In the Peace Week, six leaders make statements on nanotechnology, peace and development cooperation in the framework of the Dutch public dialogue on nanotechnology. Their film portraits, five minutes each, have just been published in Dutch and English on Vimeo.
Major General (ret) Kees Homan (Institute Clingendael) warns that nanotechnology may contribute to autonomous military robots that could start killing people on future battlefields. Ineke Malsch (Malsch TechnoValuation) pleads for dialogue between researchers, defence circles and the peace movement on these and other military applications of nanotechnology. Both will participate in the conference on nanotechnology, peace and security, on Friday 24 September 2010 in The Hague, The Netherlands.
In the week of the United Nations international poverty summit, Prof. Dr Wim Sinke (ECN Solar Energy and Utrecht University) and Dr Bas Hofs (KWR Water Cycle Research Institute) see opportunites in nanotechnology for poor people in developing countries, through applications in cheap solar cells and water purification.
Prof. Dr Vinod Subramaniam (University of Twente) is confident that researchers in developing countries are very capable of developing new products and systems as solutions for tropical diseases and other problems typical for their own society. International research cooperation between Dutch researchers and their peers in developing countries and emerging economies may play a role in this. Ms. Nupur Chowdhury (University of Twente) pleads for stronger international regulations for nanotechnology and thinks civil society may contribute positively to these.
The six film portraits are part of the project Nanorecht en Vrede (Nano Rights and Peace), supported by Nanopodium. The results of the project will be reported to the Committee Societal Dialogue Nanotechnology. This committee will report to the Dutch government about the outcomes of the dialogue by end of 2010.
What is nanotechnology?
Nanotechnology is a container term for new materials and devices with functional structures at a scale of nanometres. One nanometre is a thousandth of a micrometre, or a millionth of a millimetre, or a billionth of a metre. Now or in the future, nanotechnology may be applied in almost any imaginable product or system, including military or civil security applications, and in developing countries. See also Nanoforum.
Note for the media
These films are available for use by the media, providing this includes the credit note that production was supported by Nanopodium and after informing the project leader of Nanorecht en Vrede (Ineke Malsch) about the publication:
Please contact the producer for versions in other formats: www.losimagos.nl