The Citizen Alliance on the ChallEnges of Nanotechnologies (CACEN) (in French "Alliance Citoyenne sur les Enjeux des Nanotechnologies": ACEN) has just opened a new websitenano.acen-cacen.org where citizens can find and share information, questions, and analyses about societal issues raised by nanotechnologies.

 

A new national survey on public attitudes toward medical applications and physical enhancements that rely on nanotechnology shows that support for the technology increases when the public is informed of the technology's risks as well as its benefits – at least among those people who have heard of nanotechnology. The survey, which was conducted by researchers at North Carolina State University and Arizona State University (ASU), also found that discussing risks decreased support among those people who had never previously heard of nanotechnology – but not by much.

 

A Los Alamos National Laboratory toxicologist and a multidisciplinary team of researchers have documented potential cellular damage from "fullerenes"—soccer-ball-shaped, cage-like molecules composed of 60 carbon atoms. The team also noted that this particular type of damage might hold hope for treatment of Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, or even cancer.

 

Professor Peter A. Singer, based at Toronto University, Canada, wears many hats. He is a Professor of Medicine, holds the Sun Life Financial Chair in Bioethics, and is Director at the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health, University Health Network and University of Toronto.

All these apparently diverse interests come seamlessly together in his unswerving passion on how technologies of importance can bring benefit to the developing world.

The wide ranging knowledge and expertise Professor Singer brings to his work comes from studying internal medicine at the University of Toronto, medical ethics at the University of Chicago, public health at Yale University, and management at Harvard Business School.

Apart from many awards, Professor Singer is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges for Global Health Initiative.Peter Singer shares with Ottilia Saxl why he feels so strongly that nanotechnology should be for the benefit of the many rather than the few, and why misplaced arrogance by the developed world in imposing technologies on the less developed world, should be firmly rejected in favour of engaging with, and being guided by, the people who live and work there.

 

In this article, Jurgen Altmann discusses the potential military applications of nanotechnlogy, and looks at the ethical concerns involved. He describes a framework for an ethical assessment, and follows this with a discussion of the current system of preventive arms control.  He asks whether nanotechnology will lead to a revolutionary change in this international system.

In our regular series on issues linked to medical nanotechnology, Richard Moore examines the notion of "governance", what it may mean to different stakeholders and how it may affect medical nanotechnology, especially on a European level.

Textiles as a universal interface are constantly interacting with our bodies and their environment, thereby presenting an ideal platform for placing or integrating sensing devices. While the earliest sensing garments have appeared as cumbersome devices, with tried and trusted macro-electronics attached on top, new technology is enabling a more seamless integration.

Weaving Webs For Science and its Public.

In 2002, Roco and Bainridge wrote: “At this unique moment in the history of technical achievement, improvement of human performance becomes possible. Caught in the grip of social, political and economic conflicts, the world is hovering between optimism and pessimism.