November 10-11, 2008

Environmental systems are subject to influences from factors both big and small. At the smallest end of that scale are engineered and naturally occurring nanoparticles. The use of nanoparticles has much promise in a number of fields including medicine, energy, manufacturing, and remediation. However, the characterization, reactivity, fate, and transport of nanoparticles, as well as their impacts on human and animal health and usefulness in sensing and remediation, are not well understood. The University of Delaware will host a conference, “Environmental Nanoparticles: Science, Ethics, and Policy” on November 10-11, 2008, that will feature presentations by nationally and internationally recognized scientists, engineers, ethicists, and science policy experts. Major themes of the conference include human and environmental health, fate and transport, sensing and remediation, and future policy directions.

In October 2005, the National Science Foundation sponsored an international workshop on the Critical Zone at the University of Delaware. Here are some of the questions discussed by the scientists who attended the workshop and which the Center for Critical Zone Research will continue to pursue:

• What processes in the Critical Zone control the movement of carbon, particulates, and atmospherically reactive trace gases between the land surface and the atmosphere?

• How do important biological, geological, and chemical processes at Critical Zone interfaces govern the long-term sustainability of soil and water resources?

• How do chemical and physical weathering processes (e.g., erosion) impact the establishment of the Critical Zone, and how is this weathering perturbed by global environmental change?

• How do processes in the Critical Zone that nourish ecosystems change over geologic and human time scales?