The Nanodialogues
Four experiments in upstream public engagement
Nanotechnology - the science of small things - promises to be one of the defining technologies of the 21st Century. But what will it mean for society and the environment? And how can public engagement in deciding the direction of research be moved 'upstream'?
- Nano a Mano I have been dilatory in blogging the Nanodialogues pamphlet, which we launched on Tuesday to a packed crowd. I've just returned from Utrecht, where I was speaking to a meeting of the Technology Assessment arm of NanoNed, the interdisciplinary network that runs the Dutch approach to nanotechnology. I told them that we had nothing of the sort in the UK, following the government's lack of support for nano social science. They responded that the UK grass looked greener: the UK is still seen... continue reading on 4th July 2007
- The science we need, the science we want The Council for Science and Technology - Government's highest-level science advisory group - have this morning published their review of progress on nano policy. Broadly the message is... good work on the public engagement and standard setting but two thumbs down for funding far too few nanotoxicity studies. As is so often the case with science policy's unclear lines of responsibility, the buck has been passed along. The Science Minister was on the Today programme arguing that the money was... continue reading on 28th March 2007
- A new soft machine As we gear up to tomorrow's Atlas of Ideas launch, focussing on science in China, India and Korea, I've been thinking about some new bits of world-class British science. I spent last week in a Nano-sand-pit, working with 20 of the countries leading nano-scientists on new ways of turning information into stuff (towards a sort of mini 3D printer). The Ideas Factory blog, which over the course of the week climbed into Wordpress's top-ten, attracting over 100 comments, has just announced one of... continue reading on 16th January 2007
- Where forwards please? The new ad from Honda stars a cross between Mr Soft and a stormtrooper with sciatica. The robot struts (limps) his stuff among his dusty predecessors in a museum, and that chap from Lake Wobegon tells us that Honda are about "Onwards, upwards - anyway but backwards. Tapping progress on the shoulder and saying 'More forwards please'."It's a nice turn of phrase, but it rings my alarm bells. It reminds us how easy it is to fall into the trap of seeing science-in-society in a linear way.... continue reading on 4th January 2007
- Way upstream Next week, I will be a mentor at the EPSRC's 'Ideas Factory' on Software Control of Matter. This takes me way upstream and puts me among a diverse group of scientists, who are coming together to consider how to approach an esoteric problem with potentially massive implications - building stuff nano-bit by nano-bit. The EPSRC, who distribute the engineering and physics part of the UK's science budget, have set aside money to fund the proposals that are produced. For the last year, we at... continue reading on 3rd January 2007 Comments (2)
- Harare 2 - Everyone's an economist "Everyone's an economist," Lawrence tells me as we drive from Harare airport. We overtake an overcrowded minibus, full of people trying to make the most of what petrol can be found. On the back of the bus, a banner says "Opportunity Cost!" On the front, it says "Demand Elasticity!" If "Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them" (A N Whitehead), then Zimbabwe's economy needs a... continue reading on 26th July 2006
- Harare 1 - Snakes in a Well The third nanodialogue has just wrapped up. In Harare, we've spent the last two weeks with mushroom-farmers, brick-makers and water scientists, imagining the role that nanotechnology might play in their lives. The gulf between Western technoscience and applications for poor communities is far wider than I'd imagined. Ask people from Epworth - a Harare suburb currently recovering from Mugabe's Operation Murambatsvina - what they want from new technologies and they talk about the rope and washer.. continue reading on 24th July 2006
- Scientists at Large A long awaited survey from the Royal Society. It reveals the barriers that scientists feel stop them from getting out of their labs, into the open, talking and listening to members of the public. The major barrier, it seems, is the simple day-to-day pressure of professional research. We identified a similar thing last year in The Public Value of Science, and linked it to debates about public engagement as they fit into the culture of science. My worry in all of this is that the survey was... continue reading on 29th June 2006
- Dialogue of the Defra Four of our People's Inquiry members and I went to Defra yesterday on the way home from work to chat about nanotechnology. All well and good and friendly doing public engagement. But it's a lot to ask people to head into a civil service corner office to chat to people all of whose waking hours are spent in the discomfort of nanotechnology policy. They played a blinder. The discussion was fascinating, and if it has no purchase on the emerging shape of nano, I will be interested to know why.Who... continue reading on 26th May 2006
- Not so magic nano The promise and reality of nanotechnology are dancing again. More and more nano products drop out of the future to challenge the governance of technology. I've just written a piece on "Magic Nano" for open democracy . Though it may or may not contain a nano-something, and this nano-something may or may not have been the cause, a bunch of people were taken to hospital hours after using Magic Nano, days after it went on sale. The immediate questions this sort of thing asks of policy are a drop... continue reading on 28th April 2006
