Team:Austin UTexas/Human Practices
(*Note: I’m not sure about all the details about what we are and aren’t allowed to say regarding talking to Greg Goodman. We can also add more after meeting with him next week. Would we need to add other possible synthetic biology applications of Kombucha as well? Also, are we including stuff about SXSW at all?)
Because Kombucha is made of various strains of bacteria, there are a lot of possible synthetic biology applications to alter its properties to make it a designer beverage. This includes things such as ____.
The Kombucha industry is big in Austin with a variety of local brands including Buddha’s Brew, Wunder-Pilz, Kosmic Kombucha, and K-Tonic. We met with Greg Goodman, founder of K-Tonic, to discuss the Kombucha industry and potential issues we could solve using synthetic biology. He discussed the ethanol production process in Kombucha and how it is challenging to control the content. The yeast in Kombucha produce ethanol as a part of the fermentation process. Most Kombucha however is sold as a non-alcoholic beverage for which the alcohol content cannot exceed 0.5%. Ethanol content increases over time as the yeast continues to ferment the drink and thus Kombucha doesn’t have a very long shelf life. We are working on combating this problem by increasing the rate at which the bacteria in the Kombucha convert the ethanol to acetic acid.
Teams work with students and advisors from the humanities and social sciences to explore topics concerning ethical, legal, social, economic, safety or security issues related to their work. Consideration of these Human Practices is crucial for building safe and sustainable projects that serve the public interest.
For more information, please see the Human Practices Hub.
Note
You must fill out this page in order to be considered for all awards for Human Practices:
- Human Practices silver medal criterion
- Human Practices gold medal criterion
- Best Integrated Human Practices award
- Best Education and Public Engagement award
Some Human Practices topic areas
- Philosophy
- Public Engagement / Dialogue
- Education
- Product Design
- Scale-Up and Deployment Issues
- Environmental Impact
- Ethics
- Safety
- Security
- Public Policy
- Law and Regulation
- Risk Assessment
What should we write about on this page?
On this page, you should write about the Human Practices topics you considered in your project, and document any special activities you did (such as visiting experts, talking to lawmakers, or doing public engagement).
