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Ethics and the New Engineer: Teaching, Research and Practice
About the Seminar: Reports from the National Academy of Engineering have visualized The Engineer of 2020 (2004) and delineated Grand Challenges for Engineering (2008). Attributes of the Engineer of 2020 include: “the need to … possess a working framework upon… -
Factory Meat and Designer Food: Soon at a Store Near You?
Brad Allenby Policy makers must grapple with the social implications and governance issues surrounding emerging technologies. The August 5, 2013 introduction of the first factory hamburger, made from stem cells in a production facility, followed by its ceremonial consumption, is… -
Africans Dial Up Innovation: A New Paradigm for Development in the Sub-Saharan
The people of the Sub-Saharan region are participating in an historic shift in the ways they relate to science and technology. From Accra to Nairobi, from Lusaka to Bamako — Africans have gone from concentrating almost wholly on absorbing new… -
Do Renewable Energy Innovations Mean a Death Spiral for Electric Utilities?
Renewable energy options, led by rooftop solar, have recently transitioned from a luxury good available to few customers to increasingly cost-effective and mainstream sources of electric supply within the reach of many. Technological, policy and business innovations, together with favorable… -
Technology and Development in a Conflict Zone: War as a Prioritizing Tool
What we now refer to as “development” really began in a systematic way after World War II. The victors had a variety of pressures to address, the most fearsome being the threat of yet another emerging conflict involving new applications… -
A Brave New (online) World
We live in an age where new technologies hit the marketplace at a rate that far outpaces society’s ability to engage in meaningful political debates about their ethical, legal, and political implications. Synthetic biology, nanotechnology and Big Data are only… -
Time to reassess the promise of nanotechnology? An analysis of research, developments and commercialization
Investment in Nanotechnology research is based on the promise of a transition to active nanotechnology, nanostructures, and nanodevices – everything from self-healing materials to molecular machines. But is such a transition really underway, and if so, then where and at…