Season 3, Episode 2: Dust in the Wind
Back at NorBAC, David and Bob test positive for cyanobacteria infection, which they brought back from Utah, and they’re starting to get ill. The race is on to try to counteract the infection and stop the bacterial chain reaction before the hosts meet a fiery end. Even worse – it seems that the nano-engineered cyanobacteria have escaped the Utah lab when it exploded, contaminating the surrounding environment…
Breaking the chain
This episode brought to mind an old childhood song, which went something like this:
There was an old lady who swallowed a goat.
Just opened her throat and swallowed a goat!
She swallowed the goat, to catch the dog ...
She swallowed the dog, to catch the cat.
She swallowed the cat, to catch the bird ...
She swallowed the bird, to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and wiggled inside her.
She swallowed the spider, to catch the fly.
But, I dunno why she swallowed that fly …
Perhaps she'll die.
In this episode, scientists have embarked on a quest to design a virus, to attack some bacteria that other scientists developed, to help address a problem caused by technologies that some others, before them, developed. If it were a song, it might go something like this:
We are the scientists building a virus,
If we don’t succeed, they’ll probably fire us!
We’re building the virus, to stop the bug,
We built the bug, to power the cars,
We built the cars …
Not as catchy as the original, but you get the point. As mentioned in the previous installment of ReGenesis: Science and Society, if we’re not careful, our best intentions can sometimes lead to unwanted and potentially dangerous consequences. Replacing one problem with another is seldom, if ever, an effective solution.
In this scenario, time is short and a solution is desperately needed – not only to save David’s and Bob’s lives, but also to ensure that thousands of innocent people are not contaminated by the nano-engineered bacteria that have been released into the environment. As far as David is concerned, “if we can’t figure out a way to kill this thing, then we’re all …” In a lot of trouble!
What to do?
NorBAC’s plan to create a “nanopredator” virus to attack the rogue bacteria has some scientific merit – as described in this episode’s Facts Behind the Fiction – and it may just be the perfect way to stop the spread of the bacteria. But as Bob tells David , by considering the release of a new virus into the environment, “you’re talking about a whole new ecology.” Not a step that should be taken hastily, as the impact is potentially significant and maybe even calamitous.
What else might these viruses do once they’re released? Is it possible that they might find other hosts in the environment, allowing them to spread? How many more lines could we add to our song, above, before the song would have to end?
There was an old lady who swallowed a horse.
She’s dead … of course!
Then again, maybe the virus could stop the bacteria – which they know is harmful – without causing any additional problems along the way. By designing it to target the nano-dots, which are not naturally occurring, instead of the bacteria themselves, which are quite literally everywhere, that was precisely the NorBAC team’s goal!
Nanotechnology & Environmental Risk
While the risks of releasing a new virus into the environment could be significant, so too is the potential environmental impact of nanotechnology and nanoparticles – like the cyanobacteria’s nano-dots.
When we consider the environmental impact of nanotech, we’re not just addressing the impact of inadvertently releasing nanoparticles like in the show. Consider something as seemingly routine as the disposal of products containing nanoparticles, once they’re not useful anymore.
Nanotechnology involves the creation and manipulation of substances at the atomic and molecular level. These are structures as small as one to one hundred billionths of a meter! But as the old adage says, good things come in small packages. Nanotech holds tremendous promise for use in and improvement of all kinds of technologies, from medicines and diagnostics, to automobiles, electronics, textiles, and cosmetics.
But it’s important to ensure that the development and use of nanotechnologies proceed as safely and responsibly as possible. What makes it tough, however, is that there are scant data assessing the risks of nanotechnology: risks to workers designing the instruments incorporating nanoparticles; risks to consumers using nanotechnologies; and risks to the environment from the release and accumulation of nanoparticles.
Fortunately, though it’s no surprise, scientists are hard at work investigating the health and environmental impacts of nanoparticles. Moreover, scholars across many disciplines are also researching “NE3LS”, or nanotech-related ethical, economic, environmental, legal and social issues. Basically, NE3LS research aims to figure out how nanotech will affect society, ranging from likely benefits to potential concerns.
Research in all of these areas will, in turn, inform the development of much needed policies to guide or regulate the development and use of nanotech. There are a number of groups around the world who are active in this area, spanning academic centres, government departments and agencies, industrial groups, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and public action groups.
These efforts are critically important to the responsible – and sustainable – realization of the benefits of nanotechnology, while minimizing potential negative impacts on the health of the environment and those who live in it.
More food for thought
Q: Nanotechnology is already appearing in products we use in our day-to-day lives. What are some of these products? Where do you think nanotech will have the greatest impact?
Q: Canada does not yet have a formal nanotechnology strategy. Think about a policy framework to regulate the development and use of nanotechnology. What would it need to address? What are the key elements it should contain?
Q: Do you believe that scientists think enough about how their research could affect the environment? Why or why not?
Want to read and learn more?
To learn more about nanotechnology, try these sites:
http://nint-innt.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/nano/index_e.html
http://www.nano.gov/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanotechnology
To read a report on The Ethics and Politics of Nanotechnology, from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), download it from:
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001459/145951e.pdf
