Fail-safes in Nanotechnology

Fail-safes in nanotechnology are devices or features integrated with nanotechnology which, in the event of failure, respond in a way that will cause no harm, or at least a minimum of harm, to other devices or personnel. Fail-safe principles are governed by national standards and engineering practices, and are widely used in conventional engineering design. It is possible to scale down macro-scale fail-safe principles and devices for similar applications at the nano-scale. The use of fail-safes in nanotechnology applications supports social acceptance of those applications by reducing the risks to users; as of 2009, there are both theoretical and practical ways to implement fail-safe designs in nanotechnology.

A predominant challenge to the social acceptance of nanotechnology is concerned with the medical use of nanostructures in the human body. While any structure for medical use would be developed to be bio-compatible and harmless, sound engineering design must take into account all possibilities of failure. Thus, the design would include ways to manipulate the structures in the body in the event of failure.

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