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Using Trading Zones and Life Cycle Analysis to Understand Nanotechnology Regulation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Extract

Productive work on societal implications needs to be engaged with the research from the start. Ethicists need to go into the lab to understand what's possible. Scientists and engineers need to engage with humanists to start thinking about this aspect of their work. Only thus, working together in dialog, will we make genuine progress on the societal and ethical issues that nanotechnology poses.

Davis Baird, in testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, May 1, 2003

Federal funding of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) has averaged roughly $1 billion annually for the last three years, from 2004 to 2006. Society is poised to see more realistic nano-scale devices enter the marketplace, along with futuristic depictions of nanotechnology. For this reason, serious thought must be given to the societal impact of nanotechnology.

Type
Symposium
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2006

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