Analyzing and Examining the Public Understanding of Nanotechnology among University Students

Public understanding of science and technology is influential in the success and development of technology in society. Therefore, studying the knowledge and attitude of people towards science and technology is very important. Meanwhile, nanotechnology is considered as a technology with tremendous potential to produce a diverse range of products in various fields. Therefore, public understanding of this technology will be effective in its development. The main purpose of this study is to provide a framework for analyzing and evaluating the public understanding of nanotechnology in Iran based on various dimensions and conduct a survey in this field. The present research is descriptive and to conduct it, library studies (to identify different dimensions and provide a public understanding of nanotechnology) and survey (to implement the guide based on the proposed framework) have been used. The survey tools were also interviews and questionnaires, which include a set of indicators of public understanding of science and technology. Finally, the results of the present study in each of the dimensions of proposed framework were compared with the results of different studies and the differences and similarities regarding the achievements of different studies were presented. The results show that there is a difference between students' perceptions of the risks and benefits of nanotechnology and also the degree of familiarity of students in different fields with nanotechnology; Also, among the demographic variables, gender and religious orientation were among the variables affecting familiarity and trust in nanotechnology, respectively.