As nanotechnology explodes, and as federal agencies wrangle over whose responsibility it is to deal with an essentially unregulated industry, it's all the more crucial to take stock of the emerging field as soon as possible.
"This is not a technology we want to say no to out of hand," says Jennifer Sass, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). "I think this is a technology that is potentially transformative, but we want to use it in a way to take advantage of that while reducing the risk."
Maynard sees this moment as a crossroads for nanotechnology. "What concerns me," he says, "is that if we're not smart about this we'll get something wrong, which would cause unnecessary damage to the environment or to people and would undermine the potential of all nanotechnology."
Nowhere is the tension between real and perceived risk -- not to mention the tension between the mundane and the transformative -- more apparent than with nanosilver. Nanosilver offers an important early test case for two reasons: It is now used in more consumer products than any other nanomaterial, and it is principally designed for use in products that come into direct contact with the human body. Since late 2005, the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies has been compiling an inventory of products that contain nanomaterials. In the first two years the list more than doubled, to more than 500 products as of the summer of 2007. Of these, nearly 100 contain nanosilver, almost always because of its antimicrobial action.