NanOpinion: Blogpost December

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NanOpinion: Blogpost December

3. Dec. 2013

Some Lines of ZSI researcher ilLSE Marschalek

Nanotechnology means "engineering on a very small scale" and so can be applied very widely -- in health and medicine, communication or energy and enviromental technologies. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter, or a millionth of a millimeter. So one nanometer is to an apple as an apple is to the Earth...

"The NanOpinion monitoring stations already stopped at more than 20 different locations across Europe and experienced various sites. During these outreach activities we could approach our target groups and invite them to fill in the questionnaire. We could reach 80 percent of our respondents directly at a monitoring station or a streetlab, but also the internet, our portal and social media play a more and more important role in directing our visitors to the questionnaire. More than 4.000 persons from all age groups, balanced female and male already responded so far. We attracted young people, students, families with kids, and occasionally elderly and retired people, not only natives, but also tourists and foreigners. However, we have to find more of the elderly above 70 and the middle aged. As with the new school year our outreach activities in schools are taking place increasingly, we’ll watch out for parents of pupils as well.

In general, when people are asked if they would like to have more information, the majority feels a strong need for more information.

Accordingly, the information facilitators at monitoring stations and streetlabs are giving to the audience, are crucial. Showing the products, some experiments and fields of application attract the interest of visitors. They want to get more in depth information on science in general, NT products in especial and all topics related to them, such as risks and benefits and long term impacts. Monitoring stations that offer more time and space for these discussions and more in depth debates are intended. To see Nanotechnology “in action” and to spend a little time in a NanOpinion “chill zone” could be an appropriate offer for our future audiences in different places across Europe."
iLSE Marschalek

NT in action at Cheltenham literature festival

More about the project: http://nanopinion.eu/de/blog

Tags: nanotechnology, social innovation