I’ve just gotten arrived back in Canberra, Australia for a month’s stay at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at The Australian National University, where I am a Senior Research Fellow.  This is my fourth “summer” in Canberra, and it’s really good to be back; the town is more fun than you’d think and the people are fantastic.  The principal plan for the month is to write a book chapter about health care for soliders for Rhodes, Battin, and Silvers’ (eds.) Medicine, Care, and Social Justice, 2nd ed. (Oxford, forthcoming).  Feel free to stay in touch by email, but it might take longer than usual to get back given the 14-hour time zone difference!

Just this week, our book What Is Nanotechnology and Why Does It Matter?:  From Science to Ethics was published by Wiley-Blackwell; I co-wrote it with Patrick Lin and Daniel Moore.  The book has three parts:  the first is a primer on basic nanoscience; the second explores general frameworks for thinking about risk and regulations of new technology; and the third explores particular social and ethical issues raised by nanotechnology (viz., environment, military, privacy, medicine, and enhancement).  Feedback welcome!  Here’s the cover: 

And the endorsements from the back of the book:

“The authors of What Is Nanotechnology and Why Does It Matter? answer their question with a broad and balanced examination of the nature of nanotechnology, how it is unfolding, and how these developments will affect issues of global concern: the impact of emerging technologies on the environment, medicine, military affairs, and civil society, and how we can act to achieve better outcomes.”
—Eric Drexler, author of Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation

“What Is Nanotechnology and Why Does It Matter? provides a concise but clear introduction to the subject of nanotechnology as well as an excellent overview of nanotechnology’s ethical and social implications. I highly recommend it.”
—James Moor, Dartmouth College

UPDATE:  Here’s an interview about the book with The Philosopher’s Eye.

Late last year, a book that I co-edited with Marcus Adams, Whiskey & Philosophy, was published (Wiley); this complements the previously-published Wine & Philosophy and Food & Philosophy.  Doing the book was a lot of fun–in no small part because of all the whiskey we got to drink!–and I strongly commend it to interested readers.  Reviews are starting to come up and we just got a full-page review in Malt Advocate.  And here are two others:  Review by Davin de Kergommeaux in Malt Maniacs 115 (2009), E-pistle 2009-34.  Review by Hans Offringa and Becky Offringa, Charleston Mercury, January 19, 2010, p. 19.

Let us know what you think of the book, and what whiskey you were drinking while reading!  Also, check other out titles in the Philosophy for Everyone series.  Here’s the cover:

I’m closing in on a draft of my book, Terrorism, Ticking Time-Bombs, and Torture; this will come out with University of Chicago Press in late 2010.  In the meantime, I wanted to post some of the draft chapters here in case anyone wanted to start reading and offer feedback.  Since this is still in progress, please don’t cite to it without permission, but comments are certainlty welcome.

UPDATE:  WMUK (the WMU radio station) did an interview about the book ahead of the workshop we recently hosted; listening would be a quick way to get an overview of the project.  I’ve uploaded two audio files:  the full interview (23:56) and the abridged version that was aired (4:49).  Thanks to Gordon Evans for the invitation and for his excellent preparation!