Tutorial 'mind the Gap': Science and Ethics in Nanotechnology
Tutorial 'mind the Gap': Science and Ethics in Nanotechnology
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发表时间：
2003
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通讯作者：
A. Mnyusiwalla;A. Daar;P. Singer
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作者：
A. Mnyusiwalla;A. Daar;P. Singer
纳米技术（NT）是一个快速发展的领域。这些进步将对材料、电子和医药等领域产生巨大影响。对目前的文献、政府资助和政策文件进行了彻底的审查。尽管新技术有潜在的影响，而且资金充裕，但我们的研究显示，关于新技术的伦理、法律和社会影响的严肃、公开的研究很少。随着科学的飞跃，伦理却落后了。如果对伦理、法律和社会影响的研究跟不上科学发展的速度，就有使新技术脱轨的危险。2002年8月，在约翰内斯堡举行的可持续发展世界首脑会议上，一个名为ETC的组织举行了几次研讨会，呼吁暂停纳米材料bb0的部署。与此同时，在过去几年中，纳米技术（NT）的研发支出急剧增加。这两种趋势似乎正朝着我们在转基因作物上看到的那种摊牌的方向碰撞（实际上，ETC，以前被称为RAFI，创造了“终结者种子”这个短语）。在新台币科学突飞猛进的同时，伦理却落在了后面。激进组织已经恰当地发现了这一差距，并开始利用它。我们认为，如果对新界的伦理、环境、经济、法律和社会影响的认真研究（我们称之为ne3ls研究）没有达到科学进展的速度，新界就有脱轨的危险。随着科学的飞速发展……纳米技术是一个快速发展的领域，专注于通过在纳米尺度上控制物质来创造功能材料、设备和系统，并利用纳米尺度上的新现象和特性。一些观察表明，不仅仅是科学家，整个社会都需要认真对待NT。首先，在显微镜、材料科学、分子水平操作以及在经典物理学和量子物理学之间的边缘的科学理解方面取得了重大的科技进步。一种生物分子马达，由无机镍螺旋桨制成，由三磷酸腺苷酶提供动力，于两年前发明。在电子元件小型化的重要一步中，单分子晶体管已经被制造出来。纳米粒子研究已经产生了一些产品，其中包括一种纳米粒子载体，能够穿过血脑屏障，为治疗脑肿瘤提供化疗药物……
Nanotechnology (NT) is a rapidly progressing field. Advances will have a tremendous impact on fields such as materials, electronics, and medicine. A thorough review of the current literature, governmental funding, and policy documents was undertaken. Despite the potential impact of NT, and the abundance of funds, our research revealed that there is a paucity of serious, published research into the ethical, legal, and social implications of NT. As the science leaps ahead, the ethics lags behind. There is danger of derailing NT if the study of ethical, legal, and social implications does not catch up with the speed of scientific development. (Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version) In August 2002, at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, an organization called ETC held several workshops calling for a moratorium on the deployment of nanomaterials [1]. Meanwhile, over the past few years expenditure on research and development in nanotechnology (NT) has increased dramatically [2]. These two trends seem to be on a collision course towards a showdown of the type that we saw with GM crops (indeed, ETC, previously known as RAFI, coined the phrase 'terminator seed'). As the science of NT leaps ahead, the ethics lags behind. Activist groups have appropriately identified this gap, and begun to exploit it. We believe that there is danger of derailing NT if serious study of NT's ethical, environmental, economic, legal, and social implications (we call this NE 3 LS research) does not reach the speed of progress in the science. As the science leaps ahead. .. NT is a rapidly expanding field, focused on the creation of functional materials, devices, and systems through the control of matter on the nanometre scale, and the exploitation of novel phenomena and properties at that length scale [3]. Several observations indicate that all of society, not just scientists, needs to take NT seriously. First, there have been major scientific and technological advances in microscopy, material science, molecular-level manipulation, and scientific understanding at the borderline between classical and quantum physics. A biomolecular motor, made of inorganic nickel propellers and powered by an ATPase enzyme, was created over two years ago [4]. In a major step toward downsizing electronic components, single-molecule transistors have been created [5]. Nanoparticle research has generated products including a nanoparticle carrier able to cross the blood–brain barrier to deliver a chemotherapeutic for the treatment of brain tumours …