The Senate and House of Representatives last week passed a bill institutionalizing federal nanotechnology research and development and authorizing nearly $3.7 billion in spending over 4 years beginning October 1, 2004. The measure, called the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act (S 189), establishes a White House National Nanotechnology Program office.

The bill, which President Bush is expected to sign, also establishes a network of university-based advanced technology centers, including at least one focusing on medical ethics, legal, and environmental issues. It creates a nanotechnology “preparedness center” to evaluate workforce and ethical issues and establishes an advisory panel to provide feedback to the president and senior officials.

“We now stand at the threshold of an age in which materials and devices can be fashioned atom by atom,” said Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), chairman of the House Science Committee and one of the bill's sponsors. “The capability will have enormous consequences for the information industry, for manufacturing, and for medicine and health,” he said on the House floor prior to the November 20 vote.

Nanoscience and nanotechnology refer to research at the scale of 100 nanometers or less. Applications range across material science, information technologies, environmental benefits, and medicine. “Nanoscale science and technology offer the opportunity to understand life processes at a deeper level, cure and prevent disease, heal injured bodies, and protect society against chemical and biological weapons,” concluded a study by the National Academy of Sciences in 2002. “To realize the potential of nanoscale science and technology in advanced medicine will require research at the interface between engineering, the physical sciences, and biology.”

Potential life science applications include improved drug and gene delivery, biocompatible materials for implants, and advanced sensors for disease detection and therapies. “This legislation should help facilitate the synergy between the biological sciences and material sciences,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a key life science advocate in the Senate.

The legislation authorizes $809.8 million for fiscal year (FY) 2005, $889.6 million for FY 2006, $955.4 million for FY 2007, and $1024.1 million for FY 2008. Specific programs are designated at the National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Energy, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Environmental Protection Agency. However, funding must still be appropriated each year in these agency budgets.

For FY 2004, which began October 1, 2003, the administration has requested $849 million across some 10 agencies. The NSF has been the lead agency in sponsoring and coordinating nanotechnology research under the National Nanotechnology Initiative, a program established under the Clinton administration.

While the new bill does not authorize specific funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), at least 11 NIH institutes and centers have been funding nanoscience and nanotechnology research project grants in biology and medicine as part of the agency's NIH Bioengineering Consortium. Wyden said NIH is “expected” to be an active participant in the new National Nanotechnology Program.

NSF is funding academic centers to study the societal implications of nanotechnology. The University of South Carolina received a 4-year, $1.3 million grant to study ethical implications of the new technology. “There is a fairly good relationship between what was done in bioethics and what's going on now in nano,” said David Berube, a communications professor and faculty member at the university's NanoCenter.

“I think the legislators are concerned that people from the antiglobalization groups and the anti-[genetically modified organisms] groups will get on the bandwagon and fuse together into some sort of anti-nano group,” Berube told The Scientist. “The academics on the ethical side of the scientific research will have to make a real, bona fide effort to make sure there's a balanced approach to this.”

Among the major concerns are health and environmental implications. A recent study conducted by DuPont researchers found that about 15% of rats that had nanotubes—microscopic tubes of carbon that exhibit superior strength, electrical conductivity, and other qualities—injected into their lungs died within 24 hours due to blockage of the airways. The others recovered. The researchers said that more inhalation toxicity studies are needed.