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News
New ASU Center Will Assess
Societal Implications of Nanotechnology
October 11, 2005
Tempe, AZ – New ASU
Center Will Assess Societal Implications of Nanotechnology:
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.”
Arizona State University
Source:
David Guston, (480) 727-8829
david.guston@asu.edu
http://cns.asu.edu/
Media contact:
Skip Derra,
(480) 965-4823
skip.derra@asu.edu
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