This paper explored the group dynamics occurring within a life science laboratory that have adopted the latest in scientific equipment and technology. We analyzed the case of AFM (atomic force microscopy), and the scientist community implementing it, tracing the process leading to a technological plateau, which is a tentative equilibrium of a system involving the mechanical tools and the human organization implementing it. Based on field study and interviews, this paper aimed to clarify the mechanism of the constitution of technological plateau. The results depicted a process reaching the plateau, where the role of AFM shifted from being just a means to becoming an end in itself, and then back to being the means once again. Further, the analysis of the synchronic data, including observation of laboratory practices, demonstrated overlaps and fluctuation in the meaning of the instrument in the stack status. Finally, we discussed technological plateaus in relation to the market character of contemporary life science.

Five years have passed since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, but food products from Fukushima are still being shunned by consumers. We aimed to determine what is behind consumer concern about the safety of these products. In two studies, we investigated whether activation of the behavioral immune system promotes overestimation of contaminated area around the Fukushima nuclear plant. In study 1, participants high in chronic germ aversion (GA) estimated a more vast contaminated areas than those low in GA, regardless of priming condition (disease threat condition vs. control condition). In study 2, high-GA participants in the disease threat condition estimated larger contaminated areas than high-GA participants in the control condition. No effects of priming were observed among low-GA participants. The relationship between reputational risk and behavioral immune system were discussed.