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Ten ways nanotech can help poor

Drinking water

Water purification is one of the top 10 applications of nanotechnology that will benefit the developing world, experts say (Image: iStockphoto)

Nanotechnology could be used to store energy, raise farm output and purify water to help the world reach 2015 goals of curbing poverty, a new report says.

The report, compiled by experts at the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics, says nanotechnology is also likely to have wide uses in diagnosing disease and cutting air pollution.

The top 10 applications of nanotechnology that experts nominated would benefit the world's poor are published in the latest issue of the journal PloS Medicine.

"This is the most educated of educated guesses," the centre's director Professor Peter Singer says about applications of nanotechnology, the science and technology of manipulating matter at the atomic scale.

"If even half of those applications come to pass it would be a huge boon for the developing world," he says.

The researchers say that nanotech does not hold all the answers.

"Like any other science and technology waves, nanoscience and nanotechnology are not "silver bullets" that will magically solve all the problems of developing countries," they write.

"The social context of these countries must always be considered. Nevertheless, science and technology are a critical component of development."


Second is farming, where nanotech devices could increase soil fertility and crop production. Tiny devices could, for instance, be made to release fertilisers at a strictly controlled rate, they say.

Third comes water treatment. The report says nano-membranes and clays could purify or desalinate water more efficiently than conventional filters and are a fraction the size.

Singer says the study might give clues to investing in nanotechnology and contribute to UN goals set in 2000 of halving poverty and hunger by 2015.

The experts identify the following nanotechnology applications most likely to benefit the world's poor:

* producing, storing and converting energy

* boosting agricultural productivity

* treating and remediating water

* diagnosing and screening for disease

* delivering drugs

* processing and storing food

* maintaining air quality

* construction

* monitoring health

* detecting and controlling vectors and pests.

Tags: environment, health, biotechnology, computers-and-technology, nanotechnology