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 table soccer, 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.