iGEM focuses on science, but also encompasses community outreach, communication, representation and last but not least, fun in the lab. All this is often communicated best with visual impressions. Several team wikis feature great photos, but some of them are hard to find. Therefore, we thought it would be best to bundle them and highlight the best ones to maximize impact. This is why we started an iGEM photo-contest: The Cuckoo Clock Competition. As the name implies, the first prize is an original Cuckoo Clock typical for the gorgeous Black Forest surrounding Freiburg. All teams are cordially invited to participate! Please send your pictures of choice representing your team, project, spirit or fun in the lab along with a short description to our e-mail address:    igem.freiburg.2010@googlemail.com
Your pictures will be uploaded to the competition webpage as soon as we get them. In addition, we will send you a participation badge for your team wiki. A judging committee consisting of members from three different iGEM teams will vote for the winner picture. The team with the best picture will receive our amazing Cuckoo Clock in Boston at the socializing event on Sunday. So put your stressful projects aside for a few minutes and take the fun part!
Looking forward to meeting you in Boston.

Cheers,
The iGEM team Freiburg 2010

This picture shows "Kimwipes table tennis".
It is Scientific sports which only needs things existing in a laboratory. Therefore we can play it easily. This is the best diversion for scientists to take a rest, however, you must be careful about instruments on the table.

Six soldiers who guard our safety and peace in the labolatory

Material: E-flask with unidentified liquid, one Flute (Pearl), big book, camera (Nikon), projector (Sony) and one Homo sapiens.

Methods: Pictures were taken at evenly spaced angles and processed. A 5-fold increase in awesomeness was improved using Adobe Photoshop.

Results: We have illustrated the free spirit of research at Stockholm University

Standing tall for life, liberty and the pursuit of synthetic biology,
We give our pipettes, our test tubes,
Our huddled masses of bacteria yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of our teeming Petri dishes.
We lift our lamps beside the golden door to the future.

Picture 1 (Ernesto): Surprised in the Lab, a little bit of eyes.

Picture 2 (Natasha & Ernesto): Team Panama is a great family but Natasha and Ernesto are the blood brothers of Team Panama... working in synthetic biology and in Hair cut!!!

Picture 3 (Ernesto & Natasha): After a tedious DNA miniprep and a frustrating electrophoresis, the micropipete gun appears!!!

Picture 4 (Carol & Nicole): I told you that I want to perform the DNA extraction!

Picture 5 (This is it?) This is it?

The "ByeByeBiobricks"-Party:
Find the pipette tips!

Don’t allow electrophoresis gel hogs the limelight! Transillumination camera is able to catch your best smile. Those pictures were taken in the middle of August, when we would love some vacations. Ps: Our Wet Lab Leader told us the transillumination camera secret.

Our long term goals are to develop plant biosensors that reliably measure changes in the local environment. In the process of developing biosensors, the 2010 Nevada iGEM Team need to develop fundamental promoters, reporters, and plasmids for plants. Therefore, the 2010 Nevada iGEM Team has three goals for this year’s competition. First, we are going to test the validity of utilizing Nicotiana tabacum (NT cells) as a model for the expression of higher plant genes for future iGEM competitions. NT cells are a faster, cheaper, and safer model than traditional plant transformation. These cells can therefore be utilized as a quick proof-of-concept test model before moving synthetic constructs into plants of interest. We also aim to produce an iGEM-compatible plant-specific plasmid, several stress-inducible plant promoters, reporter genes containing Kozak sequences (ribosome binding sites) and terminators that conform to BioBrick standards. Lastly, we hope to measure the induction of these stress promoters in real-time by performing a fluorometry assay in which stress will be applied to NT cells and fluorescent output by a reporter (GFP) will be measured to detail induction in real time. This method has a distinct advantage over microarrays since microarrays are only one ‘snapshot’ in time.