Team:Newcastle/other

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Contents 1 UK iGEM Get Together 1.1 Programme 1.2 Presentation 1.3 Photos 1.3.1 Presentation Photos 1.3.2 Team Photos 1.3.3 Team Building Photos 1.3.4 Random Photos 2 Ethics 2.1 Synthetic Biology: Background 2.1.1 Biohackers 2.1.2 Playing God 2.1.3 Biosecurity

UK iGEM Get Together

Programme

Programme for UK Gathering at Newcastle

Presentation

Our presentation for the Uk get together

Questions asked about our presentation:

1. Would this project require us to change the strength of the filamentous cells in relation to different types of concrete?
2. What is the strength of filamentous cells? How do filamentous cells actually help to fill up the cracks?
3. How can repairing microcracks in concrete help to prevent a building collapsing in an earthquake?

Photos

Presentation Photos

Team Photos

Team Building Photos

Random Photos

Ethics

Synthetic Biology: Background

Synthetic biology is a new research field that has a big potential in coming up with solutions for our everyday life. However, ethical issues have been raised since the start of development in this field. Here we discuss about the ethical issues that our project would bring.

Biohackers

In this field, there are always people that use synthetic biology in a negative aspect, like producing pathogens to be used as weapons to kill. They hack into systems to obtain data that might be useful for their research to aid in their work. Therefore, we have to be very careful with the products of our research so that they remain safe in our hands.

Playing God

In synthetic biology, we control the lives of bacteria. We insert proteins into bacteria to quote for everything that we want them to do. We make them kill themselves at the end of their job because they might be released into the environment and be harmful to other living things. It shows that we do not really treat the single-celled organism as life. However, we are coming up with a novel solution for the environment by healing concrete cracks.

Biosecurity

Bacteria might be harmful to the environment and living things around. Considering the fact that they are such small organisms and could not be spotted with the naked-eye if they are released in air, we make them kill themselves with the ‘kill switch’ biobrick. This can be very inconsiderate standing in a bacteria’s point of view, but it is the novel thing to do to avoid them hurting other living organisms.