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Bio-tinkering (biology for everyone), part I

Biology concerns us all; whether it be under our feet in the soil, above our heads in the trees or inside every living thing that makes up the tapestry of life. Sadly, it can often be underrepresented in the interactive exhibits and activities we encounter in discovery centres or Makerspaces. We are entering the era of bio-design and bio-fabrication but we still depend on fundamental life processes taking place in the biosphere around us.

This reverse panel will be an open forum to explore the opportunities and challenges linked to bio-tinkering and DIY-bio and will discuss bio-tinkering in public engagement, uses of messy bio-tinkering and also the use of bio-art.

Facilitator

Scenographer
jh Museum & exhibition design
Erlangen
Germany

Session speakers

Scientific tutor
Fondazione Golinelli
Bologna
Italy
How to deal with the complexity of genetic manipulation with students, the decision makers of tomorrow? This powerful body of knowledge puts important ethical and philosophical questions that deserve to be explored within the scientific community and by society at large. To make students and teachers aware of this complexity we used hands on experience and the community of inquiry, a form of active learning where the classroom is turned into a community of inquirers whose aim is to investigate a question of common interest, fostering collaborative and democratic inquiry into philosophical issues raised by scientific contents.
Ken Skeldon
Head of Public Engagement
Wellcome Genome Campus
Cambridge
United Kingdom
The fast advancing science of genomics is bringing a new lens to our understanding of evolution and biodiversity. By 2030, the global ambition is to have sequenced the genomes of every complex species on the planet. This promises to change the face of biology in the 21st Century, but how can citizens contribute to the pipelines needed for such a pursuit? What might we be able to achieve with a new movement of amatuer genomicists - citizens empowered to contribute to identifying and collecting organisms, even sequencing and helping analyse their DNA? What's already happening in the DIY-bio, tinkering, hacker and maker communities that could energise people-powered contributions to future genomics based science?
Creative director
GLIMPS.Bio
Ghent
Belgium
Jasper just returned from a trip to Boston where he attended the Global BioSummit (the conference for bio-tinkering) at MITMediaLab and went for visit to Ginkgo Bioworks. He brings loads of inspiration from this trip, which he will be happy to share in this session and in the big bio-incubator in the makerspace.
Outreach Manager
Zürich
Switzerland
How to interest young people in the aesthetics of nature is a current challenge for many science educators. As we navigate through our increasingly digital world, maintaining contact with our biological selves, and fellow organisms, becomes increasingly difficult. How can bio-art and tinkering help facilitate this journey?

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