February 2010
Summary
Réalités industrielles
From nanotechnology to synthetic biology
Complete issue
This issue was coordinated
by Françoise Roure
This issue was coordinated
Editorial
By Pierre COUVEINHES
Avant-propos : vers l’innovation responsable par Françoise ROURE,
I. Synthetic biology and electronics: The prospects for technological breakthroughs
Synthetic biology: Its development, potentials and challenges
By François Képès
Directeur, Programme d'épigénomique, Genopole®, CNRS UPS3201 PRES Universud Paris
Synthetic biology is biological engineering, an emerging, fast-developing “technoscience” with economic clout in the near future. With regard to industrial applications, synthetic biology will probably grow in a way similar to the computer and information industries but with a lead time of thirty years. Its current phase of development recalls what happened during the early days of the computer industry. Like nanotechnology, synthetic biology might fully alter our approach to key technologies, thus opening the way toward a new generation of products, industries and markets thanks to our newly acquired ability to manipulate matter at the molecular level. Its applications will be mainly in health, agribusiness, the environment, energy and materials. Even though it has already rung up successes, it is too soon to predict the fields where it will find its most important applications.
Synthetic biology: A rapid restructuring of international institutions, technology, and science
By Dr. Françoise Roure
Présidente de la section "Technologies et Société" du Conseil général de l'industrie, de l'énergie et des technologies - Ministère de l'Economie, de l'Industrie et de l'Emploi
The emergence of synthetic biology, an advanced technology, is being accelerated owing to the combined effects of: the growing availability of digital data libraries, the simulation software used to process data in biosciences, the sharp drop in the cost of sequencing and building DNA, and the increasing length of the strands built. Synthetic biology draws on the results of systems biology, which seeks to understand existing biological systems quantitatively. It is based on an open-source approach to cataloging the “building blocks” to be listed in a digital library of biological standards. The design and use of this data base raises questions of governance as well as social, economic and regulatory issues with implications for safety and security. Private parties should be able to count on public funding eventually reaching the critical amount needed to produce findings of an international quality and develop responsible innovations in phase with major social goals (employment, health, safety, security, global warming, the eradication of poverty), while bearing in mind the long payback time of investments in this sector.
The coming contributions of nanotechnology to electronics
By Michel Brillouët
Adjoint au Directeur du CEA-LETI
At the end of the 1950s, Richard Feynman delivered a visionary lecture. No attention was paid to it for several decades, but it is now famous. It laid the grounds for nanotechnology by imagining, well before the invention of the atomic force microscope, the manipulation of objects at the level of the atom. The perspective thus opened now enables us to re-conceive electronics as an assemblage of nanometric components. Without claiming to cover this vast field, this short article seeks to cite a few examples so that readers form their own ideas about how nanotechnology is opening a new approach toward information-processing.
II. Innovative industrial applications
Nanotechnology’s contribution to open, responsible innovations in a corporate group
By François Monnet
Directeur "Technologies émergentes, Groupe SOLVAY
It is not very easy to define a nanomaterial. It might even be futile to try to define what nanotechniques are and will be. So, how can a group like Solvay — created to produce sodium carbonate but, at present, involved in high-performance polymers and pharmaceutics — react to this nascent reality? How should such a firm organize itself to extract the quintessence from nanotechnology and adopt specific applications in its activities?
Nanoparticles for therapeutical purposes: An innovative approach for the radiotherapy of cancer
By Elsa Borghi, Patricia Saïd, Agnès Pottier et Laurent Lévy Nanobiotix
Nanobiotix
Nanotechnology can be used to manage and assemble substances in unprecedented ways in the history of products for human health. Underlying this revolution are the possibilities for using new therapeutic processes and separating a drug’s various functions (distribution, effects, etc.). This is not possible with classical drugs. Nanomedicine has made it possible to develop new approaches to treating cancer, by using nanoparticles with physical effects at the scale of the malignant cell. Hard metallic oxide nanoparticles have been designed so that they can play a therapeutic role when activated by x-rays. These “x-ray-activable” nanoparticles might set off a revolution in the practice of radiotherapy for destroying or controlling malignant tumors.
III. The key role of metrology and standardization
The jargon of nanotechnology: At the heart of naming processes
By Daniel Bernard
Président de la Commission AFNOR X457 Nanotechnologies Chef de la délégation française au TC229 Nanotechnology de l'ISO Conseiller Scientifique d'ARKEMA
Richard Feynman’s lecture to the California Institute of Technology on 29 December 1959 is now recognized as signaling the start of a new “nano” era. This Nobel Prize-winner (Physics in 1965) stated, “There is plenty of room at the bottom”, thus predicting that it would, someday, be possible to “write the entire 24 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica on the head of a pin”. This statement is as symbolic for the nanoworld as Neil Armstrong’s declaration for our macroscopic world, when he took his first step on the moon on 21 July 1969: “A small step for man, a big step for humanity.” Although the “nanoworld” does have a date of birth, it was not till 1974 that a Japanese scholar, Norio Taniguchi, coined the word “nanotechnology”. Eric Drexler of MIT popularized the word in his 1986 essay, “Engines of creation”.
Metrology, a tool for managing total quality in nanotechnological industries
By Jean-Marc Aublant
Délégué aux relations européennes et à la normalisation auprès du Directeur Général du Laboratoire National de Métrologie et d'Essais (LNE)
The science of measurement cannot be sidestepped in industrial production processes. The tools of metrology (instrumentation, analytical methods, testing, calibrating and standardizing units for measurement) have a long history in traditional and contemporary production processes. Many of them even figure in catalogs. This is not the case for nanotechnology: there are few (or even no) instruments for measuring at the requisite nanometric scale. The properties of a given material at the nanometric level often differ from its properties at a macroscopic or submicronic scale. It is necessary to characterize these properties, above all, for social reasons having to do with the safety of wage-earners and consumers.
Controlling “nano” risks, a major issue for European industry: An entrepreneurial approach
By Patrick Chéenne
Président Directeur Général de Mynano™
Do you remember how big telephone and laptop computer batteries were in the mid-1990s? And how long they stayed charged? That was before the lithium-ion batteries with “nanos inside”. New and future batteries in electric automobiles, solar panels and many devices for stocking and transporting energy are being designed using such materials. Nanomaterials are setting off a revolution in radiotherapy for cancer, since they can be lodged exclusively in cancerous cells, where they considerably augment both the effects of radiation and the efficacy of the treatment while making it possible to lessen the dose of radiation and thus reduce its side-effects on nearby, healthy cells. Other applications are being made in packaging for groceries, paint for boats, cosmetics, products for cleaning up polluted soil, etc. The list is growing longer and longer…
IV. From ethics to labels: The demand for nanoproducts versus citizen and consumer demands
On transparency in innovations
By Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent Université Paris Ouest/IUF
Université Paris Ouest/IUF
When demands for transparency exclusively focus on the labeling of products, they risk becoming counterproductive. Labels neither enable consumers to make informed choices nor inspire trust. Moreover, they stifle the ethical aspect of transparency, namely: the requirement for transparency and accountability. Transparency must reach beyond factual information about ingredients and touch on values. To talk about “responsible innovation”, it is indispensable to recognize that material goods are not neutral: they bear social and moral values. These values must be identified and exposed to debate. Only then can labels engage the responsibility of all parties to an innovation.
The ethical questions raised by nanotechnology
By Göran Hermerén
Président du Groupe européen d'Ethique
Recent developments in nanotechnology have given rise to great expectations, and still do so. Nanotechnology is considered to be one of the key technologies for the industrialized world’s future development. These expectations of economic benefits for society have spurred enormous investments in research and development in Europe, the United States and other parts of the world. Surprisingly, little is known about the impact of nanotechnology on the environment and human health. Neither the European Group on Ethics nor the author personally wants to join those who are trying to stop the development of nanotechnology because of these gaps in our knowledge. It is, however, in the long-term interest of all parties (including industry) to try to fill these gaps. In other words, important research and informational priorities need to be urgently addressed.