Team:UIUC Illinois/Practices

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Overview

The ethics of synthetic biology is an extremely slippery slope and requires an immense amount of discussion. Craig Venter about 5 years ago created the first self replicating synthetic genome out of a bacteria cell. This was a tremendous feat of science but also made the public reevaluate the ethics of synthetic biology. We must identify if the benefit of such technology surpasses the risk of it as well.

Synthetic biology offers the possibility of making technological innovation accessible to a diversity of people. Our project, for example, aims to develop a tool that can monitor something as simple as heavy metal pollution levels in groundwater by using an intelligently designed bio-sensing apparatus. As many teams before us have suggested, biosensors could be a low cost alternative to more expensive technology needed in developing nations. In short, our technology has the opportunity to impact a diverse group of people holding varying cultural, religious, and educational backgrounds. As scientists, it is not only our obligation to develop this technology but to communicate our findings to the public. Unfortunately, a lot of synthetic biology applications have poor public perception, and we must take responsibility for this and attempt to reverse these attitudes.

Public Engagement

Our team organized a community discussion on GMO’s with university students. Our goal was to address the social stigma behind genetically modified food by presenting the scientific facts while also engaging with people directly about their opinions on the practice. Our program took place in the lounge of a residence hall on campus and lasted an hour. The first ten minutes were dedicated to a presentation on the science of a GMO food. We explained how genetic engineering works, how different organizations define GMO, and how businesses incorporate the synthetic biology practice. The rest of the time was a facilitated discussion. At first people seemed against GMO’s. They weren’t sure why, they just were. This, however, changed. The consensus by the end of the talk was that the ethics behind genetically modifying food is fairly sound. Most people had issues with how businesses were using the science at the expense of farmers.

Our team found the small-scale discussion was effective and left some people with a dramatically different opinion on GMO food. This event matched our philosophy. A lack of education leads to ignorance and ignorance leads to fear. The key to breaking down these barriers is in simply sitting down and having a conversation with someone. In addition, respecting that someone may have religious or cultural opposition to the science you are doing is a huge part of engaging in ethical practice. Instead of writing people off as stupid if they disagree with you, a simple discussion may lead to more productive results. As scientists we have a responsibility to provide the public a transparent explanation of our practices.

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