The Expansion of Science Policy in the United States in Three Cases: rDNA Research, The Human Genome Project, and the National Nanotechnology Initiative

Abstract

In recent decades, the agencies tasked with science funding and science policy in the U.S. have increasingly embraced new ideas about the role and duty of science in society. They have opened up to the idea that science and technoscience -- the intersection of science and technology -- have duties to the public beyond simply providing discoveries and innovative technologies. This is reflected in changes in an expansion of science policy to accommodate new concerns, like ethical and societal implications, and new actors, including lay publics. In this dissertation, I trace these changes historically through three emerging technoscientific projects: recombinant DNA, the Human Genome Project, and the National Nanotechnology Initiative. I show that while each of these cases involved a significant expansion in what was considered acceptable science policy, those expansions were met with efforts to constrain the degree of change they brought about for technoscientific development. The constraints were intended to protect scientific authority and autonomy in the face of the changes that the expansion of science policy brought with them. This dissertation questions the degree to which upstream changes to science policy – those motivated from the top-down by scientists and science agency administrators – will bring about critical reflection by policymakers about technoscientific development and governance.