Team:Newcastle/HP/Silver
Human Practises Silver“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world” -Ludwig Wittgenstein When considering reasons for the lack of uptake of biosensors, we chose to investigate one of the most fundamental aspects for the success of any project: communication. Communication also affects how synthetic biology as a field, and many more projects emerging from it, are received. Because of this, many of our Human Practises and Education and Public Engagement Activities have centred around sharing the research and activities we have completed in relation to science communication. Attending the N8 conference made us aware of the barriers which must be overcome to increase uptake of biosensors. Alongside other factors which we have identified and tackled through experimental and design adaptation, communication between scientists and the public is an aspect which we have considered in our aim of increasing uptake of biosensors and synthetic biology. In our work, we used different perspectives and methods to investigate science communication. By gaining advice from academics working in the humanities and social sciences, and completing our own engagement and research, we have taken a journey through science communication and considered how this can help the success of our project! A Journey Through Science CommunicationTo gain awareness of previous work which has been completed in understanding public and stakeholder attitudes towards synthetic biology, we have read and reviewed the BBSRC’s 2010 study ‘Synthetic Biology Dialogue’. This has led us to carry out further research into certain points which were particularly pertinent for Newcastle University’s iGEM project, including concerns surrounding transparency in communication and how synthetic biology is covered by the media. We compiled a report which selects and discusses key points from the dialogue which are of particular relevance to our 2017 project, which can be read here: The BBSRC’s Synthetic Biology Dialogue and Newcastle University’s 2017 iGEM Project
In July, we attended the North East Big Bang Fair- a large and exciting science fair. Over 2000 students and teachers attended, and we got the opportunity to talk to everyone about synthetic biology, iGEM, and our project! We had a few different activities to get the students and teachers involved with synthetic biology… ‘Build your own Biosensor’ is an interactive activity we developed to get the students thinking about synthetic biology independently. Many of the students did not know what a biosensor was, so this was also a good way to introduce the function and purpose of biosensors in an understandable and relatable way. We asked the students to think about what they would like to sense (an input), and how this would be detected (an output). There were lots of fun and creative responses!
We also had many great conversations with both school pupils and teachers, based around 4 main questions that we posed…
It was great to spread awareness of synthetic biology among the next generation of scientists, and even give teachers ideas for how they could introduce synthetic biology teaching into their lessons!
After finding out how people of varying ages engage with science outside of the classroom at Big Bang, we were inspired to write a blog about the science communication areas of our research. The blog, Transform and Translate, can be read here: Transform and Translate Social media and online sources were really popular ways of reading about science outside of the classroom, so the blog helped us engage in a more informal and wide-reaching way! We also maintained an active presence on our twitter (@newcastle_igem) to share all of our iGEM activities and interact with the worldwide iGEM community.
As part of our research, we had conversations with staff members at Newcastle University’s school of Language, Communication and Education Sciences. These provided further inspiration and technical advice for how we could study science communication. One of these was Dr Spencer Hazel- a senior lecturer in applied linguistics. Dr Hazel also completed British Science Association Media Fellowship, working for a month as a science writer at The Times. Hearing of his experiences, and learning about the process involved in publishing a story about science, is another thing which inspired us to further research science communication in the media. We decided to use corpus linguistics study language use in action during science communication…
Corpus linguistics is a method which can be used to access and analyse large bodies of text, and uncover patterns within them. In our research, we used corpus linguistics to complete searches for the terms Genetic Engineering, Synthetic Biology, GMO and biosensor . We searched two main corpora which contain texts published in the media from 1995- present day, and completed analysis which allowed us to see how the media uses language to discuss these topics, and which attitudes are presented. The corpus linguistics research made us more aware of the lack of coverage of synthetic biology within media texts. It also showed how discussion around synthetic biology is populated with both positive and negative viewpoints, whilst giving indications of how we can use language to accentuate the positive, and increase clarity and transparency in communication. The report linked here is a detailed discussion of the corpus linguistics research and findings... A Corpus Based Investigation Into Science Communication
As a culmination of our research into science communication, we have complied a set of guidelines for communicating synthetic biology to the public. These guidelines can be used for different purposes, including: to advise scientists when communicating about their work to the press; to guide in how to present to the public; and to help iGEM teams writing up their work!
The guidelines start with some more general points to consider when you start to communicate synthetic biology. They also make use of the information we gained during the corpus linguistics research to suggest some more specific linguistic features to consider when communicating synthetic biology. Read the guidlines here... Breaking down the barriers: How should we communicate SynBio to the public?
To share our work in science communication with an audience of scientists, we held seminars with two research groups. In these seminars, we presented our research, and then opened up for discussions and debate about the issues we had raised. A lot of the scientists had stories to tell about personal experiences they’d had with science communication, and it was interesting to hear how they felt our research could have an impact!
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