Dangerous Technology Research Articles

The Dao of human cloning: utopian/dystopian hype in the British press and popular films

The issue of human cloning has featured in the national science policy agendas in both the United States and the United Kingdom since the announcement in 1997 of Dolly the cloned sheep's birth in Scotland. Such news stories suggesting the imminent cloning of humans have inspired fictional entertainment media over the years, including numerous popular films. Study 1 examines elite British press coverage of human cloning from 1997 to 2004 (n = 857). Study 2 focuses on five human cloning films released between 1978 and 2003. Two sharply divergent discourses emerged from these data. Unqualified hope and habitually hyped claims of future cures permeated the press discourse. In contrast, the films constructed human cloning as an inherently dangerous technology often wielded by hubristic scientists in the tradition of Frankenstein. Both the predominately positive hype in the broadsheet press and the largely negative hype in the films indicate an impoverished and "thin" public debate on the issue of human cloning.

Defects in GaN single crystals and homoepitaxial structures

In this communication crystallographic and chemical inhomogeneities occurring in GaN single crystals, homo-epitaxial layers and quasi-bulk thick epitaxial layers are described. Practical classification of defects as (i) growth-related and (ii) processing-induced is given. On the basis of numerous studies using different examination techniques (DIC and DF optical microscopy, SEM) and methods of revealing (defect-selective etching, PEC etching, X-ray diffraction and TEM), the most dangerous technology steps for the formation of defects are described and the types of defects, which might be critical for performance/operation of the GaN-based opto-electronic devices are indicated. It is shown, that the routine use of a simple defect-selective etching method during the subsequent stages of the technology of GaN homo-epitaxial lasers is helpful in achieving time-effective device processing.

MORALIZING VIOLENCE: Debating the acceptability of electrical weapons

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes And at a practical level, of course, trying to document and prove violations to rules with novel and potentially dangerous technology—in effect to police the police—is a mission that would tax the abilities of any organization. Subsequently, this deception of experience provided a credible basis for me to be approached as an expert commentator on subsequent British policy developments (BBC, 2003; Walker, 2003). Moreover, as told, the telling of my taster exposure relied on constructivist presumptions to give it meaning. The distinction has been taken up elsewhere as justification for mobilizing against electrical weapons (Martin and Wright, 2003 Martin, B and Wright, S. (2003). ‘Countershock: mobilizing resistance to electroshock weapons’. Medicine, Conflict & Survival, 19: 205–222. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]). Additional informationNotes on contributorsBrian Rappert Address correspondence to: Brian Rappert, Department of Sociology, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QJ, UK, E‐mail: B.Rappert@ex.ac.uk Address correspondence to: Brian Rappert, Department of Sociology, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QJ, UK, E‐mail: B.Rappert@ex.ac.uk

Adventures in the origin of modern operative laparoscopy

ABSTRACTObjective Development of instruments and methods for surgery through small incisions, which allowed indigent patients to leave hospital early, in Port of Spain, Trinidad.Methods At the State University of New York at Buffalo, these methods and instruments were combined with laparoscopy to open this era of modern operative laparoscopy.Interventions Frenzy of marketing for the highest profit margin; useless and dangerous technology; ravishing of patents; surgeon adventurers for fame and fortune; clip, cut and burn surgery; complications, and laparoscopic surgery at the point of disrepute.Results Regulation; criteria; cost‐effectiveness; suturing and tying; training; fewer complications; application to most organs and cavities of the body, and acceptance of minimal access surgery.

Taking technology to the molecular level

Fifty years ago (1950), nanotechnology could only merit serious consideration in dreams and science fiction. The author now believes nanotechnology's existence to be a certainty. The only question now is when. The application areas for a mature nanotechnology industry are astounding. The author predicts nanotechnology will virtually eliminate pollution from the earth's air and water, as well as produce clean manufacturing processes for the future. Also, she foresees the creation of a space elevator stretching from Earth's surface to a geosynchronous orbit along which cargo and people could move, built with an extremely hard material called carbon nanotubes. And she predicts extremely small machines that destroy viruses, remove arterial plaque, and get rid of cancer cells. The author explains the research activities, some in the form of industry startups taking place across a variety of disciplines: chemistry, physics, mechanical engineering, materials science, molecular biology, and computer science. She also explains some of the issues surrounding this extremely powerful and potentially dangerous technology.

Dealing with the Bomb in South Asia

Last May Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee authorized a series of nuclear tests beneath the desert sands of Rajasthan. While the aftershocks were still registering on seismographs around the world, he proclaimed India a nuclear-weapons state. Fifteen days later, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, claiming he had no choice but to match an adversarial neighbor, ordered Pakistan's own series of tests in the Chagai Hills of Baluchistan and declared that his country, too, had nuclear arms. The tests spurred immediate global condemnation. In all, 152 nations?large and small, developed and developing?voiced their opposition. So did numerous international organizations, including the G-8 major industrialized democracies, the Regional Forum of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Organ ization of American States, the Nordic Council of Ministers, and the Organization of the Islamic Conference. They all saw the tests as a double setback: for peace in South Asia and for interna tional efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and control dangerous technology. The consequences for American policy toward South Asia were also severe. The explosions derailed an initiative by the United States to put its relations with both India and Pakistan on sounder

Can human genetic enhancement be prohibited?

This article seeks to reframe the ethical discussion of genetic enhancement, which is the use of genetic engineering to supply a characteristic that a parent might want in a child that does not involve the treatment or prevention of disease. I consider whether it is likely that enhancement can be successfully prohibited. If genetic enhancement is feasible, it is likely that there will be demand for it because parents compete to produce able children and nations compete to accumulate human capital in skilled workers. If some parents or nations begin using genetic enhancement, this will change these competitions in ways that increase the incentives for others to use it. Therefore, a ban on genetic enhancement would be unstable, because once the ban was breached by defectors the motivation of others to uphold it would weaken, making the ban liable to collapse. The argument provides a new perspective on slippery slopes to dangerous technology.

Sexual dynamics of the profession: Articulating theecriture masculineof science and technology

In critiquing the sexually loaded metaphors in James Paradis' analysis of the problem of expert knowledge in technical operator's manuals, this essay demonstrates how professional discourse formally embodies images of violence and domination that may also interfere with the responsible control of a dangerous technology. Describing the relationship between logos and ethos in professional discourse, this essay demonstrates how a feminist perspective can help technical communicators understand the pragmatic consequences of unarticulated sexual codes in scientific and technical discourse.

Recovery and development of the intellectual potential in regions with a dangerous technology — The main problem facing technical institutes of higher learning

This article states that an intellectual crisis exists in the former Soviet Union due to declining educational levels. The seriousness of the crisis is claimed to be such that the safety of technology is threatened. It is proposed that institutions of higher learning work to develop the motivation for obtaining education. Several education programs in Russia addressing these problems are briefly described.

Managing dangerous technology

Nuclear powered energy is the most significant technological engine of the modern economy. But in the United States we have virtually stalled this engine by inadequate management of the danger posed by nuclear facilities. A circular process of misinformation and misunderstood fact feeds inaction. In part this is the result of the inability of scientists to agree on the potential dangers from radiation owing to meltdown of nuclear fuel in the reactor core. In part it stems from unwillingness to spend the funds necessary to determine, once and for all, what the actual physical results of a major accident would be. In part it stems from the multitude of overlapping agencies in the executive, legislative and regulatory arenas at the federal and state level. Recently, state regulatory commissions, especially the New York Public Service Commission, have begun to realize that their responsibility to approve expenditures of investor-owned utilities gives them significant powers over nuclear plants. This power of the purse must be managed carefully, because it is being exercised in an environment quite different from that in which most nuclear plants were begun. But it is an important aspect of the multifaceted control system we have in the United States; a system which by and large suits the vastness of the country, the many geological differences among nuclear plant sites, and the American concept of representative democracy. Although some long for more centralized control, our decentralized system, with some adjustments such as a permanent scientific advisory board, is most likely to increase our social-political ability to manage dangerous technologies.

The Transfer of Care: U.S. Mental Health Policy since World War II

Recent criticism of mental health policy has raised many questions about the so-called "mental health revolution." Following World War II, the federal government and the growing mental health lobby planned the first nationally oriented system of psychiatric treatment, rehabilitation, and prevention. The rapidly expanding National Institute of Mental Health coordinated that policy, particularly through its Community Mental Health Centers program. Custodial state hospitals were depopulated and their patients "dumped" in nursing and boarding homes, which now constitute the largest arena for and most expensive form of psychaitric care. While there has been some progress in decreasing the hospital population and in improving conditions, as well as in providing services to certain people who otherwise would never receive them, failures have been more dominant. Admission and readmission rates have climbed precipitously. Unplanned hospital discharge has led to hundreds of thousands of ex-patients living in dangerous, nontherapeutic nursing homes were the main concern is profit. They, and many others, are maintained on psychiatric drugs, another source of profit as well as a dangerous technology. Community mental health programs have maintained psychiatry's traditional class, race, and sex biases, and have incurred widespread intrusion into communities. This article shows that such problems are part of an interconnected system in which the driving forces are fiscal crisis, ideological justifications for dumping patients, attempts to pass responsibility from state governments to federal and local bodies, restrictions on government and insurance reimbursements, the free enterprise economics of the nursing home and drug industries, and the professionalist practices of the mental health field.

“…this dangerous technology.”

“…this dangerous technology.”