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REVIEW "NANOTECHNOLOGY: FRIEND OR FOE?"
Dr James Wilsdon, Head of Strategy, DEMOS Café Scientifique, The Sun Café, Sun Street, Lancaster Tuesday 17 February 2004  A creative and stimulating 'talking-shop'
This was my first visit to this monthly gathering to hear informed presentations and general debate on matters of current interest and relevance. Like the recent "Balloon debate" at The Gregson, this event brought to mind the Wynne-Edwards Philosophical Society (named after a previous Headmaster) at my school. I am pleased to see both these enterprises flourishing today in Lancaster, and heartened to see that well-trodden paths are still followed now.  Setting
The journey is well worth while. For those who have not been to Café Scientifique before, this is how they work. The stylish Sun Café with its excellent food and tasteful décor is the setting, and at each monthly-ish meeting a speaker, an expert in his or her field, delivers a mini-address on the topic of the day. Questions are then invited, and this progresses into general debate and discussion. Sounds a bit dry? Not all, particularly when you are enjoying a plateful of the Sun's very reasonably-priced tapas-like fare (all good healthy Mediterranean diet stuff) and a glass or two of their well-chosen wines. The venue as well as the menu contributed to the overall pleasant and eager ambience of the evening. Nanotechnology To return to the title, what is nanotechnology (NT), you rightly ask, and what of its implications, good or bad? Well, the term (from the Greek nanos, a dwarf, used to denote 10-9) implies technology on a scale much smaller than micro-technology. Dr Wilsdon, whilst no 'pure' scientist, is a senior researcher at Demos, whose motto is "people changing politics", and a well-respected and liberal-radical think-tank who "sometimes" support New Labour. What about it, anyway? Wilsdon explained, in eight key and clearly-explained bullet points, what he saw as the major issues of nanotechnology: The birth of a brand: NT began in 1959 in the USA with the work of Richard Fryman. The next boom: investors and others see NT as "the biggest news since the internet", and await both financial and industrial booms as many and varied firms have embraced the technology. Incremental benefits: NT can help industry, especially information and communications technology, along with medicine, engineering and other disciplines. Nothing new: NT has its sceptics and doubters; some see it as just another development in the course of science and progress, whilst, say, biologists see it as an integral and 'nothing-special' development of their work. Convergence: NT will promote a breaking-down of the barriers between different scientific and cultural disciplines, just as micro-technology has. NT the next GM? Many are concerned that NT will take forward opportunities for cloning, the creation of new genes, species of plant etc, and GM is still a hotly-disputed topic NT is about "engines of creation": the engineering possibilities are the most important aspect of NT, and the rest is faddism, such as 'nano-pants', or even 'nanu-nanu' Dr Wilsdon finished by stressing the social, ethical, political and ecological implications of the new technology, and the need for wide debate on the matter. Discussion That he certainly got. There were many questions from the floor on several aspects of NT, such as "What can it do for me?"('er, we may have to wait and see' was the not-unexpected response), "What are the benefits to society?" ('that depends on who you believe', apparently), and "Is it all just hype?" ('possibly'). Other concerns included the 'Pandora's box' effect, how to control advances in technology, and the totally unpleasant prospect of NT-prepared synthetic foodstuffs. How to sum it all up, then? For me it was an interesting learning experience about current scientific developments, alongside some interesting discussion of the wider implications of advancing the frontiers of knowledge. Lancaster's open-minded, enquiring tradition This city has a long tradition of not letting a range of issues lie ignored, of protest and of polemic. In the Market Square on Saturdays, in Single Step, The Gregson, let alone on these pages, there can be seen an abundance of local pressure and focus groups. To a newcomer such as myself, this is evidence of a political and social awareness that is lacking in many other places. The events at Café Scientifique sit well with this open-mindedness. In short, a stimulating and enjoyable evening. It was good to see issues such as NT raised in such an enjoyable forum. I shall certainly go again. Copyright © 20 February 2004 Michael Nunn |
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