantities of 5K pieces.
Analysis: Nano Needs Research Before Rules
Dec. 20, 2004
SpaceDaily
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
Washington, DC (UPI) Dec 20, 2004
Concerns are rising over the possible toxicity of nanomaterials and the safety
of nanoscale manufacturing, but experts say the field is so new there is
not enough research in hand to know what regulations are needed or even if
there actually is a safety issue.
For the most part, all we have is speculation on toxicity, said Mark Wiesner, an expert on the environmental implications of nanotechnology. Some (nano)materials are likely to be toxic and some are likely to be completely benign, but we don't know.
Nanotechnology, which manipulates materials and manufactures machines on the scale of single atoms, is an emerging field promising new treatments for cancer, new techniques to clean pollution and new materials for a wide range of uses.
Already, new nanomaterials are being created with unique properties and unusual levels of strength. At the nanoscale level familiar materials take on strange characteristics. Gold for example, normally an extremely stable material, becomes a catalyst able to trigger chemical reactions at a particular size in the nanoscale range.
In fact, suggested Nancy Monteiro-Riviere, a toxicologist specializing in nanomaterials at North Carolina State University, the size of a nanomaterial may have to be considered separately from the raw material itself and the planned application when regulations are drafted for nano-derived products.
The use of cosmetics and sunscreens has been heavily tested in the past, Monteiro-Riviere said. Most of the nanomaterials that are in these cosmetics are zinc- or titanium-based. They have been tested using classic toxicity screens. They have been regulated based on their chemical composition, not on their size. I have been talking with some of the FDA people who are reevaluating this at the current time.
Monteiro-Riviere and Wiesner, a researcher at Rice University in Houston, corresponded Wednesday with readers during an Internet chat on nanotechnology and the environment sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The problem, they said, is scientists simply do not have enough information yet to know what the risks are in the body or in the environment. Some nanomaterials exist naturally in the environment and should pose no harm. Some materials could be rendered harmless in the environment while other could react with Mother Nature in a detrimental way.
What is unknown, Wiesner said, is how these materials will interact with the soup of materials naturally present in water, such as degradation products of leaves, products from bacteria and others. We believe that these materials can drastically change or perhaps dominate the properties of nanomaterials in nature.
In other words, it might be that nanomaterials, once released in nature, take on a natural coat.
My concern, said Monteiro-Riviere, is that the fish eat (the soup described above), and the people eat the fish.
Earnest efforts are underway to research the health and environmental risks, said Clayton Teague, director of the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office. The NNCO is part of an interagency effort to integrate federal nanotechnology activities.
The National Toxicology Program, within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, already has begun a five-year effort to research the toxicology of nanomaterials Teaque said. Some $12 million to $15 million will be devoted to studies focused on nanotubes and buckyballs - both of which are made of carbon - and quantum dots. Quantum dots are tiny devices made of semi-conductor materials that contain a controlled number of free electrons.
Many quantum dots are made from heavy metals, said Wiesner, and those heavy metals are a known environmental concern. Any medical waste would need to be managed.
The government already is looking at such manufacturing and work-related risks, Teague said.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health over the last year has instituted a significant program of research to understand the various paths by which workers might be exposed to nanoscale materials and they have issued ... a statement about their thinking on nanoscale materials in the workplace, Teague told United Press International. They also will be issuing ... over the next six months or so, recommended practices about how to work with nanoscale materials, to do so in a safe manner.
Other research programs are underway at the National Cancer Institute, which is looking at the safe medical use of nanotechnology, and at the Environmental Protection Agency, Teague said. EPA is studying what happens to nanomaterial when it enters the environment.
Teague estimated it would take a minimum of five years to begin to get a handle on the toxicology of nanomaterials.
In the mean time, he said, it is important to realize any risk is limited, because the amount of nanomaterials in existence right now is very limited and mostly in laboratories.