Team:Chalmers-Gothenburg/Practices
Human Practices
"Human Practices is the study of how your work affects the world, and how the world affects your work" — Peter Carr, Director of Judging, iGEM
Synthetic Biology has great potential to provide breakthroughs as well as substantial benefits for human health, nutrition and sustainable industrial practices. However, as our ability to modifiy DNA and engineer new biological systems grows, so does the concern about the impact that new organisms may have on our environment as well as our health. Although these organisms seem promising to scientists, the acceptance of Synthetic Biology in today's society is dependent on the support of a largely uninformed and cynical public. The public’s concerns for safety and ethics should be heard openly and integrated into Synthetic Biology in the form of discussions and workshops to create a more informed society. Our team members firmly believe that raising public awareness and educating the community about the benefits of Synthetic Biology is crucial to our outreach efforts. In the end, science can only work successfully if it is based on a high level of acceptance in the society. As a team we decided to take a few different approaches to fulfill these goals. We have chosen to focus on three main target groups, that we find important for the future development of synthetic biology; The society, next generation and iGEM community.