Mega Questions About Nanotech  An eclectic band of researchers
is mapping out a new frontier of science known as
nanotechnology. Ranging from biologists to chemists, chipmakers,
and computer scientists, they're learning how to guide
individual atoms as they combine into molecules and how to make
materials that don't exist in nature. Someday, their work may
lead to novel cancer treatments and drug-delivery systems,
ultrastrong lightweight metals, and superconducting wires, among
many other applications. Yet before business rushes headlong
into this nano-tomorrow, an assessment of the risks to public
health and the environment is critical. Battles over genetically
modified foods, after all, have tainted the whole field of
agricultural biotech -- a technology that promises to improve
food production in poor countries. In the same way, fears about
potential hazards from nanomaterials could harm nanotech
research if they aren't addressed early on.  Kristen Kulinowski
is uniquely positioned to sort fact from fictio