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| - | == Responsible Research and Innovation Report ==
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| - | <p>
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| - | To understand and comprehend what RRI actually means, we have written our own report about what is exactly means. In this report, which you can find and
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| - | download at the bottom of this page, explores the meaning of RRI in Science in general, in Synthetic Biology and the implications it can have in the iGEM
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| - | competition.
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| - | <h2>How do you choose your research topic?</h2>
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| - | </p>
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| - | In relation to what RRI really is, we thought that asking scientists could be an interesting view of reality. RRI defends the constant dialogue between
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| - | science and society. But do scientists really listen to what our society needs? We contacted hundreds of scientists from all over the world and from all
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| - | branches with one simple question: how do you choose your research topic? We sadly concluded that personal interest is the main factor when they have to
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| - | decide about their research topic. For further conclusions and more details, we invite you to have a look at our survey, which is included in our RRI
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| - | report that can be downloaded.
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| - | </p>
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| - | <h2><i>Ten Tales on Synthetic Biology</i></h2>
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| - | </p>
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| - | <p>
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| - | Responsible Research and Innovation mainly defends the need to study society’s necessities. However, that is not all. It also focuses on the fact that
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| - | scientists have to be critical and judge their own work to see if it is actually useful for society. RRI defends the auto examination of one’s own
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| - | attitude. Scientists must be aware of the power they hold in their hands and the importance of using it in a cautious way.
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| - | </p>
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| - | In this context, an idea came up: why don’t we examine our <i>own</i> points of view? Are we really aware of the power we are <i>playing</i> with? Has the <i>rest of society</i> even considered the power science has? With these questions in mind, we thought of a special way of combining both things; our
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| - | self-criticism along with attracting society’s attention. And this is how <b><i>Ten Tales on Synthetic Biology</i></b><i> </i>was born.
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| - | </p>
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| - | <p>
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| - | Our team was divided randomly into two groups, with 5 members each. The first group was assigned to think about positive stories about how Synthetic
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| - | Biology could save the world. The other group had to give ideas for stories where Synthetic Biology completely destroyed the world we would someday live
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| - | in. Two different visions of the same problem. The two sides of the same coin.
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| - | </p>
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| - | <p>
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| - | The aim of this task was that each member had to put him or herself in the best or worst scenario. With this, every student had to consider the importance
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| - | and power of Synthetic Biology. Giving the idea was the way each person had to think about all the possibilities science could offer. However, the fact
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| - | that we decided to develop a book was not just a matter of creating something visually appealing for the competition. We thought it would be a nice and
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| - | original idea so that everyone could reflect on all the possibilities science has, and more particularly, Synthetic Biology. Writing a book with 10 short
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| - | stories is a way to get to the greatest number of people in a variety of conditions. iGEM teams usually give conferences or go to schools to try and show
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| - | children the importance and interest in science. Nevertheless, our aim was different. Our idea was that adults should be the ones who actually thought
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| - | about the impact science has in our daily lives. And not only scientists or people in related professions. The book is thought for all kinds of people,
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| - | because every person forms part of society. Reading two different points of view in the same book seemed like the right way to make people think about its
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| - | impact. Even though it were just a little moment before they went to sleep.
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| - | </p>
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| - | <p>
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| - | The objective of this book was that the team members considered and studied all the power Science is capable of controlling and that everyone that reads
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| - | these stories takes just a few minutes out of their busy lives to think about the possibilities Science holds. We wanted to raise awareness of the positive
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| - | and negative consequences Science can have. But most importantly, show all types of people, including scientists, the importance of responsible research.
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| - | </p>
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| - | <p>
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| - | The conclusions that are deduced from this study depend on each one of you. You can download the book for free and draw your own conclusions!
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| - | </p>
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