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From 2013.igem.org

SynPhilo

'Learn to look, look to recognize, recognize the similarity.'

SynPhilo: Synthetic Philosophy is a new approach to evaluate scientific research. As young scientists, we abundantly have evolved to think that research is only alive in the zone of laboratory; once we take off our lab coats and leave, the research remains there. Though when cancer is taken into consideration, there is an undeniable truth that nearly most of us individuals have encountered a close relative suffering from this heartbreaking disease. Decades have been spent trying to devise a ground breaking treatment for cancer and the obstinate work is still forging. Let’s question the number of cancer contemplators from the window of philosophy. How many have intensely analysed cancers behaviour, to discover its roots to comment on its existence? More substantially go on a journey to identify the connection between human nature and cancer through philosophy?

SynPhilo’s first conference ‘Know your cell, Know yourself’ intended to take the audience on a discovery of the behaviour of cancer and its connection to the humans through our organised activities and an act play scripted by our team members. The play was based on a scientist who looks at cancer from one direction only and a student who looks into the deeper end of the pool. Cancer, once a normally functioning cell, becomes uncontrollable when a slight error of gene replication occurs. From our perspective, we apprehend that cancer cell begins to swirl into a route where it becomes selfish, greedy, anarchistic, wasting and arrogant. It takes other cells’ glucose, deceives the immune system, bypasses its alerts and decides to form its own blood vessels to do metastasis and more. When deeply thought it is inevitable that the behaviour of cancer is somewhat linked to the inner feelings that most of us have whether hidden or not. SynPhilo conference analysed every movement of cancer first scientifically then reasoned its behaviour morally and found the interrelation of cancer with us humans, teaching us how to react through seeing a live example such as cancer that lives within us and slowly pulls the body to death as well as itself.

Let’s imagine the human body as a country’s government and cancer as the villain. The human body naturally attacks the cancer cells as soon as it identifies its invasion. When observing this process in the body, we can comprehend that there is a unique similarity between the duty of a country’s government and the body itself. So why not learn how to act by reading into ourselves or simply finding the similarities between us and cancer, in some aspects forming a bridge between the two to take lessons?

For more information on the content of the conference please click here.

Future Plan

Atoms Turkiye is planning to continue the SynPhilo conferences, trying its best to evolve and grow nationally and internationally, implementing scientists and the public to not limit its eyesight with the results attained in the laboratory. On a wider aspect train ourselves to look at general situations from different points of view. To begin our future plans we booked an appointment with Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sinan Canan who is greatly popular with his captivating conferences such as [N]Brain. We discussed our ideas and noted his advises and was honoured upon his offer of collaborating with him on our next conference.