SINTEF project on the invisible technology

Andy Booth is leading a project called “The environmental fate and effects of SINTEF-produced nanoparticles".

At SINTEF scientist both exploit the benefits of the nanotechnology and try to discover how tiny particles could behave hazardous in nature.

Nanoproducts have entered our lives, almost without being noticed. Artificial particles end up in the atmosphere, earth and water. What happens to them?

Andy Booth, SINTEF scientist and environmental chemist is interested in what nanotechnology is doing to the marine environment. A couple of years ago, he began to be interested in whether nanoparticles could be hazardous.

Now, Booth is leading a project called “The environmental fate and effects of SINTEF-produced nanoparticles”. The scientists will study both how the particles behave and how they affect organisms when they are released into the marine environment.

One of the goals of the project is to find out whether nanoparticles are toxic to marine organisms such as small crustaceans and animal plankton. Further down the road, the ability of cod larvae and other large organisms to tolerate nanoparticles will also be studied.

“Our experiments will tell us whether these tiny particles will be excreted or remain inside organisms, and if they do, how they will behave there,” explains Booth, who wants to make it clear that not all nanoparticles are necessarily dangerous.

Many types of nanoparticles occur naturally in the environment, and have existed ever since the Earth was formed. For example, ash is a material that contains nanoparticles.

Read more on SINTEF