Page 78 - Elana Freeland - Under an Ionized Sky
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. [Emphasis added.]
But as is usual among sciences shanghaied by the military-industrial-intelligence complex,
the warning went nowhere. In fact, the sixty-page 2011 National Nanotechnology Initiative
Strategic Plan mandated that each government agency do its part to converge society with a
nano-based “integrated technology”:
• Department of Defense – persistent surveillance
• Intelligence Community – unmanned aircraft
• Department of Energy – energy and climate change
• Department of Homeland Security – sensor platforms
• Department of Justice – criminal justice
• Department of Transportation – modify travel behavior
• Environmental Protection Agency – environmental sensing
• Food & Drug Administration – biological systems
• National Institute of Food and Agriculture – global food
• National Institutes of Health – precise control for predictable outcomes
• Department of Treasury – economic sanctions
• National Science Foundation – education
Nanotechnology is seamlessly merging with the biosphere to take the place of what was once
called Nature.
Nanoparticles, because of their ultramicroscopic size, readily penetrate the skin, can invade underlying blood vessels,
get into the general bloodstream, and produce distant toxic effects. 19
On the seemingly benign medical side, nano-devices are being engineered to detect
molecules, enzymes, proteins, and genetics. “Microparticulate delivery systems” are in
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vaccines and on the tips of vaccination needles. Nanobots made of graphene are programmed
to swim in the bloodstream to release drugs. Tiny Janus particle motors made of gold and
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platinum can repair microcircuits when propelled by a chemical reaction; engines the size of
atoms under cones of electromagnetic energy heated by lasers can be pulsed in a heat-cool
pattern to behave like pistons; and even biological nano-rockets are being engineered by
attaching strands of DNA as “catalytic engines” to a gold and chromium polystyrene bead:
When placed in a solution of hydrogen peroxide, the engine molecules caused a chemical reaction that produced
oxygen bubbles, forcing the rocket to move in the opposite direction. Shining a beam of ultra-violet light on one side
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of the rocket causes the DNA to break apart, detaching the engines and changing the rocket’s direction of travel.
The genotoxicity (damage to DNA) of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) may be the most
concerning, particularly for future generations. A 2013 paper in Environmental Science &
Technology points to metal oxide nanoparticles, fullerenes (molecules of carbon in the form of
hollow spheres, ellipsoids, tubes, etc.) and carbon nanotubes—all of which are implicated in
