Welcome to the 2020 Science Archive
2020 Science started life in 2007 as a nanotechnology blog written by Andrew Maynard on SafeNano. In the following years it developed into a personal blog addressing emerging technologies, responsible innovation, risk, science communication, and the intersection between science and society more generally.
Andrew made he decision to wind the blog down in 2019 as his focus and writing developed in new directions. This archive contains most of the original posts (there have been occasional clean-ups of content). For more recent articles etc. please visit andrewmaynard.net. And thanks for visiting!
BROWSE THE ARCHIVE
Emerging technologies and sustainability: What’s risk got to do with it?
Question: What do you get if you place some of the leading thinkers and practitioners in the fields of technology innovation, risk and sustainability in the same room for two days? Answer: one whopping headache! Not because of the confusion and cacophony, but because...
Contagion, plausible reality and public health: In conversation with Larry Brilliant
Blockbuster movies aren't usually noted for their scientific accuracy and education potential. But since its release last week, Steven Soderburgh's Contagion seems to be challenging the assumption that Hollywood can't do science. The other day I posted a piece about...
Cool science: The Charlie McDonnell Effect
There's been quite a bit of chatter about the "Brian Cox Effect" in the UK recently, as interest in science seems to be on the rise. But I haven't heard anyone talking about the "Charlie McDonnell Effect". Maybe it's because Charlie appeals more to a growing movement...
Define nanomaterials for regulatory purposes? EU JRC says yes.
Cross-posted from The Risk Science Blog: In a recent letter to the journal Nature (Nature 476; 399), Hermann Stamm of the European Commission Joint Research Centre Institute for Health and Consumer Protection (JRC-IHCP) defended the need to define engineered...
The public and peer review literature: Pearls before swine?
This morning I sat down with my 14 year old son and asked him what area of science caught his interest especially. He answered "the future of space exploration". We carried out a search on the Web of Science for "future + space + exploration", and the fifth article...
“Social Media makes us more”
Following on from my post a couple of days ago on teens and social media, I wanted to post this highly eloquent response to some of Susan Greenfield's remarks about social media and society. It's from Francisco of the YouTube collab channel Fellowship of the Ning,...
Social Media messed-up teens reveal all
Is social media messing up today's teens? Adults, it seems, love to pontificate on the benefits and ills of emerging internet-based communication platforms on young people. But how often do they bother to listen to the teenagers they claim to be concerned about?...
Is the UK facing a second generation brain drain?
In 2000, I moved to the US with my wife and two children to take up a research job here - becoming part of the migration of science, technology and engineering expertise out of the UK. Eleven years on, my kids want to go back to the UK to university. But the costs...
Want to know about teens and social media from the horses mouth? Watch this space
If you are a teen who uses YouTube (or know of one - maybe even your own teenager), please think seriously about posting a response to this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC2UaAkkG_A (You can also watch it directly on YouTube here). Over on the Risk Science...
What was worrying us about nanotechnology safety seven years ago?
In 2004, the first International Symposium on Occupational Health Implications of Nanomaterials was held in Buxton in the UK. Seven years later, I'm preparing for a discussion panel at the fifth meeting in this very successful community-led series (being held this...