| Interview by European Journalism Centre |
Press
To reach as many people as possible, we have contacted a lot of different media in Denmark. Therefore we have been in touch with both newspapers, magazines and television, locally and nationally. We have also been contacted by a former worker of a Danish broadcast station called TV2, which would like to make a short documentary. The documentary should tell the audience about the iGEM idea, and about a young team of scientists who create a new organism. The documentary is meant for the layman.
We are very pleased with the outcome. We reach out to a broad range of both scientific and non scientific audience of common people as well as both the new and the experienced students of SDU. Because of the article in NyViden (SDU magazine) we also reach the Humanitarian and the students who study social science. We consider it to have great importance that the iGEM teams consist of interdisciplinarity. This is also something our Human Practice group work intensively on.
We would like to tell the society first and foremost, that studying science is fun! We would like to inform of the many possibilities there are when you go to the University and how many great opportunities students have to do something extra if they want to. It is also essential to tell about synthetic science because many people are unaware of the potential and maybe even looks at it with fear. To communicate that part we have established a special Podcast group.
We have discovered that the media is of great value when it comes to especially funding. It is important for the sponsors that they get some credit and that they support something that is popular these days. The university has also expressed that they are quite pleased with the media coverage of the project in the light of that they are our main sponsor.
Contacted
5 newspapers
6 specialist journals
4 TV stations
Achieved
Documentary
1 article in NyViden
1 news broadcast
Recently we have seen an increasing number of cooking programs on TV, most of them, not really teaching the viewers how to cook, but spreading a culture of "unhealthy habits". If after the movie "Supersize Me", some people have avoided eating at the Mac's, yet, we still have a lot to learn regarding our food habits and many of the things we believed were healthy 10 years ago, might be unhealthy now.
Somehow, science seems to be here to become a controversial item in our menu while the powerful lobby of giant food companies are getting its way through the Media. No wonder we are constantly getting contradictory messages that in the end affect our pockets and our metabolism.
Fortunatelly, the debate is attracting young scientists as well and inviting the public to rething their food habits. In Denmark, a team of talented students went a step further to find an enzyme that can actually help us to eliminate the problem! They are on the race and working hard to win a competion called IGEM while developing their wonderful discovery. Unfortunatelly, they do not get as much publicity as Gordon Ramsey or Jamie Oliver, and they are searching now for sponsors in order to continue their project on the FIGHTING against OBESITY.
Directly from the Southern university of Denmark, Malou Reedorf, sent me detailed information on their project which you can read here at http://vandecraatsuk.wix.com/ssij#!sij-tv/cm2j and get to know more about this innovative idea at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkdtgIQ39ws
In an exclusive interview to SIJ TV, for the SIJ - STUDENTS & INNOVATION JOURNAL, Asbjørn, tell us about the IGEM project in the video here below ,
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