| (Nanowerk News) Three stakeholder groups agree that regulators are not adequately prepared to manage the risks posed by nanotechnology, according to a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS One (“Expert Views on Regulatory Preparedness for Managing the Risks of Nanotechnologies”). | |
| In a survey of nanoscientists and engineers, nano-environmental health and safety scientists, and regulators, researchers at the UCSB Center for Nanotechnology in Society (CNS) and at the University of British Columbia found that those who perceive the risks posed by nanotechnology as “novel” are more likely to believe that regulators are unprepared. Representatives of regulatory bodies themselves felt most strongly that this was the case. “The people responsible for regulation are the most skeptical about their ability to regulate,” said CNS Director and co-author Barbara Herr Harthorn. | |
| “The message is essentially,” said first author Christian Beaudrie of the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia, “the more that risks are seen as new, the less trust survey respondents have in regulatory mechanisms. That is, regulators don’t have the tools to do the job adequately.” |
Category: nanotechnology – Page 379
Risk of nanotechnology difficult for insurers to assess: Ernst & Young
Ernst & Young LLP is predicting a rise in demand for certain types of insurance, such as cyber and nanotechnology.
The consulting firm announced Tuesday the release of the EY 2014 US Property-Casualty Insurance Outlook, which recommends that P&C carriers “invest in innovation of product development processes and delivery to meet rising demand for protection.”
For example, according to the report, a lack of “any meaningful history” with nanotechnology indicates that potential risks are not easy to assess.
“The emerging applications of nanotechnology in the manufacture or use of medicine, cosmetics, drug delivery, robotics, materials science and other products and systems create potential liability exposures,” EY noted. “Examples include bodily injury (analogous to asbestos exposure) and environmental damage from nanoparticles escaping uncontrolled into the air or water supply.”
The Future of Management Wargaming, Now!
The Future of Management Wargaming, Now! By Mr. Andres Agostini
This is an excerpt from the conclusion section of, “…The Future of Management Wargaming , Now…!” that discusses some management theories and practices. To read the entire piece, just click the link at the end of article:
In addition to being aware and adaptable and resilient before the driving forces reshaping the current present and the as-of-now future, there are some extra management suggestions that I concurrently practice:
a) “…human knowledge is doubling every ten years [as per the 1998 standards]…”
b) "...computer power is doubling every eighteen months. the internet is doubling every year. the number of dna sequences we can analyze is doubling every two years…”
c) “…beginning with the amount of knowledge in the known world at the time of Christ, studies have estimated that the first doubling of that knowledge took place about 1700 A.D. the second doubling occurred around the year 1900. it is estimated today that the world’s knowledge base will double again by 2010 and again after that by 2013…”
d) “…knowledge is doubling by every fourteen months…”
e) “…more than the doubling of computational power [is taking place] every year…”
Skunkworks
The Future of Skunkworks Management, Now! By Mr. Andres Agostini
This is an excerpt from the conclusion section of, “…The Future of Skunkworks Management, Now!…” that discusses some management theories and practices and strategies. To view the entire piece, just click the link at the end of this post:
Peter Drucker asserted, “…In a few hundred years, when the story of our [current] time is written from a long-term perspective, it is likely that the most important event those historians will see is not technology, not the Internet, not e-commerce [not so-called ‘social media’]. IT is an unprecedented change in the human condition. For the first time ─ literally ─ substantial and growing numbers of people have choices. for the first time, they will have to manage themselves. And society is totally unprepared for it…”
Please see the full presentation at http://goo.gl/FnJOlg
Applied Omniscience in Transformative and Integrative Risk Management!
Applied Omniscience in Transformative and Integrative Risk Management! By Mr. Andres Agostini
This is an excerpt from the presentation, “…Applied Omniscience in Transformative and Integrative Risk Management!…” that discusses some management theories and practices. To read the entire piece, just click the link at the end of article:
Please see the graphic at http://lnkd.in/dUstZEk
Futuretronium Book
This is an excerpt from, “Futuretronium Book” by Mr. Andres Agostini, that discusses some management theories and practices with the future-ready perspective. To read the entire piece, just click the link at the end of article:
“…#1 Futuretronium ® and the administration and application of the scientific method without innuendos and in crescendo as fluid points of inflections ascertain that the morrow is a thing of the past…”
”…#2 Futuretronium ®, subsequently, there is now and here available the unabridged, authoritative eclictation and elucidation of actionable knowledge from and for the incessantly arrhythmic, abrupt, antagonistic, mordant, caustic, and anarchistic future, as well as the contentious interrelationship between such future and the present…”
“…#3 Futuretronium ®, a radical yet rigorous strong-sense and critico-creative «Futures Thinking», systems approach to quintessential understanding of the complexities, subtleties, and intricacies, as well as the opportunities to be exploited out of the driving forces instilling and inflicting perpetual change into twenty-first century…”
Read the full book at http://lnkd.in/ZxV3Sz to further explore these topics and experience future-ready management practices and theories.
How nanotechnology can trick the body into accepting fake bones
Altering the surface of orthopaedic implants has already helped patients – and nanotech can fight infections too
One of medicine’s primary objectives is to trick the body into doing something it doesn’t want to do. We try to convince our immune systems to attack cancer cells (our immune systems don’t normally attack our own bodies), we try to convince neurons to regrow (another unnatural phenomenon), and we try to convince the body to accept foreign bits, such as someone else’s kidney or a fake bone. In order to accomplish this, we try to make parts of our bodies we don’t want, such as cancers, look foreign. We try to make foreign bits that we do want, such as orthopaedic implants, look natural. Nanotechnology, as you might have guessed, can help us do just that.
IBM Creates Nanotechnology to Battle Fungal Infections
Tim Parker, Benzinga Staff Writer
Before scientists create something that has mainstream uses, it often starts as science fiction.
A new technology deep within IBM’s (NYSE: IBM [FREE Stock Trend Analysis]) Singapore research facility isn’t quite ready for the mainstream but when it is, the implications for those who suffer from fungal infections and later, other infections, could have a new ally in their fight but this ally is completely different than current treatments.
If you’re a fan of Star Trek, you’ve seen nanotechnology. These are microscopic machines that get inside machines or in this case, the body, to identify and fix problems.
Scientists have developed a nanomedicine 1,000 times small than a grain of sand that fights fungal infections. Here’s how it works: By creating an electrical charge on each of these tiny particles, they can be programmed to attack only fungal cells while leaving healthy cells alone.
The particles attach themselves to the fungi and rip their cellular membranes apart killing the cell.
This is different than conventional treatments in that it’s a physical attack where the cell is torn apart instead of a drug-like attack where the cell is put to sleep. By killing the cell, there is no opportunity for it to develop a resistance to the nanoparticle. This eliminates the growing problem plaguing doctors: Infections that are increasingly becoming resistant to current therapies.
“It rips the membrane out in a physical attack,” said IBM scientist, James Hedric. “It’s kind of like popping a balloon. We don’t put them to sleep like most drugs do. We kill them. That is why it is so effective. And they can’t adapt to a physical attack. They can adapt to drugs.”
Can We Live Forever?
The Lifeboat community doesn’t need me to tell them that a growing number of scientists are dedicating their time and energy into research that could radically alter the human aging trajectory. As a result we could be on the verge of the end of aging. But from an anthropological and evolutionary perspective, humans have always had the desire to end aging. Most human culture groups on the planet did this by inventing some belief structure incorporating eternal consciousness. In my mind this is a logical consequence of A) realizing you are going to die and B) not knowing how to prevent that tragedy. So from that perspective, I wanted to create a video that contextualized the modern scientific belief in radical life extension with the religious/mythological beliefs of our ancestors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLftXInDxhM
And if you loved the video, please consider subscribing to The Advanced Apes on YouTube! I’ll be releasing a new video bi-weekly!
The Disruptional Singularity
(Excerpt)
Beyond the managerial challenges (downside risks) presented by the exponential technologies as it is understood in the Technological Singularity and its inherent futuristic forces impacting the present and the future now, there are also some grave global risks that many forms of management have to tackle with immediately.
These grave global risks have nothing to do with advanced science or technology. Many of these hazards stem from nature and some are, as well, man made.
For instance, these grave global risks ─ embodying the Disruptional Singularity ─ are geological, climatological, political, geopolitical, demographic, social, economic, financial, legal and environmental, among others. The Disruptional Singularity’s major risks are gravely threatening us right now, not later.
Read the full document at http://lnkd.in/bYP2nDC