wolbring

Posts Tagged ‘Uncategorized’

Summer Schools on Ethics of nanotechnology and one on ethics of converging technologies.

In Uncategorized on May 15, 2008 at 1:48 pm

I should say that I am part of the Converging technology meeting in Sept as a faculty

The European Commission currently tries to stimulate responsible development of nanotechnology by recommending a Code of Conduct to EU member states. This Code is actually a form of “soft law”, governing nanotechnology research. Evaluators of EU project proposals are asked to use this code in their selection process. Ambitious and prudent researchers in natural as well as social sciences may want to learn more about nanoethics in general and this code in particular, and discuss the practical consequences.

The EthicSchool on Ethics of Nanotechnology offers a good opportunity for this. It is held 24-29 August 2008 at the University of Twente. Prof. Dr Arie Rip of the University of Twente and Prof. Dr. Jean-Pierre Wils of Radboud University in Nijmegen are co-presidents of the EthicSchool.

The EthicSchool on Ethics of Converging Technologies is held 21-26 September 2008 at the Dormotel Vogelsberg in Alsfeld /Omrod in Germany. Prof. Dr. Alfred Nordmann of the TU Darmstadt and an international group of renowned scholars will lead discussions at the forefront of the scientific debate on current trends in the converging sciences and technologies (nano, bio, info, cogno) and the philosophical, societal and policy implications.

PhD students, postdocs and others with a genuine interest are welcome to join the EU funded EthicSchool Summerschools. There are still a number of places left for both EthicSchools. If you are interested in presenting a paper, the deadline for submitting abstracts has been extended until 1 June 2008. Find out more and register online at http://www.ethicschool.eu

or contact Ineke Malsch: postbus@malsch.demon.nl

Call for Papers Human Security, Social Cohesion and Disability

In Uncategorized on February 17, 2008 at 12:08 am

May be of interest to some. Feel free to distribute as you see fit.

Call for Papers – Review of Disability Studies: An International Journal (www.rds.hawaii.edu)

Human Security, Social Cohesion and Disability

Guest Editors: Gregor Wolbring, Program in Community Rehabilitation and Disability Studies, Dept of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary;

Anita Ghai, Department of Psychology Jesus and Mary College, New Delhi;

Kirk Allison, Program in Human Rights and Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota;

Human security and social cohesion are two central requisites for the medical and social well being of disabled people. Science and technology (S&T) advances often seen as essential for disabled people also impact on human security and on social cohesion. Human security according to the Commission on Human Security is concerned with safeguarding and expanding people’s vital freedoms. It requires both shielding people from acute threats and empowering people to take charge of their own lives. The Commission identified economic security, food security, health security, environmental security, personal security, community security, political security, freedom from fear, and freedom from want as primary concerns.

Social cohesion in very general terms means: All that which brings people together (European New Towns Platform). In Canada the following description is in use: “Social cohesion is the ongoing process of developing a community of shared values, shared challenges and equal opportunity within Canada, based on a sense of trust, hope and reciprocity among all Canadians.” (Jeannotte and Sharon, 2001). This has also been articulated complementarily in terms of social capital which has been defined among others as “features of social organization such as networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit” (Putnam 1995).

More about the concepts can be found in the below references:

· Gregor Wolbring (2006). Human Security and NBICS http://www.innovationwatch.com/choiceisyours/choiceisyours.2006.12.30.htm

· Gregor Wolbring (2007). NBICS and Social Cohesion http://www.innovationwatch.com/choiceisyours/choiceisyours-2007-01-15.htm

· Caroline Beauvais and Jane Jenson.(2002) Social Cohesion: Updating the State of Research. Canadian Policy, Research Networks, Canadian Heritage, Ottawa. http://www.cprn.com/doc.cfm?doc=167&l=en

· European New Towns Platform. (2005). “The Top 8 Specific Challenges for Social Cohesion in New Towns.” http://www.newtowns.net/themes

· Definitions of Social Capital http://www.analytictech.com/networks/definitions_of_social_capital.htm

· Social Captial Initiative, Working Paper 1, 1998, http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTSOCIALDEVELOPMENT/EXTTSOCIALCAPITAL/0,,contentMDK:20194767~menuPK:418848~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:401015,00.html

We are honored that the theme for an issue of The Review of Disability Studies: An International Journal will be human security, social cohesion and disability. This topic is chosen because the discourse around human security and social cohesion is of central importance for disability studies and for the well-being of persons with disabilities. At the same time discourses in disability studies can crucially clarify and test the discourses of human security and social cohesion.

Thus, we urge potential contributors, regardless of their fields of training, to articulate their ideas about human security, social cohesion and disability. We especially encourage contributors to envision:

· Future threats to human security and social cohesion including threats linked to new and emerging sciences and technologies processes and products and their impact on disabled people.

· How disability studies discourses have generated tools and will continue to generate tools which can be used to minimize future threats to social cohesion and human security.

· Other possible prevention strategies and fixes to possible future threat to human security and social cohesion.

We encourage the submission of empirical case studies and theoretical models and we especially encourage contributions which cover the topic from a low income country background.

Potential contributors to this Special Issue might consider:

1. What is the “disability,” the discrimination angle of human security and social cohesion?
2. What is the body image angle of human security and social cohesion?
3. What is the importance of the disability studies angle on human security and social cohesion for other marginalized groups, for the marginalized majority of the world?
4. What are potential future threats to human security and social cohesion and what would the impact be on disabled people?
5. What are the cultural angles of human security and social cohesion?
6. What is the role and potential of law?
7. What empirical evidence and theoretical models illuminate the processes and effects?
8. What is the impact of emerging social concepts such as transhumanism, which is?
9. What is the impact of new and emerging sciences and technologies?
10. What role does or could disability studies be playing in the interaction between new and emerging sciences and technologies and human security and social cohesion?
11. How do or do not the human security and social cohesion discourses serve the needs of disabled people?
12. What are the connections between human security and violent conflict?
13. What are the relationships between development and poverty reduction, human security, and the prevention of violent conflict?
14. What is the impact of natural disasters on those with disabilities in terms of security and cohesion
15. How can social capital be discussed in context of disabled people, human security and social cohesion?

Send via email 250-word abstracts, by March 31st, 2008 to Guest Editors Gregor Wolbring gwolbrin@ucalgary.ca ; Anita Ghai anita.satyapal@gmail.com and Kirk Allison alli0001@umn.edu. Please be sure to send abstracts to all editors. For those abstracts that are selected, we will request completed articles of approximately 3000-5000 words two months after the note of invitation to submit a full article was sent. Note that an invitation to submit an article based on an abstract does not guarantee publication of that article in The Review of Disability Studies.

For more information about The Review of Disability Studies, please go to http://www.rds.hawaii.edu

U.K.’s Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) – Smart materials and systems

In Uncategorized on February 9, 2008 at 10:45 pm

more here

“Bionic” Contact Lens May Create Tiny Personal Displays

In Uncategorized on February 5, 2008 at 3:46 am

A new contact lens embedded with electronic circuits could be the seed for “bionic eyes” that can see displays overlaid on a person’s field of view, researchers say.

more here

Wide Varieties of Cationic Nanoparticles Induce Defects in Supported Lipid Bilayers

In Uncategorized on January 26, 2008 at 11:12 pm

Wide Varieties of Cationic Nanoparticles Induce Defects in Supported Lipid Bilayers

Pascale R. Leroueil, Stephanie A. Berry, Kristen Duthie, Gang Han, Vincent M. Rotello, Daniel Q. McNerny, James R. Baker, Jr., Bradford G. Orr, and Mark M. Banaszak Holl*
Nano Lett., ASAP Article 10.1021/nl0722929 S1530-6984(07)02292-8
Web Release Date: January 25, 2008
more here

US National Cancer Institute meeting on Nanotechnology tools for Cell Biology

In Uncategorized on November 22, 2007 at 11:54 pm

Saturday, December, 1 pm- 5:30 pm
Location: Washington Convention Center, Room 203

This session will showcase the nanotechnology tools enabling novel biological studies which provide means to investigate, monitor, and alter multiple systems and pathways relevant to the cancer process and to identify key biochemical and genetic effectors which might be best directed using novel molecular therapies.

Speakers include:

* Jerry Lee (Chair), National Cancer Institute, NIH
* Piotr Grodzinski, National Cancer Institute, NIH
* Milan Mrksich, University of Chicago
* David Sept, Washington University in St. Louis
* Zong Ling (ZL) Wang, Georgia Tech
* Muhammad Yousaf, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
* Raoul Kopelman, University of Michigan
* Leland WK Chung, Emory School of Medicine
* Douglas Hanahan, University of California, San Francisco

We hope you will be able to join us.

The NCI Alliance for Nanotechnolgy in Cancer

Lieberman-Warner Bill Includes Climate and Conflict Provisions

In Uncategorized on November 3, 2007 at 11:09 pm

On the first of November, Senators Lieberman and Warner teamed up to move the America’s Climate Security Act (S. 2191) to the full Committee on Environment and Public Works. The act would go beyond recent legislation mandating that the intelligence community assess climate-security linkages and would create more formal institutional structures and resources for addressing climate-conflict connections.
morehere

NIO Unveils Top 10 Neuroscience Trends of 2007

In Uncategorized on November 3, 2007 at 10:51 pm

more here

$10M for New MacArthur Law and Neuroscience Project

In Uncategorized on October 30, 2007 at 1:58 am

morehere

Microsoft enters EEG based brain machine interface

In Uncategorized on October 17, 2007 at 12:27 am

more here

Preferences for Psychological Enhancements: The Reluctance to Enhance Fundamental Traits

In Uncategorized on September 30, 2007 at 7:52 pm

Preferences for Psychological Enhancements: The Reluctance to Enhance Fundamental Traits
morehere
JASON RIIS
New York University – Stern School of Business
JOSEPH P. SIMMONS
Yale School of Management
GEOFFREY P. GOODWIN
Princeton University – Department of Psychology August 30, 2007

Abstract:
Four studies examined young healthy individuals’ willingness to take drugs intended to enhance various social, emotional, and cognitive abilities. We found that people were much more reluctant to enhance traits believed to be highly fundamental to the self (e.g., social comfort) than traits considered less fundamental (e.g., concentration ability). Moral acceptability of a trait enhancement strongly predicted people’s desire to legalize those enhancements, but not their willingness to take those enhancements. Ad taglines that framed enhancements as enabling rather than enhancing the fundamental self increased people’s interest in a fundamental enhancement, and eliminated the preference for non-fundamental over fundamental enhancements.

15 Surprising Ways RFID Will Affect Your Life in 2007

In Uncategorized on September 20, 2007 at 1:35 am

morehere

Risk Network Newsletter

In Uncategorized on September 7, 2007 at 3:24 am

The Risk Newsletter provides information and links to news items with relevance to risk and benefit in science, health and everyday issues. more here

Xerox to Fund Green, Nano, Imaging Fellowships at MIT School of Engineering

In Uncategorized on August 10, 2007 at 7:23 pm

more here

2007 State of the Future

In Uncategorized on July 30, 2007 at 1:23 pm

more here

A Blue Sky Vision for the Future of Neuroscience

In Uncategorized on July 17, 2007 at 3:41 am

USA deadline August 31, 2007

European Research Key figures of science, technology and innovation

In Uncategorized on June 19, 2007 at 12:48 pm

Highlights of the Key Figures include discussion of the following topics:

* The diminishing weight of Europe in the multi-polar world of science and technology, and its implications for research strategies
* Transition towards knowledge-intensive economies: the need to intensify the pace of Lisbon-driven reforms
* The nature and dynamics of the EU’s industrial structure is the reason for the R&D investment deficit with the US
* The important role of the public sector
* Less opportunities for high-tech venture capital
* Research excellence: the EU remains second behind the US, but excels in traditional domains
* Scientific output is more dispersed across scientific disciplines in the EU than in the US
* Knowledge flows from science to technology are weaker in the EU
* Weaker high-tech performance in the EU
more at source

Virtual Immortality for Virtual Eternity

In Uncategorized on June 15, 2007 at 1:24 pm

…Now, the National Science Foundation has awarded a half-million-dollar grant to the universities of Central Florida at Orlando and Illinois at Chicago to explore how researchers might use artificial intelligence, archiving, and computer imaging to create convincing, digital versions of real people, a possible first step toward virtual immortality….
more at source

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) blue sky exercise

In Uncategorized on June 4, 2007 at 3:01 pm

The NINDS seeks input on the following questions from academic and industrial neuroscience researchers, clinicians, patient groups, and any other members of the public with significant interest in the future of neuroscience. Graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and clinical fellows, who represent the future of neuroscience research, are especially encouraged to respond. To participate: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/about_ninds/plans/strategic_plan/blue_sky_vision.htm. The deadline for responding is: August 31, 2007.

________________________________________________

Joseph J. Pancrazio, PhD

Program Director, Repair & Plasticity

National Institutes of Health, NINDS

6001 Executive Blvd, NSC 2205

Rockville, MD 20852

tel: 301-496-1447

fax: 301-480-1080

e-mail: pancrazj@ninds.nih.gov

Towards neuro-memory-chip: Imprinting multiple memories in cultured neural networks

In Uncategorized on June 2, 2007 at 1:26 am

see PDF of source