The Science behind the Fiction at San Francisco’s Exploratorium

For our Human Practices, we decided to take a fun and exciting approach to inspire public dialogue about synthetic biology. This summer, just as our iGEM 2013 team did the previous year, we coordinated with the Exploratorium, an interactive science museum based in San Francisco, to present an exhibit at their “Science Fiction” themed After Dark event. With the opportunity to present to several thousand attendees, we prepared various materials that introduced synthetic biology in a novel and fun way – through comic book superheroes!

In our presentation, titled “Super Science: The Genetics Behind Superheroes,” we put a superhero spin on the topic of synthetic biology in order to excite people about the largely unknown and growing field. To do so, our presentation discussed the validity and possibility of specific superhero powers such as Spiderman’s spider silk, Hulk’s super strength, and Flash’s super speed, based on existing genes and techniques available to scientists today. We also mentioned our day-to-day lab work that included these techniques, such as the cloning genes.

When guests first reached our booth, we primed them with background information about the world of synthetic biology, its applications, and how it exists in our everyday lives. As an example of what synthetic biology is capable of, we brought culture plates of yeast cells that contained isolated genes from the violacein pathway. This allows us to demonstrate a fundamental principle of synthetic biology: we can take genes from one organism and express them in another. Please see our handouts here [link to docs] as well as our powerpoint.

In our second station, guests could engineer their own superhero! They had two choices before them: 1). To “use synthetic biology” and engineer pre-formed superpowers into their genome(make into a link so people can download), or 2) to try their hand at random mutations through exposure to radioactive waste or random DNA mutagenesis. This second option mostly led them through a range of unexpected consequences from silent mutations, to cancer, to third-degree burns, and even death, with the rare exception of a favorable mutation. Our pre-formed superpowers were inspired by genes found in other animals like super strong spider silk and tardigrade invincibility.

In our third station, our caricature artist, Sabrina, hand-drew guests with their favorite superpowers!

Super Curriculum

From our crowd appeal at the Exploratium, we were encouraged to expand our message. We have developed and are now freely distributing a synthetic biology curriculum.

With this curriculum, we wish to teach middle school (and high school) aged students about genetics, synthetic biology, and genetic engineering through the frame of superheroes. This twist to such a broad and intricate field will hopefully introduce students to synthetic biology as well as excite a new generation of researchers.

Below, you can find links to all the materials used in our presentation and activities:

• Super-Science Curriculum Summary and Overview
• Super Science PowerPoint Presentation
• Superhero slides (PDF form)
• Handout on Synthetic Biology
• Superhero Background Stories
• Complied List of Genetically Plausible Superpowers
• Super-Science Gene Trading Cards
• FAQ and Disclaimer about our Curriculum
• Central Dogma Handout (from UCSF iGEM 2013)
• Transformation Handout (from UCSF iGEM 2013)

We hope that you will find presenting this material as fun and interesting as we did. Please share and distribute widely.