Hyping the Heck out of Nanotech, the Next Biotech

Source: The Holmes Report, June 2, 2003 "Nanotech joins biotech among those promising technologies that hold the potential to change our world radically," Citigate Cunningham vice president Bill Bennett told PR trade publication The Holmes Report. Many in the PR industry are looking to nanotechology as the next big thing. "Such potential will never be without controversy, and already there are pockets of 'gray goo' paranoia springing up. The key here is to show the marketplace that the risks are no different than those attending the advent of the ATM," Bennett said. While the PR marketers paid to over-hype biotech are preparing to do the same for nanotechnology, public interest activists led by ETC Group are raising serious precautionary concerns about the downside of the rapidly developing new technology.