Parallels are often drawn between public acceptance of nanotechnologies and the backlash against GMOs, and indeed many lessons can be learnt. This is thrown into sharp relief in a new book, The March of Unreason, penned by Liberal Democrat peer (a member of the UK parliaments upper house) Dick Taverne. In the book, Taverne accuses Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and other green groups of turning their opposition to GM plants into a “religious crusade”, based on “blind faith and deep bias” rather than serious research.
While some of the groups mentioned my disagree with his conclusions, the recent brouhaha over buckyballs and big mouthed bass neatly parallels the oft quoted but subsequently discredited study of the effect of GMOs on monarch butterflies. In both cases, some preliminary studies which did not pass peer review were held up as conclusive evidence of the dangers, while subsequent detailed scientific investigations were dismissed.
Of course the opponents of technology are not the only ones to selectively misuse information. In a recent conversation with a leading figure in the US world of NanoBusiness we discussed how long it would be before people finally accepted that there is not, and never will be, a nanotechnology industry. Well keep going as long as it takes was the reply, five years, twenty years, fifty years, which by our reckoning puts him closer to the Foresight camp than any sane business person would want to be. Still, this type of attitude is not uncommon among those looking to carve out a nano niche for themselves.
While history has vindicated some advocates of selective blindness, Lord Nelson famously put a telescope to his blind eye at the battle of Copenhagen, we wonder whether it will be so kind to those on both sides of the nanotechnology debate.