Dr. Bärbel Dorbeck-Jung is Associate Professor of Medical and Technology Regulation, University of Twente, Netherlands. Nanomedicine is regarded as one of the most promising fields of nanotechnological development. It includes applications in nanopharmaceuticals, surgery, diagnostics, implant technology, bionics, bio-active surfaces, tissue engineering, textiles and actuators. Nanomedical products are on the market and there are many more applications to come. For example, approxima...   read more >>

Alexei Grinbaum is a researcher at CEA-Larsim, Saclay, France. He is interested in the philosophy of physics and the ethics of science and technology. He’s been working on ethical and social questions around nanotechnology since 2003. I was an invited speaker and presented the European observatoryNano activities and the Toolkit for ethical reflection and communication at the IEEE Nano 2010 and Nano Korea conference in Seoul, Korea, on August 19-20, 2010. This toolkit for ethical refl...   read more >>

Major General (ret) Kees Homan is adviser at the Clingendael Security and Conflict Program. The targeted killing of insurgents from Al-Qaeda and the Taliban with killer robots (unmanned combat aerial vehicles) has become a new US focus in Afghanistan. Opponents rightly say that the art of war may become the art of political assassination or summary execution. Luckily, killer robots in the sense of lethal autonomous military robots still do not exist. Nowadays, the killer robots that do e...   read more >>

Lesley Tobin is a technology analyst at the Institute of Nanotechnology, UK, and is the project coordinator of the EC-funded ICPC Nanonet Project. Nanoscale research can potentially provide solutions to fundamental societal problems in areas such as the environment, health and energy. Success in such scientific investigations and their applications will inevitably impact positively on the global community, but only if society is able to engage through international collaboration and acce...   read more >>

Ineke Malsch is the director of Malsch TechnoValuation, and a consultant on technology and society. How to build up a knowledge society is a major issue on the agenda of politicians, policy makers and scholars in science, technology and innovation. Or, put in a more down-to-earth way: how to improve the economic validation of scientific research results? During the last decade or so, many countries – including the Netherlands but also emerging economies and developing countries – hav...   read more >>

Paulo Roberto Martins is coordinator of Brazilian Research Network in Nanotechnology, Environment and Society. The link between human rights and the environment consists of the Earth Rights expressed by the Kasentini Principles. Earth Rights The Earth Rights / Kasentini Principles consist of 5 chapters and 26 principles. The first and second principles are very important for the social scientist to understand the relationship between human rights, public goods and nanotechnology:...   read more >>

Ineke Malsch is the director of Malsch TechnoValuation, and a consultant on technology and society. The title of this weblog is a literal translation of the Dutch project title 'Nanorecht en Vrede'. The aim of this project is to introduce the international dimension in the Dutch national public dialogue on nanotechnology, by focusing on potential future implications of nanotechnology, its applications on global peace and security, and on the interests of people in developing countries, o...   read more >>

Dr. Noela Invernizzi (Federal University of Paraná, Brazil) is co-chair of the Latin American Network on Nanotechnology and Society (ReLANS). The EC Code of Conduct for Responsible Nanotechnology is broader than other existing voluntary codes of conduct on nanotechnology. It stands out by the unambiguous adoption of the precautionary principle; by the clear delimitation of research areas that should not be promoted; by its commitment to public engagement in nanotechnology governance; by...   read more >>

Ineke Malsch is director of Malsch TechnoValuation and a consultant in technology and society. Earlier this month, Beijing hosted the second annual ICPC NanoNet workshop dedicated to international cooperation between European nanoscientists and their colleagues in emerging economies and developing countries. The event was hosted by the Chinese Society of Micro-Nano Technology at Tsinghua University. Participants from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe presented the state of the art o...   read more >>

Bas Hofs is a researcher working for KWR Watercycle Research Institute in the drinking water treatment group. Of all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), number 7 (ensure environmental sustainability) is perhaps the most important, globally speaking. Unfortunately, it is also the one most likely to be unmet (certainly not by 2015, as originally envisioned), as it means shifting from an ever more consuming society to a more sustainable one. With the current world population soaring to...   read more >>

Ineke Malsch is director of Malsch TechnoValuation, and a consultant on technology and society. This year, the European Commission is evaluating the implementation of the code of conduct for nanoresearch by European Union member states. In the Netherlands, Nanopodium and KIVI NIRIA will organize a conference about it in November. Nanotechnology can be applied in almost any imaginable product or system. Small particles and devices can be made and materials structured at the level of na...   read more >>

Nupur Chowdhury is with the Department of Legal and Economic Governance Studies, School of Management and Governance, University of Twente. Nanotechnology is an enabling technology that is expected to impact a large number of industrial sectors. It is expected to radically alter existing production processes and also make possible the development of new and innovative capacities of existing products and processes. Nanotechnology in this sense can be compared to biotechnology and ICTs (in...   read more >>

Ineke Malsch is director of Malsch TechnoValuation, founded in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and an independent consultant and science writer on technology and society. In 'Small is beautiful' (The Broker 6, February 2008), I discussed proposals by several authors that nanotechnology might contribute to the UN Millennium Development Goals. The UN and its member states aim to reduce poverty considerably by 2015, by ending hunger, providing universal education, achieving gender equity, improvi...   read more >>