ABSTRACT

After more than 20 years of laboratory and research and development (R&D) work, advances in the nanotechnology eld permeate almost all research areas in live and material sciences (e.g., chemistry, physics, biology, medicine, engineering). They are widely commercialized owing to substantial help from public authorities, themselves banking heavily on the competitive advantages touted by the industry (Roco 2005). Since early 2000, more than 60 countries in the world show strong activities in this eld. The major league players, including the United States, China, South Korea, the European Union, Russia, and Japan (PCAST 2012), accelerate their strategic development plans in the hope of better market shares (EEB 2009). The rise of nanotechnologies can also be clearly observed through the multiplication of specialized and vernacular publications (from a little more than 30,000 in 1998 to more than 100,000 in 2009; cf. ObservatoryNANO 2011), as well as the increasing annual rate of patent submissions (+34.5% between 2000 and 2008; cf. Dang et al. 2010).