> The material can probably get into your body by osmosis alone.
Correction: only water can get into a cell through osmosis; the term you're looking for is actually passive transport.
Apart from semantics, nanoparticles are known to cause serious health problems. Asbestos fibers, which are very thin and on the same scale as the nanosilicate shown here, have been all over the news for causing cancer due to disruption of normal cell activity. Fiberglass, which is insulation made of very thin silica fibers, can cause lung problems.
Although I do think nanotechnology can have some benevolent effects in the future (think about this: what if tiny, very tiny nano-cells entered the bloodstream, and attached onto cancerous cells and killed them? The possibilities are so vast) the tech just isn't there yet in terms of health safety.
Correction: only water can get into a cell through osmosis; the term you're looking for is actually passive transport.
Apart from semantics, nanoparticles are known to cause serious health problems. Asbestos fibers, which are very thin and on the same scale as the nanosilicate shown here, have been all over the news for causing cancer due to disruption of normal cell activity. Fiberglass, which is insulation made of very thin silica fibers, can cause lung problems.
Although I do think nanotechnology can have some benevolent effects in the future (think about this: what if tiny, very tiny nano-cells entered the bloodstream, and attached onto cancerous cells and killed them? The possibilities are so vast) the tech just isn't there yet in terms of health safety.