I was at the store this weekend and spotted ‘Nanoglue’, complete with little cartoon particles on the label. However, the actual packaging and internet hype (yes, that’s the complete record of things I could find) leave me sadly lacking in actual information to pass on… I can only imagine that it’s meant to glue very small things together, or that it’s meant to be used by very small people (since I could see the bottle, it’s obviously not the product that’s nano-sized)?

I guess I thought we (that’s the universal ‘we’) were still embroiled in fights about where and when nanotechnology was safe, or whether we might all perish from exposure to these tiny, tiny dots of destruction. Have you all heard about any resolution to this discussion, or are nanoparticles just somehow less offensive in adhesives?

Catherine (associate editor, Nature Chemical Biology)