Team:Saloniki Greece 12 bioethics ENG

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Saloniki 2012 iGem

An Approach to Bioethics- Presenting shortly a way for Bioethic education
IEver since Biotech began to spread all over the world and its potentials were being discovered, an important issue came up: Bioethics! There are many possible dangers that can harm our ecosystems and us. For example a virus that is genetically engineered to be immune to several antibiotics can be released to the environment and by being exposed to other microorganisms could mutate into a "stronger", more harmful virus and damage the environment through several chain reactions. Imagine if a crazy scientist that has the funds and the knowledge did something like that. The results could be catastrophic. We don't have to worry about him, because 1. We can't do anything to stop him(because he's powerful) and 2. The government will "take care" of him.
So, what can WE do?
Well, we can think of new, innovative ways to inform older scientists through internet (hoping that they will be responsible) and teach young kids about bioethics through education. The rule that has to be taught is simple: DO NOT DO ANYTHING THAT COULD ENDANGER BIODIVERSITY OR HUMAN LIFE.
Teaching responsibilty through education is easy, if it starts from a young age and continues persistantly. Though, a very good idea is to create programs to make kids(elementary age or younger) to be friendly to the environment and always think about our planet's well-being. Furthermore, a co-operation between toy factories, schools and museums toys would be a nice idea. The factories would built toys that are based on Biobricks and the schools would take kids to educational exhibits to science museums(for a trip), where the kids would learn to think bioethically and ecologically correct through playing!

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-<table width=923px style="background-color: white; height: 700 px; margin-top:5px; padding: 10px;"><tr><td colspan="3"><div class="bodybaby">Abstract</div></td>
+<table width=923px style="background-color: white; height: 700 px; margin-top:5px; padding: 10px;"><tr><td colspan="3"><div class="bodybaby">An Approach to Bioethics- Presenting shortly a way for Bioethic education</div></td>
-<tr><td colspan="3"><br> In the recent months many people throughout Greece have been returning to agriculture as their main source of income. This makes agricultural developments extremely important for Greece’s economic future. For this reason we have selected an agricultural project for the focus of this year’s iGEM team. Furthermore, the American Farm School in Thessaloniki was founded to educate young men and women in agriculture and life science, thus the students from this school have practical training in this area.
+<tr><td colspan="3"><br> IEver since Biotech began to spread all over the world and its potentials were being discovered, an important issue came up: Bioethics! There are many possible dangers that can harm our ecosystems and us. For example a virus that is genetically engineered to be immune to several antibiotics can be released to the environment and by being exposed to other microorganisms could mutate into a "stronger", more harmful virus and damage the environment through several chain reactions. Imagine if a crazy scientist that has the funds and the knowledge did something like that. The results could be catastrophic. We don't have to worry about him, because 1. We can't do anything to stop him(because he's powerful) and 2. The government will "take care" of him.
+<tr><td> So, what can WE do?
-The key factor to having healthy soil is the presence of a plethora of different bacterial species. There are millions of different types of bacteria in nutritious soil. These bacteria do everything from decomposing dead matter to simple carbons or degrading pollutants to forming nitrogen-fixing, mutualistic relationships with plants.
+<tr><td> Well, we can think of new, innovative ways to inform older scientists through internet (hoping that they will be responsible) and teach young kids about bioethics through education.
+The rule that has to be taught is simple: DO NOT DO ANYTHING THAT COULD ENDANGER BIODIVERSITY OR HUMAN LIFE.
-We can take advantage of the roots that exists at the American Farm School by working with the different soils and their equipment. We first plan to take soil samples from different areas at the farm. We will analyze the different bacterial and chemical composition of the soils in relation to the crops that are being grown in the area. Then we will identify the beneficial properties of the existing types of bacteria to see which would be most beneficial to express on a large-scale.
+<tr><td> Teaching responsibilty through education is easy, if it starts from a young age and continues persistantly. Though, a very good idea is to create programs to make kids(elementary age or younger) to be friendly to the environment and always think about our planet's well-being. Furthermore, a co-operation between toy factories, schools and museums toys would be a nice idea. The factories would built toys that are based on Biobricks and the schools would take kids to educational exhibits to science museums(for a trip), where the kids would learn to think bioethically and ecologically correct through playing!
-We plan to focus on nitrogen-fixing bacteria. These microorganisms are called diazotrophs and are extremely important to the environment. They convert nitrogen (N2) in the atmosphere to ammonia (NH3). This allows the nitrogen to be easily used as a biological building block. Many of these bacteria form relationships with plants where the plant supply carbons and the bacteria supply the nitrogen for plants to use in growth. We are hoping to increase the ammonia supplied from the bacteria or work on protocols to make these bacteria easier to work with in synthetic biology.
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