Erik Fisher & Cynthia Selin 
Presenting Futures 

Welcome to the ?rst volume of the Yearbook of Nanotechnology in Society! Nanotechnology, hailed as “the next industrial revolution” (NSTC 2000) and c- tiqued for being little more than “hype” (Berube 2006), is the site of a great deal of social and intellectual contest. With some ten billion dollars being spent worldwide on nanotechnology research and development annually and a market forecast of trillions of dollars in sales in the medium-term future (Lux Research 2006), nations and ?rms are pursuing nano-related goals with high levels of both effort and – pectations. Yet according to the Woodrow Wilson International Center’s web-based Nanotechnology Consumer Products Inventory, most of the more than 500 na- products on the market as of this writing are basic consumer items—cosmetics, clothing, athletic equipment and the like—with modest, incremental improvements on their non-nano counterparts. Nanotechnology is also the site of an increasing amount of scholarship dedicated to understanding the interactions between society and an emerging knowled- based technological endeavor. Searching the Web of Science indices in social s- ence and humanities for nanotech* and nanoparticle*, for example, yields 231 hits 1 since 1990, but 75 percent of these occur in 2004 through 2007. This scholarship attempts to fathom the implications of nanotechnologies for society, as well as the implications for nanotechnologies of society. Some of it is also engaged in dialogue with both the public and with nanotechnology researchers about the hope and the hype described above.

Table of Content

Nanotechnology: The Future Is Coming Sooner than You Think.- The Workers’ Push to Democratize Nanotechnology.- Thinking Longer Term about Technology.- Constructive Technology Assessment and Socio-Technical Scenarios.- Information and Imagination: How Lux Research Forecasts.- Designing for the Future: Nanoscale Research Facilities.- What Drives Public Acceptance of Nanotechnology?.- Nanologue.- Anticipating the Futures of Nanotechnology: Visionary Images as Means of Communication.- Winners of Nano-Hazard Symbol Contest Announced at World Social Forum, Nairobi, Kenya.- Your Children, Their Children….- Developing Plausible Nano-Enabled Products.- Nanotechnology for Chemical and Biological Defense 2030 Workshop and Study.- Nanotechnologies for Tomorrow’s Society: A Case for Reflective Action Research in Flanders, Belgium.- Communications in the Age of Nanotechnology.- How Can Business Respond to the Technical, Social, and Commercial Uncertainties of Nanotechnology?.- Manufactured Nanoparticle Health and Safety Disclosure [Draft Report].- A Framework for Responsible Nanotechnology.- Contemplating the Implications of a Nanotechnology “Revolution”.- Nanotechnology: Challenges and the Way Forward.- Technology Assessment of Nanotechnology: Problems and Methods in Assessing Emerging Technologies.- Compressed Foresight and Narrative Bias: Pitfalls in Assessing High Technology Futures.- Science Fiction, Nano-Ethics, and the Moral Imagination.