Dialogue Forum Nanotechnology

The four-part lecture series and dialogue forum with its theme of Nanotechnology is devoted to one of the core themes in current research: In the past two years nanoscience has developed into an interdisciplinary field of work on the border between physics, chemistry, molecular biology and material science - a field of work concerned with researching properties and functions on the nanometer scale. The lectures and the dialogue forum allow insights into up-to-date areas of research, the opportunity to discuss experiments, establish ethical guidelines, and confront the public with perceptions of the aims and visions of nanoscience. In 1959, physicist Richard Feynman in his lecture, »There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom», explained that there is no reason why the miniaturization of production processes cannot be continued down to the level of atoms. Since then, natural science has envisaged manipulating individual atoms to produce lifelike entities and this has in part proceeded along visionary lines – although it has been treated skeptically as sci-fi. R&D has already been underway in the field of microbiology [gene technology], material research, microelectronics and environmental technology for some years now, on molecular and atomic levels.
An example of the public’s perception of nanotechnology can be seen in the debate on self-replicating uncontrollable nanobots, the minutest of apparatus made of individual molecules and capable of producing other molecular machines. Scientists are not exactly grateful for the fear which Michael Crichton has mongered in his most recent novel, »Prey«. The lecture series and the dialogue forum are thus also devoted to the questions of: the extent to which nanotechnology is a risky technology, what rational ways risks limitations can be demonstrated and whether the hope-for uses justify the calculated risk.

The organizers have succeeded in persuading some renowned representatives of the science to take part:
Nobel prize-winner Jean-Marie Lehn [lecture in April], as well as Don Eigler, Peter Fromherz, and Wolf Singer [lecture in July]. The podium on nanotechonology includes high-caliber guests, with Philip Campbell, Hariolf Grupp, Jörg Kotthaus, Marcel Mayor, Gero von Randow, Elke Scheer, Roland Vollmar and Martin Wegener.


Programm

° Fri., June 13, 2003 ::

Dialogue forum - Nanotechnology

[ZKM-Media Theater | starting at 10 am | admission free]

[- > Speakers: Curriculum vitae]

10.00 - 10.10 ::

Introduction
Peter Weibel [ZKM Karlsruhe], Wilhelm Krull [Volkswagen Foundation, Hannover]
10.10 - 10.50 ::

Hariolf Grupp [Fraunhof Institute for System Technology and Innovation Research ISI, Karlsruhe]:
»Innovations for our future: Speculating on nanotechnology«
10.50 - 11.30 ::

Jörg Kotthaus [Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich]:
»Nanocosmos – Perspectives in nanotechnology«
11.45 - 12.10 ::

Elke Scheer [Constanz University]:
N.N.
12.10 - 12.35 ::

Marcel Mayor [Karlsruhe Research Center]:
»Molecules as future electronic components?«
12.35 - 13.00 ::

Martin Wegener [Karlsruhe University]:
»Phototonic crystals - semiconductor for light«
2.15 - 2.45 ::

Philip Campbell [Nature, London]:
»Uncertainty – Nanotechnology and the Public«
[Lecture in English with simultaneous interpretation]
2.45 - 4.00 ::

Podium with Philip Campbell, Hariolf Grupp, Jörg Kotthaus, Marcel Mayor, Gero von Randow, Elke Scheer, Roland Vollmar, Martin Wegener
Chair: Gero von Randow and Markus Bohn