Risks and scientific responsibilities in nanotechnology

Abstract

This chapter outlines a number of risks of nanotechnology and considers whether scientists can be held responsible, and if so, to what extent. The five risks discussed are representative of different kinds of risks and the list is not comprehensive: nanoparticles, privacy, grey goo, cyborgs, and nanodivides. The extent to which scientists can be held responsible for harms resulting from their research depends on the nature of science and here two models are outlined and assessed; the linearmodel and the social. The relationship of moral values to scientific research is examined with respect to both models and four interfaces are considered: the issues of concern to ethics committees, moral values in the acceptance or rejection of hypotheses, setting research agendas, and scientific responsibility. This leads to a discussion of responsibility itself, and on the basis of this, the five risks noted at the beginning of the chapter are revisited and an assessment given of the moral responsibility of scientists in each case.