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
Basic research and personal responsibility
Dan Sarewitz has a rather provocative commentary in Nature this morning, where he suggests that proposals to increase basic research may be good politics, but questionable policy. The headline alone is probably enough to get some science-advocates' blood boiling,...
International Handbook on Regulating Nanotechnologies – sneak peak of contents
Back in the mists of time, I was approached with a crazy proposition - would I help co-edit a book on nanotechnologies regulation! In a moment of weakness I said yes, and a little more than two and a half years later, the book is finally about to hit the shelves. I...
Nanotechnology prominent in percieved 21st century science & engineering advancements
This image from the first US National Science and Engineering Festival attracted my attention this morning: It's a wordle constructed from responses to the question "What will be the greatest discoveries and advancements science and engineering will bring us in the...
Spiders, silk and a transgenic goat – the complex art of science communication
Last week while at the NISE Net network-wide meeting, I was fortunate enough to see a preview of part of NOVA's forthcoming series Making Stuff. The series focuses on the wonders of modern materials science. But rather than coming away enthralled by the ingenuity of...
What happens when you cross a spider with a goat? Complete the story:
Complete the following: Setting: A well known and sometimes off-beat technology commentator explores new breakthroughs on a popular TV science and tech show. Story: Spiders' silk is incredibly strong, but in short supply (ever tried harvesting silk from a spider?). So...
Beyond the obvious – lessons from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
The immediate lessons from the Deepwater Horizon disaster are pretty obvious - we (or at least somebody) messed up! But what about the less-obvious lessons - especially those concerning technology innovation and how it's handled? The Fall 2010 issue of Findings -...
Limited resources and emerging technologies: China does the math
New technologies depend on uncommon materials, and society depends on new technologies. Which means that economies that develop the former and control the latter have something of an upper hand in today's interconnected and technology-dependent world. This has...
Science and the Media – a collection of essays from the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Back in August, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences published a collection of essays under the editorship of Donald Kennedy and Geneva Overholster on the (seemingly) increasingly strained relationship between science and the media. I was too embroiled in the...
Rehabilitating “Risk”
Now that I've had some time to get to grips with my new position as Director of the University of Michigan Risk Science Center, I thought it was high time I started letting people know something about where the Center will be heading over the next few years. ...
Nanotechnology 2.0: The next ten years of nano risk research
Sometime in the past couple of weeks - I'm not entirely sure when as accounts are conflicting - the World Technology Evaluation Center (WTEC) posted a draft of a new report examining the long-term impacts and research directions of nanotechnology. The "Nano2" study...