Team:NAWI Graz/Discussions

DISCUSSIONS


Discussion Night

In order to stimulate the discourse on the subject of genetic engineering, we organized a discussion evening, to which we invited experts from various fields. Through our work for iGEM, we were only aware of how much is discussed about genetic engineering, although the necessary understanding is only deficient. For this reason, we have decided to organize such an evening to clarify misunderstandings and half-truths.

For support, we invited following experts:

Dokumente in drive mi themen im ueberblick

präsentation Austria: eher negative einstellung - in österreich spielt es in landwirtschaft keine große rolle, haben es wirtschaftlich und landwirtschaft nicht nötig, gentec einzusetzen, außer in medizin -leute wissen aber wiederum nicht, dass es verwendet wird -> dw gleich negativ behaftet man muss differenzierter gentechnik, man kann nicht gentechnik und landwirtschaft in einen topf werfen bei gentec und medizin: unbestreitbare vorteile; medikamentenherstellung gentherapie etc

Nerd Nite

Together with Nerd Nite, we hosted their first ever event in Graz. If you are wondering what Nerd Nite is – it´s an event format, where people from different fields are holding 15-minutes presentations about certain scientific topics they are interested in. These can be subjects with which the persons are intensively engaged or an area in which they are working in, but of course, all scientifically related.

It all started, when the inventor of the event was asked, why he had been absent in his local pub for the last three months. He started a presentation about the expedition he did before and because the audience was so excited about it, it became a regular event.

By now, Nerd Nite is a monthly event in more than 90 cities across the world, during which several people give short and funny, but informative presentations about different disciplines. The inventors believe, that learning is more fun when you’re drinking with friends.

As we were able to host the first Nerd Nite ever in Austria, we were very proud to present our iGEM project there as well.

One of the participants at the event was Alex Murer, former molecular biology student, who did present his start-up “Briefcase Biotech GmbH”. He is now working on a DNA-printer that makes it possible to print primer in the shortest possible time. “Producing your own DNA Primers becomes as convenient as brewing a nice cup of coffee”, Alex Murer. If you want to check out his homepage: http://www.kilobaser.com

Daniel Derndorfer, another participant, did present “OLGA”, Open bioLab Graz Austria, the first biohacker laboratory in Austria, where people can meet and discuss scientific topics and work on their own research.

Martin Stefanec presented “ALL”, Artificial Life Lab, an interdisciplinary workgroup of the Department of Zoology from the Karl-Franzens University of Graz. In this group, students are working on bio-inspired robots, bee simulations, virtual brains or robot swarms for example. If you want to check out their homepage: http://zool33.uni-graz.at/artlife/

After the presentations, there were lots of exciting discussions about future possibilities in the field of research and science. In addition, new ideas were raised about how to make laboratory life easier for scientists. We are curious to see, which of these great ideas might be implemented.