Engineers and ethicists participated in a workshop to discuss the responsible development of new technologies. Presenters examined four areas of engineering–sustainability, nanotechnology, neurotechnology, and energy–in terms of the ethical issues they present to engineers in particular and society as a whole. Approaches to ethical issues include: analyzing the factual, conceptual, application, and moral aspects of an issue; evaluating the risks and responsibilities of a particular course of action; and using theories of ethics or codes of ethics developed by engineering societies as a basis for decision making. Ethics can be built into the education of engineering students and professionals, either as an aspect of courses already being taught or as a component of engineering projects to be examined along with research findings. Engineering practice workshops can also be effective, particularly when they include discussions with experienced engineers. This volume includes papers on all of these topics by experts in many fields. The consensus among workshop participants is that material on ethics should be an ongoing part of engineering education and engineering practice.
Available online from the National Academies Press at:
Emerging Technologies and Ethical Issues in Engineering:
Excerpt: “An idea gaining currency these days is that the United States needs a new Manhattan Project to solve our nation’s energy problems. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., is just the latest to propose a massive federal government effort to develop alternatives to petroleum and cut U.S. dependence on fossil fuels. He suggested it pursue these goals with the urgency of the World War II era project that rushed to develop the atomic bomb.”
According to you, what are some other ways that the U.S. needs to implement to tackle energy problems?
Read the full article at: New Manhattan Project? Waste of energy
An article in ‘Chemical &Engineering News’ illustrates how online research communities can play a pivotal role in uniting scientists worldwide to find cures for neglected diseases. Last summer, Drexel University Professor, Dr. Jean Claude Bradley, started two simultaneous experiments in his lab with an aim of openly sharing data and results from the experiments on his blog. Excerpts “The first: to synthesize potential inhibitors for the malarial enzyme enoyl reductase, which the malaria parasite uses to produce essential fatty acids. The second: to post online all raw data that his five students produce (usefulchem.wikispaces.com).” and “When it comes to the issue of publishing, Bradley argues that open-source discussions are similar to conferences, where people openly discuss unpublished research and do not fear being denied the right to publish in a journal, assuming the science is good.”
The Synaptic Leap is the Open Source Biomedical Research Blog whose mission is to empower scientists with an open, collaborative research community to find new ways to do science, answering questions that current institutions find difficult or impossible.
Read the full article at: Open-Source Science
Using the Atomic Bomb Resource Guide and using one of the databases listed under Finding Articles — History & Politics, try to find an article about the film ‘Dr. Strangelove: How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb’.
For example, I used JSTOR to locate an article from the American Quarterly, Vol. 31, No. 5, Special Issue: Film and American Studies, (Winter, 1979), pp. 697-717 titled Dr. Strangelove (1964): Nightmare Comedy and the Ideology of Liberal Consensus . List the article and the name of the database you used to find this article.
Honored with the prestigious 1998 George Foster Peabody Award, CNN’s landmark COLD WAR series is the first major documentary on the subject.
The concept was proposed by CNN founder Ted Turner, the man celebrated worldwide for his revolutionary approach to news and information technology. In 1994, Turner approached Britain’s Jeremy Isaacs — already famous for his documentary series, “The World at War” — to lead the project. Isaacs then assembled an acclaimed team of historians, writers and producers, and asked the actor Kenneth Branagh to provide the series’ narration.
See also: Cold War Experience: The Bomb
Statistical Review of World Energy 2006 provides statistical information about the world of energy through the numbers behind the energy market headlines. This edition includes data up to the end of 2005.
Review by Energy Type provides Information on different sectors of the energy market. Each of the energy sectors listed provides a brief overview of data presented in the Review, along with tables, maps and charts relating to the consumption, production and proved reserves of each fuel type: oil, natural gas and coal.
Source: DieselNet - Online information service on clean diesel engines and diesel emissions
Applied Engineering Technology paper in collaboration with the Library:
Paper ‘LIBRARY EXPERIENCE FOR APPLIED ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY STUDENTS’ was presented in the Engineering Technology Division of the American Society for Engineering Education.
This paper would not have been possible without the invaluable assistance I received from Joshua Roberts – Assistant Information Services Librarian and Dr. Vladimir Genis, a faculty member in the Applied Engineering Technology Program of the Goodwin College of Professional Studies.
These are some handouts which complement the RET Funding for Teachers workshop on July 13.
RET_2006_handout(List).pdf lists some library resources which may be particularly useful to the RET program. Download file
RET2006_Funding_Resources.pdf lists a variety of websites which contain information about various grants for teachers. Download file
RefWorks_Overview.pdf provides some basics on RefWorks, a web-based citation management system. RefWorks is extremely useful for all types of research. Download file
Sean McCallum’s (UNIV241 student) recommendation DOES THE U.S. NEED NEW NUCLEAR WEAPONS? is a short essay written by Frank N. Von Hippel from Princeton University dealing with whether the U.S. needs to reevaluate it nuclear arsenal to include low yield weapons and the the infamous “bunker -buster” missile. Von Hippel seems to be of the opinion that such weapons are lessening the credibility of the old model of deterrence and legitimizing theatrical (or battlefield) use.
Syndication via Project MUSE RSS Feeds provides a mechanism for users to subscribe to important information regarding Project MUSE journals, journal issues, and announcements. Project MUSE uses RSS to alert users of new information available on the Project MUSE website.
See: Journal Feeds: Latest Issues (Latest four issues of each journal)
