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News Release
October 11, 2005
NEW ASU CENTER WILL ASSESS SOCIETAL
IMPLICATIONS OF NANOTECHNOLOGY
TEMPE, Ariz. – How will
rapid technological change influence democracy, affect our privacy, and
even change human identity itself? The
National
Science Foundation has awarded $6.2 million to explore such
questions at the new Center for Nanotechnology in Society at Arizona
State University. Center researchers will work side by side with
scientists who are making nanotechnology a reality to anticipate and
understand the societal consequences of this new area of innovation.
The ASU center is the largest in a
network of newly funded NSF activities on nanotechnology and society,
including a second center at University of California-Santa Barbara and
additional projects at Harvard University and the University of South
Carolina. The network will support research and education on
nanotechnology and social change, as well as provide educational and
public outreach activities and international collaborations.
“The Center for Nanotechnology in Society at ASU will be devoted to
interdisciplinary studies of nanotechnology with a real social
commitment,” said ASU President Michael Crow. “It will help us determine
the impact of nanotechnology on society and it will allow us to see how
society affects the course of nanotechnology research.”
Mihail Roco, NSF’s senior
advisor for nanotechnology, said the new nanotechnology centers and
projects come at an important time. “The nanotechnology field has been
evolving rapidly since 2000, with technological, economic, social,
environmental and ethical implications that could change the world,” he
said.
Nanotechnology is the manipulation of molecular-sized materials to
create new products and processes. It encompasses contributions from
fields such as physics, chemistry and biochemistry, molecular biology,
and engineering, with potential applications in areas as diverse as drug
delivery and discovery, environmental sensing, manufacturing, and
quantum computing. The potential benefits of the technology are great,
but so are the potential drawbacks from misuse or unintended
consequences.
The Center for Nanotechnology
in Society at ASU will develop a new model for understanding the
interactions of technology and society to encourage informed discussions
and improve policy choices and technological outcomes for everyone,
according to David Guston, an ASU professor of political science and the
principal investigator at the center.
“Nanotechnology promises insights and innovations that could
revolutionize whole sectors like manufacturing, energy and health care,”
Guston said. “At the same time, it raises profound questions about
privacy and security, human identity and enhancement, environmental and
health risks, and societal and economic equity.”
“We will help scientists, technologists and citizens develop a better
understanding of where scientific and social values come from, what they
mean and how they shape the direction that nanotechnology takes,” Guston
added. “As a result, informed discussions and deliberations can enhance
both the responsiveness of nanotechnology research to societal needs,
and improve the quality of nanotechnology outcomes.”
The center is a collaboration of the Consortium for Science, Policy and
Outcomes and the Biodesign Institute at ASU. CSPO director and
co-principal investigator, Dan Sarewitz, said the center “is an
opportunity to put into practice a new model of cooperation between the
social sciences and humanities on one hand and natural sciences and
engineering on the other.”
George Poste, director of the
Biodesign Institute at ASU and co-principal investigator for the center
added that “by encouraging natural scientists and social scientists to
become more fluent in one another’s areas of knowledge, we help ensure
that nanotechnology and other emerging technologies not only fulfill
their promise to benefit humanity, but do so in ways that reflect and
respect social values.”
Other ASU co-principal investigators are Marilyn Carlson of the Center
for Research on Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and
Technology, and Anne Schneider of the School of Justice and Social
Inquiry.
The center also will feature important collaborations between ASU and
the University
of Wisconsin, Madison;
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta; North Carolina State
University, Raleigh; University of Colorado, Boulder;
Rutgers University, New
Brunswick, N.J.; and other universities, private and public sector
groups and individual researchers.
The center will develop a research program called “real time technology
assessment” (RTTA), which will map the research dynamics of
nanotechnology, monitor the changing values of the public and
researchers, engage groups in discussions concerning nanotechnology and
its possible future, and assess the influence of these activities on the
researchers.
“Only by pursuing the sort of
program offered by RTTA can society promote the learning necessary to
move beyond our historical tendency to react to technologies after they
permeate society,” Guston said. “As technologies become more powerful,
we need to be able to make better decisions, at an earlier stage, about
the directions that they are taking.”
ASU
Source:
David Guston, (480) 727-8829
david.guston@asu.edu
http://www.cspo.org/projects/nanotechnology/index.htm
Media contact:
Skip Derra,
(480) 965-4823
skip.derra@asu.edu |
