Nanotech and the Humanities

Chris Toumey is a Cultural Anthropologist at the Center for Environmental Nanoscience and Risk at the University of South Carolina, USA. His work in the anthropology of science includes an ethnography of the creationist movement (God’s Own Scientists; 1994) and an exploration of how popular symbols of science are deployed in public scientific controversies (Conjuring Science; 1996). Since 2003, he has been working on societal and cultural issues in nanotechnology. He is the author or co-author of more than ninety publications on nanotech, including his commentaries that appear four times a year in Nature Nanotechnology. These commentaries constitute his platform for showing scientists, engineers and the public that the humanities and social sciences contribute to our understanding of nanotechnology.