Science, Technology and Public Policy

The overall objective of this seminar is to understand and assess how developments on the scientific and/or technological frontier may raise issues and challenges for public policy as well as associated ethical and/or legal issues in the U.S. context. The focus will be on developments on the scientific frontier since World War II. Through the course of our discussions, we will come to see the many inherent and potential conflicts of interest that may arise when scientists serve as advocates and advisors in controversial policy debates and where scientists themselves are supplicants for federal research resources.