Research Report 2010 - MDC

KnowledgeProbabilitiesknownPossible future eventswith known adverseoutcomesWhat can I know?What shall I do?What may I hope?What is the human being?(Immanuel Kant, 1800)ProbabilitiesunknownIgnoranceclosedopenopenclosedI know enoughI knowsomethingI need toknowI do not wantto knowI cannotknow“Certainty” Risk DangerGalileo Effect NescienceThreatacceptedor imposedThreat neitheraccepted orimposedField of uncertaintyAs an outcome of the IMBA project, our group created the so-called “Igloo of Uncertainty”, an epistemic topology for the term in question aswell as a taxonomy of uncertainty (see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty and Tannert et al., 2007).responsibility for scientific and technological researchwith all involved parties. The SET-DEV project uses internationaldialogue, to contribute to capacity building indeveloping countries and emerging economies in thefield of ethics and science. Our group incorporates thespecific aspects of bioethics into this international EUproject.The project is structured in three interconnected stages:· development by a comparison between networks ofEuropean and non-European researchers, includingthose working in emerging and developingcountries (technological responsibility);· implementation of a pilot programme, centred onactions of public dialogue, capacity building andtraining on the themes of ethics and technologicalresponsibility;· definition and dissemination of policy guidelines forstrengthening the ethical orientation of researchsystems.Internet presenceThe website www.bioethik-diskurs.de with interactivediscourse-pages, and the Online-Game GenEthix registersabout 7,000 site visitors per month (May 2009).Selected PublicationsElvers, HD, Jandrig, B, Grummich, K, Tannert, C. (2009). Mobile phones andhealth: Media coverage study of German newspapers on possible healtheffects of mobile phone use. Health Risk Soc. 11, 165-179.Blankenburg, M, Haberland, L, Elvers, HD, Tannert ,C, Jandrig, B. (2009).High-throughput omics technologies: Potential tools for theinvestigation of influences of EMF on biological systems. Curr.Genomics 10, 86-92.Jandrig, B. (2008). The 2008 stem cell research debate in Germany. AICGSGerman-American Issues 9, 37-42.Tannert, C, Elvers, HD, Jandrig, B. (2007). The ethics of uncertainty. In thelight of possible dangers, research becomes a moral duty.EMBO Rep. 8, 892-896.Tannert, C. (2007). The autonomy axiom and the cloning of humans.Hum. Reproduct. Genet. Ethics 13, 4-7.Cancer Research 115