Can Gray Goo Cure Cancer?
Winston has written several columns asking questions about the potential risks of nanotechnology.. He thinks it only fair to write this column about the potential benefits. One of those benefits is suggested by recent tests showing that "nanoparticle-enabled thermal therapy" killed all the cancer cells in treated mice. All the untreated mice died. As explained in a recent National Science and Technology Report:

"Researchers at Rice University with funding from NSF and DOD have carried out experiments in which they treat mice, in which cancer has been induced, with nanoparticle-enabled thermal therapy. Gold nanoshells of about 150 nanometers in diameter ere injected into the bloodstream of these mice. This size nanoshell penetrates tumors but not healthy tissue. The nanoshells are also specifically designed to absorb infrared light that passes harmlessly through body tissue. The nanoshells heat up when they absorb infrared light, thereby killing the nearby cancer cells.

Ninety days after mice with cancer were treated with this photochemical therapy, they appeared healthy and tumor-free, whereas untreated mice had to be euthanized after an average of 12 days due to extensive tumor growth."