Hunt G., Mehta M. (Eds.) Nanotechnology: Risk, Ethics and Law

Earthscan Publications Ltd, 2006. — 296 p.Nanotechnology - technology at the molecular level - is held out by many as the Holy Grail for creating a trillion dollar economy and solving problems from curing cancer to reprocessing waste into products and building superfast computers. Yet, as with GMOs, many view nanotech as a high risk genie in a bottle that once uncorked has the potential to cause unpredictable, perhaps irreversible, environmental and public health disasters. With the race to bring products to market, there is pressing need to take stock of the situation and to have a full public debate about this new technological frontier.
Until very recently most people associated nanotechnology with science fictionbased accounts that tended to focus on fantastical devices and applications. With recent developments in nanoscience (for example greater control over atomic structure due in part to the atomic force microscope), nanotechnology has entered the commercial realm, and has simultaneously begun the journey
of finding its space within the social imaginary. This book represents a leg of this journey. By exploring the risks and benefits of nano-derived processes and products, Nanotechnology: Risk, Ethics and Law considers the shifting social space that this technology currently occupies. By examining how nanotechnology has been introduced to a range of actors, this book explores how
different governments in Europe, Japan, the US and Canada have responded to the nanotechnology revolution. Additionally, this book considers how experience with other technologies (for example biotechnology) may influence how the general public, non-governmental organizations, scientists, regulators and legal communities around the world are likely to frame nanotechnology.
Lastly, this book provides readers with a unique opportunity to think about the ethical and conceptual issues raised by the introduction and dissemination of this nanotechnology. In short, it provides a platform for readers to conceptualize the multifaceted impacts of nanotechnology by pointing out several of the gaps in our collective understanding of how this transformative technology is shaping the topography of the 21st century.Introduction : the challenge of nanotechnologies
Nanotechnology : from 'wow' to 'yuck'?
Nanotechnology : from Feynman to Funding
Microsystems and nanoscience for biomedical applications : a view to the future
Nanotechnoscience and complex systems : the case for nanology
Nanotechnologies and society in Japan
Nanotechnologies and society in the USA
Nanotechnologies and society in Europe
Nanotechnologies and society in Canada
From biotechnology to nanotechnology : what can we learn from earlier technologies?
Getting nanotechnology right the first time
Risk management and regulation in an emerging technology
Nanotechnology and nanoparticle toxicity : a case for precaution
The future of nanotechnology in food science and nutrition : can science predict its safety?
The global ethics of nanotechnology
Going public : risk, trust and public understanding of nanotechnologies
Dwarfing the social? : nanotechnology lessons from the biotechnology front
Nanotechnologies and the law of patents : a collision course
Nanotechnologies and civil liability
Nanotechnologies and the ethical conduct of research involving human subjects
Nanotechnologies and corporate criminal liability
What makes nanotechnologies special?