Team:Macquarie Australia/Ian Paulson
The Powerhouse is the largest branch of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney, Australia. The Macquarie University iGEM team have an ongoing relationship with the Powerhouse Museum who have devoted a section of their rotating science collection to synthetic biology, iGEM and other related materials. These contributions have exposed large numbers of people who visit the museum annually (approximately 64,000) to synthetic biology and the important contributions that the iGEM teams have made to this novel field.
In early September the Macquarie iGEM team were lucky enough to have their associated professors Dr Natalie Curach and Professor Ian Paulsen discuss their Hydrogen synthesis project at the ‘Designing Life with Synthetic Biology’ event hosted by the Powerhouse Museum. Their project was used as an example of how design principles in combination with molecular biology techniques can be utilized to address real world problems, such as clean and renewable energy production. Dr Curach also taught the audience a bit about the iGEM competition and the contributions that iGEM researchers have made over the past thirteen years.
Given the novel nature of synthetic biology, many members of the community have not been exposed to this field of science and experience a feeling limited understanding and awareness. This frequently leads to the generation of misconception and fear, which is often fuelled by distortion of synthetic biology in the media. iGEM maintains a rich tradition of fostering safe and ethical research in the field of synthetic biology. This was highlighted in Professor Paulsen and Dr Curach’s talk as they aimed to improve the publics perception of synthetic biology, encourage inquiry and contribute towards a positive evaluation of the field.
