Through a short story, we showed how our project might be adapted in the future. Here is the :
cStraw Project
Chapter 1
Stockholm, 2030.
A meeting was being held at the Nobel museum. Outside, a crowd -which is rare in Stockholm- was waiting for the results. The crowd was separated in two colors: people in red, and people in green. Green almost occupied the whole square in front of the museum, with just one tiny red spot alienated and cornered on the edge.
“It’s out! It passed!”
For just a second, nobody talked nor moved. A psychologist would explain that it takes some time for a human being to process mind-blowing news and that if they are bad news, nothing comes but anger. So, after the silent second, the green exploded.
“You’re destroying the planet!” people screamed.
“I’ll kill you! I’LL KILL YOU ALL!” people cursed.
“No, no, they must be mistaken. They are just kidding.” people denied.
“&@#^*(*&^$” people called their friends on the other side of the world, in all kinds of languages.
And the people in red you ask? They were long gone. They disappeared the moment of the breaking news. They escaped from the anger because otherwise they would have become the target.
Chapter 2
“What’s this daddy?”
“It’s our planet, Earth.”
“What’s the yellow and brown part?”
“It’s the land, son.”
“And the gray part?”
“It’s the sea.”
Chapter 3
“Welcome back! For those who just joined us, we’re talking about the recently approved project, Project cStraw. Inspired by an ancient project in 2014, in which a straw-like system was developed to purify water with genetically modified bacteria. Project cStraw is about to place hundreds of thousands of gigantic ‘straws’ in the sea all over the world in order to depollute the ocean by soaking in heavy metal. This idea was refuted by numberless groups and people for various reasons but just yesterday, it’s officially begun. First of all, we have the famous marine biologist Mr. Ian Crozier online, let’s hear his opinion. Mr. Crozier, this project sounds like an extreme measure, is it really necessary?”
“I can’t speak for the Project cStraw, but the situation of the sea water is really severe. People used to call the Earth ‘the blue diamond’, but as we all know the sea is no longer blue. Now the greyish water is not only hideous but also very harmful. The pollution is literally affecting every country in the world. All sea based industries have been paralyzed for years now. The main cause is heavy metal pollution, which is known for its carcinogenic properties.
Here is a photo of a swordfish that I dissected last week. You can see the inside is almost completely covered with all kinds of tumors and the majority of its organs are not functional. The same thing could just as easily happen to humans. So if it were up to me, I’d say we must save the ocean now and it’s already too late.”
“Despite the disturbing image, very thorough pieces of background information. Thank you Mr. Crozier. Oh, we just got our next expert guest online, Ms. Priya Diego, professor of sociology. Priya, how are you? You look as fabulous as always!”
“Thank you Mr. Rivers. But unfortunately the situation is quite the opposite.”
“How’s that?”
“Several protests have taken place in the USA, Canada, Russia, China and almost all European countries. Honestly the society has never been this fragile in many decades. The Project cStraw is like a moral nuclear bomb provoking critical and even aggressive emotion from people all over the world.”
“Even though it’s kinda out there, I have to ask: why do you think this project can cause such a chaos?”
“Actually it’s not a stupid question at all. Problems exist in various aspects of society. One big chunk is coming from religious groups who have been protesting against GMO products for ages. The most aggressive of them are calling this project ‘the release of the Kraken’. Another major player in this riot is fear. People worry that bacteria contamination might turn the sea ecosystem upside-down. A rumor of the ‘straw’ being a model of a new biochemical weapon is heating the overwhelming concerns too. Some people also believe that the project is a political tool for big countries to interfere and even control the sovereignty of some smaller countries since the latter have neither the power nor the technique to carry out the project.”
“Thank you Priya. Now let’s hear Mr. George Mihalic, one of the senior engineers of the project, talk about the technique they’re about to use. Mr. Mihalic, using massive amount of bacteria sounds terrifying, doesn’t it?”
“I can’t understand where this enormous fear comes from. For me, this technique is completely safe. You see, it’s a simple idea of a C-terminal fusion of the csgA gene. We added a DNA sequence coding for a polyHis tag so the CsgA protein will have the ability to chelate metal as it’s a basic building block of the bacteria’s curli, thus automatically displayed on the surface…”
“Sorry Mr. Mihalic, I’ll have to interrupt you here. Not only am I feeling a bit lost but this news also just came in. Our field reporter Jessica is now in Paris and just sent us this footage.”
“But I haven’t finished yet. This technique is perfectly safe because the bacteria will be killed by programming…”
“Cut!” The producer shouts. “Good job everyone, we’ll be back in 30.”
On the screen, a video clip is playing. A woman holding a banner is sitting in front of the Louvre, two policemen are trying to move her away. After a few moments, things turn physical but the woman still won’t leave. The banner says “Devil’s winning!”
Chapter 4
“Humankind fears a lot of things, but humankind is never scared of stepping forward. We invented fire to chase away darkness. We invented space shuttles to conquer the moon. We invented computers to free our mind so we can think further and wider. By taking every step, a part of our fear has vanished. I know lots of you don’t like this project. I don’t like it either. But it has to be done because the only thing that drags us back is nothing but fear. We have protested, we have debated, we even have had physical conflicts. But today, they shall all stop.
Today is about a brand new step. It’s a step towards the past, where there’s less pollution and more lives. It’s also a step towards the future, where we, a fragile species without sharp claws or poisoned teeth, keep living on this planet with less fear and more understanding.”
One week after the project cStraw was approved, 50 drones dropped 500 ‘straws’ into the north Atlantic in the US territory. One week later, the president of the US gave this speech on an aircraft and jumped into the water.
Prototype
Our team created a pedagogical object, a CsgA structure, with a 3D printer for popularization of Curly’on and more than that, synthetic biology. You will see it for the first time during our oral presentation in Boston.
We think that it is important for students in science to understand new engineering processes like 3D printer insofar as it is more and more present in the biotechnological field.
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