Nanotechnology has great potential in the fields of biotechnology and medicine. Bio-nanotechnology is concerned with molecular-scale properties and
production of materials and devices including tissue and cellular engineering scaffolds, molecular motors and biomolecules for sensors and drug
delivery. While bio-nanotechnological products are seen as around 10 years off, medical application is promising, with intense research being
conducted in disease diagnosis, drug delivery and molecular imaging.
As with many technologies, the medical applications may be adapted for offensive purposes. Manipulation of biological and chemical agents using
nanotechnologies could result in entirely new threats that might be harder to detect and counter than existing CBW.
Chemicals in nanoparticulate form currently account for only a tiny fraction of the world total (around 0.01 per cent) currently produced, although
the market for nanoparticles is expected to increase during the next decade.
While the production of new chemical weapons is banned by the majority of nations, future techniques, depending on cost and ease of production, may be
adopted by remaining countries with chemical weapons programmes and terrorist groups. A nano-enhanced chemical such as cyanide could be synthesised in
far smaller amounts. The design of new agents that attack specific body organs such as the central nervous system would enable far smaller amounts of
the chemical to be made without detection and would require only small, low-level facilities.
Other nanotechnology-based weapons might emerge from otherwise benign fields such as law enforcement in the creation of 'non-lethal weapons' for
riot control and other policing operations. Some of these are currently permitted under the Chemical Weapons Convention. New delivery mechanisms to
make incapacitating substances target more selectively could be adapted to more lethal uses.
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Hmmm...chemical weapons dont sound good.
