Team:Hong Kong-CUHK/Human practice

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<h2>Human practices</h2><br/><br/>
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<h1>Talks</h1>
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<strong>Synthetic Biology ethics</strong>
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Synthetic biology, a novel advancement in science field, isa popular study these days. It opens the door for scientists to create theirideas and put them into practice. However, some people are concerned about theethical issues of it, namely biosafety, environmental damages, biosecurity andintellectual property rights. In the followings, light will be shed on theseaspects and solutions.
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With respect to the biosafety issue, it may be difficult toidentify agents of concern. It is because synthetic biology involves thecreation of lots of novel organisms in which it is challenging to classify themwith regards to pathogeny. This is because of the lack of prior experience,difficulties in identifying sequences with pathogenic properties as well as theunsuitable use of methods or practice. <sup>1</sup>
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Other than that, the leakage of “bio-product” may threatenour health and nature. Upon the creation of new organisms without in-depthunderstanding, it brings loads of uncertainties in terms of the control means andpathogenic possibility. Once they are leaked, it may result from theundesirable crossbreeding among products themselves, or worse with othernatural organisms which seriously wreak havoc on the human health or evennature. One scenario is like that, infectious disease may be transmitted fromlaboratory workers to their family members, and to the whole community through uncontrollableairborne transmission.<sup>2</sup>There have been such documented cases of virus leakage from laboratories. Forexample, the leakage of smallpox poxvirus in Birmingham laboratory in UnitedKingdom in 1978,<sup> 3</sup>SARS virus in Singapore and in China in 2003 and 2004 respectively<sup>1</sup>, which controversially drawpeople’s attention on the biosafety of synthetic biology.
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Other than biosafety problems, environmental damage is alsoone of the concerns. With the requirement of the resources for developingbiomass of synthetic biology, it would be exploiting our ecosystem like landsand other natural resources. For example, large pieces of land were used to thebio-fuel development due to land limitation, which puts intense pressure onland that potentially affect the food yield, communities and the currentecosystem.<sup>2</sup>
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Biosecurity is also one of the concerns of the synthetic biology.Given an understanding that some products are easily synthesized and lethal, itleads to the easy acquisition of the virulent strains for bioterrorism asweapons for detrimental purposes. For example in 2002, poliovirus was easilysynthesized with an estimated cost of USD 7500 in laboratory setting inuniversities.<sup>1</sup>
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Asides from that, intellectual property rights is also oneof the problems. It is because synthetic biology involves originalities with anumber of new products and techniques invented. This may lead to the copyrightproblem and dilemma between openness of resources and patent.
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Regulations and policies can help solving these problems. Byregulating DNA synthesis through encouraging the companies which synthesizegenes to report the questionable DNA orders, this is effective in regulatingthe ethical issues and is currently in practice in United States and France. Other than that,building an up-to-date database that shows the sequences of genes andexperiments which are at risk can also get to the root of the problems.<sup>1</sup>
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To deal with the issue of intellectual property rights,improving the intellectual property system to a sound and effective system isan integral part such that the design rights are protected and the “openness ofresources” of synthetic biology can be attained at the same time.
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Enhancing the international cooperation in regulating andgoverning synthetic biology is an effective way to cope with biosafety andbiosecurity problems. Different countries can exchange their resources anddata, communicate to establish measures to wrestle with the existing concernsdue to synthetic biology regardless of the difficulties. For example, humangenome project paves the path for the success of countries collaboration insolving problems.<sup>1</sup>
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In the social aspects, a lot of steps can be taken to dealwith the synthetic biology issue. First, creating platforms for the public todiscuss about it is an efficient way to collect different opinions from peoplefrom all walks of life. Since the technology of synthetic biology is closelyrelated to the life of the public, they should have the right and obligation toengage in decision-making process. Not only does it help to collect morediverse ideas, it can also allow the public to know more about the safety andsecurity problems with regards to synthetic biology.
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Another social aspect that we can take action is througheducation. Taking iGEM competition as an example, it provides opportunities forundergraduate and high school students to learn and practice synthetic biologyin a free-risk environment. Other than competition, some universities doprovide courses regarding to biosafety and biosecurity<sup>1</sup>.
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Although synthetic biology brings a lot of benefits to oursociety and the world, it also has some potential ethical problems that we needto focus on. As a result, it is part and parcel which we have to delve into itin order to carve out a better future with the development of the syntheticbiology.
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&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
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References:
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1.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; OECD,Royal Society (2010), “Symposium on Opportunities and Challenges in theEmerging Field of Synthetic Biology – Synthesis Report”.
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2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; PresidentialCommittee for the Study of Bioethical Issues: New directions: the ethics ofsynthetic biology and emerging technologies. 2010 [http://<a href="http://www.bioethics.gov/news/">www.bioethics.gov/news/</a>].
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3.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; http://www.bmj.com/content/325/7377/1371/reply
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<p><strong>Aspiration</strong></p>
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<p>Synthetic biology emerges as a multidisciplinary technology. Not only does it allow us to change the way we live, it does also improve the quality of life<sup>1</sup>. Synthetic biology becomes an integral part of our life. But the acceptance of synthetic biology is still divergent.</p>
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<strong>Radio Programmes</strong>
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We have done education on synthetic biology via local radiochannel. Our Chinese University Campus Radio (CUCR) is a public online radio (<a href="http://www.cucr.hk/">http://www.cucr.hk/</a>) targets at Hong Kong youngpeople.
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Our team cooperated with CUCR to produce a radio program. Inthe program, we mainly discussed Synthetic Biology, iGEM competition and ourproject content. We also shared some interesting experience in laboratory andmembers’ aspiration.
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To listen to our iGEM radio program, please click: <a href="http://www.cucr.hk/2011/10/05/%E5%90%88%E6%88%90%E7%94%9F%E7%89%A9-x-igem/">http://www.cucr.hk/2011/10/05/%E5%90%88%E6%88%90%E7%94%9F%E7%89%A9-x-igem/</a>,or simply listen to the following soundtrack.
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Our team members also took part in another radio programorganized by CUCR to discuss about the Life Science program in CUHK. They alsodiscussed about the iGEM competition and introduced Synthetic biology andbiosafety to the general public.
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To listen to our iGEM radio program, please click: <a href="http://www.cucr.hk/2011/09/01/%E6%9C%80%E7%B7%8A%E8%A6%81%E8%AD%98%E6%8F%80-%E5%AD%B8%E7%B3%BB%E7%AF%87/">http://www.cucr.hk/2011/09/01/%E6%9C%80%E7%B7%8A%E8%A6%81%E8%AD%98%E6%8F%80-%E5%AD%B8%E7%B3%BB%E7%AF%87/</a>,or simply listen to the following soundtrack.
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<p>In July 2002, the researchers at the State University of New York announced that they had synthesized the deadly and virulent poliovirus<sup>2</sup>. So the opponents of synthetic biology showed worries about how easy it is for the scientists to construct life and bioweapons which may wreak havoc to the environment and human life.</p>
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<p>In September 2010, a poll of 1,000 U.S. adults conducted by Hart Research Associates and the Synthetic Biology Project at the Woodrow Wilson Center showed that about two-third of Americans thought synthetic biology should be further developed with more understanding on the possible effect on human and the environment, but the others opposed and suggested a ban on it<sup>3</sup>.</p>
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<p>Since the CUHK iGEM team aim to understand the perception of the public to the concept of genetic modification (GM) as well as Synthetic Biology, an online questionnaire designed by us was distributed in facebook. Several questions concerning science, GM and synthetic biology were raised. We were glad to see a diverging and yet meaningful result from the public with the total participation of 230, in which 113 of them are male and 117 are female. Participants are from different faculties including Art, Business Administration, Education, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Science as well as Social Science.</p>
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<h3>Interpretation</h3>
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<p>From the results, we found that:</p>
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·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;88% of the participants believe that science has a great contribution to the development of thesociety. Many acknowledge the importance of science. 86% of the total findscience interesting, which is good news to us as most of the public are notrefusing to science.
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·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Over60% of the participants think that GM products are safe to consume and only 10%of participants think that GM products cannot be popularly applied in thesociety. It can be deduced that the acceptance from public to GM products ishigh and yet can be further promoted.
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·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Onlyhalf of the participants have heard of Synthetic Biology before. We believemore promotion can be done to let a larger proportion of people to get to knowabout this powerful novel scientific field of study.
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·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Near 70% of the participants have thought ofutilizing bacteria to benefit the society. Furthermore, if a product,consisting of non-disease causing bacteria, brings convenience to user, over80% of the participants will choose to use it. It can be deduced that thepublic accept the concept of using product consists of bacteria. The humanpractice on Synthetic Biology has its effect achieved.
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·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Two-third of the total think that the process ofgenetically controlling bacteria is dangerous and only 20% of the participantsbelieve that it is not risky to use the product of Synthetic Biology. It isglad to see that the public might have noticed the potential risks of SyntheticBiology. However, we suggest more safety issues in Synthetic Biology should beeducated to the public. On one hand, to ease the worries of the public on thesafety of it. On the other hand, to address the issue professionally to thepublic so they can know more about it in an efficient way.
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·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Finally, we raise the issue of ethics, whetherhuman beings have the right to control bacteria just because we wish to. Wehope to raise the concern from the public on this issue, to let them think morethoroughly on this.<a name="_GoBack"></a>
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<p>Another poll about synthetic biology also reflected that 27 percent of participants thought that synthetic biology might have security concerns like making use of it to make harmful things. While 25 percent of participants believed that it might have moral concerns that would affect the health of human. And 13 percent of participants showed worries about the possible damages to the environment<sup>3</sup>.</p>
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<p>As a result, CUHK iGEM team is aspired to provide space of discussion for the public to delve into the biosafety and biosecurity of Synthetic biology, according to David Regeski, the Director of the Synthetic Biology project who conducted the poll, &ldquo;Much more attention needs to be paid to addressing biosafety and biosecurity risks&rdquo; <sup>3</sup>. Therefore, throughout these months, we have been actively engaging in human practices to address the synthetic biology safety and security issue to allow the public to get more insights.</p>
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<p><strong>Approaches to acquire people&rsquo;s opinions on synthetic biology</strong></p>
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<p><i><a href="#top">(Back to top)</a></i></p><br/>
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<p>In order to get a better understanding of how people from different disciplines perceive synthetic biology, CUHK iGEM team has been consistently adopting many ways to collect the public idea on this issue.</p>
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<p>To collect large sample size effectively from public perception on the synthetic biology, we conducted a <a href="https://2011.igem.org/Team:Hong_Kong-CUHK/Human_practice/questionnaire">questionnaire</a> to distribute through the website. In the questionnaire, we set general questions for people from different backgrounds to easily understand synthetic biology, and at the same time effectively acquire their views.</p>
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<p>Others than the public, we also set up the <a href="https://2011.igem.org/Team:Hong_Kong-CUHK/Human_practice/ethics">ethics</a> part of synthetic biology from practitioners with different specialties. In the ethics part, the information collected ranges from the possible ethical issue of synthetic biology to the possible solutions to the existing ethic problem.</p>
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<p>With these approaches adopted, we acknowledge diverse views and opinions from the public to formulate the most suitable and effective action to raise people&rsquo;s awareness on the social and ethical aspect of synthetic biology.</p>
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<p><strong>Practices: </strong></p>
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<p><i><a href="#top">(Back to top)</a></i></p><br/>
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<p>In order to introduce synthetic biology to the public as well as to ease their concerns about the bio-safety problems of synthetic biology, CUHK iGEM team organized a variety of human practices targeting different audiences.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>Our human practices focus on three main parts, namely education, promotion and biosafety.</p>
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<p>For the education, we arranged <a href="https://2011.igem.org/Team:Hong_Kong-CUHK/Human_practice/talks>talks</a> in high school and college to arouse interest of future generations about synthetic biology and raise their awareness about the biosafety concerns towards synthetic biology, in a hope that they can be inspired to explore more potential applications and develop their critical thinking on the biosafety of synthetic biology.</p>
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<p>Besides students, the general public is also one of our targets. In order to promote synthetic biology to them, we broadcasted two educational programs about synthetic biology via a local online broadcasting channel. In the <a href="https://2011.igem.org/Team:Hong_Kong-CUHK/Human_practice/radio">radio program</a>, we introduced what synthetic biology was and discussed about the possible solutions to tackle the biosafety problems regarding to synthetic biology. We hope that the radio program stirs public interest about synthetic biology and at the same time, eases their worries about the biosafety issues.</p>
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<p>Our team takes <a href="https://2011.igem.org/Team:Hong_Kong-CUHK/Safety">biosafety</a> issues very seriously.&nbsp; In addition to employing "risk management" approach in our research work, our instructors have also conducted a risk assessment report. Not only do we focus on the biosafety of the individual researchers, we also concern the biosafety of the public and the environment. As a result, we proposed a number of safety measures to ensure that neither the public nor the environment will be harmed. We also provided suggestions about the biosafety issues of synthetic biology for the future iGEM teams.</p>
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<p><i><a href="#top">(Back to top)</a></i></p><br/><br/>
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<p>Reference:</p>
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<p>1 The emerging of synthetic biology: <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/article/14077/">http://www.technologyreview.com/article/14077/</a></p>
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<p>2 &nbsp;OECD, Royal Society (2010), &ldquo;Symposium onOpportunities and Challenges in the Emerging Field of Synthetic Biology &ndash;Synthesis Report&rdquo;</p>
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<p>3&nbsp; Poll result: <a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-09/poen-tpl090810.php">http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-09/poen-tpl090810.php</a></p>
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Human practices



 

Aspiration

(Back to top)


Synthetic biology emerges as a multidisciplinary technology. Not only does it allow us to change the way we live, it does also improve the quality of life1. Synthetic biology becomes an integral part of our life. But the acceptance of synthetic biology is still divergent.

In July 2002, the researchers at the State University of New York announced that they had synthesized the deadly and virulent poliovirus2. So the opponents of synthetic biology showed worries about how easy it is for the scientists to construct life and bioweapons which may wreak havoc to the environment and human life.

In September 2010, a poll of 1,000 U.S. adults conducted by Hart Research Associates and the Synthetic Biology Project at the Woodrow Wilson Center showed that about two-third of Americans thought synthetic biology should be further developed with more understanding on the possible effect on human and the environment, but the others opposed and suggested a ban on it3.

Another poll about synthetic biology also reflected that 27 percent of participants thought that synthetic biology might have security concerns like making use of it to make harmful things. While 25 percent of participants believed that it might have moral concerns that would affect the health of human. And 13 percent of participants showed worries about the possible damages to the environment3.

As a result, CUHK iGEM team is aspired to provide space of discussion for the public to delve into the biosafety and biosecurity of Synthetic biology, according to David Regeski, the Director of the Synthetic Biology project who conducted the poll, “Much more attention needs to be paid to addressing biosafety and biosecurity risks” 3. Therefore, throughout these months, we have been actively engaging in human practices to address the synthetic biology safety and security issue to allow the public to get more insights.

Approaches to acquire people’s opinions on synthetic biology

(Back to top)


In order to get a better understanding of how people from different disciplines perceive synthetic biology, CUHK iGEM team has been consistently adopting many ways to collect the public idea on this issue.

To collect large sample size effectively from public perception on the synthetic biology, we conducted a questionnaire to distribute through the website. In the questionnaire, we set general questions for people from different backgrounds to easily understand synthetic biology, and at the same time effectively acquire their views.

Others than the public, we also set up the ethics part of synthetic biology from practitioners with different specialties. In the ethics part, the information collected ranges from the possible ethical issue of synthetic biology to the possible solutions to the existing ethic problem.

With these approaches adopted, we acknowledge diverse views and opinions from the public to formulate the most suitable and effective action to raise people’s awareness on the social and ethical aspect of synthetic biology.

Practices:

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In order to introduce synthetic biology to the public as well as to ease their concerns about the bio-safety problems of synthetic biology, CUHK iGEM team organized a variety of human practices targeting different audiences. 

Our human practices focus on three main parts, namely education, promotion and biosafety.

For the education, we arranged radio program, we introduced what synthetic biology was and discussed about the possible solutions to tackle the biosafety problems regarding to synthetic biology. We hope that the radio program stirs public interest about synthetic biology and at the same time, eases their worries about the biosafety issues.

Our team takes biosafety issues very seriously.  In addition to employing "risk management" approach in our research work, our instructors have also conducted a risk assessment report. Not only do we focus on the biosafety of the individual researchers, we also concern the biosafety of the public and the environment. As a result, we proposed a number of safety measures to ensure that neither the public nor the environment will be harmed. We also provided suggestions about the biosafety issues of synthetic biology for the future iGEM teams.

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Reference:

1 The emerging of synthetic biology: http://www.technologyreview.com/article/14077/

2  OECD, Royal Society (2010), “Symposium onOpportunities and Challenges in the Emerging Field of Synthetic Biology –Synthesis Report”

3  Poll result: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-09/poen-tpl090810.php


"Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things." - Theodore Levitt

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