Team:Heidelberg/Outreach

From 2013.igem.org

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                     <div id="publicbox" class="box" data-name="Public outreach" data-desc="Our second pillar is the communication and interaction with the public. We therefore organized three open 30 minutes presentations on synthetic biology and our iGEM project followed by a question and answer session with the audience. More than 100 people from different backgrounds came to this interactive event, where we collected impressions before and after the talk in a “Live-/Life-Experiment” with the audience.<br />
                     <div id="publicbox" class="box" data-name="Public outreach" data-desc="Our second pillar is the communication and interaction with the public. We therefore organized three open 30 minutes presentations on synthetic biology and our iGEM project followed by a question and answer session with the audience. More than 100 people from different backgrounds came to this interactive event, where we collected impressions before and after the talk in a “Live-/Life-Experiment” with the audience.<br />
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We started our presentation with the <b>Life-/Live-Experiment</b>: We distributed questionnaires with three different questions. Before the main part of our talk, the audience was asked to answer only question 1, which was either “What is synthetic biology?” or “What do you think synthetic biology is?” – each person could decide which one accounts better to his or her knowledge on synthetic biology. In our talk, we first gave a brief introduction to synthetic biology. Later, we explained the concept and some projects of the iGEM competition and elaborated further on “The Philosopher’s stone” – our own project. Finally, we gave our personal conclusion and outlook on our future with synthetic biology, i.e. opportunities and risks when implementing synthetic biology further into our lives. Before offering time for questions, we ended our presentation with the second part of our Life-/Live-Experiment. The latter two questions were: “What do you associate with synthetic biology?” and “Which questions remained unanswered?”. Here, we did not want to know, if the audience had listened to what we were presenting, but rather in what way the presentation had changed or broadened their opinion on synthetic biology. We intended to stimulate the communication between “science” and “the public”, but in order to do so, the explanations have to reach a certain level of abstraction in order to allow proper discussion. Receiving this feedback from the audience helped us to improve our way of presenting the project.<br />
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We started our presentation with the <b>Live-Experiment</b>: We distributed questionnaires with three different questions. Before the main part of our talk, the audience was asked to answer only question 1, which was either “What is synthetic biology?” or “What do you think synthetic biology is?” – each person could decide which one accounts better to his or her knowledge on synthetic biology. In our talk, we first gave a brief introduction to synthetic biology. Later, we explained the concept and some projects of the iGEM competition and elaborated further on “The Philosopher’s stone” – our own project. Finally, we gave our personal conclusion and outlook on our future with synthetic biology, i.e. opportunities and risks when implementing synthetic biology further into our lives. Before offering time for questions, we ended our presentation with the second part of our Life-/Live-Experiment. The latter two questions were: “What do you associate with synthetic biology?” and “Which questions remained unanswered?”. Here, we did not want to know, if the audience had listened to what we were presenting, but rather in what way the presentation had changed or broadened their opinion on synthetic biology. We intended to stimulate the communication between “science” and “the public”, but in order to do so, the explanations have to reach a certain level of abstraction in order to allow proper discussion. Receiving this feedback from the audience helped us to improve our way of presenting the project.<br />
After our talk, many questions were addressed, concerning both the principles of synthetic biology in general and the ones of NRPS in particular. However, the vast majority of questions was not about understanding the biology behind “The Philosopher’s Stone”, but rather about the potential of synthetic biology and the concerns our audience had. Hence, the discussions following the presentations were highly interesting and offered valuable input for us, as we could feel that the major concerns of people are based on the fact that synthetic biology, for them, is a black-box. Our task as young researchers is to bring light to the darkness, open the box and show society that synthetic biology – strongly abstracted – is building, not playing, with building bricks.<br />
After our talk, many questions were addressed, concerning both the principles of synthetic biology in general and the ones of NRPS in particular. However, the vast majority of questions was not about understanding the biology behind “The Philosopher’s Stone”, but rather about the potential of synthetic biology and the concerns our audience had. Hence, the discussions following the presentations were highly interesting and offered valuable input for us, as we could feel that the major concerns of people are based on the fact that synthetic biology, for them, is a black-box. Our task as young researchers is to bring light to the darkness, open the box and show society that synthetic biology – strongly abstracted – is building, not playing, with building bricks.<br />
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                     <div id="artbox" class="box" data-name="Artists in the science world" data-desc="Fourthly, we built up a cooperation with the artists participating in the joint project <b><a href='http://notinventedbynature.org/'>“not invented by nature”</a></b> by the <a href='https://www.dkfz.de/en/index.html'>DKFZ</a>, the <a href='http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/index_e.html'>Heidelberg University</a>, the <a href='https://www.life-science-lab.org/cms/'>Heidelberger Life Science Lab</a> as well as the <a href='http://www.uni-weimar.de/en/university/start/'>Bauhaus University Weimar</a>. <b>One may ask what art and synthetic biology have in common.</b> To answer this question is the very aim of this cooperation. The visiting artists were introduced to basic methods in synthetic biology such as working with bacteria and mammalian cells, cloning DNA, protein expression and analytical evaluation of their results by e.g. microscopy and gel-electrophoresis. After an introductory lab-course, they plan to work in our lab, gain experiences and work on their exhibits. Discussion rounds and mutual presentations accompany this collaboration.
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                     <div id="artbox" class="box" data-name="Artists in the science world" data-desc="Fourthly, we built up a cooperation with the artists participating in the joint project <b><a href='http://notinventedbynature.org/'>“not invented by nature”</a></b> by the </b><a href='https://www.dkfz.de/en/index.html'>DKFZ</a></b>, the <b><a href='http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/index_e.html'>Heidelberg University</a></b>, the <b><a href='https://www.life-science-lab.org/cms/'>Heidelberger Life Science Lab</a></b> as well as the <b><a href='http://www.uni-weimar.de/en/university/start/'>Bauhaus University Weimar</a></b>. <b>One may ask what art and synthetic biology have in common.</b> To answer this question is the very aim of this cooperation. The visiting artists were introduced to basic methods in synthetic biology such as working with bacteria and mammalian cells, cloning DNA, protein expression and analytical evaluation of their results by e.g. microscopy and gel-electrophoresis. After an introductory lab-course, they plan to work in our lab, gain experiences and work on their exhibits. Discussion rounds and mutual presentations accompany this collaboration.
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We thank the international group of artists, participating in this project: <b><a href='http://c-lab.co.uk/home.html'>Howard Boland</a>, <a href='http://www.johoffmann.com/'>Joanna Hoffmann-Dietrich</a>, <a href='http://jihyunpark.org/'>Ji Hyun Park</a> and <a href='http://www.santosmiguel.com/Site/Welcome.html'>Miguel Santos</a> for their philosophical and creative input</b> and a completely new point of view on synthetic biology which itself can be regarded as artistic: Out of existing small pieces, one creates something synthetic, thus entirely new. This would also implicate that in every project in synthetic biology one can find a piece of its scientific creator, which is, after all, a soothing thought.
We thank the international group of artists, participating in this project: <b><a href='http://c-lab.co.uk/home.html'>Howard Boland</a>, <a href='http://www.johoffmann.com/'>Joanna Hoffmann-Dietrich</a>, <a href='http://jihyunpark.org/'>Ji Hyun Park</a> and <a href='http://www.santosmiguel.com/Site/Welcome.html'>Miguel Santos</a> for their philosophical and creative input</b> and a completely new point of view on synthetic biology which itself can be regarded as artistic: Out of existing small pieces, one creates something synthetic, thus entirely new. This would also implicate that in every project in synthetic biology one can find a piece of its scientific creator, which is, after all, a soothing thought.
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                    Read about Joanna Hoffmann-Dietrich's experience and adaptation of our project.<br /><br />
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Read about Joanna Hoffmann-Dietrich's experience and adaptation of our project:
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<b><a href='http://www.johoffmann.com/philosophers.stone.htm'>NRPSs & Philosophers’ Stone </a></b>
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The project calls attention to ecological and environmental issues. On one hand, it refers to the need of exploitation of natural resources, on the other hand, it underlines the growing problem of technological waste. Advances in synthetic biology depend on technology and it is important that young scientists reflect on this problem. Environmental and ecological aspects of the project surely prove a wider and interdisciplinary way of thinking. 
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One can also point out that the recycled gold may help scientists to finance their research, which in the time of the economic crisis might be worth considering.
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As an artist, I have been especially attracted by the project’s cultural and social contexts. The title of the project “Philosophers’ Stone” not only comprises the idea of changing something of no value (in this case the electronic waste) to something of a big value (gold). It refers to the ever-lasting human endeavors to comprehend the nature and to the tradition in which knowledge (guiding to wisdom) was the highest value.
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The intersection of contemporary scientific practices and their reach cultural contexts became the inspiration for my artistic work.
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Indeed, philosophers’ stone (Latin: <i>lapis philosophorum</i>) is mostly associated with the legendary alchemic substance used for the transmutation of base metals into precious stones: gold or silver. However, for alchemists, the human greed was not the ground for their research. The Greek alchemist, Zosimos qualified the philosophers’ stone as <i>xerion</i> (Arabic. <i>El Iksir</i>, Latin. <i>Elixir</i>). Apart of transmutation, it was supposed to heal all forms of diseases, prolong life, secure agelessness and even immortality. Thus the philosophers’ stone expressed the deepest human desires to control and gain power over natural processes and, ultimately, to conquer the death.
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In many interpretations however, the philosophers’ stone was not a real substance but a metaphor for enlightenment (full comprehension) and knowledge. The search for “philosopher’s stone” was in fact the search for the deeper knowledge and its power. It is worth to underline that lapis philosophorium was not considered as the possession or achievement of a singular scholar but a shared property of those who “love wisdom”.
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Sharing ideas, experience and knowledge is one of the main objectives of the iGEM competition.
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<b>The artistic project</b>
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My “Philosophers’ Stone” is a 3D stereoscopic narrative. In this case, looking through binoculars of  a virtual microscope we do not see bacterium <i>D. acidovorans</i> or <i>E-coli</i>, just as we cannot see molecular processes like synthetases or chelation. Instead we see a cloud of points – pixels of data. Gradually we can recognize a model of  Delftibactine (NRP) in the middle of the cloud . Thus, the isolated peptide suggests to be a part of some larger spatial system. This spatial formation is not static but animated be the movement of water, the metaphor for life. Slowly it changes into a precious and desired gold, a symbol of immortality, excellence, the highest value and beauty. However, the stone turns out to be made of notes, records and drawings accompanying the experimental phase of the scientific project. Slowly, the solid form diffuses itself into particles: dispersed carriers or seeds of information….
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                     Inspiring interaction with artists<br /><br />
                     Inspiring interaction with artists<br /><br />
                     [[Joanna Hoffmann-Dietrich's experience and adaptation| Joanna Hoffmann-Dietrich's experience and adaptation]] of our project. File:IMG_4387.JPG File:IMG_4379.JPG File:IMG_4380.JPG File:IMG_4384.JPG File:IMG_4391.JPG File:IMG_4382.JPG">
                     [[Joanna Hoffmann-Dietrich's experience and adaptation| Joanna Hoffmann-Dietrich's experience and adaptation]] of our project. File:IMG_4387.JPG File:IMG_4379.JPG File:IMG_4380.JPG File:IMG_4384.JPG File:IMG_4391.JPG File:IMG_4382.JPG">

Revision as of 22:01, 4 October 2013

Human Practice

Talk Evening 24th October 2013, 6pm @ BioQuant, Heidelberg

Experts

Prof. Dr. Rainer Zawatzky

Dorothea van Aaken

ABC Unit of German Armed Forces

TBM Edelmetall Recycling
GeneralPublic

Introductory Talks

Secular Humanists
Young Generation

Essay Competition
Art & Science

Not invented by Nature

Project by Joanna

Our project is designed to provide knowledge to a broader spectrum of people by creating a framework for in vivo peptide synthesis by NRPS including a design-tool for customization of the desired peptides. Therefore, we believe that it is of very high priority to inform the public about our project and to receive feedback and personal perceptions from the society. Hence, we build our concept for the interaction with the public upon four pillars: First, interaction and cooperation with experts from multiple scientific fields, second, interaction with the society in general and third, the young generation in particular. Finally, a close cooperation with artists is the fourth pillar. We round off our human practice advance by bringing together these four pillars under the roof of a talk evening on our future with synthetic biology, allowing interaction and discussion among them.

As conclusion, we believe that our Human Practice advance is well-established on different levels of interaction, as we searched the dialogue with various groups within the society. Furthermore, we strongly believe that we could open up people’s minds to synthetic biology and that we were able to clarify several misunderstanding or misconceptions. This impression is not only our belief, but was also the major feedback we received during our work for Human Practices. In addition to that, the exchange of impression was also very valuable for us and the advance within our project: Often the truth is as an object on a round table, if seen from one position it may clearly be identified as one contour, but from another point of view, it may be something completely different. Choosing the dialogue with people from different backgrounds would then be similar to moving around the table and to understand the nature of the object at the center at least a little better.

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