Nanomaterials and the Environment

描述（由申请人提供）：本次研讨会的目的是突出纳米材料的环境方面的新兴主题的最新研究成果。国家纳米技术倡议在其2004年战略计划中将负责任地发展纳米技术列为其四大目标之一。负责任的发展包括对环境，健康和安全影响的研究，以及道德，法律的和社会问题。该论坛旨在汇集材料科学家，化学家，生物学家，毒理学家和生态学家，以促进跨学科的讨论：1）纳米技术在环境中的应用，用于传感和监测，补救和处理以及污染预防; 2）纳米技术对环境的影响，包括纳米材料的潜在健康和环境影响。研讨会还旨在鼓励工业和研究专家在其发展项目中纳入材料和能源流动的可持续性和效率方面。社会、伦理、监管和政策问题，沿着术语和测量标准也将是讨论的主题。 研讨会是一个努力，广泛包括跨学科的对话纳米技术，其应用和影响。本次研讨会的一个关键目标是汇集研究人员，通过体外和体内实验和模型，以及它们在整个生命周期中在环境中的命运和运输，增加对纳米材料在分子和细胞水平上相互作用的基本理解。我们预计，这与潜在暴露和风险的识别和表征一起沿着，将有助于确定人类健康影响，并应引起美国国立卫生研究院的极大兴趣。关于纳米技术与社会之间相互作用的技术上胜任的社会科学研究将消除一些炒作，并使建设性的公众参与成为可能。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The objective of this symposium is to highlight the latest research results in the emerging topic of the environmental aspects of nanomaterials. The National Nanotechnology Initiative, in its Strategic Plan for 2004, lists the Responsible Development of Nanotechnology as one of its four major goals. Responsible Development includes the study of environment, health, and safety implications, as well as ethical, legal, and societal issues. This forum is intended to bring together materials scientists, chemists, biologists, toxicologists, and ecologists to foster a cross-disciplinary discussion of: 1) the application of nanotechnology to the environment for the purposes of sensing and monitoring, remediation and treatment, and pollution prevention; and 2) the implications of nanotechnology on the environment, including potential health and environmental effects of nanomaterials. The symposium is also intended to encourage industry and research experts to include sustainability and efficiency aspects for materials and energy flow in their development projects. Societal, ethical, regulatory, and policy issues, along with nomenclature and measurement standards, will also be topics of discussion. The symposium is an effort to broadly include an interdisciplinary dialogue on nanotechnology, its applications, and implications. A key goal of this symposium is to bring together researchers to increase the fundamental understanding of nanomaterial interaction at the molecular and cellular level through in vitro and in vivo experiments and models, as well as their fate and transport in the environment throughout their life cycles. We anticipate that this, along with identification and characterization of potential exposure and risk, will contribute to determining human health impact and should be of significant interest to the National Institutes of Health. Technically competent social science research on the interaction between nanotechnology and society will dispel some of the hype and enable constructive public engagement.