Nanotechnology & Expo

Nanotechnology is a powerful tool for combating cancer and is being put to use in other applications that may reduce pollution, energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and help prevent diseases. NCI's Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer is working to ensure that nanotechnologies for cancer applications are developed responsibly.There is nothing inherently dangerous about being nanosized. Our ability to manipulate objects at the nanoscale has developed relatively recently, but nanoparticles are as old as the earth. Many nanoparticles occur naturally (for example, in volcanic ash and sea spray) and as by-products of human activities since the Stone Age (nanoparticles are in smoke and soot from fire). There are so many ambient incidental nanoparticles, in fact, that one of the challenges of nanoparticle exposure studies is that background incidental nanoparticles are often at order-of-magnitude higher levels than the engineered particles being evaluated.