Tag Archives: Arie Rip

Special issue on nanotechnology and regulations from EJLT

The European Journal of Law and Technology (EJLT) is featuring 15 articles on the theme of nanotechnology and regulations in a special issue. From the Dec. 12, 2011 news item on Nanowerk,

The issue contains 15 contributions that canvass some of the most pressing philosophical, ethical and regulatory questions currently being debated around the world in relation to nanotechnologies and more specifically nanomaterials.

The EJLT is an open access journal so you can view these articles or any others that may interest you. Here’s the Table of Contents for the special issue,

Table of Contents

Editorial

Editorial
Philip Leith, Abdul Paliwala

Introduction to the Special Issue

Why the elephant in the room appears to be more than a nano-sized challenge
Joel D’Silva, Diana Meagan Bowman

Nano Technology Special Edition

Decision Ethics and Emergent Technologies: The Case of Nanotechnology
David Berube
Justice or Beneficence: What Regulatory Virtue for Nano-Governance?
Hailemichael Teshome Demissie
Regulating Nanoparticles: the Problem of Uncertainty
Roger Strand, Kamilla Lein Kjølberg
Complexities of labelling of nanoproducts on the consumer markets
Harald Throne-Holst, Arie Rip
Soft regulation and responsible nanotechnological development in the European Union: Regulating occupational health and safety in the Netherlands
Bärbel Dorbeck-Jung
Nanomaterials and the European Water Framework Directive
Steffen Foss Hansen, Anders Baun, Catherine Ganzleben
The Proposed Ban on Certain Nanomaterials for Electrical and Electronic Equipment in Europe and Its Global Security Implications: A Search for an Alternative Regulatory Approach
Hitoshi Nasu, Thomas Faunce
The Regulation of Nano-particles under the European Biocidal Products Directive: Challenges for Effective Civil Society Participation
Michael T Reinsborough, Gavin Sullivan
Value chains as a linking-pin framework for exploring governance and innovation in nano-involved sectors: illustrated for nanotechnologies and the food packaging sector
Douglas Robinson
Food and nano-food within the Chinese regulatory system: no need to have overregulation.Less physicality can produce more power.
Margherita Poto
Regulation and Governance of Nanotechnology in China: Regulatory Challenges and Effectiveness
Darryl Stuart Jarvis, Noah Richmond
How Resilient is India to Nanotechnology Risks? Examining Current Developments, Capacities and an Approach for Effective Risk Governance and Regulation
Shilpanjali Deshpande Sarma
Toward Safe and Sustainable Nanomaterials: Chemical Information Call-in to Manufacturers of Nanomaterials by California as a Case Study
William Ryan, Sho Takatori, Thomas Booze, Hai-Yong Kang
De minimis curat lex: New Zealand law and the challenge of the very small
Colin Gavaghan, Jennifer Moore

I notice that the last article was authored by the same people who produced a review of New Zealand’s nanotechnology regulatory framework in Sept. 2011. The Science Media Centre of New Zealand noted this in a Sept. 6, 2011 article about the review,

The “Review of the Adequacy of New Zealand’s Regulatory Systems to Manage the Possible Impacts of Manufactured Nanomaterials” by Colin Gavaghan (in Dunedin) and Jennifer Moore (in Wellington) lists three possible levels of regulatory gaps, but points to a lack of consensus on just what constitutes a “gap”.

The authors note where such nanomaterials are not covered by existing regulation, and where these regulations are triggered by the presence of the nanomaterials. They focus on first and second generation products and say that as nanomaterials evolve, more work will need to be done on regulation.

“Some reviews of this topic have suggested that subsequent generations of nanotechnologies are likely to present a much more significant challenge to existing regulatory structures,” the authors say.

The EJLT special issue looks like it has a pretty interesting range of articles representing nanotechnology and regulations in various jurisdictions. I’m thrilled to see a couple of articles on China, one on India, and, of course, the piece on New Zealand as I don’t often find material on those countries. Thank you EJLT!

Bridging the Nano Divide: developing, established, and emerging economies

International Cooperation Partner Countries (ICPC) is hosting a free online workshop, October 20, 2010 12.45-15.15 GMT. From the news item on Nanowerk,

The ICPC NanoNet project stimulates global networking in nanoscience and nanotechnology. This online workshop on Bridging the Nano Divide enables researchers from different disciplines interested in socio-economic and innovation aspects of nanotechnology to meet and find out about each other’s expertise, infrastructure and research interests. The invited speakers include Professor Mammo Muchie, expert in Innovation Studies based in South Africa, Professor Arie Rip, Dutch expert in Technology Assessment of Nanotechnology, and Professor Ishenkumba Kahwa, expert in Nanochemistry and Sustainable Development Issues for the CARICOM countries, based in Jamaica.

The prospective audience consists of researchers from Europe and International Cooperation Partner Countries to the EU (emerging economies and developing countries). Participation is free for registered users of the ICPC-NanoNet website (sign up free of charge).

Organizers will take the first 25 people to register for the workshop. You can contact organiser Ineke Malsch for more information postbus@malsch.demon.nl. (Malsch was last mentioned here in my Aug. 23, 2010 posting about nanotechnology and emerging and developing economies.)

Nano Science Cafe workshop starts and other NISE Net tidbits

I signed up for an online workshop on how to host and produce a Nano Science Café that the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network (NISE Net) holds. It started this Monday and so far we’ve been introducing ourselves (approximately 80 people are signed up) and people are sharing ideas about how to hold these events successfully.  Most of the participants are located in the US although there are two Canucks (me and someone from Ontario). Of course, not everyone has introduced themselves yet.

There’s a blog posting by Larry Bell about NISE Net’s increasing focus on nano’s societal implications,

Just about a year ago NISE Net launched an expanded collaboration with the Center for Nanotechnology in Society and you’ll hear more about upcoming activities in the months ahead. The conversation started when staff from seven science centers brought cart demos and stage presentations to the S.NET conference in Seattle on Labor Day weekend last year. S.NET is a new professional society for the study of nanoscience and emerging technologies in areas of the social sciences and humanities. I was a little naive and thought the participants were all social scientists, but learned that many were historians, political scientists, philosophers, and ethicists and really not social scientists.

I’m not entirely certain what to make of either NISE Net’s interest or S.NET (Society for the Study of Nanoscience and Emerging Technologies) since this first meeting seems to have be focused primarily on hands-on demos and public outreach initiatives. There will be a 2nd annual S.NET meeting in 2010 (from the conference info.),

Second Annual Conference of the Society for the Study of Nanoscience and Emerging Technologies

Darmstadt, Germany – Sept 29 to Oct 2, 2010

(Wednesday afternoon 2pm through Saturday afternoon 4pm)

The plenary speakers and program committee lists a few names I’ve come across,

This year’s plenary speakers are Armin Grunwald, Richard Jones [has written a book about nanotechnology titled Soft Machines and maintains a blog also titled Soft Machines], Andrew Light, Bernard Stiegler, and Jan Youtie.

Program Committee

Diana Bowman (Public Health and Law, University of Melbourne, Australia)

Julia Guivant (Sociology and Political Science, Santa Catarina, Brazil)

David Guston (Political Science/Center for Nanotechnology in Society, Arizona State University, USA) [guest blogged for Andrew Maynard at 2020 Science]

Barbara Herr Harthorn (Feminist Studies, Anthropology, Sociology/Center for Nanotechnology in Society,University of California Santa Barbara, USA)

Brice Laurent (Sociology, Mines ParisTech, France)

Colin Milburn (English, University of California Davis, USA)[has proposed a nanotechnology origins story which pre-dates Richard Feynman’s famous speech, There’s plenty of room at the bottom]

Cyrus Mody (History, Rice University, United USA)

Alfred Nordmann (Philosophy, nanoOffice, NanoCenter, Technische Universität Darmstadt and University of South Carolina – chair)

Ingrid Ott (Economics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany – co-chair)

Arie Rip (Philosophy of Science and Technology, University of Twente, Netherlands) [read a nano paper where he introduced me to blobology and this metaphor for nanotechnology ‘furniture of the world’]

Ursula Weisenfeld (Business Administration, Leuphana Universität, Lüneburg, Germany)

This looks promising and I wish the good luck with the conference.

As far conferences go, there’s another one for the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) in Hawaii, Oct 3 – 5, 2010, which will feature some NISE Net sessions and workshops . You can check out the ASTC conference details here.

Here’s the monthly NISE Net nano haiku,

Vocabulary
Kit kit kit kit kit kit kit
There are no nodes now.

by Anders Liljeholm of the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Those of you who may not remember that our regional hubs used to be call nodes (or those looking to brush up on their NISE Net vocabulary in general) can check out the NISE Net Glossary in the nisenet.org catalog.