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Revision as of 10:46, 9 August 2012
Get Involved!
Synthetic Biology is too exciting - we can't keep it to ourselves. We want you to get involved!
We had a stall at the Scottish National Science and Engineering Week and participated in our University's 600th anniversary event Food For Thought. In May, we delivered a well received TEDx talk. We're also active online on Twitter and Facebook, where we hold little online debates and give you a peek into synthetic biology research!
NSEW Science Discovery Day Synbio for the whole family
National Science and Engineering Week exploded in Fife, Scotland with a regional "Science Discovery Day". Team St Andrews worked to convey the fundamental concepts of synthetic biology in new and exciting ways.
We had a number of exhibits, each catering to a different audience:
- For the littlest kids, we ran an interactive "Codon Game", where children could "build a gene" from little paper parts.
- We had interactive visualizations of DNA and Thermus aquaticus polymerase III, complete with 3D glasses, thanks to an impromptu collaboration with the Psychology department!
- For those who like to see the things we work with, we had a display of of E. coli on plates, under a microscope and in broth. Children and adults alike were fascinated by our live experiment, extracting DNA from bananas using everyday kitchen equipment.
We took every chance to mingle with the crowd and to answer questions. The varying exhibits were helpful in starting discussions. Being able to refer to an actual colony of E. coli or the 3D structure of Taq pol III made these discussions more interesting.
TEDxUniversityofStAndrews
Team member Josi Buerger presented a lively talk "Spider Mutants and Bioterrorism - an Overview of Synthetic Biology as an Emerging Scientific Discipline" to an audience over eighty strong at TEDx University of St Andrews. She revealed the ground-breaking but occasionally controversial nature of synthetic biology and iGEM's role within it. Members of the audience showed surprise at the progress, discussions and possibilities that synthetic biology represents.
Josi recounts that the other talks and the audience were mainly in the field of the social sciences and that her talk had impressed and rattled the audience with its originality and raised questions they would otherwise have left unasked.
Here's the TEDx profile for the event at the main TED website.
Feasting at Food for Thought
Superhero or Supervillain?
Who would you be?
Who will you be?
Synthetic biology has already made a spider goat possible. How long will it be before Spider-Man steps out fiction and into reality?
Team St Andrews spoke to crowds at University of St Andrews 600th Anniversary Event Food for Thought on Sunday. The DNA extraction from bananas and a "create your own superhero" game were popular with the kids again. We took full advantage of having a stand next to the tent entrance: At least two of us were constantly engaged in conversation with visitors, giving mini-lectures explaining the basic principles of synthetic biology, DNA and iGEM and discussing the surrounding ethical and safety concerns.
The event's flyer
We also made these graphics to explain synthetic biology:
Demystifying plasmids
Plasmids are like machine parts. Naturally, bacteria trade them around to disperse useful genes. This mechanism is useful if we deliberately put genes (and other useful stuff) into them.
Demystifying bacterial transformation
And this is how you get a plasmid into a bacterium!
Media presence
- [25.07.2012] Streets of London: paved with platinum? – University of St Andrews Website
- [25.07.2012] Študij in raziskovanje v tujini: trdo delo, a tudi dovolj družabnosti – Delo
We're online too Come say hi! :)