ABSTRACT
Science, technology, and law are rooted in mankind's unending search for knowledge, comfort and harmony. Traditional boundaries—physical, political, cultural, and ethical—are breached by developments in science and technology. Congressional committees have added staff trained in science and engineering, and they have been around long enough to develop expertise in policy analysis. Creating the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), in 1972, was a step Congress took to match changes in governance to the changes wrought by technology, and to bridge the gap between science and law. OTA is a technology assessment agency because while pure science may be socially and politically neutral, its application is not. OTA succeeds in the Legislative branch because it fills a critical communication gap between scientists and policymakers by reducing the shadow cast by technical uncertainty and disagreement among experts. An OTA analysis attempts to distinguish not only between the possible and the impossible, but also between the realms of the sensible and senseless.
