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Nanotechnology and Society An undergraduate course on nanotechnology and its societal implications. |
Science and Technology Studies 201, Section 84405, Spring 2005, University of Wisconsin-Madison. |
This 3-credit course was designed and taught by Charles Tahan in the spring semester of 2005, the first year it was offered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It was co-developed with members of the Wisconsin Nanotechnology and Society Initiative. |
Readings and ResourcesCourse Reader, Texts, Reports on Nano, Links/Web sitesCourse ReaderAn incomplete compilation of the readings in this course, with particular attention to the "society" half of the course. Also includes some of the better (longest shelf time) introduction-to-nanotechnology articles. I purposely have not included many nanotech articles here simply cause they are usually not worth the paper needed to print them out on and are usually fast-outdated. We will find them online as needed. Due to copyright issues I can only include the Table of Contents online.
TextsBecause nanotechnology is so broad, ill-defined and so rapidly progressing, finding quality introductory yet non-technical texts is really difficult. Most are quite bad but have a good nugget here or there. Many are already outdated. The serious texts are many, very specific, and much too technical for this course. This is one of the reasons we are making our own. On the other hand, there are some good Society texts I will point out.
The intersection of science, technology, and society has been an active area of interest for some time. We will pick and choose for the course reader some of the more timeless (or better) articles. Some of these can be found in the following books and texts. These are generally entry-level pieces and are accessible to scientists and non-experts in the field. These were recommended and are a major contribution of the society-side people collaborating to create this class. These include Langdon Winner's The Whale and the Reactor (essays on technology and society), The Golem at Large (Technology) and The Golem (Science) by Collins and Pinch (gentle case studies on technological and scientific events or systems); the handbooks of article collections The Social Shaping of Technology and the Handbook of Science and Technology Studies; and for the revolutions part of the course, Cross and Szostak's excellent (in my opinion) Technology and American Society: A History and Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
Some of the texts we will draw from for the "thinking about the future" portion of the course are below. They are all interesting reads.
Some of the early you-heard-of-nanotech-now-buy-this-book-and-try-to-make-money-off-it books are listed below. These include decent, baby introductions to the forces and science behind nanotech and its future and also link nanotech/society with business interests. They usually are quickly out of date however.
Some of the better sources for introductory nanotech information are due to corporations and think tanks. Here are some we used in class. I find these much more useful for the "1 nm is" type discussions than the various mediocre nanotech books out there. Sometimes they also list nanotech companies that mey be hard to find otherwise.
The best place to stay up-to-date on or research advances in nanotechnology is directly from the source, the premier science and technology journals. Often, they have focus or perspectives articles which are written for a non-expert audience. The popular science sites are also good places to check out daily for the latest news. The better search engines for research. |
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