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SOCIETAL AND ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS OF NANOTECHNOLOGY
Now that nanotechnology has demonstrated early success in basic research, the pace of application and use of such technology and its combined use with other biotechnological research will accelerate. The emerging translational research will engender new issues in application and use. While the basic science has been enabled by interdisciplinary cooperation, the ethics and policy community must turn its attention to the social and ethical implications.
To address this challenge, in October 2003 Professor Dan Lewis (NU, School of Education and Social Policy) led a program in Societal and Ethical Implications of Nanotechnology. A research team incorporated an experimental design to assess the strength of the privacy position juxtaposed against issues of individual health, general public health/sanitation surveillance, and generalized pubic safety of a large population. These initial surveys provide a useful starting point for understanding public perception of nanotechnology particularly as it relates to center research.
Beginning in Fall 2005, the program has focused on the potential translational uses of NU-NSEC research. The study centers on key ethical and social themes, all directed at the problems of moving from the nanoscale to the human scale in translational research.
Laurie Zoloth is Director of Bioethics in the Center of Genetic Medicine. Zoloth and an interdisciplinary team of researchers in philosophy, theology, social science, public policy, and the humanities work in partnership with NSEC researchers to identify and respond to questions raised by nanotechnology research.
In addition to quarterly workshops, beginning in 2006, the team will organize a half-day series of lectures and panel discussions on social/ethical issues as part of the International Institute for Nanotechnology Symposium.
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