Press Release

Debate

Nanotechnology: Radical New Science or Plus Ça Change?

Wednesday 24th August, 16:30
Theatre B1, Physics & Maths building, University Park campus

Sponsored by the Institute of Nanotechnology

Confirmed members of the debate panel:

• Prof. Richard Jones, University of Sheffield and author of Soft Machines
• Dr. John Storrs Hall, Chief Scientist of Nanorex Inc and author of Nanofuture: What's Next for Nanotechnology?
• Jack Stilgoe, a researcher at the Demos thinktank and an investigator on an ESRC-funded project entitled Nanotechnology and Public Engagement
• Dr. David Forrest, President, Institute of Molecular Manufacturing
• Prof. Saul Tendler, School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham

The debate will be chaired by Faye Scott from Involve who have recently been invited by the UK Office of Science and Technology to manage a Nanotech Engagement Group (NEG).

The focus of the debate will be an examination of the short-term and long-term potential of nanotechnology and its associated possible societal and ethical impacts.

• Are nanofactories capable of manufacturing virtually anything with little or no environmental impact really just a few decades away, as some groups are claiming?
• Is nanotechnology based on scaled-down everyday engineering concepts viable or should we look to biology for insights into how to tame the nanoworld?
• Are there potential risks associated with the manipulation of matter at the atomic and molecular levels and how might those risks be controlled?
• Or, is nanotechnology simply a buzzword for science which, far from being a radical departure from what has gone before, simply represents a natural convergence of the conventional disciplines...

The debate will be held in The University of Nottingham on Wed. August 24th and is open both to those attend the Summer School in Surface Science and to the general public. If you are not participating in the Summer School but wish to attend the debate, please send an e-mail to philip.moriarty@nottingham.ac.uk with the subject line "Nanotechnology Debate". Alternatively, if you cannot attend the debate, it is possible to submit a question to the panel using our online facility. We will select the most interesting questions for consideration by the panel.