Table 2.

Summary of analysis of expert reports.

Class	Illustrative statement	Ten most significant words	Documents associated
Class B1 (17.16%) ‘Addressing public concerns on social and ethical issues’	‘Developments in this area bring with them a number of social and ethical issues which were identified by the public in our discussions and which must be addressed if we are to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by this technology’.	public issue nanotechnologies ethical dialogue science geoengineering scientific debate concern	Geoengineering (2009) Nanosciences (2004) UK DNA Database (2009) Nanodialogues Response (2007) Synthetic Biology Roadmap (2012)
Class B2 (21.44%): ‘GM reassurance’	‘GM crops will bring huge benefits to the UK. Most of the risks associated with them are either not based on the scientific evidence, are reversible or can be avoided. In fact, many of the possible problems are no worse than the problems associated with current practices anyway’.	crop gm plant herbicide gene flow breed resistance food variety	GM Science Review (2003)
Class B3 (24.60%) ‘Brain Science’	‘People already use psychoactive drugs – legally or illegal. New brain drugs like cognition enhancers will help treat mental illnesses and things like Alzheimer’s disease but the members of the public we talked to were concerned that they could be abused and lead to new problems’.	drug substance mental misuse treatment cognition person harm child disorder	Brain Science (2008)
Class B4 (17.61%) ‘The biomedical science bit’	‘Research in which human pluripotent stem cells are introduced into animal embryos will clarify the potential of such introduced cells to contribute to addressing questions around the advancement of knowledge into cancer and Parkinson’s’.	cell human embryo stem animal mouse tissue hybrid create embryonic	Hybrids and Chimera (2007) Animals Containing Human Material (2011) Stem Cells (2008)
Class B5 (20.1%), ‘Growth, economy and planet’	‘Investing in the right aspects of these technologies will allow UK to be competitive in the global market place, grow our economy and help us solve some serious problems ahead, like identifying new sources of energy’.	chemical nanoparticles manufacture nanotubes device industry production ib particle synthetic	Nanosciences (2004) Industrial Biotechnology (2005) Synthetic Biology (2009) Synthetic Biology Roadmap (2012)

GM: Genetically Modified; IB: Industrial Biotechnology.