Difference between revisions of "Team:ASTWS-China/Human Practices"

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        <h1>Human Practices (Silver)</h1>
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        <p>Hangzhou is widely known by water- related UNESCO World Heritages – West Lake and Grand Canal, however, severe water pollution has been received more and more attention in recent years. Another environmental pollution problem that is as important as water is soil pollution, especially heavy metal pollution. Hence, we want to design a operability device to solve the above environmental problems.<br />Our topic inspired by the paper published in Science, 2018, March. It mainly talked about the gene expression of methanobactin which is originated from methanotrophy, which triggers us the idea of using this gene to eliminate the heavy metal (copper) pollution in surrounding environment. </p>
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        <h2>Public Survey</h2>
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        <p>In order to understand the public’s opinion of our project, we first carried out a marketing research with 1000 pieces of surveys handed out. Overall, there is considerably high expectation over our copper-binding product but relatively low awareness over the synthetic biology. More detailed analysis would be displayed for the following.</p>
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<h1>Human Practices</h1>
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        <h3>The impact of heavy metal pollution on the general public’s life</h3>
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At iGEM we believe societal considerations should be upfront and integrated throughout the design and execution of synthetic biology projects. “Human Practices” refers to iGEM teams’ efforts to actively consider how the world affects their work and the work affects the world. Through your Human Practices activities, your team should demonstrate how you have thought carefully and creatively about whether your project is responsible and good for the world. We invite you to explore issues relating (but not limited) to the ethics, safety, security, and sustainability of your project, and to show how this exploration feeds back into your project purpose, design and execution.
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        <p>For the survey, including 1067 recycling questionnaires from16 different regions, we have enough sources to reveal how statistically those heavy metal pollutions jeopardize our environment and economics. According to the results of questionnaires, we found that the impact of heavy metal pollution is impalpable by a large group of people, even people living near industrial districts (Figure 1 and Table 1).</p>
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        <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2018/f/f9/T--ASTWS-China--Table1_%26_Figure1_-_Silver_HP.jpg">
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<p>For more information, please see the <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Human_Practices">Human Practices Hub</a>. There you will find:</p>
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        <p id="annotation">Table 1 and Figure 1(in one figure)</p>
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        <p>However, when the question focus on “food safety induced by soil pollution”, it is astonishing that with more than half of the informants are “very anxious” towards the issue of food safety (Figure 2) (85.5% of the informants are either very serious or serious about the food safety issue), unlike our expectation which their life will also be largely affected by “soil pollution”, they are way less serious about that issue.</p>
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<li> an <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Human_Practices/Introduction">introduction</a> to Human Practices at iGEM </li>
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<li>tips on <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Human_Practices/How_to_Succeed">how to succeed</a> including explanations of judging criteria and advice about how to conduct and document your Human Practices work</li>
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<li>descriptions of <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Human_Practices/Examples">exemplary work</a> to inspire you</li>
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<li>links to helpful <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Human_Practices/Resources">resources</a></li>
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        <p id="annotation">Figure 2</p>
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<li>And more! </li>
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        <p>It could be reasonably argued that people are more attentive towards the food problem that is directly relative to the health problem than soil pollution problem which is more distant. But generally, they are concern about soil pollution by heavy metal as a whole. <b>And thanks to the issue and their concerns, the outlook of our project seams bright.</b></p>
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        <h3>Concerns (expectation) over the biological products</h3>
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        <p>However, as a new form of purging product, the biological method to decompose soil pollution will probably be resisted by consumers. Based on our research, we could conclude several reasons why the consumers would have negative attitude to ameliorate polluted soil by biological methods.</p>
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        <p><b>The imparted micro-organisms may be unmanageable.</b></p>
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        <p>As shown in Figure 3, about 26.3% informants fear that those micro-organisms would remain in the soil (or water) and then be indirectly brought into our human body, causing unpredictable disease.</p>
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<p>On this page, your team should document all of your Human Practices work and activities. You should write about the Human Practices topics you considered in your project, document any activities you conducted to explore these topics (such as engaging with experts and stakeholders), describe why you took a particular approach (including referencing any work you built upon), and explain if and how you integrated takeaways from your Human Practices work back into your project purpose, design and/or execution. </p>
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        <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2018/1/1d/T--ASTWS-China--Figure_3_-_Silver_HP.jpg">
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<p>If your team has gone above and beyond in work related to safety, then you should document this work on your Safety wiki page and provide a description and link on this page. If your team has developed education and public engagement efforts that go beyond a focus on your particular project, and for which would like to nominate your team for the Best Education and Public Engagement Special Prize, you should document this work on your Education and Education wiki page and provide a description and link here. </p>
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        <p id="annotation">Figure 3</p>
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        <p><b>Even if the product does ameliorate the soil, people fear that there are insalubrious micro-organisms remaining in the soil, leading to further new pollution (Figure 4).</b></p>
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<p>The iGEM judges will review this page to assess whether you have met the Silver and/or Gold medal requirements based on the Integrated Human Practices criteria listed below. If you nominate your team for the <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Judging/Awards">Best Integrated Human Practices Special Prize</a> by filling out the corresponding field in the <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Judging/Judging_Form">judging form</a>, the judges will also review this page to consider your team for that prize.
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        <p id="annotation">Figure 4</p>
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        <p>To sum up, according to the results mentioned above, the core issue of public concern is not the new method itself, but the unknown harm and actual effect that new method or things may bring. Realizing this point, we have improved the project from the following two aspects.</p>
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        <p><b><i>1. Public Science Activities</i></b></p>
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        <p>Against insufficient public understanding of synthetic biology and gene erringeering, our team organized four public science events at Hangzhou Low Carbon Science and Technology Museum (China), Zhejiang Science and Technology Museum as well as Zhejiang Museum of Natural History, Ningbo Foreign Language School.</p>
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        <p>In AST Space activity, at least 6 iGEM teams participated in the provincial science and Technology Museum activity. We take children to play games which help them to touch base with the science like we led them to finish the extraction of artificial colors. We also give a speech on the stage to summary the project of each team and its contribution to society. Moreover, we brought out two education lectures about metal contamination and synthetic biology in the main hall of Zhejiang Natural Museum. For both lectures, around fifty audiences participate to the lecture. The first part of the lecture explained the destruction of metal contamination and how our product can solve it. The second disseminates the basics about synthetic biology and genome biology. Moreover, we set out an experiment for banana DNA extraction which helps to support the participants to understand. In Hangzhou Low Carbon Science &amp; Technology Museum of China we educate the public on the benefits of a low carbon lifestyle and provides space for exhibitions relating to science and technology. ASTWS-China worked in conjunction with the Museum, as well as three other IGEM teams, on a public engagement event. Eventually, three events ended consummately and successfully.</p>
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<h3>Silver Medal Criterion #3</h3>
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<p>Convince the judges you have thought carefully and creatively about whether your work is responsible and good for the world. Document how you have investigated these issues and engaged with your relevant communities, why you chose this approach, and what you have learned. Please note that surveys will not fulfill this criteria unless you follow scientifically valid methods. </p>
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        <p><b><i>2. Adjust our proposal</i></b></p>
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        <p>We adjust our project in several ways in response to these concerns. For example, the strain selection of engineered microorganism, additional design of self-suicide parts, and so on. See the “<a href="https://2018.igem.org/Team:ASTWS-China/Integrated_Human_Practice">Integrated HP</a>” part for the details.</p>
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<h3>Gold Medal Criterion #1</h3>
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<p>Expand on your silver medal activity by demonstrating how you have integrated the investigated issues into the purpose, design and/or execution of your project. Document how your project has changed based upon your human practices work.
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<h3>Best Integrated Human Practices Special Prize</h3>
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<p>To compete for the Best Integrated Human Practices prize, please describe your work on this page and also fill out the description on the judging form. </p>
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<p>How does your project affect society and how does society influence the direction of your project? How might ethical considerations and stakeholder input guide your project purpose and design and the experiments you conduct in the lab? How does this feedback enter into the process of your work all through the iGEM competition? Document a thoughtful and creative approach to exploring these questions and how your project evolved in the process to compete for this award!</p>
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<p>You must also delete the message box on the top of this page to be eligible for this prize.</p>
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Revision as of 13:16, 16 October 2018

Human Practices (Silver)

Hangzhou is widely known by water- related UNESCO World Heritages – West Lake and Grand Canal, however, severe water pollution has been received more and more attention in recent years. Another environmental pollution problem that is as important as water is soil pollution, especially heavy metal pollution. Hence, we want to design a operability device to solve the above environmental problems.
Our topic inspired by the paper published in Science, 2018, March. It mainly talked about the gene expression of methanobactin which is originated from methanotrophy, which triggers us the idea of using this gene to eliminate the heavy metal (copper) pollution in surrounding environment.

Public Survey

In order to understand the public’s opinion of our project, we first carried out a marketing research with 1000 pieces of surveys handed out. Overall, there is considerably high expectation over our copper-binding product but relatively low awareness over the synthetic biology. More detailed analysis would be displayed for the following.

The impact of heavy metal pollution on the general public’s life

For the survey, including 1067 recycling questionnaires from16 different regions, we have enough sources to reveal how statistically those heavy metal pollutions jeopardize our environment and economics. According to the results of questionnaires, we found that the impact of heavy metal pollution is impalpable by a large group of people, even people living near industrial districts (Figure 1 and Table 1).

Table 1 and Figure 1(in one figure)

However, when the question focus on “food safety induced by soil pollution”, it is astonishing that with more than half of the informants are “very anxious” towards the issue of food safety (Figure 2) (85.5% of the informants are either very serious or serious about the food safety issue), unlike our expectation which their life will also be largely affected by “soil pollution”, they are way less serious about that issue.

Figure 2

It could be reasonably argued that people are more attentive towards the food problem that is directly relative to the health problem than soil pollution problem which is more distant. But generally, they are concern about soil pollution by heavy metal as a whole. And thanks to the issue and their concerns, the outlook of our project seams bright.

Concerns (expectation) over the biological products

However, as a new form of purging product, the biological method to decompose soil pollution will probably be resisted by consumers. Based on our research, we could conclude several reasons why the consumers would have negative attitude to ameliorate polluted soil by biological methods.

The imparted micro-organisms may be unmanageable.

As shown in Figure 3, about 26.3% informants fear that those micro-organisms would remain in the soil (or water) and then be indirectly brought into our human body, causing unpredictable disease.

Figure 3

Even if the product does ameliorate the soil, people fear that there are insalubrious micro-organisms remaining in the soil, leading to further new pollution (Figure 4).

Figure 4

To sum up, according to the results mentioned above, the core issue of public concern is not the new method itself, but the unknown harm and actual effect that new method or things may bring. Realizing this point, we have improved the project from the following two aspects.

1. Public Science Activities

Against insufficient public understanding of synthetic biology and gene erringeering, our team organized four public science events at Hangzhou Low Carbon Science and Technology Museum (China), Zhejiang Science and Technology Museum as well as Zhejiang Museum of Natural History, Ningbo Foreign Language School.

In AST Space activity, at least 6 iGEM teams participated in the provincial science and Technology Museum activity. We take children to play games which help them to touch base with the science like we led them to finish the extraction of artificial colors. We also give a speech on the stage to summary the project of each team and its contribution to society. Moreover, we brought out two education lectures about metal contamination and synthetic biology in the main hall of Zhejiang Natural Museum. For both lectures, around fifty audiences participate to the lecture. The first part of the lecture explained the destruction of metal contamination and how our product can solve it. The second disseminates the basics about synthetic biology and genome biology. Moreover, we set out an experiment for banana DNA extraction which helps to support the participants to understand. In Hangzhou Low Carbon Science & Technology Museum of China we educate the public on the benefits of a low carbon lifestyle and provides space for exhibitions relating to science and technology. ASTWS-China worked in conjunction with the Museum, as well as three other IGEM teams, on a public engagement event. Eventually, three events ended consummately and successfully.

2. Adjust our proposal

We adjust our project in several ways in response to these concerns. For example, the strain selection of engineered microorganism, additional design of self-suicide parts, and so on. See the “Integrated HP” part for the details.