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Graphene Could Be Dangerous To Humans and the Environment
Zothecula (1870348) writes "It's easy to get carried away when you start talking about graphene. Its properties hold the promise of outright technological revolution in so many fields that it has been called a wonder material. Two recent studies, however, give us a less than rosy angle. In the first, a team of biologists, engineers and material scientists at Brown University examined graphene's potential toxicity in human cells. Another study by a team from University of California, Riverside's Bourns College of Engineering examined how graphene oxide nanoparticles might interact with the environment if they found their way into surface or ground water sources."
Graphene oxide is CO2 FFS.
We like exotic nanostructures because they have cool properties that their bulk counterparts don't. Unfortunately, this ends up meaning that a knowledge of the toxicology of the bulk material is of only limited use for inferring what the cool nanostructure will do. Carbon shows signs of potentially being rather nastier in its fancy forms than it is in more familiar flavors; but other nanomaterials might go the other way.
Ever since I first heard about the idea of grey goo, I've always wondered why no-one realises that grey goo already exists: they're called bacteria and viruses. They reproduce unchecked, can have catastrophic consequences for all other forms of life, and are largely carbon-based nano-machines.
Is it more toxic than the widely-used dihydrogen monoxide?
That's two words!
A wonder material that turns out to be extremely dangerous?
You don't say? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asbestos
The biological properties of lead were very well known.
Didn't keep people from adding it to fuel and blowing it out of the tail pipes of virtually every car for a couple of decades.
This time it's nano materials.
The only thing we learn from history is that we don't learn from history.
the carbon on the planet into nanotube meshes or sheets, eventually pulling all the carbon out of the air. Like Ice 9!
Come back when you can say "is" or "isn't". Until then, this doesn't even qualify as tabloid-worthy. It's not even a supposition, as that would require you to state an opinion either way, regardless of how ill informed.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
Yea so its going to turn all the other elements into carbon? Its going dissipate its heat how?
The laws of physics, the way the universe works in other words, precludes a grey goo any worse than we already have. aka bacteria.
If information wants to be free, why does my internet connection cost so much?
It is hardly surprising that graphene can, in some circumstances, be dangerous. Exhaust particulates, which he have known for years are dangerous, contain (now we know what we are looking for) large numbers of graphene nanoparticles, which may well contribute to their damaging effects. Just about every chemical ever tested has bad effects at some scale. What I didn't get from either article was any sense of the scale of the danger. Obviously, it is early days in the research, and one would only expect an order of magnitude estimate. But is is such a danger that we should not allow graphene products into the home lest they spill, or merely one which demands normal safety precautions in the factories for future graphene products? A warning of danger without some idea of the scale of the problem is just sensationalist: it induces fear without giving any idea as to what should be done, if anything,
Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.
It is imaginable that a fibre such as you describe could be one of the products which could be made with graphene. But the nanoparticles being described in the articles are dangerous at the cellular level, not at the size of an arm. They are much more like incredibly fine, incredibly hard grit.
Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.
Graphene too dangerous in the environment? Well better ban all wood fires and BBQ grills because graphene forms pretty commonly on the inside of metal stoves/grills.
Chicken little is at it again.
Dihydrogen monoxide, hydrogen hydroxide, hydroxylic acid, etc. are all humorous names for the abundant compound oxidane. In solid phase it's also called ice, in liquid phase it's water, and in gas phase it's steam. It doesn't have the same sort of allotropic variation as elemental carbon.