E-mail - Nanotechnology in growth mediums

Dr. Myers,
I'm curious about your opinion on this is:

http://www.greendiary.com/entry/tomato-plants-exposed-to-carbon-nanotubes-for-bigger-and-better-results/

Since the nanotubes are able to penetrate the seed coat, would they also penetrate the root cells and end up in the circulation system of the plant? Wouldn't that make any produce grown such way carcinogenic?
Thanks,
ZB

Hello again,

What an interesting article, this is new to me! What I know about nanotechnology, which is just synthesizing things that are very small* (molecules basically) is that nanotechnology is very diverse. It is a new and exciting field in science which I am sure will branch into many divisions and expand upon many other fields of biology in the future. With something so revolutionary as nanotechnology the problem is that there are pro's and con's. Some of these molecules are so small they can as you suggest get inside cells, which means they could be in any part of the plant. This can be good if they do their designed task but bad if they just mess up things on a sub-cellular level. There does seem to be some carcinogenic properties to these and other nanotechnologies... I don't think scientists know exactly what ALL the consequences of using some nanotechnologies are. If it is in the growth medium it will be in the plants you consume. That’s a piece of karma you should keep in mind.

I hypothesize that how these tubes work is similar to mycorrhizae (beneficial fungus) these tubes are small enough to stick into cells and somehow aid the plants in taking up nutrients and water which means plants will have a more advanced rate of growth in the short term. I can’t predict what long term consequences would be.
With unknown long term consequences, I would NOT suggest using anything with nanotechnology until it has been thoroughly tested by the FDA or some non-corporate sponsored organization. As I said there may be some positive benefits to using nanotechnology in soil to help plant growth, but I think there is a lot of testing to be done until this is a safe and effective technological with wide spread use. Too often today we see products pushed to consumers to increase or make a profit. Prudence and patience are a good thing with something this new and lacking real world field tests.
Thanks for the information!

Dr. E.R. Myers
* Nanotechnology deals with things that are smaller than 100 nanometers. One nanometer is one billionth of a meter. {Only 3 countries in the world don’t use the metric system it’d be so much easier if we’d just play nice w/ everyone else} Now you know where the NANO in nanotechnology comes from (-;