In April, the town of Constance was celebrating the 600th anniversary of the Council of Constance. In this vast assembly, a lot of scientist from Universities all over Europe came to Constance and exchanged about their research, turning it into one of the first major scientific meetings in European history. To live up to this historical event, a Science Slam about “Innovations” was held, a topic perfect for our project and research field. The Slam included eight scientists and students from multiple scientific fields: Engineering, Physics, Medical Research, Medieval History, and our iGEM team as a representative of Synthetic Biology.

Each representative gave a ten-minute presentation. The mood was magnificent, and both the participants and the listeners could learn about recent developments in various scientific fields. Our team was able to inform the audience about the opportunities and possibilities of our project and synthetic biology in general, a scientific field which faces a lot of opposition in Germany. The reactions were all very positive, since most people only see the risks and not the chances of synthetic biology, our presentation gave us an opportunity to improve the reputation of synthetic biology. The reactions of the audience gave us a valuable feedback about our work and insight into the concerns of non-specialists about Synthetic Biology.

You can watch the video here (German audio only).