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From 2010.igem.org

Publicity Campaign: Overview

Combining the efforts of our wet lab and modelling sections, we've managed to create a fully functioning prototype for a soil nutrient indicator. We recognise a responsibility to consider the implications of what we've done: what we have created, how it could be used or misused and how people might react. As a result, we’ve analysed the wealth of information that has been collected by iGEM teams on public perception, and built up a picture of some of the issues involved with public information and perception.

Our novel response to this information is our method of presentation: a publicity campaign. By presenting our prototype as a functioning and marketable product, we've framed a hypothetical situation in which our project could be released. The aim is to make synthetic biology research accessible and tangible to the public by presenting the product as something that could be used near to them: affecting their lives. By presenting the motivation and potential uses for our research, as well as further sources of information, we hope to more constructively engage people with something they can relate to and imagine, rather than by using abstract descriptions of our research.

From early on in next year's competition, there is scope for a wide collaboration - to produce many such leaflets or trade posters to advertise the motivations and applications of many iGEM projects. By presenting our research as a real possibility and explaining how it might directly affect peoples' lives, we hope to engage the public in the debate and encourage them to be more scientifically informed.

• Motivation • Product Specification • Public Perception • Materials • Future Work •