Conclusion: towards object-centred field ethics
Ethics and Epistemology of Nanotechnology - critically Mapping Current Approaches

From the outset of their emergence as a research policy, NST have been placed under the sign of a desire to articulate scientific and technological developments on the one hand, and their "ethical and societal" stakes on the other. Having become "reflexive", our societies no longer accept the all-too-convenient divisions between science and opinion, experts and laymen: we have witnessed a pluralization of the authorized sources of expertise and public discourse on technosciences, as well as a generalized discussion, in dedicated arenas, of science and scientists, summoned to be "responsible" and accountable to the public. In Europe, this link between science and society was even seen as a means of experimenting with new ways of creating collective norms on a real scale.