Ensuring that Progress in Nanotechnology is Accompanied by Studies in Ethics and Societal Effects

in a paper published early in 2003, Anisa Mnyusiwalla, Abdallah Daar and Peter Singer, of the Universiy of Toronto, Canada, wrote, "As the science of nanotechnology leaps ahead, the ethics lags behind. … We believe that there is danger of derailing nanotechnology if serious study of its ethical, environmental, economic, legal and social implications does not reach the speed of progress in the science." According to Singer and his colleagues, in 2001, the US-based National Nanotechnology Initiative allocated US$16-28 million to studying societal implications, but spent less than half that amount.