Nanotechnology & the Media: The Inside Story

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December 18 2007, 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Event Summary

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WASHINGTON, DC --Is media coverage of nanotechnology’s potential risks growing? If so, who or what is driving articles in national newspapers and newswires—environmental and consumer organizations, scientists, law makers, or industrial and financial groups? How do broadcast journalists decide to cover a nanotechnology story, especially one about possible risk-benefit tradeoffs? Do radio and television correspondents face special challenges reporting on a technology which most Americans do not know about and which is on a scale invisible to the human eye?

The Wilson Center’s Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies explored these and other questions at a program featuring National Public Radio science and technology reporter Nell Greenfieldboyce, and Lehigh University professor Sharon M. Friedman.

Ms. Greenfieldboyce, who is heard regularly on Morning Edition and All Things Considered, offered insights about covering nanotechnology—from government oversight to nano-cosmetics. Professor Friedman presented her latest results from tracking seven years of newspaper and wire service reporting of nanotechnology risks in the United States and United Kingdom, research she does in collaboration with Brenda P. Egolf of Lehigh University.

Participants:

• Nell Greenfieldboyce, Science & Technology Reporter, National Public Radio

• Sharon M. Friedman, Ph.D., Professor and Director of the Science and Environmental Writing Program and Associate Dean, Lehigh University


• Julia Moore, Deputy Director, Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, Moderator

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Nanotechnology is the ability to measure, see, manipulate and manufacture things usually between 1 and 100 nanometers (nm). A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. A human hair is roughly 100,000 nanometers wide. The limit of the human eye’s capacity to see without a microscope is about 10,000 nm.

The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies is an initiative launched by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and The Pew Charitable Trusts in 2005. It is dedicated to helping business, government and the public anticipate and manage possible health and environmental implications of nanotechnology.

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