Emerging Technologies

Introduction

As technology and innovation continue to advance, and as novel ma-

terials and devices are developed to improve the quality of life, a bet-

ter and more thorough assessment of the impacts will be necessary.

Life cycle analysis should not only raise key questions about where

and when during the product life cycle material and energy impacts

could arise but also attempt to ascertain whose quality of life the

product might improve or reduce, and why. In the era of increasing

populations, decreasing resources, and concentration of wealth in

the hands of a decreasing subset of the population, society can no

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One approach for obtaining answers to these questions and ...