There are iPhone applications that help you navigate the highways or locate the best coffee in town. But a new iPhone app helps you find things on a much smaller scale. As in a billion times smaller. Called findNano, the iPhone and iPod Touch application taps into the most extensive database of products known to be formulated with nanoengineered materials.

This is noteworthy because tracking down products made with nanoscale ingredients is complicated by the fact that manufacturers are not required to disclose the ingredients on the packaging. Nonetheless, some companies do disclose, and even tout their use. Electronics, cosmetics, toys and appliances are just some of the types of products that contain nano materials.

Over the past three years, the Wilson Center's Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN) has compiled a database of products containing nano-scale ingredients that has grown to more than 1,000 items. Although the database is widely used by regulatory agencies, public interest groups and academics, the Wilson Center anticipates a benefit from making it more accessible to the public at large.

Not only can consumers search the database via the iPhone application (or PEN's Web site) they can also submit newly discovered nano items into the database by using their device's camera and connectivity.  “This innovative tool satisfies the needs of citizen scientists, tech-savvy consumers, and those who are merely curious about whether products contain nanomaterials,” said Patrick Polischuk, a PEN research associate.

PEN hopes that the iPhone app will help in its efforts to gauge the public's exposure to nano-materials and develop test protocols to assess risk. While it’s no substitute for mandatory labeling, PEN's database effort is an important step to gleaning as much information as we can until fuller disclosure is required.

FindNano is available as a free download in the iTunes App Store and at nanotechproject.org/iphone.