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'I recommend this book to anyone interested in learning the history
of nanoscale science, and to those who would like to better
understand some of the ethical, legal and social dilemmas to what I
believe has rightly been labeled the technology of the 21st
century.' - Rocky Rawstern, Nanotechnology Now Science and
engineering, industry and politics, environmentalists and
transhumanists are Discovering the Nanoscale. Policy makers are
demanding explicit consideration of ethical, legal and social
aspects, and popular books are explaining the achievements and
promises of nanoscience. It may therefore seem surprising that this
is the first collection of studies that considers nanoscience and
nanotechnologies from the critical perspective of Science and
Technology Studies (STS). However, when one appreciates that such a
critical perspective needs to be historically informed it often
involves intimate acquaintance with the research process.
Accordingly, this book on the historical, analytical, and ethical
study of nanoscience and -technology has come together in a period
of several years. Though it presents only first results, these
results for the most part stem from sustained investigations of
nanoscience and nanotechnologies and of the contexts that are
shaping their development. Nanoscience and technologies are
developing very quickly, and for this reason, both pose a challenge
to the more reflective approach commonly taken by science studies,
while at the same time requiring the perspective provided by
science studies scholars. Many are convinced that nothing
meaningful can be said about the social and ethical implications of
nanotechnologies at this early stage, but one can already see what
programmatic attitudes go into nanoscale research, what metaphors
are shaping it, and what conception of nature is implicit in its
vision. It is also often assumed that in order to consider all
aspects of nanotechnologies it is sufficient to know a bit of the
science and to have some ethical intuitions. This collection of
papers establishes that one also needs to appreciate nanoscale
research and development in the larger context of the changing
relations of science, technology, and society.
The sub-title of this symposium is accurate and, in a curious way,
promises more than it states: Classical Physicist, Modem
Philosopher. Heinrich Hertz, as the con summate experimentalist of
19th century technique and as brilliant clarifying critic of
physical theory of his time, achieved one of the fulfilments but at
the same time opened one of the transition points of classical
physics. Thus, in his 'popular' lecture 'On the Relations Between
Light and Electricity' at Heidelberg in the Fall of 1889, Hertz
identified the ether as henceforth the most fundamental problem of
physics, as the conceptual mystery but also the key to
understanding mass, electric ity, and gravity. Of Hertz's
demonstration of electric waves, Helmholtz told the Physical
Society of Berlin: "Gentlemen I have to communicate to you today
the most important physical discovery of the century. " Hertz,
philosophizing in his direct, lucid, pithy style, once wrote "We
have to imagine." Perhaps this is metaphysics on the horizon? In
the early pages of his Principles of Mechanics, we read A doubt
which makes an impression on our mind cannot be removed by calling
it metaphysical: every thoughtful mind as such has needs which
scientific men are accustomed to denote as metaphysical. (PM23) And
at another place, concerning the terms 'force' and 'electricity'
and the alleged mystery of their natures, Hertz wrote: We have an
obscure feeling of this and want to have things cleared up."
The sub-title of this symposium is accurate and, in a curious way,
promises more than it states: Classical Physicist, Modem
Philosopher. Heinrich Hertz, as the con summate experimentalist of
19th century technique and as brilliant clarifying critic of
physical theory of his time, achieved one of the fulfilments but at
the same time opened one of the transition points of classical
physics. Thus, in his 'popular' lecture 'On the Relations Between
Light and Electricity' at Heidelberg in the Fall of 1889, Hertz
identified the ether as henceforth the most fundamental problem of
physics, as the conceptual mystery but also the key to
understanding mass, electric ity, and gravity. Of Hertz's
demonstration of electric waves, Helmholtz told the Physical
Society of Berlin: "Gentlemen I have to communicate to you today
the most important physical discovery of the century. " Hertz,
philosophizing in his direct, lucid, pithy style, once wrote "We
have to imagine." Perhaps this is metaphysics on the horizon? In
the early pages of his Principles of Mechanics, we read A doubt
which makes an impression on our mind cannot be removed by calling
it metaphysical: every thoughtful mind as such has needs which
scientific men are accustomed to denote as metaphysical. (PM23) And
at another place, concerning the terms 'force' and 'electricity'
and the alleged mystery of their natures, Hertz wrote: We have an
obscure feeling of this and want to have things cleared up."
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