Reactions to Nanotechnology

University South Carolina Research Foundation, Columbia SC

Investigators

Abstract

Reactions to Nanotechnology: Abstract Recent surveys indicate that religious beliefs will be very influential in shaping lay public reactions to nanotechnology in the U.S.; in fact religious beliefs will be more influential than scientific knowledge about nanotechnology. Unfortunately, there is very little information currently available about religious reactions to nanotechnology. This project will convene a series of Dialogue Seminars on nanotechnology at a group of local faith communities. In these seminars, members of the faith communities will receive information about nanotech, and then will react to that information within religious settings. Interviews and surveys will capture these religious reactions to nanotechnology so that this form of lay public thinking about science and technology can be better compared with other work on public understandings.