Doctoral Dissertation: Nano-Images on Display: Mediation for Public Consumption in the U.S.

本论文项目由科学技术社会计划资助，研究纳米尺度的图像和图像工作在公共科学教育网络。 它侧重于多学科小组如何使用图像和其他可视化来代表不同公众的纳米技术。 研究的一个关键方面是一个国家网络的研究人员谁解决非正式的纳米科学教育，纳米技术非正式科学教育（NISE）网络的案例研究。 视觉图像在公众对纳米技术的理解中发挥了不可或缺的作用。 因此，该项目将图像作为其主要焦点，重建图像从实验室和其他研究场所到公共展览和网站的路径，试图了解NISE网络中的公共理解。 特别令人感兴趣的是技术调解人的作用-科学家，前科学家和非科学家-他们为教育或公众参与的目的准备展览和图像画廊。 本研究透过深入访谈、参与式观察，以及实地检视文件与草稿，比较影像调解的实务。 这项研究的智力价值在于它的贡献STS奖学金可视化实验室研究，公众参与科学，社会和文化方面的纳米技术。 具体来说，它提供了一个纳米图像的文化概念（主要是在美国）的帐户，画出图像之间的分析连接，调解的做法，研究和公共教育的社会背景。 纳米技术的更广泛的社会影响仍在确定中，但人们普遍认为，如果能够更早地解决这些问题，经济和其他利益将以较少的负面影响实现。 如果图像在努力培养公众对这些影响的理解方面发挥了重要作用，那么研究图像调解人如何看待纳米技术的公众参与以及他们如何实现这种参与就很重要。

This dissertation project funded by the Science, Technology & Society Program examines nanoscale-images and image-work in public science education networks. It focuses on how multidisciplinary groups use images and other visualizations to represent nanotechnology for different publics. A key aspect of the research is a case study of a national network of researchers who address informal nanoscience education, the Nanotechnology Informal Science Education (NISE) network. Visual images have played an integral part in public understanding of nanotechnology. Therefore, this project makes images its primary focus, reconstructing the pathways through which the images travel from laboratories and other research sites to public exhibitions and websites to try to understand what counts as public understanding in the NISE network. Of particular interest is the role of technological mediators -- scientists, former scientists, and non-scientists -- who prepare exhibitions and image galleries for educational or public engagement purposes. Through in-depth interviews, participant observation, and review of documents and drafts at the sites, this project compares practices of image mediation. This research's intellectual merit lies in its contribution to STS scholarship on visualization in laboratory research, public engagement with science, and social and cultural aspects of nanotechnology. Specifically, it provides an account of cultural conceptions (mostly in the United States) of nano-images, drawing out analytical connections between images, mediating practices, and the social contexts of research and public education. Nanotechnology's broader societal implications are still being determined, but it is widely believed that if they can be addressed earlier, the economic and other benefits will be realized with fewer negative consequences. If images do play a significant role in efforts to cultivate public understanding of those implications, it will be important to study what image-mediators consider public engagement of nanotechnology, and how they achieve that engagement.