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From 2010.igem.org

Emulsifier

Today I completely messed up the experiment. Instead of adding IPTG for the protein production induction, I took X-Gal. Because of this small mistake the cultures turned completely blue! Although X-Gal probably also has some effect on the IPTG inducable promotor we decided that it was useless to continue, because we cannot compare the data anymore. Nothing else left to do than to redo the experiment :(.

"I am blue abedee abedi!"

Human Practice

Today, the S&T event took place in the Science Centre Delft. S & T Academy is a science and technology day at a university full of lectures, tours, workshops and demonstrations around a theme of science and technology, especially for (future) teachers in education. The goal is to inspire and fascinate teachers for the challenging opportunities that science and technology can offer to education.

iGEM together with the Rathenau Instute contributed to this day by giving a workshop. This workshop consists out of two parts. In the first part participants step into the iGEM world. They get the opportinuty to join our team and built their own BioBrick for oil degredation.

There was room for discussion in the second part of the workshop,. It's the opinion of the audience that counts! Who should determine how people deal with this science? The government? Companies? Or society? Do they really think synthetic biology is going to tackle global problems? Or do they consider it to be just a 'hype'.

A firm discussion on the regulation of synthetic biology was born. According to most, the application of this science should not only be in the hands of commerce, but should still be an interesting field of investment. It was also suggested that it was not a good idea to let society judge on its destination. Fear of the unknown is a major challenge for many people. By being afraid of what may or may not happen, people may eliminate new science.