QuoteBot: Nano 'snake-oil'

"This product totally sounds like snake-oil."

markp93, Digg user
Reacting to a story posted on Digg featuring more claims by the Wilson Center's Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies that nanotech is used in nearly 500 everyday products and indicating that perhaps the Wilson Center has been hoodwinked into believing everything it reads on a product label.

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QuoteBot: Nanotech's 'gullible simpletons'
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Indigestible nanotech claim

QuoteBot: Nanotech's 'gullible simpletons'

"Nanotechnologies is a fancy name that excites millions of gullible simpletons who believe there's a Golconda behind every rinky-dink, small company in the nano-business."

Malcolm Berko, financial adviser
Advising a reader in his syndicated column: Don't waste nanosecond on Altair

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Arrowhead Research Corp. stock is airborne
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Cosmetics: Facing the (lack of) facts

Paula Begoun, who writes a "Cosmetics Tips" column for the Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, recently fielded a nanotech question.

Q: A recent news article I read reported that nanotechnology is being used in cosmetic and skin-care products such as sunscreen. There is disagreement about the safety of nanoparticles in these products, particularly in terms of absorption into the skin, and apparently little regulation by any government agency. Do you have a position on these materials? How can a consumer know if nanoparticles are in a particular product? _Natasha, via email

Begoun's answer was refreshingly thorough, thoughtful and accurate, given the limited space she had. I encourage everybody to read her full answer, but if you're in a hurry I'll "bottom-line" it with the excerpt below:

A: ... I have been searching for relevant information to answer your question, and while I do think there are theoretical reasons to be concerned, I can't be any more specific than that, because there is no specific research on the subject, at least not as far as skin-care ingredients go. ... More here

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QuoteBot: Lipstick on a guinea pig?
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'All we have is speculation on toxicity'

QuoteBot: Mad Nano Money

"You're not going to look for a good nanotech company. You're going to look for the least bad one. Science that sounds just legitimate enough to get the crowd behind it. Once you're in, if you're right, the soon-to-be-hot sector will start getting coverage. Brokers will promote this garbage, then it will soar."

Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's "Mad Money"
Quoted in TheStreet.com

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Wall Street Gang vs. Green Gang

QuoteBot: Lipstick on a guinea pig?

"These companies are literally treating their customers like guinea pigs."

Lisa Archer, a senior campaigner for Friends of the Earth
During a conference call with reporters today. Environmental activist groups called for sunscreens with nanoscale ingredients to be pulled from the market. Story here.

Update: And the National Association of Manufacturers is telling the neo-Luddites just what they can do with their hammers:

Once again industry is forced to respond to unfounded allegations by a group with a very definite -- and anti-progress -- agenda. We should let nanotechnology flourish, and tell the Luddites to get out of the way. More here

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A new wrinkle for Eddie Bauer
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Show your face, Procter & Gamble
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QuoteBot: Nano Iran

Dr. Maleki: "From Iran's point of view, the nuclear issue is not a real problem. This is part of the overall process of development which is going on in all parts of our society, like nanotechnology, biotechnology, IT and so on ..."

Mr. Kian: "It is amazing to hear about such claims as progress in nanotechnology in a country where there is widespread unemployment, poverty, drug addiction, prostitution, so many women's issues and, finally, political repression and coercion."

From a Voice of America exchange between Dr. Abbas Maleki of Sharif University in Tehran, currently a Harvard Research Fellow, and Bijan Kian, a businessman associated with the American Council on Foreign Relations, as reported in The Wall Street Journal.

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Iran: N is for nano, nuke and not fair
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QuoteBot: Wet Dreams and Nano-Hype

When the Twenty-First Century Nanotechnology R&D bill was being debated, it included a call for a comprehensive SEIN (Societal and Ethical Implications of Nanotechnology) center. (Howard) Lovy called a SEIN center "a philosophy and communications department head's wet dream come true," and I have little doubt he was describing me -- and on one level he is correct. For far too long, scientists have simply ignored the role of the public.

David Berube, writing in his book, Nano-Hype

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Clash of the Nanotech Titans