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The National Research Council this week released a report that found "serious weaknesses" in the U.S. government's approach to handling the potential risks of nanotechnology.

"A 15-member committee of chemists, toxicologists and other experts said it found no adequate statement of clear goals or priorities in the strategy outlined by the National Nanotechnology Initiative, a program set up in 1998 to coordinate government research in nanotechnology... The committee report was requested by the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office, which administers the National Nanotechnology Initiative," writes the SF Chronicle's Bernadette Tansey.

"[The] report concluded that the initiative's strategy 'does not present a vision, contain a clear set of goals, have a plan of action for how the goals are to be achieved, or describe mechanisms to review and evaluate funded research and assess whether progress has been achieved,'" writes the NYT's Cornelia Dean.

More here from redOrbit ... more here from Reuters ... more here from the AP ... more here from Discover ... more here from eFluxMedia ... more here from ScienceInsider ... and the press release is here.