Speed Debating

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 inform people about synthetic biology by hosting a speed debate.

The topic of the debate is going to be “Fighting Ocean Pollution with Synthetic Organisms or GMO vs Plastic Pollution”, in a non-conventional debate format that is in the style of “Speed dating”. It is going to be one-on-one debate between two people with opposite opinions.The event is preceded a reception, and stalls with experts from different fields with different perspective on the debated topic such as: - Synbio Scientists - Ethics, safety and government Policy experts on GMO - Plastic Pollution organizations - Marine biologist working on plastic pollution - Environmental groups

Attendees have the chance to inform their arguments by talking to these experts, gather more information about GMO and chose a side in the debate. This discussions will be followed by speed debating. People will debate in pairs and regroup every 5 min. At the end of the speed debating, a short Q&A with the experts offers attendees the chance to raise questions that have come up during the speed debating.

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