Nature has a reporter at the Materials Research Society meeting here in Boston this week, check out her blog

about it. Highlights include a new material from Dow for longer-lasting lipstick, and a giant model of a carbon nanotube made out of balloons.

And if you’re looking for the perfect nerdy Christmas gift, how about a carbon nanotube tennis racket, or a toilet bowl cleaner that takes away nasty odors thanks to “ionized nano silver nanoparticles”? These and 350 other consumer products are listed in the Nanotechnology Consumer Products Inventory put together by the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies. It’s a group sponsored by Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Pew Charitable Trusts to promote the advancement of nanotech and the management and communication of the technology’s risks and benefits.

An interesting tactic to try to get consumer buy-in (literally!) of an emerging technology: placate the American public’s fears about the risks of nanotech by exploiting what makes America so great: the basic and deeply rooted drive to buy, buy, buy. I wonder what other consumer products can we devise to show the public that technology shouldn’t be feared? Cloned pets (oh wait, those exist already)? A grow-your-own stem cell culture kit (look, they don’t look like babies!) A mini nuclear power generator (free sample of uranium included)? (Tongue firmly in cheek).