Abstract

Nanosciences and nanotechnologies are developing at an incredibly rapid pace, promising a true revolution in a wide variety of fields where the capability to manipulate matter at the atomic or (supra)molecular scale is essential. This includes information processing systems, medical diagnoses and treatments, energy production and sustainable development, as well as a number of more futurist ideas that, as yet, remain pure fiction. These developments have begun to generate controversies and fears in the scientific community itself and the larger public. This article critically reviews the potential problems of an uncontrolled 'nanoworld' (grey goo, toxicity of nanoparticles, RFIDs, privacy, etc.) and the associated fears, as they appear in the literature. Suggestions to effectively manage controversies in this field, based on a sociological approach, are proposed