One of the criticisms of large scale public projects is that there is little in the way of independent review of their effectiveness. While any idiot can (and many frequently do) vent his spleen via a blog, the medium does occasionally allow some learned thought, and in this case David Berube, who is busy writing a book called Nanohype takes a look at the latest publication from the EU NanoForum project (something which CMP Cientifica is also involved in).
While the report gets some criticism, this was an early (2004) attempt to communicate a growing area of research within Europe, and as a result a number of high profile projects are now underway to address issues from legislation to toxicology. Interestingly enough, the various European initiatives in this area are beginning to link up, not only with related EU programs, but with similar initiatives around the world. While many have compared nano with asbestos or the industrial revolution, no other area of technology has had this degree of global interconnectedness, and the data generated, from scientific publications to server logs should keep historians and sociologists busy for centuries to come. Of course by then, storing the entire library of congress on a sugar cube will be less of an issue than finding the data back again.