I have already made my feelings clear on the impending scourge of carbon nanotubes. However it seems that my dire warnings are being ignored and hubristic scientists are continuing to portray these evil molecules as the world-saver I will continue to claim they are not:
One of the most promising applications for carbon nanotube membranes is sea water
desalination. These membranes will some day be able to replace conventional membranes and greatly reduce energy use for desalination.
Oh the humanity! How can we stop the perfidious spread? I for one will refuse to drink any nanotube desalinated water for fear of impurification of my precious bodily fluids! &c [flickr image by cursedthing]
I’m sorry if I’m missing some sarcasm, I’m just going to assume you’re not kidding, or that if you are kidding you’re joking in the square.
I’ve long held the dissenting position on carbon nanotubes, and I work in a Materials Science & Engineering department which has a group working on nano.
They’re faddish, a buzzword, and popular with science journalists who never got much past washing testtubes, if that far. A couple of years ago, including “nano” in a proposal seemed to increase the likelihood of funding irrespective of merit.
These sorts of “X is the wave of the future” fads come and go in science– and this one seems to be on the way out. We’re seeing some areas where genuine progress has been made– mostly in functional applications, such as the “blacker than black” material, etc… and there may be some fine uses for them, carcinogen aside, inside electronics– as long as folk are careful. (After all, we already put a lot of nasty stuff in electronics.)
Anyway, so long as you’re not kidding… I feel your pain 🙂