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Nanotechnology is expected to have a variety of economic,

social, environmental, and national security impacts. In 2000
the National Science Foundation began working with the
National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) to address
nanotechnology·s possible impacts and to propose ways of
minimizing any undesirable consequences.
For example, nanotechnology breakthroughs may result in the
loss of some jobs. Just as the development of the automobile
destroyed the markets for the many products associated with
horse-based transportation and led to the loss of many jobs,
transformative products based on nanotechnology will
inevitably lead to a similar result in some contemporary
industries. Examples of at-risk occupations are jobs
manufacturing conventional televisions. Nanotechnology-based
field-emission or liquid-crystal display (LCD), flat-panel TVs
will likely make those jobs obsolete. These new types of
televisions also promise to radically improve picture quality. In
field-emission TVs, for example, each pixel (picture element)
is composed of a sharp tip that emits electrons at very high
currents across a small potential gap into a phosphor for red,
green, or blue. The pixels are brighter, and unlike LCDs that
lose clarity in sunlight, field-emission TVs retain clarity in
bright sunlight. Field-emission TVs use much less energy than
conventional TVs. They can be made very thin³less than a
millimeter³although actual commercial devices will probably
have a bit more heft for structural stability and ruggedness.
Samsung claims it will be releasing the first commercial model,
based on carbon nanotube emitters, by early 2004.

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þther potential job losses could be those of supermarket

cashiers if nanotechnology-based, flexible, thin-film
computers housed in plastic product wrappings enable all-at-
once checkout. Supermarket customers could simply wheel
their carts through a detection gateway, similar in shape to
the magnetic security systems found at the exits of stores
today. As with any transformative technology, however,
nanotechnology can also be expected to create many new jobs.

The societal impacts from nanotechnology-based advances in

human health care may also be large. A ten-year increase in
human life expectancy in the United States due to
nanotechnology advances would have a significant impact on
Social Security and retirement plans. As in the fields of
biotechnology and genomics, certain development paths in
nanotechnology are likely to have ethical implications.

Nanomaterials could also have adverse environmental impacts.

Proper regulation should be in place to minimize any harmful
effects. Because nanomaterials are invisible to the human eye,
extra caution must be taken to avoid releasing these particles
into the environment. Some preliminary studies point to
possible carcinogenic (cancer-causing) properties of carbon
nanotubes. Although these studies need to be confirmed,
many scientists consider it prudent now to take measures to
prevent any potential hazard that these nanostructures may
pose. However, the vast majority of nanotechnology-based
products will contain nanomaterials bound together with other
materials or components, rather than free-floating nano-sized
objects, and will therefore not pose such a risk.

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At the same time, nanotechnology breakthroughs are

expected to have many environmental benefits such as
reducing the emission of air pollutants and cleaning up oil
spills. The large surface areas of nanomaterials give them a
significant capacity to absorb various chemicals. Already,
researchers at Pacific Northwestern National Laboratory in
Richland, Washington, part of the U.S. Department of Energy,
have used a porous silica matrix with a specially functionalized
surface to remove lead and mercury from water supplies.

Finally, nanotechnology can be expected to have national

security uses that could both improve military forces and
allow for better monitoring of peace and inspection
agreements. Efforts to prevent the proliferation of nuclear
weapons or to detect the existence of biological and chemical
weapons, for example, could be improved with nanotech
devices.
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