Nano..........................

      Another recent marvel of nanotechnology promises to alter daily life, too, but this one, despite its silver lining, is wickedly dangerous...Nano engineers have devised a true silver bullet, a way to coat both hard surfaces (such as hospital bedrails, doorknobs, and furniture) and also soft surfaces (sheets, gowns, and curtains) with microscopic nanoparticles of silver, an element known to kill microbes.  You'd think the new nanocoating would be a godsend to patients stricken with hospital-acquired sepsis and pneumonia and tot he doctors fighting what has become a nightmare of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms that kill forty thousand people a year.
      It is.  That's the problem.
      It's possibly too effective.  Remember, most microorganisms are harmless, many are beneficial, but some are absolutely essential for the environment and human life.
      ...What if our nanopesticides accidentally kill off the nitrogen-fixing bacteria that make our atmosphere breathable?
      ...We're creating ethical problems that would have made Montaigne or Whitman blink.

-Diane Ackerman,  The Human Age:  The World Shaped By Us


Only two-thirds of the way through this book, but it is moving quickly up the list of recommended books.