HokkaidoU Japan

iGEM 2011 Team of Hokkaido University

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• Human Practice

• Top
• Virtual BioArt Gallery
• A society which citizens can think by themselves
• The way to become “citizens who can think by themselves”
• The New Communication Tool, “BIO ART”
• The road to “BIOART"
• What BIO ART was like
• Questionnaire Results
• Review
• To the Future
• Recommended books
• Collaborations
• Acknowledgements

Our team is studying T3SS which is “the smallest protein injector in the world” in wet-lab this year. This system requires a protein complex like a needle, which Salmonella has. What do you think when you hear Salmonella? Some people might say, “How dangerous it is to use such thing!” or “You should not use such harmful system!” However, if we can use this system appropriately, we will be able to get the most useful tool there has ever been.

Like the different views and risks of using Salmonella, there is so much misunderstanding of science technologies around us. “What should we do to remove the gap between citizens and researchers?” This was the first question of our Human Practice project. We tried to answer this question through this summer from a student’s prospective that'll be a researcher in the future. We discussed it at length, and finally we figured out what we should do. Our theme was to make, “A society which citizens can think by themselves”. Science technology develops so fast that it is difficult for citizens to keep up with. This has made it difficult for citizens to think carefully about science themselves. To improve this situation, we concluded that by showing the science technologies in a more simple and understandable way to the citizens, they will be more interested in it and be more active to think about science themselves without being lead by the media. They would also need to try to understand what is dangerous and why in order to find their own views towards science.