Tiny devices hold the key

OSLO - Futuristic microscopic devices could store energy, raise farm output and purify water to help the world reach 2015 goals of curbing poverty, says a new report.

A poll of experts by the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics said nanotechnology - the design and use of molecule-sized devices - was also likely to have wide uses in diagnosing disease and cutting air pollution. The experts reckoned that energy storage, production and conversion would be the main use of nanotechnology in a decade.

Second was farming, where nanotech devices could increase soil fertility and crop production.

Water treatment was third - nano-membranes and clays could purify or desalinate water more efficiently than conventional filters, and are a fraction of the size.

- REUTERS