Nanoscience, nanotechnology, or nanotechnoscience: Perceptions of Indian nanoresearchers

What is nanotechnoscience? What are the characteristic features of nanotechnoscience? How do the practicing scientists and engineers, that is, practitioners label their work? How do they see the relationship between science and technology given the fast emerging research area of nanoscience and nanotechnology? Do they still celebrate the differences between these two? Is the relationship between them undergoing a change? Although there are a few scholarly articles available on understanding the concept of "nanotechnoscience," there is almost no empirical study conducted so far to understand the perspectives of the practitioners. This paper, therefore, focuses on understanding the concept and characteristic features of nanotechnoscience deriving from an in-depth interview-based empirical study among 58 practitioners. The study found about 10 characteristic features of technoscience that were reflected in the research work and perspectives of the practitioners. The technoscientific features drawn from this study could be applied to other emerging technoscience areas.