Nanotechnology—materials, machines and other products fabricated with nanometer-sized components such as single atoms or molecules—is morally unacceptable to most Americans, according to a sampling taken by the University of Winconsin-Madison.

Of 1,015 adult Americans polled, only 29.5 agreed that it was acceptable, compared to more than half in European countries. Dietram

Scheufele, the university's proferssor of life sciences communication, claims its due to religious beliefs which inculcate people with a generalized mistrust of science.

In this view, even when scientific endeavor produces results with no clear religious implications (unlike, say, evolution or human cloning)

it's simply not on to go around thinking empirically about the natural world. Scheufele insists that it's not a matter of misunderstanding what nanotechnology is — the respondents knew what they were rejecting.

"They are rejecting it based on religious beliefs. The issue isn't about informing these people," he told Science Daily. "They are informed."

I think he's hyping an angle: religious belief merges neatly into irreligious fear of the new and other objections to science. He specifically chooses to forget about the science-skeptical nature of postmodernists, feminists, environmentalists and countless other non-religious factions. Only about 60 percent of Brits are happy with nanotech, for example, and they're about as religious as cement.

Religion Colors Americans' Views Of Nanotechnology [Science Daily]