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Team:SCAU-China/Questionnaire
From 2014.igem.org
Questionnaire
The SCAU iGEM team has conducted a questionnaire survey through the Internet by the questionnaire star (http://www.sojump.com/) to gather the information of public awareness of synthetic biology and MFC as well as the public attitude to biological energy.
The survey is a bilingual version (Chinese and English). Up to 3rd October, we have received 151 feedback questionnaires (15 in English, 136 in Chinese).Here, we present the statistical data based on our questionnaires as follow.
1.The participants of our questionnaire survey were from eight provinces of China, mainly from Guangdong.
2.Most of the respondents involved in this survey have bachelor or higher degrees.
3.About 3/5 participants have heard about iGEM before, and one quarter of people pay close attention to it. However, there are 2/5 of people who do not know. In terms of the benefits of life sciences, most people choose human health care, a number of people care about the food production and environmental protection, and few people think life sciences benefit economy.
4.From this survey, we find that most people concern about the global energy consumption, and about half are worried about it. For attitude towards new energy, 3/4 of participants strongly support the development of new energy, but about 16% of people they are indifferent and around 10% people are passive to this issue.
5.Over 95% of participants have ever heard about biological energy sources, and about 60% of people have certain knowledge about biological energy source. Biogas ranks No.1 of familiar biological energy resources in people’s life followed by biodiesels.
6.Majority of participants know the principle of MFC in which electricity is generated from fermentation of microorganisms and are positive to the future of MFC., However, 10% of people are negative to MFC because of its high cost.
7.Regarding to applications of MFC in future, most people agree on that MFC is a new clean energy; about 50% people thinks that MFC can be applied for seawater desalination. If the MFC is released to the market, over 40% of people worry about the possibility of microbial mutation leading to a infectious pathogens or potential hazard to the environment. About 20% of people concern stability of the power capacity in MFC.
8.Collection of public suggestion on bio-energy exploitation indicates MFC is accepted by the public as a good project for humans, but people also take serious concern about biosafety.
Our questionnaire link:
1、 Chinese version: http://www.sojump.com/jq/3749153.aspx
2、 English version: http://www.sojump.com/jq/3749447.aspx
The survey is a bilingual version (Chinese and English). Up to 3rd October, we have received 151 feedback questionnaires (15 in English, 136 in Chinese).Here, we present the statistical data based on our questionnaires as follow.
1.The participants of our questionnaire survey were from eight provinces of China, mainly from Guangdong.
2.Most of the respondents involved in this survey have bachelor or higher degrees.
3.About 3/5 participants have heard about iGEM before, and one quarter of people pay close attention to it. However, there are 2/5 of people who do not know. In terms of the benefits of life sciences, most people choose human health care, a number of people care about the food production and environmental protection, and few people think life sciences benefit economy.
4.From this survey, we find that most people concern about the global energy consumption, and about half are worried about it. For attitude towards new energy, 3/4 of participants strongly support the development of new energy, but about 16% of people they are indifferent and around 10% people are passive to this issue.
5.Over 95% of participants have ever heard about biological energy sources, and about 60% of people have certain knowledge about biological energy source. Biogas ranks No.1 of familiar biological energy resources in people’s life followed by biodiesels.
6.Majority of participants know the principle of MFC in which electricity is generated from fermentation of microorganisms and are positive to the future of MFC., However, 10% of people are negative to MFC because of its high cost.
7.Regarding to applications of MFC in future, most people agree on that MFC is a new clean energy; about 50% people thinks that MFC can be applied for seawater desalination. If the MFC is released to the market, over 40% of people worry about the possibility of microbial mutation leading to a infectious pathogens or potential hazard to the environment. About 20% of people concern stability of the power capacity in MFC.
8.Collection of public suggestion on bio-energy exploitation indicates MFC is accepted by the public as a good project for humans, but people also take serious concern about biosafety.
Conclusion
Based on the survey, we conclude that the public generally support the development of environment-friendly energy source. With great concern of energy issue all over the world, most people showed their attention about applications of new energy. However, regarding biosafety issue, more than half people worry about side effects of microorganisms to environment and human health, when microbes are used as one of a new energy sources. This survey result may in some extend reflect the reason why the development of Microbial Fuel Cells in China is slow. Therefore, establishment of detailed safety regulation, policy and laws for standardization of microbial energy industry is urgent to relieve public misunderstanding of biosafety in bio-industry. Furthermore, scientific knowledge education and safety propagation are also important to raise public awareness of new energy development. For this purpose, we conducted several relevant outreaches in our iGEM project.Our questionnaire link:
1、 Chinese version: http://www.sojump.com/jq/3749153.aspx
2、 English version: http://www.sojump.com/jq/3749447.aspx
