NER: Representations of Active Nanostructures Across Scientific, Popular, and Policy Realms of Discourse

活跃的纳米结构在科学、流行和政策话语领域的表现理查德·巴克克、贾德·雷迪、艾伦·波特和丽莎·亚采克佐治亚理工学院活跃的纳米结构和纳米系统(ANN)的出现将以与以前的技术革命本质上不同且速度快得多的方式挑战现有的经济、社会和政治体系。人工神经网络的效果将是完全陌生的、先前经历的和大致相似的组合。将如何理解和描述ANN的好处和风险，以及社会和政治系统将如何应对这些变化？作者将使用熟悉的和新的科学和大众传播方法来弥合科学技术知识、公众理解和政策反应之间的差距。研究正在进行中，以分析公众对纳米技术的理解，确定他们可能的担忧和恐惧，让公众参与到关于该技术的风险和好处的理性、知情的对话中，但我们还需要了解，关于ANN的监管政策将如何通过风险和好处的感知之间的互动，以及通过使用跨几个话语领域的叙事、隐喻和图像来框架问题来形成。这个项目将研究科学家、公众和政策制定者之间关于如何监管活跃的纳米结构和纳米系统的沟通，是如何通过他们理解和描述这项跨越三个通信领域的新兴技术的方式来塑造的。科学、公共和政策领域之间的脱节可能会对ANN的新监管系统如何尝试平衡风险和利益产生深远影响。该项目将利用和促进以下方面的研究：风险感知、科学和监管政策；计算机辅助分析技术文本；电子和光子学中的纳米技术研究；以及文学研究和科学/技术小说。作为一项更大研究的第一个探索阶段，这个项目将由三个相互关联的部分组成，每个部分都借鉴了不同的知识传统和方法，但却汇聚在一起，为科学、大众和政策制定领域的思想流动提供了一个独特的视角。首先，文学分析技术将被用来检查隐喻、比喻和故事类型(例如，“奇幻之旅”、“邪恶的科学家”、“蜂群”)的使用，这些故事构成了科学家和作家用来交流新科学和技术的叙事。其次，将使用强大的文本挖掘技术探索科学和其他文献中ANN的特征，查看术语出现或共现，这将与基于阅读的方法相结合。第三，将使用话语分析来研究联盟之间的沟通，这些联盟可能会影响有关美国政府对纳米技术的支持和监管的政策辩论。目标是了解概念和隐喻的起源、采用、演变和使用，这些概念和隐喻既支持也限制了对革命性技术步骤的科学、公众和政治理解。

ABSTRACTREPRESENTATIONS OF ACTIVE NANOSTRUCTURES ACROSS SCIENTIFIC, POPULAR, AND POLICY REALMS OF DISCOURSE Richard Barke, Jud Ready, Alan Porter, and Lisa Yaszek Georgia Institute of Technology The emergence of active nanostructures and nanosystems (ANN) will challenge existing economic, social, and political systems in ways that are qualitatively different and much more rapid than previous technological revolutions. The effects of ANN will be a combination of the completely unfamiliar, the previously experienced, and the roughly analogous. How will the benefits and risks of ANN be understood and described, and how will social and political systems respond to these changes? Writers will use both familiar and new methods of scientific and popular communication to bridge the gaps between scientific and technical knowledge, public understanding, and policy responses. Studies are underway to analyze the public's understanding of nanotechnology, to determine their likely concerns and fears, to engage the public in a rational, informed dialogue about the risks and benefits of the technology, but we also need to understand how regulatory policy regarding ANN will be shaped by interactions among perceptions of risks and benefits and by the framing of issues using narratives, metaphors, and imagery across several realms of discourse. This project will study how communications among scientists, the public, and policymakers about "how to regulate active nanostructures and nanosystems" are shaped by the way they understand and describe the emerging technology across three spheres of communication. Disjunctions among the scientific, public, and policy realms of discourse could have profound effects on how new regulatory systems for ANN will attempt to balance risks and benefits. This project will draw upon and contribute to research on risk perception, science, and regulatory policy; computer-aided analysis of technical text; nanotechnology research in electronics and photonics; and literary studies and science/technology fiction. As the first exploratory phase of a larger study, this project will consist of three interrelated parts, each drawing on different intellectual traditions and methodologies, but converging to offer a unique perspective on the flow of ideas among the scientific, popular, and policymaking realms. First, techniques of literary analysis will be used to examine the use of metaphors, tropes, and story types (e.g., "fantastic journeys," "evil scientists," "swarms") that construct narratives used by scientists and writers to communicate about new sciences and technologies. Second, characterizations of ANN in scientific and other literature will be explored using powerful text-mining techniques, looking at term occurrences or co-occurrences, which will be meshed with reading-based approaches. Third, discourse analysis will be used examine communications among coalitions that are likely to shape policy debates about support for and regulation of nanotechnology in the US government. The goal is to understand the origins, adoption, evolution, and use of concepts and metaphors that both enable and constrain the scientific, public, and political understanding of a revolutionary technological step.