Team:Athens/Education
SCIENCE COMMUNICATION
Emitting our Colours
Since the dawn of civilization, Science has always been a part of humankind. Man, being a natural creature of curiosity, has consistently been questioning every single piece that makes this world. It is in man’s nature to explore, to create, and to dream.
However, in today’s turbulent paced world many people are not properly educated in the matters of Science, and there have been plenty of instances where scientific thought and well-established results have been rejected by sizable proportions of the population. In addition, lack of proper educational stimuli has contributed to the detachment of people from Science.
The role of iGEM in alleviating this issue is of major importance. Not only has it made Science -Synthetic Biology to be exact- more accessible, but it keeps reminding us one of our roles as scientists; to always communicate our work to the public, educate, and raise awareness.
Before we embarked on this journey one thing we did not expect is this: In the pursuit of educating, we also educated ourselves. That we could not be more grateful for.
It is our delight to present our work towards this goal.
An Eye for Art
Apart from its scientific aspect, our project undoubtedly has a plethora of hidden faces, which we enthusiastically sought to uncover. One of them appears to be the artistic character that structural colour has, and the ways it can be used to implement and inspire Art. Being the art enthusiasts that we are, we decided to reach out to the Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA). After extensive brainstorming and fruitful conversations with members and students of this institution, we were led to the establishment of the first-ever 3D BioArt Hub, a place where artists and bioscientists could interact and exchange fascinating ideas regarding BioArt in the 3D world.
To make this attempt official, Assistant Professor of ASFA Ioannis Melanitis and PhD candidate Angeliki Frangou collaborated creatively with our secondary PI Vassiliki Koumandou. Meetings were conducted online with both artists and iGEMers sharing pieces of BioArt and trying to define the main aims and grounds of this initiative. The first aim that was set was the integration of bioscientific developments of structural colour research and 3D printing technology in the production of works of art.
Afterwards, a physical meeting was arranged -with all safety measures applied- where Fine Arts’ students showed us around their university and different Art Labs. Ending up at Mr Melanitis’ Lab, all the members of the newly established BioArt Hub had the chance to explain in a mutual way the two different roles that everyone had: the one of the Scientist and the one of the Artist.
Our iGEM team explained the scientific background behind MORPHÆ and also presented cultures of structurally coloured flavobacteria. We were more than happy to solve any question the young artists had regarding molecular biology and the physical phenomenon of Structural Colouration.
From the other side of the same river, bio artists presented us with some of their favourite bibliography and work of pioneer BioArtists, which triggered a fascinating brainstorming and remarkable discussions; we even got a whole new insight on the Philosophy of colour!
This discussion stimulated artists to get inspiration for their art, resulting in this extraordinary collection of art pieces:
More works from the artists:
And we are only getting started! The greek BioArt community has officially been established, starting off at the Athens School of Fine Arts, and we couldn’t be more proud to have been a part of it in the year of COVID-19. We aspire that in the future, the greek BioArt community will include a fair share of Artists and Scientists of all backgrounds and specialities.
For this to begin, we will participate in a virtual meeting with pioneer bioartist Stelarc, which will take place on November 6th 2020 and will be hosted by Assistant Professor of ASFA Ioannis Melanitis. We hope to engage in a wonderful conversation, receive feedback for our work, and make up new ideas on how to further communicate BioArt to the public.
Enjoy a “Scientifique” Coffee
Cafe Scientifique is a place where anyone can come to explore and discuss the latest ideas in science and technology. Meetings always take place outside a traditional academic context, for example, cafes, bars, restaurants and even theatres! Here in Greece, “Cafe Scientifique Athens”is organized by Dr Lila Koumandou and meetings take place once a month throughout the year. There, a distinguished guest gives a talk on a certain subject of their speciality.
We were more than excited to be invited to the first-ever online Cafe Scientifique meeting -a special event held online following safety measures for COVID-19-. We educated a broad audience of students, academics and seniors on the basic principles of Synthetic Biology, the iGEM competition, and our project. Following our presentation, we answered questions and engaged in a delightful conversation with the audience. Even from our screens, we could feel the enthusiasm of our viewers - and that’s something we couldn’t be more grateful for. You can watch our presentation (in Greek) here!
Science trip at the Greek-French School of Ursulines
Educating youngsters was one of our team’s primary goals. Not only do they constitute the pillars for our future, but they fill us with joy and hope for a better tomorrow. We embarked on this educational journey starting off at the Greek-French School of Ursulines. There, we held a workshop for students of the 3rd grade of junior high school, and the 1st and 3rd grade of senior high school.
Our first goal was to present to students the “average routine” of a Synthetic Biologist; for this, we taught them all about common laboratory techniques and the basic principles of Synthetic Biology. What we paid a lot of attention to, was the way we would approach teaching. We didn’t want students to feel like they were in another typical class, but we wanted them to have as much fun as possible! In addition, we took into consideration the “biological background” the students would have; for example, we did not give the same details about DNA extraction to junior high school students(aged 14-15 in Greece) than we did to students of the 3rd grade of senior high school (aged 17-18 in Greece).
In order to better invest students in this, we -or more accurately- the students extracted DNA from strawberries (and some even from their mouths!). What we observed was that, after the students observed the strawberry DNA in their test tubes, they bombarded us with a myriad of questions! This only filled our hearts with joy, and it was our pleasure to answer each and every question from the newly-hatched scientists! In addition, students performed gel electrophoresis using colored substances, in order to become familiar with the principles of electrophoresis in practice.
Note: This event took place in February (one day before the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Greece!), therefore no safety measures regarding COVID-19 were taken.
Unfortunately, due to the following spread of COVID-19 to our country and the closure of schools, we were not able to spread this form of education.
Our Videos
"What Remains": Life in quarantine wasn’t easy. For all of us, this was the first time that we had to stay home for a prolonged period of time. This caught us off guard and changed the way we perceive time and reality, and completely disrupted our everyday routine. We created this fun video, entitled “What remains” in order to show people that quarantine won’t stop us from pursuing our goals, and encourage them to do the same. In order to promote this video, we used our social media pages, reaching out to over 3000 people! You can watch the video here!
"Life Without Colour": It was late at night and we were tired. Inspiration struck our heads like lightning. Structural colors but this time it would not be scientific at all. This is why this video was created. To present our team in a different, much more emotional and deep manner, to show who we are through the way we perceive the world around us. This is iGEM Athens, this is how we see the world, this is what colors mean to us, this is us. You can watch the video here!
Project Promotion Video: Our Project Promotion Video is available to watch here!
"Sunset Moth Scales" by Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
