Team:Cambridge/Human Practices

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(Applications)
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Human practises encompasses the social ethical and legal considerations of our work. We imagined how our particular project might impact on peoples lives as well as thinking about the wider issues of the way we practise our science and share our findings. To help publicise our conclusions we produced a short video summarising the arguments for openness in research.
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Human practises encompasses the social ethical and legal considerations of our work. We imagined how our particular project might impact on peoples lives as well as thinking about the wider issues of the way we practise our science and share our findings. To help publicise our conclusions we produced a [http://cambridgeigem.org/video2.php?nojs=true short video] summarising the arguments for openness in research.
==Futures==
==Futures==
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Our thoughts on using biological light sources led us to consider the concept of sustainability. Would our lighting be more sustainable and environmentally friendly than conventional devices? Were might it be useful? Bioluminescence is 'cold light' and much more efficient than conventional lighting. Despite this we find it unlikely that bioluminescence would completely replace current lighting and instead considered it's applications in remote off grid areas or complementing existing sources. Our biological systems would require only a chemical fuel source so would not be dependant on the electrical grid. Perhaps this fuel could come from waste products be that human waste or food waste. If a photosynthetic organism such as a suitable alga species was used then additional energy could be harnessed from sunlight. We might imagine a system where a bioreactor in the roof of a house - supplied with leftover foodstuffs - could pipe glowing algae through the rooms of the house during the night and across the roof during the day. We also considered the exciting prospect of bioluminescent trees lighting our roads and produced a 3D model of what this might look like as well as researching the [https://2010.igem.org/Team:Cambridge/Tools/Lighting feasibility] of such a project.
Our thoughts on using biological light sources led us to consider the concept of sustainability. Would our lighting be more sustainable and environmentally friendly than conventional devices? Were might it be useful? Bioluminescence is 'cold light' and much more efficient than conventional lighting. Despite this we find it unlikely that bioluminescence would completely replace current lighting and instead considered it's applications in remote off grid areas or complementing existing sources. Our biological systems would require only a chemical fuel source so would not be dependant on the electrical grid. Perhaps this fuel could come from waste products be that human waste or food waste. If a photosynthetic organism such as a suitable alga species was used then additional energy could be harnessed from sunlight. We might imagine a system where a bioreactor in the roof of a house - supplied with leftover foodstuffs - could pipe glowing algae through the rooms of the house during the night and across the roof during the day. We also considered the exciting prospect of bioluminescent trees lighting our roads and produced a 3D model of what this might look like as well as researching the [https://2010.igem.org/Team:Cambridge/Tools/Lighting feasibility] of such a project.
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We also considered the prospect of using our light production in [[https://2010.igem.org/Team:Cambridge/Tools/microMeasure biosensors]] after a talk from [http://practicalaction.org/blog/author/djg/ David Grimshaw] of Practical Action. Dr. Grimshaw has worked with the issues of contamination of water sources with arsenic in Bangladesh and mercury in Nepal. He informed us that local people wished for a portable device that was easy to use such that testing of wells could be performed by members of the community and a quantitative digital readout would be preferable. Light production as an output of a biological circuit could be detected by a sensor in an electrical system to give a digital readout. Our biobricks could bridge the gap between biological and electrical circuits. Further investigation into the practicalities of this led to the development of the [https://2010.igem.org/Team:Cambridge/Tools/Eglometer E.glometer]
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We also considered the prospect of using our light production in [https://2010.igem.org/Team:Cambridge/Tools/microMeasure biosensors] after a talk from [http://practicalaction.org/blog/author/djg/ David Grimshaw] of Practical Action. Dr. Grimshaw has worked with the issues of contamination of water sources with arsenic in Bangladesh and mercury in Nepal. He informed us that local people wished for a portable device that was easy to use such that testing of wells could be performed by members of the community and a quantitative digital readout would be preferable. Light production as an output of a biological circuit could be detected by a sensor in an electrical system to give a digital readout. Our biobricks could bridge the gap between biological and electrical circuits. Further investigation into the practicalities of this led to the development of the [https://2010.igem.org/Team:Cambridge/Tools/Eglometer E.glometer]
==Knowledge Recycling==
==Knowledge Recycling==
''"He who receives an idea from me receives it without lessening me, as he who lights his candle at mine receives light without darkening me."'' – Thomas Jefferson
''"He who receives an idea from me receives it without lessening me, as he who lights his candle at mine receives light without darkening me."'' – Thomas Jefferson
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Sustainability considerations in designing our system also led us to consider the sustainability of the way we conduct our research. The theme of recycling echoed strongly throughout or project due to the desire to recycle luciferin substrate in project firefly and more generally with considerations of minimising the environmental impact of our work. Recycling of physical materials is vital for sustainability but do we treat our intellectual property in the same way? Do we give the ideas we have the maximum chance of being taken forward and used to promote further thought rather than reaching intellectual dead ends? And what can we do to maximise knowledge recycling?
Sustainability considerations in designing our system also led us to consider the sustainability of the way we conduct our research. The theme of recycling echoed strongly throughout or project due to the desire to recycle luciferin substrate in project firefly and more generally with considerations of minimising the environmental impact of our work. Recycling of physical materials is vital for sustainability but do we treat our intellectual property in the same way? Do we give the ideas we have the maximum chance of being taken forward and used to promote further thought rather than reaching intellectual dead ends? And what can we do to maximise knowledge recycling?
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After coming to these conclusions from our discussions we made sure we conducted our research in the light of these ideas. We got our Wiki up as early as possible with our aims and ideas and kept the online lab book updated with our ongoing research. We always endeavoured to be open and honest about exactly the protocols we were using and what results they gave. The [https://2010.igem.org/Team:UNAM-Genomics_Mexico UNAM Genomics, Mexico] team contacted us because of the information on our Wiki and we were able to collaborate with them and help them with part of their project. We were also able to have useful discussions with the [https://2010.igem.org/Team:Edinburgh Edinburgh] team based on information we read on each other’s Wikis. From our thoughts about sharing our findings we decided that we should put effort into publicising our science. Our project will be featured on a documentary to be broadcast on [http://www.arte.tv/fr/70.html ARTE] which will bring a better understanding of synthetic biology to the general public. We also wanted to get a message across to the scientific community; the [https://2010.igem.org/Team:Cambridge/Gibson/Introduction Gibson assembly] technique which we performed frequently is not as widely used as we believe it could be so we chose this to publicise and produced a [https://2010.igem.org/Team:Cambridge/Videos music video] to do so. The song has over 3000 views so far and researchers have contacted us for more information about our experience with the technique.
After coming to these conclusions from our discussions we made sure we conducted our research in the light of these ideas. We got our Wiki up as early as possible with our aims and ideas and kept the online lab book updated with our ongoing research. We always endeavoured to be open and honest about exactly the protocols we were using and what results they gave. The [https://2010.igem.org/Team:UNAM-Genomics_Mexico UNAM Genomics, Mexico] team contacted us because of the information on our Wiki and we were able to collaborate with them and help them with part of their project. We were also able to have useful discussions with the [https://2010.igem.org/Team:Edinburgh Edinburgh] team based on information we read on each other’s Wikis. From our thoughts about sharing our findings we decided that we should put effort into publicising our science. Our project will be featured on a documentary to be broadcast on [http://www.arte.tv/fr/70.html ARTE] which will bring a better understanding of synthetic biology to the general public. We also wanted to get a message across to the scientific community; the [https://2010.igem.org/Team:Cambridge/Gibson/Introduction Gibson assembly] technique which we performed frequently is not as widely used as we believe it could be so we chose this to publicise and produced a [https://2010.igem.org/Team:Cambridge/Videos music video] to do so. The song has over 3000 views so far and researchers have contacted us for more information about our experience with the technique.
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Many iGEM teams were similarly open with their ideas and results and this helped to foster the culture of collaboration that we believe is important to iGEM. We were however disappointed to see that some teams were less open. Three weeks before the wiki freeze 58 of the 127 teams participating had little more than an abstract on their wiki. This meant we were unable to engage in potentially valuable dialogue because we had little idea about what they were researching. To help encourage future teams and scientists generally to be more open with their work we produced a short video summarising our arguments. Previous iGEM teams have made interesting contributions to the field of human practises which perhaps have not had the desired effect on the way people conduct their science because not enough other scientists have seen them. We hope a short and more light-hearted summary might reach more people and help translate our conclusions into future action.
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Many iGEM teams were similarly open with their ideas and results and this helped to foster the culture of collaboration that we believe is important to iGEM. We were however disappointed to see that some teams were less open. Three weeks before the wiki freeze 58 of the 127 teams participating had little more than an abstract on their wiki. This meant we were unable to engage in potentially valuable dialogue because we had little idea about what they were researching. To help encourage future teams and scientists generally to be more open with their work we produced a [http://cambridgeigem.org/video2.php?nojs=true short video] summarising our arguments. Previous iGEM teams have made interesting contributions to the field of human practises which perhaps have not had the desired effect on the way people conduct their science because not enough other scientists have seen them. We hope a short and more light-hearted summary might reach more people and help translate our conclusions into future action.
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Latest revision as of 03:45, 28 October 2010