IF ENVIRONMENTAL activists and pressure groups have their way, nanotechnology will become as much of a social pariah as genetically modified foods. The campaigners came to Brussels from all over the world last week to discuss a moratorium on all nanotech, including lab research.

Tony Juniper, executive director of Friends of the Earth, says the scale of the campaign could be huge. "A lot of activists are beginning to register this," he says. "This is very comparable to the situation in GM foods eight or nine years ago. We have public awareness combined with activists, and bang, here we go."

The Canadian environmental organisation ETC, which masterminded the meeting, couched its call for a ban in language blatantly designed to woo an anti-GM audience. "We can't control genetically modified organisms, so what makes us think we can control atomically modified organisms?" said ETC's Hope Shand.

The group points to the ...