Nanotechnology: a promising new technology — but how safe?

Nanotechnologists have developed industrial processes that exploit the ability to work with materials at the molecular and supramolecular levels. They have unique physical and chemical properties, and are promising to drive the next industrial revolution, with an ostensibly limitless range of applications, from biomedical imaging, drug delivery and therapeutics, to materials manufacturing, optics, electronics, energy production and quantum computing. However, the unique physicochemical properties of nanomaterials also mean that they may have unique bioavailabilities and other characteristics that make them potentially toxic to humans