Notice the synergetic effect below. This is a fairly rare surfacing of the hidden secret of reductionism at the heart of the scientific method as it is currently applied. If you rigorously study things only in isolation, then the results and inferences of that study really only apply at that same level -- in isolation. But neither we, nor any other organism lives in isolation; we are completely immersed in a soup in interacting substances and states, and those interactions are easily as important as the "actors" themselves. Certainly, when studying gestalts, the conclusions we can reach are less clean and precise, but they will, in fact, have considerably more operative value. Here is the summary, retrieved from a nanotechnology newsletter:
Researchers from the University of California, San Diego in the U.S. report that tests conducted on the biomedical applications of iron oxide nanoparticles have found that the nanoparticles can be toxic to nerve cells and can interfere with their ability to form signal-transmitting neurites. In a study intended to find a method for manipulating nerve cells remotely with magnetic force, the researchers coated the iron oxide nanoparticles with a polymer coating to prevent them from clumping in an aqueous environment and to enable their uptake by PC12 nerves cells from rats. After adding nerve growth factor to the nanoparticle-containing cells, the researchers observed dose-dependent incidents of cell death and diminished ability to produce neurites. Researcher Thomas Pisanic said, "It's worth noting that neither iron oxide nanoparticles alone, nor the coating material alone are overtly toxic, but combining the two to create water-soluble nanoparticles has a completely different effect. . . Our experience leads us to conclude that any analysis of the biocompatibility of nanoparticles should include not just a toxicological study of the component parts, but also an examination of the total structure as a whole." The article can be viewed online at the link below.
