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Abstract: The world clearly cares about nanotechnologies. This is evident across industry, government, and civil society sectors. Aiming to protect their investments and intellectual property, industry has pursued an exponential growth in the number of nanotechnology-based patents granted by intellectual property of˜ces (see, for example, Chen and Roco 2008; IPO 2009). Governments have poured large public-sector funding investments into research and development (R&D) of nanotechnologies and have also rolled out many public-sector initiatives over the past decade-from the launch of the United States’ highpro˜le National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) in 2000 to the European Union’s 2005 Action Plan for Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies (Lux Research 2005; European Commission 2005), as well as many others across a range of jurisdictions. Civil society, too, clearly cares about the impact of nanotechnology, with visible high-level activity evident in many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Some, such as Australia’s Friends of the Earth (FoEA)
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