SCIENCE IN NORWICH

The signs tell all who enter that Norwich is “A Fine City”. It was in this fine city, on an equally fine day at the end of May (back before the mania of plasmid preps, digests and ligations) that our team first talked to the public as iGEMers.

We had been very kindly invited to take part in the annual “Science in Norwich” day, run by the Science Outreach in Norwich (SOIN) group. “Science in Norwich” is held in the spectacular Forum building, right in the heart of the city. Dozens of teams of scientists from Norwich’s Universities and Scientific Institutions exhibit their work and talk about science to the general public.

It was a fantastic opportunity for us to talk to people about iGEM, synthetic biology and modified starches.

To prepare for conversations about modified starches we set up a display of common products such as glue, paint, paper, yogurts, confectionary and sauces that all contain modified starches. We also made three fun activities for the stand from starch to enable us to talk to a younger audience:

- Gluten-free edible play-doh.

- Cornstarch watercolours.

- Slimey starch bubbles.

The edible play-doh and giant starch bubbles were an instant hit with the kids (the big kids like us included). It was fantastic to see the children enjoying themselves, and learning new things at the same time. We gave out the recipes (see picture) and explained what the starch was doing in each activity.

It was rewarding for us to see how positively science is received by the public, even contentious issues such as genetic modification, when we talk openly about our aims and when it’s demystified.

To be hosted alongside world-class scientists from institutes such as the John Innes Centre and Sainsbury Laboratory was a huge privilege. In a few short weeks our team had gone from sitting in lectures learning about the wonders of science to being part of it!