Apr 7 2009
NanoBioNet e. V. and cc-NanoChem e. V. host the international conference "SIZE MATTERS 2009. Facing the ethical challenges of nanotechnology". The conference will take place in the castle of Saarbrücken, Germany, 17-18 June 2009.
Nanotechnology is penetrating many areas of our daily lives at incredible speed, opening up new horizons of expectation and hope. At the same time, it is raising questions which affect our individual self-conception and that of our society. Will nanotechnology change our future: coexistence, the work and consumer environment, social security systems? And to what extent are we prepared to accept such change?
Ethical questions are at the centre of four topic modules
- Naturalness - How is nanotechnology changing human existence?
- Reality and vision - Nano between fact and fiction?
- Integrity issues - High tech for everybody?
- Regulatory requirements - At what point should the state become involved in technological development?
Prominent experts will be discussing these issues from the perspective of the natural sciences, medicine, philosophy and theology and law.
- Opening talks Dr. Christian Ege, secretary of state of the ministry of economics and science of the Saarland, Jochen Flackus, NanoBioNet chairman
- Naturalness issues: Dr. Donald Bruce, managing director Edinethics Ltd., UK, Prof. Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D., Uni-versity of Connecticut, School of Medicine, USA
- Reality and vision: Christine Peterson, Vice president Fore-sight Institute, Palo Alto, USA, Prof. Dr. Dieter Sturma, chair of philosophy at the University of Bonn, director of the Institute for science and ethics (IWE) Bonn, the German Reference Centre for ethics in the life sciences and of the Institute of science and ethics in neuroscience (Forschungszentrum Jülich)
- Distributive justice issues: Prof. Dr. Dr. Dietmar von der Pford-ten, chair in philosophy of law and social philosophy, Georg-August University, Göttingen, Prof. Dr. Armin Grun-wald, Institute for Technology Assessment and System Analysis (ITAS), Karlsruhe
- Regulation needs: Dr. habil. Dr. Tade Matthias Spranger, head of the Junior Research Group "Norm-Setting in the Modern Life Sciences" at the Institute for science and eth-ics, Bonn, Walter J. Schulz-Schaeffer, M.D., Prion and De-mentia Research Unit, Georg-August University, Göttingen, Prof. Dr. Alfred Nordmann, Institute for Philosophy, Technical University Darmstadt, Office for Interdisciplinary NanoTechnology Studies