When you hear the term "nanotechnology," what image comes to mind? A medically enhanced athlete capable of superhuman feats? A Michael Crichton-esque horror show of swarming, self-replicating nanobots, as depicted in his 2002 novel "Prey"? As Paul Youngman, professor of German at Washington and Lee University, and student researchers Matthew Bittner and Curtis Correll learned this summer, your perception of nanotechnology—the manipulation of extremely small particles to make materials and machines—may depend on where you live. "Nanotechnology is an emerging science that we don't completely have a handle on, and our premise is always that science is never divorced from the larger culture at hand," said Youngman. "What we're doing is analyzing the cultural reception of nanotechnology as it exists right now. It's a comparative study between German and U.S. reception." Rhetoric and public perception affect how nanotechnology is funded an...
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