The fear of new unknown technologies is as old as progress itself and often leads to irrational suggestions for coping with it as shown in this image of protection against railway accidents from 1847. 
read more about it in detail: Reasonal risk evaluation needs deeper insight.
Just recently Toni Harrison on LinkedIn pointed to a very helpfull video regarding risk evaluation done by Peter Sandman.
This explains in a coherent way why nano danger pubications gain so much publicity, but also how they gain influence and what they mean whith respect to real danger.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU__jJzr_Hw
This clip is a brief excerpt (9:37) from a two-day seminar I gave in 2010 for the Rio Tinto mining company. The excerpt explains my signature formula, “Risk = Hazard + Outrage” — which aims to capture the crucial truth that people focus more on how upsetting a risk is than on how dangerous it is.
A much longer clip explaining the ramifications of this formula is available on Vimeo at http://vimeo.com/18611416. I’m posting this excerpt on YouTube almost as an advertisement. I’d really rather people watched the longer version.
Links to all my clips from this Rio Tinto training (as well as other audio and video resources) can be found on my website at http://www.psandman.com/media.htm. The Rio Tinto clips add up to a free online course on my approach to risk communication and especially to low-hazard high-outrage risk communication, which I call “outrage management.” –Peter Sandman
This list shows upcoming NANO events world wide,
state of Mar. 2011
open list view
This is a list of the actually links regarding NANO in the web,
state of oct. 2011 .
Open the list view
An attempt to screen the actual available particle sizing methods and instruments.
The most complete compendium for nano behavior I could find is:
“Intermolecular and surface forces“ by Jacob N. Israelachvili
issued by Academic Press
This forms a reasonable scientific basis for all discussions on nano particles, their properties, interactions and enables deep insight into fundaments.
Just for some days there is an interesting discussion going on to: Nano particle counting
You only get what you pay for! Are low budget instruments worth what you pay for it?
“Nano” is one of the most attractive and modern terms in research, industry and marketing.
Due to the excellent definition work of the ISO committee TC229 since August 2008 there is a precise determination what “Nano” really means (ISO/TS27687). Also development in this field, as well as increasing knowledge is growing daily at an accelerating speed. Continue reading
According to the valid definitions in ISO/TS 27687: August 2008 and the standardl particle definitions in accordance with ISO TC 24/SC 4, TC 146 and TC 209 there is a clear definition of nano particles respectively nano objects. Only for these nano objects, where one, two or three external dimensions are in the nanometer range below 100nm, the term nano particles should be used.
All coarser particles are submicron particles and should not be called nano particles anymore. The same is valid for so called nano structured material, which is aggregated from nano objects. Continue reading
