Historical overview of nanotechnology and nanotoxicology

Although scientists have been studying nanoscience phenomena for many decades, technological developments in the second half of the twentieth century provided valuable tools that permitted researchers to study and develop materials in the nanoscale size range and helped formalize nanotechnology as a scientific field. This chapter provides a brief history of the field of nanotechnology, with an emphasis on the development of nanotoxicology as a scientific field. A brief overview of the worldwide regulatory activities for nanomaterials is also presented. The future development and safe use of nanomaterials in a diverse range of consumer products will be interesting, intellectually challenging, exciting, and hopefully very beneficial for the society.