Science influences very different aspects of our daily life. It is critical to health, economics, food security, and safety. Being part of an iGEM team let us get an even closer look on what it means to be a scientist and how important the acknowledgement from public policy and society is for our work.

To celebrate science and strengthen the role of science in policymaking our iGEM team joined the March for Science in Dresden on April 22, 2017. The goals of the march were support for evidence-based policy making, government funded research and transparency. The main “Scientists March on Washington” was supported by a series or marches in more than 600 other cities across the world.

Our international team represents a diverse and inclusive scientific community that is one of the ideals behind the march of science. Furthermore, the issue of acceptance of the consensus on climate change and evolution is something we also feel strongly about and what is represented by our iGEM goes green initiative.

As young scientist, we walked through the baroque city center of Dresden to demonstrate for the value that scientific research has for our community. Scientifically proven facts should be taken more seriously in political decisions. Showing solidarity with the world wide scientific community and representing our values and interests was an impressive experience. We march forward with Science.

As part of giving back to the community, we hosted a booth at the Long Night of Sciences, a yearly event occurring in many cities nationwide in Germany, to teach the Dresden people about iGEM and synthetic biology, and increase awareness of the beauty and ethics behind the things we do. To keep all the ages entertained, we had Legos and gave instructions to kids on how to build BioBricks. Different colors of big bricks corresponded to different genes, like fluorescent proteins or insulin, smaller bricks corresponded to different promoters etc.

We also offered strawberry DNA extraction, where kids could extract DNA by mashing them with their hands in bag of soap and then extracting the DNA in cold ethanol. As the children where entertained with their Legos and strawberry pounding, the parents were conversed with the latest research in biotechnology and were shown our project in synthetic biology. The parents were entertained and learned that simply taking a BioBrick from one organism and cloning it into another is all that it takes to become a synthetic biologist. At the end of the day, successful young scientists were able to keep a tube of strawberry DNA and parents were left in awe of what children already can do on their own.

Some impressions: