Team:University College London/HumanPractice

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Latest revision as of 23:15, 26 October 2012

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- Meeting of Young Minds Debate
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Overview

Will the world be a safe place if we make biology easy to engineer? How do the lessons of the past inform the discussion going forward? Think beyond just convincing people that 'synthetic biology is good'.

Inspired by these quotes from the iGEM website, this year we set out to ‘challenge’ public perceptions about genetically modified organisms and test the boundaries of access to the tools of Synthetic Biology by helping the London Biohackers build their own BioBrick - the first "Public" BioBrick. We believe projects such as ours will only become realistic and widely accepted if access to the technology is increased.

Plastic Republic raises a number of ethical, legal and social issues, which we have used as the basis for our Meeting of the Young Minds debate proposal, an exciting "speed-debating" evening and an investigation into the legal issues regarding our plastic island.

We have also planned a radio show, which will involve interviews with international teams giving people a sense of the global iGEM community and the breadth and diversity of synthetic biology projects.

In addition, we are working with Carina Tran, an architectural student from the UCL Bartlett, faculty of the Built Environment who is particularly interested in how plastics can be recycled in terms of being used as a constructive material. We hope such collaboration will help us to develop a better project, exploring iGEM in an architectural context.

Last but not least, we raised funding for all these human practice activities via crowdfunding, and wrote a guide to successful crowdfunding campaigns for iGEM teams.

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-= Human Practice =
 ==Overview ==
-''"Will the world be a safe place if we make biology easy to engineer? How do the lessons of the past inform the discussion going forward? Think beyond just convincing people that 'synthetic biology is good'."''
+''Will the world be a safe place if we make biology easy to engineer? How do the lessons of the past inform the discussion going forward? Think beyond just convincing people that 'synthetic biology is good'.''
-Inspired by these quotes from the iGEM website, this year we set out to ‘challenge’ public perceptions about genetically modified organisms and inform people about synthetic biology by planning to collaborate with ‘biohackers’ or citizen scientists from the '''London DIYbio community''' to work on a spinoff component of one of our modules in a public lab during a 5 day period.
+Inspired by these quotes from the iGEM website, this year we set out to ‘challenge’ public perceptions about genetically modified organisms and test the boundaries of access to the tools of Synthetic Biology by helping the [[Team:University_College_London/HumanPractice/DIYbio|London Biohackers build their own BioBrick]] - the first "Public" BioBrick. We believe projects such as ours will only become realistic and widely accepted if access to the technology is increased.
-The public lab we have in mind will be easily observable from the street giving passer-bys a view into standard experiments that are otherwise hidden in the lab. By arranging such human practices activity, and thus enabling people to have a first hand experience, we are taking a step forward in giving people a real exposure of what synthetic biology as an emerging technology is about so we can have an informative public discussion.
+Plastic Republic raises a number of ethical, legal and social issues, which we have used as the basis for our [[Team:University_College_London/HumanPractice/MOYM|Meeting of the Young Minds debate proposal]], [[Team:University_College_London/HumanPractice/SpeedDebating|an exciting "speed-debating" evening]] and an investigation into the [[Team:University_College_London/HumanPractice/LegalBits|legal issues regarding our plastic island.]]
-By collaborating on a module, we are giving people ‘ownership’ of a small part of our project. In doing so we are providing the community with access to our project, and inviting their opinions and their ideas. There will be a reflective panel discussion at the last day of the event where people following our event can take part, and influence our work.
+We have also planned a [[Team:University_College_London/gemFM|radio show]], which will involve interviews with international teams giving people a sense of the global iGEM community and the breadth and diversity of synthetic biology projects.
-Besides this exciting collaboration, we also have a '''documentary''' and '''radio show''' planned. The documentary will tell the story of synthetic biology and iGEM to the public by tracking the progress of our own team, while the radio show will involve interviews with international teams giving people a sense of the global iGEM community and the breadth and diversity of synthetic biology projects.
+In addition, we are working with Carina Tran, an architectural student from the UCL Bartlett, faculty of the Built Environment who is particularly interested in how plastics can be recycled in terms of being used as a constructive material. We hope such collaboration will help us to develop a better project, [[Team:University_College_London/HumanPractice/LivingArchitecture|exploring iGEM in an architectural context.]]
-In addition, we are working with Carina Tran, an architectural student from the Bartlett who is particularly interested in how plastics can be recycled in terms of being used as a constructive material. We hope such collaboration will help us to develop a better project, exploring iGEM in an architectural context.
+Last but not least, we raised funding for all these human practice activities via [[Team:University_College_London/HumanPractice/CrowdFunding|crowdfunding, and wrote a guide to successful crowdfunding campaigns for iGEM teams.]]
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