Difference between revisions of "Team:Dalhousie/HP/Silver"

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</br></br></br><center><h2><font color= "#C1D35D">Researching companies</font></h2></center></br></br>
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<h1><font color= "#C1D35D">Sample Questions and Results</font></h1></br></br>
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      There are five major biofuel companies in Canada each doing something slightly
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different. Here are summaries of those five major companies.</br></br>
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Iogen Corporation is one of the longest withstanding biofuel companies in Canada. They
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were founded in 1975, in East Ottawa, and have been producing cellulosic ethanol since 2004.
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They focus on plant fiber and enzymatic hydrolysis in order to produce a dilute ethanol stream,
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which is further concentrated to commercial-grade fuel.</br></br>
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The St. Clair ethanol plant from Suncor Company, has been producing 400 million tons
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of biofuel per year. This facility in the Sarnia-Lambton region has been running since 2006, and
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it has been named the largest ethanol plant in Canada. Suncor uses corn fiber to produce their
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strain of ethanol. They have partnered with Petro-Canada to blend their ethanol with Petro-
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Canada’s gasoline. Although this does not diminish greenhouse gases completely, the use of
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blended ethanol-gasoline fuel has been reported to reduce CO 2 emissions by up to 300,000 tons
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per year.</br></br>
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Evoleum Biofuel is located in Saint-Jean- sur-Richelieu, Quebec. It is a major producer
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for biofuels from second generation raw material. At Evoleum, the second generation materials
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used are exclusively vegetable oil. They have created 95% biodegradable biodiesel, that
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produces no greenhouse gas emission. Since 2010, the use of the recycled materials for biofuel
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in Montreal, from Evoleum, showed a decrease of 4.8 cents a liter on biodiesel.</br></br>
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In Nova Scotia, the CelluFuel Company uses low-value wood fiber to convert into
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renewable diesel. They receive their wood fiber from Freeman’s Lumber in Greenfield, Nova
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Scotia. The wood fiber undergoes a series of catalytic induced depolymerisation’s to produce
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the renewable diesel. Today, CelluFuel is currently in its demonstration phase, and once they
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have successfully completed this project they will begin producing commercial-grade fuel.  </br></br>
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Another upcoming company for biofuel production in Canada, is Woodland Biofuel,
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Incorporation. They are currently in their demonstrative phase with their start up plant located
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in Sarnia, Ontario. Woodland is interested in cellulosic ethanol production, using agriculture
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and forestry waste. The President, Greg Nuttal, states that it will be one of the lowest fuel
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productive costs, not just for ethanol but other fuel industries, including gasoline. He suggests
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the company will produce 200 million gallons per year. As of now, this company is looking into
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another plant location in Merritt, British Columbia.</br></br>
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Clearly biofuel production is a popular industry sector with each of the aforementioned
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companies carving out a particular niche for themselves. We believe that in this competitive
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field, our project could have potential to hold its own. Firstly, our project would utilize
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cellulose-containing waste from various industries and therefore our feedstock substrate would
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not be limited to one particular area. This could be important in the future when certain
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resources become scarce. As long as our substrate contained cellulose we could convert it!
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Secondly, these companies still seem dependent on chemicals, water, or heat to aid in the
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production process. Our project would utilize the enzymatic capabilities of microorganisms to
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convert cellulose into glucose. Furthermore, we could modify this process to enhance for
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production, for example, by modifying our organism. While we are a while away from making a
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name for ourselves in the Canadian biofuel game, we have found our own niche within the
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market.</br></br>
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</br></br></br><center><h2><font color= "#C1D35D">Presenting</font></h2></color></center></br></br>
 
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      We did not want our research to only reach the eyes and ears of those partaking in
 
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iGEM, therefore we practised tailoring our project description for different members of the
 
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community. When writing these “elevator pitches” we were surprised to discover how difficult
 
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it can be to modify language to fit the audience. Children in particular were a difficult group to
 
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target as they could have varying degrees of understanding and varying interest levels. Writing
 
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pitches for discussions with companies and financial supporters was easier because the
 
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objective of the talk was clear: how can we demonstrate to companies that we are worth
 
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investing in? We ended up using many of these “elevator pitches” in our outreach events as
 
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well as when talking to potential financial supporters. Here are a few examples of those pitches.</br></br>
 
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Media: Story Oriented</br>
 
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The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) is a global initiative that aims
 
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to get students tackling real world problems using synthetic biology. Competitors get to choose
 
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which problem to address. We wanted to focus our project on something that was close to
 
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home, yet could also have a big impact. One of our first ideas was to develop an easier way to
 
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make biofuel. While this idea is not particularly novel, we managed to put our own spin on it.
 
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We’re creating biofuel from forestry waste. Why? The forestry industry is a major source of
 
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cellulose waste. Cellulose can actually be converted into ethanol -- which is a potent biofuel.
 
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There are already ways to convert cellulose into ethanol but they are not exactly efficient. After
 
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a lot of research, we think we have found a way to make the conversion process more efficient.
 
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Lots of animals eat wood and they have to digest it somehow, right? Most animals can’t
 
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do this themselves and instead rely on bacterial enzymes found in their gut to help them. One
 
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of these animals is the porcupine. We decided to take the cellulose-degrading enzymes from
 
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one of the porcupine gut bacteria to see if we could make it work for us. In the future we are
 
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going to try to streamline the process so that we can make large amounts of ethanol in an
 
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efficient, waste-free way. We’ve been working throughout the whole summer to make this
 
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happen, and are now getting ready to present our research at the global iGEM conference in
 
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Boston. In front of a global audience we will be the only team representing Atlantic Canada!</br>
 
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The message: Team of undergraduate students participating in an international competition in
 
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which they are developing a novel biofuel production system.</br>
 
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Technical difficulty: Limited scientific jargon, accessible to a general audience.</br>
 
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Corporations: Economically Oriented</br></br>
 
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iGEM is a global initiative encouraging students to use synthetic biology to solve real
 
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world problems. Our project tackles two major problems facing Atlantic Canada: sustainable
 
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fuel and forestry waste. We’re using synthetic biology to convert cellulose waste from the
 
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forestry industry into ethanol, a potent biofuel. Our team is comprised of eager and passionate
 
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undergraduate students and graduate mentors from all disciplines. iGEM is currently the only
 
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opportunity in Atlantic Canada for students to obtain hands on synthetic biology research
 
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experience. We’ll be traveling to Boston in November to represent Atlantic Canada at the 2017
 
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iGEM jamboree where we will be presenting our findings to researchers, corporations, and
 
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students from around the world.</br>
 
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The message: Our project tackles two issues for Atlantic Canada and could offer an
 
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economically viable solution. Furthermore, students part of iGEM have training that is not
 
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found elsewhere in the province.</br>
 
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Technical difficulty: Limited scientific jargon. Very short and concise.</br></br>
 
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A 6-Year Old: Fun Oriented</br>
 
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Within your stomach are millions of very tiny bugs called bacteria that help you out in all
 
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sorts of ways such as breaking down the food you eat. It is not just people who have these
 
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helpful bacteria, lots of other animals do as well. For example, the spiky animal called the
 
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porcupine has bacteria in its stomach which help it break down the wood it likes to eat. We
 
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wanted to see if we could get the parts of the bacteria responsible for breaking down the wood
 
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to function outside of the porcupine stomach. That way we could break down left over wood
 
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into helpful things such as fuel.</br>
 
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The message: We are attempting to harness the different abilities of the bacteria found on and
 
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in the body.</br>
 
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Technical difficulty: No scientific jargon. Not focused too much on our project.</br></br>
 
  
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As communication is the major theme to our outreach efforts <a href="https://2017.igem.org/Team:Dalhousie/Engagement" style="color: #C1D35D">(click here to visit the
 
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outreach page)</a>, it was imperative that we practiced and attempted to better our own
 
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communication habits. Writing these elevator pitches served as an important exercise in
 
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learning how best to convey our project.</br></br>
 
 
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Revision as of 03:41, 27 October 2017

Science Communication

Introduction


What is scientific communication?
Scientists who work in a laboratory for a career are often shielded from contact with the public. Barriers are set up unintentionally that prevent communication between the two sides. Scientific language, knowledge, and research techniques are some factors that contribute to this divide. However, it is important for the scientists to share their findings with the public, because that is why researches are even conducted in the first place – to generate knowledge that can be applied to benefit the society. In essence, scientific communication is presenting scientific concepts to an average person who does not have the expertise in the field. This often involves explaining in “layman’s” term, and use analogies to refer to more relatable elements of the daily life for the public to understand science.

Why is it important?
So, why do people care about science? Maybe they don’t. But, science provides the means to evaluate a claim or an idea with evidences; it is good to have that skill on hand so we can understand how things work in the world. Unsurprisingly, we see scientific knowledge everywhere, from schools to social media, from work to TV shows. Gradually, science has manifested into interesting facts or explanations that we see everyday.

Scienctific Literacy
Nevertheless, one has to be mindful of the implications that arise with the incorporation of “science” in our lives. We might believe that every headline that presents itself as science on Facebook is “real science”. However, do we know where it comes from? Who published the article? Was the scientific methods used to generate credible results? Is it biased? Has it been altered or misinterpreted by the person who transcribes scientific data into writing? These are the questions that we should ask ourselves before we blindly believe in a claim. Because if we don’t, we might just be supporting pseudoscience, and this is extremely dangerous in an era where we can just click a button and share the “fake news” to millions across the globe.

Our Project


The Human Practices Team is focusing on scientific communication this year. We broke this theme up into two parts:
  1. Examining scientific literacy among the public.
  2. Reaching out to the community and various institutions to promote science
Our goals are to raise awareness on the importance of scientific literacy and also to establish efficient communication between our lab and the public.

What did we do?
We created a survey early in the summer to evaluate scientific literacy and how people view and interpret scientific concepts. This survey was distributed across the globe and received 271 responses in a span of a month. After the results are analyzed, we conducted interviews with various experts with diverse backgrounds to gain insights on the topic with their distinct perspectives.
Some key results of the survey are as follow:
  1. About a quarter of the population with university education is not very comfortable interpreting scientific news publications.
  2. Most people with a university education trust scientific reports with dramatic and opinionated language to some extent.
  3. More than half of the people with a university education would not verify new scientific claims with credible source half of the time.
  4. A small portion of people with a university education share scientific news articles on social media solely based on the title.
  5. Similar to the group with some post-secondary education, the group without a university degree shows similar trends in terms of trusting skeptical scientific claims and blindly distributing articles without assessments.

Overall, some of these results are a bit surprising and contrary to our expectations of the population with a post-secondary education.

Interviews and Questionnaires
The interviewees are as follows:
  • Science Sam: PhD at University of Toronto studying Cell Biology and Neuroscience who blogs about lab science on Instagram
  • Bob McDonald: Canadian author and science journalist, currently hosing the CBC radio program - Quirks and Quarks
  • Dan Falk: Canadian science journalist, broadcaster and author (published The Universe on a T-Shirt in 2002)
  • Dr. Catherine Reeve: Dalhousie Psychology and Neuroscience professor
  • University of Toronto iGEM team: one of the iGEM teams that we are collaborating with
  • Olivia Roberts: member of the general public, with a post-secondary degree in music


Interview Response Conclusions
  1. Journalists and scientists who write articles are sometimes biased or exaggerated the result to a certain extent to grab the attention of the public to read the paper. And just being humans, sometimes we click into articles just because the titles are interesting, although they might be biased or exaggerated.
  2. People often assume that the articles that are published are credible, because they are “science” and most people do not believe science is false.
  3. Having a post-secondary education does not mean the person has all the skills required to assess and interpret a scientific article properly. Depending on the degree, quality of education, the person might view science in distinct ways.


Infographic Summary
Our final initiative was to summarize all the findings and publish a brief infographic that also include the experts’ insights. This informational material could be distributed across the community to raise awareness on the importance of scientific communication.

Sample Questions and Results