Welcome to the FreiGEM2011 Team Page
As mentioned on the Meeting in Carmona we are planing to develop a code for our communitiy:
Here we present you the near final aspirational code developed at the DIYbio european congress in London, 8th may.
- Know you don’t know everything
- Recognize the complexity and dynamics of living systems and our responsibility towards them
- Respect humans and all living systems
- Listen and respond to concerns
- Adopt safe practices
- Enjoy your work
- Strive to increase public understandings of the methods, results and implications of the 21th century biology
- emphasizes the sharing of ideas, knowledge, data and results
This code draft was created by several young scientists and amateur biology enthusiasts. We all had the feeling, that public perception of our intentions and actions are distorted and that this need to be clarified. Many journalists linked us in top articles with bioterrorism for example, which is totally wrong and does neither help us nor the public opinion about science in general.
We want to present ourselves to the public, as we are and hope that this honest and upright approach can change opinions. Further, we plan to create an active, free and open international community for biologists and enthusiasts, to exchange ideas, travel around to learn from other and to help and teach each other. For this community we need a recognizable and distinct appearance. We thought, a code, or an oath which we voluntarily make, clearly telling who we are, what we want and don’t want and what we are doing will provide this appearance and increase the value of the biologist in general.
The Code above was just a first start to find a common ground. It needs to be elaborated upon and there will probably be several sub codes of conduct in future, adapted to local needs and laws.
iGEM would be a good forum, to promote the idea among scientist and public and build a long lasting community. It has to be emphasized here, that this code should become a universal one, for all biologists, not only restricted to iGEM or the DIYbio community. This will guarantee longevity and a bigger impact of the code and the community in future.
If you are interested in joining the affort to create this important code, please contact us!
|