Nanotech Goes Public

As a starting point for the NanoJury UK project, the respected Cambridge nanoscientist Mark Welland writes in the Guardian (19.5.2005) about his experiences and the aims of the citizens' jury. Nanoscience and nanotech labs or centers shoot up like mushrooms at university campuses but the Cambridge-based researchs collaboration (IRC) in nanotech (U Cambridge, U Bristol, UCL) was the first to engage a social scientist to study concerns by the public, attitudes of scientists and the role of communications and media. In-house education, debates with opponents now lead to a citizens' jury with broader scope: Better "statistical" significance of the measure with the Guardian as the lead trumpet. Welland on recent frustrations in public education: "If we invited schoolchildren into the lab, something we do regularly, then we would be 'engaging' with a statistically insignificant fraction of the public." NanoJury is the solution to "reach out more effectively." But Welland considers the project also as a more democratic process: "Even if the jury eventually rules that nanotechnology is, ultimately, undesirable, the lessons we will have learned about how science, technology and public understanding can work together for a responsible future will be very valuable."


NanoJury at the Guardian's website:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/nanojury/
NanoJury's website:
http://www.nanojury.org