}

Summer spring fashion: nanotechnology

2006/04/23 Rementeria Argote, Nagore - Elhuyar Zientziaren Komunikazioa

All new technologies generate a lot of desire and, without a doubt, nanotechnology generates tickles in the stomach. What will it bring? What advances will we see in everyday life? Can it cause damage? These questions have no answer for the moment. However, despite ignorance, new technologies bring us to the dictionary new words and the nano is putting fashion.
It was science fiction, but the products developed with nanotechnology are already on the market.
MEC

In fact, it is a prefix used to express the nano measurement. A nanometer, for example, is the millionaire of a meter. A head is about ten thousand nanometers thick. Therefore, it indicates a very small size, it is a scale of atoms and molecules. In this way, nanotechnology is a technology that works on this scale, relatively new, so it can be said that it is in its beginnings.

This kind of words fascinate us with ease and, somehow, putting fashionable words composed of that nano prefix is no wonder.

List of Nanoproducts

According to a market study, the label of several products predicts that they are products developed thanks to nanotechnology. Experts from the Woodrow Wilson organization have compiled a list of these products and have found two hundred and twelve products on the market. Last year, a similar study was conducted by another organization, with a quantity of products close to half. Therefore, it is clear that the presence of nanotechnology is spreading.

Nanotechnology is already mentioned in some labels of tools and sports garments.
MEC

Many of these products obtained with nanotechnology are related to computer science: processors, flash memories.. No wonder, since the creation of nanotechnology it was clearly seen that it would drive the world of computers.

There are also appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines, vacuum cleaners and air conditioners. And all kinds of tools and accessories for sport: golf clubs, tennis rackets, bicycle accessories, clothes, footwear...

Cosmetics have not been left behind, and in this list of products developed thanks to nanotechnology are thirty-one beauty products, more than one in ten. Facial creams, sun protectors, makeup, lip paints... and food supplements, among others.

The truth is that in this type of products were already used particles of nano scale, but from the point of view of the marketing it is advisable to highlight this characteristic, since it contributes a picture of product pointer.

Possible Berriegia

But nanotechnology has also aroused concern in recent times. There are people who believe it can be harmful to both the environment and health. The issue is that nanotechnology is still not regulated, and since these products are on the market, it is necessary to update the legislation as soon as possible.

The nano prefix is putting fashion into beauty products.
MEC

These products developed through nanotechnology are subjected to rigorous toxicological analyses, as are the rest of the products that arrive on the market, and do not seem at all harmful to health. The main concern focuses on the environment, since the particles generated in nanotechnology are very small and are easily diffuse. They still do not know what it has supposed, and it is known that we must respect unknown things.

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