Thursday is the Institute for Nanobiotechnology’s annual symposium.
The meeting’s title is Environmental and Health Impacts of Engineered Nanomaterials. That basically means “nanotoxicology,” or “could nanoparticles be harmful to the environment or animals (including us)?”
I’m a science fiction fan, so my mind immediately races to (no, not Michael Crichton’s Prey) Greg Bear’s Blood Music. Originally a novelette written in 1984, it won the Hugo Award and is a marvelous read. The library owns it – check it out, or let this preview take you to the GENETRON lab, whose motto is “Where Small Things Make Big Changes.”
There is lots of science fiction written about nano-things. As a start, use Amazon’s “advanced search” screen, choose “Science Fiction and Fantasy,” and enter nano* (the asterisk will give you all of the variations).
Here is a page with library resources for nano-related information. See you on Thursday at the symposium!
Thanks for the tip! I wish I could go to the Symposium (why are these events always in the middle of the week? ;), but I will try the book by Greg Bear, which does look cool. One of my kids already has read The Prey and other Chrichton’s books, so he might borrow this too for a change…
How cool! He named the sections of the book after the stages of cell division! I haven’t read this Greg Bear book yet. Now it’s on my list. Thanks!