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An exhibit on “Law and Science: Smaller than smaller, nanotechnoly on debate”

By 4 de May de 2009November 18th, 2020No Comments
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 04.05.2009

An exhibit on “Law and Science: Smaller than smaller, nanotechnoly on debate”

The exhibit "Law and Science: Smaller than smaller, nanotechnoly on debate" has been inaugurated today, 4th of May, at 12 h, at the entrance hall of University of Barcelona School of Law (UB). The exhibit, organised by the Barcelona Science Park Scientific Diffusion Department, in collaboration with the Observatory of Bioethics and Law, the UNESCO Chair of Bioethics at the UB, and the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia, based at PCB, will be open to visitors until the 4th of June, and it is aimed at providing information and fostering public debate on nanotechnology and its applications in routine daily life.


The event was inaugurated by the dean of the Law School, Enoch Alberti; the director of the Observatory of Bioethics and Law and the UNESCO Bioethics Chair at the UB, Maria Casado; the director general of the Barcelona Science Park (PCB), Fernando Albericio; and by the head of the Nanobioengineering Laboratory, Josep Samitier, from the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), based at PCB.

The initiative is framed within the context of the Nanodialogue European project that the EU started as part of the 6th Framework Programme to give some thought to the scientific-technical, ethical, social, economic, political and legal aspects arising from advances made in the field of nanotechnology sciences and to facilitate the transfer of this vast knowledge to society.

This itinerant exhibit, which has already been shown in Barcelona at the Faculty of Physics and Chemistry and at the Cloister of the Institute of Catalan Studies and has been visited by more than one million people from different countries, features scientific information displays and different assessments from miscellaneous fields. It also provides the necessary tools for visitors to express their views and opinions.

The Observatory of Bioethics and Law is currently engaged in a research project known as Nanobiolaw, promoted by the Ministry of Science and Innovation and aimed at facilitating dialogue and contributing towards the improvement of relations among the expert disciplines involved- science, ethics, and law, – and the interests of the community, so that advances and applications made in biotechnology are developed under safety and responsibility principles. Because of this, and besides collaborating in the execution of the sample, it has readapted part of its contents in order to make the legal information in that regard known to the public.

The debate themes included in the exhibit include: risk and benefit assessment that the use of nanotechnologies entails, the currently existing breach between rich and poor countries with regard to investment in this field, the legal framework governing the production and commercialisation of these products and the policies that should be established or that are being applied in research and the investments in this new era of science.