From devices that recognize diseases before symptoms appear to sensors that detect toxins in the environment, people across the nation tuning into National Public Radio (NPR) June 15 heard from Cornell scientists about such potential breakthroughs that nanotechnology promises.

Barbara Baird, Cornell professor of chemistry, and John Silcox, Cornell professor of applied and engineering physics, were among the featured guests on "Science Friday," part of NPR's "Talk of the Nation" radio program. The broadcast took place on the heels of the Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility (CNF) 30th anniversary symposium the previous day.

"We were nano before nano was cool," said Silcox while being interviewed by the show's host, Ira Flatow.

Also participating in the hour-long interview were Rosalyn Berne, associate professor of science, technology and society at the University of Virginia, and Lawrence Goldberg, senior engineering adviser of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Electrical and Communications Systems, who joined Baird and Silcox for the broadcast from Fall Creek Studios near downtown Ithaca.

The four interviewees spoke on the promises, breakthroughs and potential ethical perils of nanotechnology.

Given unlimited funds, Flatow asked, what innovations could nanotechnology one day bring to the world?

For Baird, the best way to answer the question was to think of the world's problems -- lack of clean drinking water, for one. Using nanotechnology, she said, scientists might someday perfect a membrane or combination of devices that could immediately sense problems with a water sample and filter them out quickly.

"That requires a combination of things, not just one thing," Baird said. "Nanotechnology is one tool, and it's to be put together with a variety of other tools to be maximally effective."

Flatow also asked whether enough attention is being paid to ethical issues and potential dangers of nanotechnology.

"There are billions, trillions of these particles out everywhere, and we are sniffing them and eating them and unknowingly consuming them," Flatow said.

Goldberg said that along with nanotechnology research funding, NSF has invested heavily, for example, in initiatives with the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency to look at science issues and their risks.

"I think the federal government is placing an emphasis on this aspect," Goldberg said.

Berne, who studies ethnical, cultural and societal implications of nanotechnology, said she has interviewed close to 35 scientists on such topics. She has found that scientists are often interested in ethnical considerations but don't always turn the questions inward, because they themselves are conscientious and feel they are doing the right thing. She added that finding opportunities to discuss such issues publicly are only now becoming more widespread.

"There are very few fora for actually dialoguing about this," Berne said.

The scientific breakthroughs in nanotechnology have been enormous, said Silcox, with many of them focusing on techniques to fabricate or image nanometer length scales. For example, Silcox said great strides are being made in electron microscopy for analyzing nano-sized particles with greater depth.

In general it is hard to predict where Cornell and nanotechnology will be in another 30 years, the speakers said.

"The only safe prediction is you ain't seen nothing yet," Silcox said.

Audio of the program is available online at http://www.sciencefriday.com/pages/2007/Jun/hour2_061507.html