The field of nanotechnology is broad and has the potential to be used in a wide range of industries and fields, but the question is whether it is a good investment. Will it solve fundamental social problems that assure a better future?
In an article just published in the debut issue of the journal NanoEthics entitled, “Ethics and Technology ‘in the Making’: An essay on the Challenge of Nanoethics,” an expert discusses how nanoethicists can be among the actors who shape the meaning and materiality of an emerging technology. The first issue of NanoEthics is available online free of charge at springerlink.com.
NanoEthics: Ethics for Technologies that Converge at the Nanoscale provides a multidisciplinary forum for exploration of ethical issues related to nanotechnology. It contains a philosophically and scientifically rigorous examination of both the ethical and societal considerations as well as the public and policy concerns inherent in nanotechnology research and development. The journal is of interest to researchers, scholars and students as well as scientific and technological policymakers and decision-makers in corporations involved in nanotechnology.
Editor-in-Chief John Weckert of the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, part of Charles Sturt University, ANU and the University of Melbourne, said, “Not only are the impacts or likely impacts of nanotechnologies the subject matter of this journal, but so are the uncertainties about nanoethics. Nanotechnologies encourage examination, or reexamination, of some basic issues in the ethics and philosophy of technology and science. This journal will help stimulate these discussions.”
Source: Springer
Related stories:
Victims of Britain's tainted blood scandal speak
(AP) -- Robert Mackie trembles with rage when he describes how he and his wife were kept in the dark about his HIV infection - and how doctors published his medical data in journals years before they gave him the devastating news.
Researchers: Merck Vioxx study was for marketing
(AP) -- A 1999 Merck & Co. study of its since-withdrawn painkiller Vioxx, touted to participating doctors and patients as meant to show whether Vioxx caused fewer stomach problems than another drug, was primarily a stealth marketing strategy, researchers report.
When the patient can't decide
Family members are often called upon to make medical choices for patients who are unable to do so themselves. Researchers led by Alexia Torke, M.D., of the Indiana University School of Medicine and the Regenstrief Institute, Inc., studied how physicians treating these patients interacted with surrogate decision-makers.
Doctors must be held accountable for complying with torture
Doctors who assist in torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment should face prosecution and licensing punishments, says an editorial on BMJ.com today.
Professor explores social behavior and business misdeeds
(PhysOrg.com) -- Corporate misconduct can be the stuff of high drama. But prevailing theory has it that "settling up," the process of meting out consequences for corporate misdeeds, is largely determined by quite rational, unbiased financial markets and often the legal system.
Should embryos with a hereditary disorder be transferred if no unaffected embryos are available?
The numbers of cycles of preimplantation genetic diagnosis or screening are rising steadily in Europe with over 2,700 reported in 2004 (the most recent year for which data are available). Fertility centres are able to screen for a growing number of genetically related conditions, but what should doctors do if no embryos without the targeted condition are available for transfer and the parents request that affected embryos should be transferred instead?
Editors' leadership role impacts on quality of biomedical research journals
The factors allowing a journal to achieve high quality are not fully understood, but good editorial practices such as accurate and author-helpful peer review and in-house editing are thought to be important. Now, a new study provides quantitative evidence that another aspect of good editorial practice – editors' expectations that articles adhere to international standards for quality reporting – is strongly related to journal quality. The research is published July 2 in the online, open-access journal
PLoS ONE.
An impossible coexistence: Transgenic and organic agriculture
The study was carried out by researcher Rosa Binimelis of the UAB Institute of Environmental Science and Technology. Binimelis is working on the European project ALARM (Assessing Large Scale Risks for Biodiversity with Tested Methods) and analyses the application of the concept of coexistence between Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and conventional organic agriculture in the European Union. The results of the research have been published in
Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics.