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| Britain | |
| Prince Charles Fearful Over Nanotechnology-Paper | |
| 2004-07-12 | |
But Prince Charles, who is a committed environmentalist, also shares the concerns of John Carroll, retired professor of engineering at Cambridge University, who has given evidence to a Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering study on nanotechnology. "Referring to the thalidomide disaster, he says it 'would be surprising if nanotechnology did not offer similar upsets unless appropriate care and humility is observed'," wrote Prince Charles. Thalidomide was once used as a morning sickness treatment for pregnant women in the 1960s, but it was removed from the market when it was found to lead to birth defects. Prince Charles's scientific salvos — in the past he has warned of the "disastrous consequences" of genetically modified crops and supported the use of alternative medicine — have not always been well received by scientists. In 2000 Steve Jones, professor of genetics at University College London, dismissed Charles's intervention on genetically modified food, advising him to go back to school. Last week Michael Baum, a professor emeritus of surgery at University College London, said the heir to the throne "may have overstepped the mark" by promoting unproven therapies for cancer such as coffee enemas and carrot juice. Give this jerk a coffee enema with the freshly brewed stuff. A person of position openly supporting pseudoscience is a violation of ethical conduct. | |
| Posted by:Zenster |
| #9 Sort of disagree with those taking shots at Charlie's IQ. He's had some fairly intelligent, if not necessarily practical things to say about urban architecture. The real problem is the one that plagues all celebrities: the quest for relevance. |
| Posted by: dreadnought 2004-07-12 1:20:45 PM |
| #8 poor old charley , far too many of his former relatives shagged each other , and hes the by-product of such activities . as AP said above , Move along, good people. Nothing to see here. |
| Posted by: MacNails 2004-07-12 12:12:38 PM |
| #7 Did this batch of eggs go bad? I didn't know about Di leaving school but that makes sense. I always wondered why she ended up being a au pair and not something higher up the food chain. I thought Chuck had more going for him? But I guess was wrong. Maybe the smart gene skips a generation? |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) 2004-07-12 10:39:00 AM |
| #6 Just wait for the ol' porphyria to kick-in. |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2004-07-12 8:25:36 AM |
| #5 I'd like to hear what Wills has to say about this sort of issue. I doubt he's as whacko as his father. Maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2004-07-12 6:30:55 AM |
| #4 Yup - a man who talks to flowers is going to see this stuff akin to the sky falling on his head. Coffee enemas?! |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2004-07-12 6:17:01 AM |
| #3 Um, the royal family has never been known for their scholarship or intellectual ability. Princess Di left school at 15 or 16 - and you wonder why she sometimes appeared to be a perpetual teen? At its best, the house of Windsor has rock solid common sense going for it. The current heir to the throne is perhaps not its best representative ..... |
| Posted by: too true 2004-07-12 6:07:48 AM |
| #2 Prince Charles is an Environmentalist that goes through Jet-A fuel on his world junkets like Jack the Pig. He has nothing to say that is useful. Move along, good people. Nothing to see here. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-07-12 3:19:01 AM |
| #1 You'll have to go in and examine the images of the Torsional Racheting Actuator yourself at Sandia's image gallery. Drag down the "Categories" menu box and select appropriately. There are lots of intriguing electron microscope pictures. Incindentally, the "gray goo" scenariao involves disassembly nanobots getting loose and reducing all life and structures on the earth's surface to a couple of feet's depth worth of dissociated gray chemical slime in about two weeks. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-07-12 1:42:19 AM |