The TU-DAY is the open day of our university, the Technische Universität (TU) Braunschweig. The event is aimed at a wide audience and not restricted to people engaged in science. Therefore, the institutions and working groups of the university used the opportunity to introduce themselves and present their research to the public – and so did we!
The members of our team spent all day at our stand to inform interested visitors about our project and synthetic biology in general. In doing so, we were able to clear up some prejudices towards hotly debated topics like genetically modified organisms - without trivializing the risks that might come along with their use. Furthermore, we put our cooperation with the iGEM team of the University of Virginia into practice by conducting their survey on the acceptance of synthetic biology which we had translated to German for this purpose.
A highlight of our stand was our experiment station for kids. Children were taken by the hand here and performed a series of three experiments relating to milk under our instruction. We made various components of milk visible and explained them to our young visitors. During another popular experiment we coloured the milk with food dye and produced amazing colourful patterns by applying a drop of tenside. The amazed looks on the children’s faces made the event even more enjoyable.

The European Researchers’ Night is an annual event “dedicated to popular science and fun learning”, as the organizers put it - and we were eager to live up to that! Taking place in hundreds of cities all over Europe from Portugal to Turkey on September 26, 2014, the ERN gives scientists the opportunity to point out the importance of their research and their motivation behind it in an entertaining way. The city of Braunschweig had the privilege to host the ERN as the only location in Germany this year, next to metropolises like London, Paris and Rome - quite adequate, as the Braunschweig region is the European leader in research and development [1]. Therefore, there was a bet that at least 1,000 researchers from the area were to assemble at Braunschweig’s Schlossplatz - and the bet was won! Our stand, located right in front of a big shopping mall, was visited by a variety of people, some of whom had probably not expected to be informed about synthetic biology that day! For children, we had some pictures to color and they could also have their own faces painted with a cow as a motive. Next to other fun acitivies like foosball, the main focus was, of course, on presenting the iGEM idea and our project to visitors - and our own motivation to take part in such a competition, despite also being kept busy by our regular studies. The eye-catcher of our stand was a large tree which we had made out of craft wire and plastic sheets. During the course of the day this tree was being decorated with survey sheets we had asked our visitors to fill out. The survey dealt with the question in what way the people expected synthetic biology to benefit humanity.

References

1. http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-NS-06-006/EN/KS-NS-06-006-EN.PDF (28.09.2014)

The “Tag der Lehre” (translates to “Day of Teaching”) hosted by our university is dedicated to the appreciation of innovative teaching concepts and provides a platform for exchange about this topic. This is quite important to us because from our point of view synthetic biology is not yet appropriately represented in our curriculum. Therefore, we seized the opportunity and presented our iGEM team and project as a figurehead for synthetic biology at our university. In doing so, we made clear that it is an important subject with considerable significance not only from a scientific, but also from a societal perspective.
Our stand at the “Tag der Lehre” was visited by a variety of people from all kinds of professions and disciplines towards whom we could emphasize our concern. As some of them were university professors and even the principal was present, we think we might have come a little closer to our aim. The day ended with a science slam in which we presented our project in an entertaining way and actually won first prize - which we consider to be a positive sign for the future of synthetic biology at our university.

In August we had a visitor in our lab for two weeks. Benjamin, a pupil from a local school, had decided to expand his knowledge on Synthetic Biology and Biotechnology. He proved to be very keen to learn new things and to become a valuable (albeit short-term) member of our team. Here is how he evaluates his stay with us:
“During the past two weeks I did an internship at the Institute for Biochemistry, Biotechnology and Bioinformatics of the TU Braunschweig. It was unique in several ways: I had the opportunity to look over the iGEM team members’ shoulders, to ask questions and I could even contribute to their project by carrying out some smaller tasks. These two weeks were eventful and exciting for me and I do not regret investing part of my holidays for them. I got a great insight into Biotechnology, especially the lab work.”
And although he may be a little too young for iGEM, he still acquired a taste for the idea behind the competition: “Concerning iGEM, I am particularly fascinated by the fact that the project is in the students’ hands from start to finish and that they can get so much out of their contribution. Maybe I will also take this direction later and take part in the competition… Lots of luck to the Braunschweig iGEMers and I keep my fingers crossed for E. cowli to eventually be able to degrade methane. THANK YOU for the great internship!”

In which of the areas where synthetic biology is applied do you wish for progress?

Recent reports show that the public interest in vegan diets is on the rise [1]. Indeed, if more people forwent consuming beef and dairy products, methane emissions caused by livestock farming could be drastically reduced. In order to get further insight into the public’s willingness to change their diet for the sake of the climate we conducted a survey - before the revelation of our project, so that they would not be influenced. The exact question was: “Could you imagine changing your nutrition such that there are no more dairy or beef products on the menu to reduce the output of greenhouse gases?” The results are shown in the diagram at the left.
Even confronted with the possible consequences of their consume of dairy and beef products, most people were not willing to change their nutrition for a better climate. Additionally, it should be considered that clicking “Yes” in a survey is probably much easier than turning something into action for real, so in reality the “No” fraction would probably even more numerous. This implements that there should be another way of reducing the greenhouse gas emissions caused by livestock, and with our project we want to show how this could be achieved.

In which of the areas where synthetic biology is applied do you wish for progress?

We also wanted to figure out what the public expects synthetic biology to contribute to society and in which areas that synthetic biology is applied in they wish the most for progress. Among these areas are medicine, renewable energy, environment, and nutrition. To those who were not familiar with the term “synthetic biology” we gave a short introduction, of course without influencing their opinion. The question was: “In which of the areas where synthetic biology is applied do you wish for progress?” Apparently most people are interested in the use of synthetic biology for medicinal or environmental purposes, whereas less wanted synthetic biology to solve problems concerning renewable energy and the least wanted synthetic biology to interfere in nutritional issues. The results for nutrition and renewable energy were somewhat expected - genetically modified food is a hotly debated topic in Germany and renewable energy may be a somewhat intangible term, especially as the connection to synthetic biology is probably not as obvious as for the other areas.
On the other hand, we were quite surprised to find that people obviously cared about the environment as much as about medicinal issues. However, it would sure be interesting to see whether the age group has an influence on what the respective persons chose. Therefore, we also asked for the persons’ ages and got the following results. Especially for environment and medicine it is interesting to see that persons younger than 40 years and persons of 40 years or older seem to form two distinct groups with equally distinct opinions. While the younger ones decided for environment more often, the opposite is the case for the older ones who are more interested in the use of synthetic biology for medicine. Although these differences might not be significant one can still assume that the age influences a person’s priorities. Preservation is a relatively new issue which might explain that younger ones seem to be more interested in it. This is probably not to the same degree the case for older people who instead wish for progress in more conventional areas like medicine, which also have a more direct influence on humans.
In general, however, there is a discrepancy of opinions. On the one hand, many people want to preserve the environment, but on the other hand, only few would be willing to change their diets in order to achieve this.

Besides getting in contact with people by the above-mentioned means we also kept the public up to date via social media. We mainly used our Facebook page to inform our followers about our progress in the lab, events like the European Researchers’ Night or several iGEM meetups we attended, and sometimes just to keep them entertained with little games or a specially designed E. coli soccer World Cup oracle.
On our Facebook page, the number of “Likes” rose to about 500 during the work on our project, which we attribute to different factors. Firstly, to general appreciation of working in a self-organized team, which is one of the main ideas behind iGEM, and secondly to a rising interest in questions concerning synthetic biology. Therefore, Facebook was an important means for us to bring about the importance of our discipline to those who are generally not very familiar with such topics.
Similar to Facebook, we also used our Twitter account to keep our followers up to date. Although we used both media to communicate we rather switched to Twitter when we wanted to post live from certain events like, for example, public discussions. Thus, we could spread the views expressed there as soon as we had heard them ourselves.
In order to raise public awareness, we regularly issued press releases. In those reports we informed people about our project idea and how we wanted to implement it. Moreover, we told them about important events in which we were about to take part and milestones we reached. The following compilation shows some articles published in different local media.

“Climate change is fundamentally an ethical issue.” [1]
As this quote suggests, talking about a solution to climate change inevitably means taking many other areas into account, too. These issues span a wide range from economy to livestock farming and animal welfare. Some of them shall be addressed here. Livestock farming is one of the most important sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [2]. Thus, one could conclude that if people just stopped eating meat or drinking milk a big step towards a better climate could be done. Obviously things are not that simple, though. On the one hand, although there is a rise of interest in vegan diets [3] and of public concern over the intensification of livestock production [4,5] there is still a big demand for the respective products, an indication of which is given by one of our surveys [LINK]. On the other hand, it may be too shortsighted to reduce certain kinds of food solely to the greenhouse gas emissions caused during their production. In a study by Smedman and colleagues [6] the nutrient content of various beverages was expressed in relation to their climate impact. The highest Nutrient Density to Climate Impact (NDCI) index was ascribed to milk because, despite its production being linked to a large amount of GHG emissions, it contains lots of nutrients, which, according to the study, justifies the negative side effects in a way. Such deliberations may be controversial, but they show that a simple change of food consumption patterns is probably not always the most sensible choice [6], irrespective of the willingness. Accordingly, if vegetarian diets are portrayed as superior to non-vegetarian diets one should also consider that at the same time a vegetarian diet might have a lower nutritional value [7].
Theoretical constructs like the NDCI index may be helpful when considering whether or not to keep eating meat or drinking milk. They do not, however, stop greenhouse gases like methane from being emitted and harming the Earth’s climate. Yet, it seems necessary to maintain production standards for the time being because, although ethical concerns play an important role in the consumers’ minds [4], it will still take many years until thoroughly sustainable animal production systems can be established. The process of rethinking when it comes to animal products cannot be done from one day to the other. There is no use in forcing people to believe in something of which they are not (yet) convinced, not to mention the economical consequences that would follow from a rapid, forced decrease of livestock production.
Hence, until society and economy are ready to significantly reduce livestock farming and thus greenhouse gas emissions, approaches are needed by which the emissions can be reduced while in other respects maintaining the status quo for the time being. In the development of such approaches science must play a pivotal role. The key characteristics of science, however – being rational and objective and value-free – also make some kind of control necessary for the consideration of ethical concerns [7]. This necessity stems from the fact that there is a large degree of reservation in the public towards the involvement of scientists in the food chain, which is likely due to several cases of unethical behavior on the scientists’ part. There is a need for scientists to broaden their thinking. Highly specialized scientists are necessary, but they must be open to society and not forget about possible bad consequences that might result from their research [4].
This implies that although production intensity, as aforementioned, might have to be maintained for the time being this does not relieve anyone from the duty of keeping the animals’ welfare in mind. Although farm animals are often simply seen as resources, they are still sentient beings towards whose well-being humans have a moral responsibility. This responsibility should be grounded on the humans’ respect for the intrinsic value of life [5,8]. In this context, the British Farm Animal Welfare Council has devised the so-called Five Freedoms providing a guideline as to how farm animals should be treated. These Five Freedoms, in the most current form, are 1) the freedom from hunger and thirst, 2) the freedom from discomfort, 3) the freedom from pain, injury and disease, 4) the freedom to express normal behaviour, and 5) the freedom from fear and distress [9]. These are thought to pose a checklist for any husbandry system [8]. It is quite obvious, though, that most husbandry systems cannot live up to all of the Five Freedoms, and it is equally obvious why this is the case. One might argue that farmers and consumers, like farm animals, are also sentient beings, some of whom cannot afford the high-welfare food which would be produced if the Five Freedoms were properly considered [8]. Therefore, the well-being of animals in livestock is closely linked to economic factors. Yet, this cannot be taken as an excuse for a continuation of mistreating animal rights. The challenge here is to design production systems which can live up to several different types of demand: of humans not wanting to spend a fortune on their nutrition, of those interested in ethical questions concerning animal welfare, of the animals themselves which have to be properly treated, of the economy which has to be kept running, and of course of the climate which has to be preserved. How does our methane-metabolizing E. cowli do in this unsolved equation? It is supposed to be administered to cows in the form of small alginate beads in which the bacteria shall be encapsulated. Would this harm the animal? We do not think it would. We would even go as far as to say that our approach would harm the animal less than some past approaches [LINK] do. Most of them have in common that they either target the methanogenic bacteria of the rumen or other organisms associated with them, resulting in a decreased rate of methanogenesis [10]. However, methanogenesis is important in this complex ecosystem because it removes hydrogen which would otherwise inhibit certain microorganisms [11]. In contrast, what we are planning to do would not influence methanogenesis itself and thus the microbial community in the animal’s digestive tract. Therefore, E. cowli does not restrict any of the Five Freedoms.
Nevertheless, some people might be skeptical about feeding live bacteria to cows whose milk they are supposed to drink and whose meat they are supposed to eat. So-called direct-fed microbials are not a new development, though, and have already been used to influence the microorganisms of the rumen [12]. Therefore, choosing this approach was actually not as controversial a decision as it might seem at first. Besides, humans even use probiotics on themselves. More problematic to legitimate might be our use of a genetically modified organism. Its sole modification, however, is its ability to degrade methane so no dangers come along with it. If E. cowli should unexpectedly leave the rumen a proposed kill switch [LINK] shall make sure that it does not proliferate any further. Apart from these issues, our methane-degrading bacterium would allow for the maintenance of high production standards while simultaneously rendering them more climate-friendly.

References

1. Gardiner SM (2004) Ethics and Global Climate Change. Ethics 114:555-600
2. Siegford JM, Powers W, Grimes-Casey HG (2008) Environmental Aspects of Ethical Animal Production. Poult Sci 87:380-6
3. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/02/interest-in-vegan-diets-on-the-rise_n_3003221.html (05.10.2014)
4. Hodges J (2003) Livestock, ethics, and the quality of life. J Anim Sci 81:2887-94
5. Croney CC, Anthony R (2011) Ruminating conscientiously: Scientific and socio-ethical challenges for US dairy production. J Dairy Sci 94:539-46
6. Smedman A, Lindmark-Månsson H, Drewnowski A, Modin Edman AK (2010) Nutrient density of beverages in relation to climate impact. Food Nutr Res 54:5170
7. Croney CC, Apley M, Capper JL, Mench JA, Priest S (2012) The ethical food movement: What does it mean for the role of science and scientists in current debates about animal agriculture? J Anim Sci 90:1570-82
8. Webster AJF (2001) Farm Animal Welfare: the Five Freedoms and the Free Market. Vet J 161:229-37
9. Farm Animal Welfare Council (2009) Farm Animal Welfare in Great Britain: Past, Present and Future
10. Hook SE, Wright ADG, McBride BW (2010) Methanogens: Methane Producers of the Rumen and Mitigation Strategies. Archaea 2010:ID 945785
11. Sharp R, Ziemer CJ, Stern MD (1998) Taxon-specific associations between protozoal and methanogen populations in the rumen and a model rumen system.
12. Jeynathan J, Martin C, Morgavi DP (2014) The use of direct-fed microbials for mitigation of ruminant methane emissions: a review. Animal 8:250-61