When it comes to the world of the very, very small - nanotechnology - we may have a big problem: Nano and its capacity to alter the fundamentals of nature could be failing the moral litmus test of religion. In a report published today in Nature Nanotechnology, survey results reveal some sharp contrasts in the perception that nanotechnology is morally acceptable. Those views, according to the report, correlate directly with aggregate levels of religious views in each country surveyed. In the United States and in European countries where religion plays a larger role in everyday life, like Italy, Austria and Ireland, nanotechnology and its potential to alter living organisms or even perhaps lead to synthetic life is perceived as less morally acceptable. In less religious European countries like France and Germany, individuals are much less likely to find nanotechnology ethically suspect. ‘The level of ‘religiosity’ in a particular country is one of the strongest predictors of whether or not people see nanotechnology as morally acceptable,’ says Dietram Scheufele, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of life sciences communication and the lead author of the new study. ‘Religion was the strongest influence over everything.’ The study compared answers […]