Societal Dimensions of Nanotechnology as a Trading Zone: Results from a Pilot Project

Abstract

If nanotechnology is to represent social as well as technological progress, societal dimensions need to be incorporated from the outset. The best way to do this is to create interdisciplinary trading zones among scientists, engineers, ethicists and social scientists. This chapter describes a collaboration between a materials scientist and a psychologist, who jointly supervised a graduate student as she did cutting- edge scientific research directed towards a socially beneficial outcome. Productive work on societal implications needs to be engaged with the research from the start. Ethicists need to go into the lab to understand what's possible. Scientists and engineers need to engage with humanists to start thinking about this aspect of their work. Only thus, working together in dialog, will we make genuine progress on the societal and ethical issues that nanotechnology poses. (Davis Baird, in testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, May 1, 2003)