1 - 9 News.indd - Felix

8
NEWS
Student success
Imperial iGem team win in U.S.
A team of 10 Imperial undergraduates presented a
research project at MIT last week and took away an
impressive number of awards. The fi eld was synthetic
biolog-y; a groundbreaking approach to designing
biological systems using engineering practices.
There was some stiff competition between the 130
teams taking part from all over the world, with each
project showing the incredible potential of this revolutionary
fi eld. From yeast designed to terraform
Mars, to using E. coli as a form of data storage,
every idea was both inspiring and original.
The Imperial project focused on a detection kit
for the waterborne parasite Schistosoma, which
causes schistosomiasis (bilharzia). This neglected
tropical disease infects 200 million people around
the world, and is found in developing countries
where sanitation is inadequate. In addition to discussing
the biological processes involved, the team
contextualised the project by considering how the
detection kit would be implemented in the fi eld. An
application has actually been put forward to the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation, with the hope that the
research may one day become a reality.
The team also ran a series of school workshops
around London, explaining the concept of synthetic
biology to A-level students. They were encouraged to
come up with their own ideas for new synthetic biology
applications, and then act out TV adverts to explore
exactly how they would bring these products to
market. The team hopes to continue this as a wider
public engagement program around the UK in partnership
with other iGEM teams. Like many emerging
fi elds, synthetic biology raises many ethical, social
and legal questions. Addressing them requires
scientists to fully understand and engage with the
wider public, something that needs to improve in the
future for people to fi nd new technologies like synthetic
biology socially acceptable.
Continuing Imperial’s amazingly successful string
of projects at iGEM, the team won awards for Best
Website, Best Human Practices Advance and the
peer-reviewed iGEMers Award, as well as reaching
the fi nal 6 of the competition. This meant they
had to present the project to over 1500 people, an
experience most of them would like to forget. But
don’t let that put you off! If you think iGEM might be
for you, check out their website at 2010.igem.org/
Team:Imperial_College_London.
What’s so unique about the iGEM competition is
the fact that it’s the students who come up with
the ideas and actually put them into practise, something
very few undergraduates have the opportunity
to experience at university. So make sure you get
involved in next year’s team!
Benjamin Miller and Harriet Gliddon
Friday 19 NOVEMBER 2010
FELIX
News Editors: Matt Colvin
Alex Karapetian
news.felix@imperial.ac.uk
Activists plan Lib
Dem HQ occupation
‘Day of Action’ planned for 24th November
Matt Colvin
The dust has barely settled from the thousands
of students who descended on London last
week to demonstrate against the planned rise of
tuition fees, but plans are already being set in
motion across the country for further protests.
Wednesday 24th November has been proposed
by several anti-cuts groups as the next signifi -
cant occasion to bring the issue to the forefront
of both the political and public mindset.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, following the media
storm produced by a minority of anarchic protesters,
further aggressive action is being organized
by radical groups, with the intention of
the next protest to focus on attacking the Liberal
Democrats rather than the Conservatives
with the aim to have the same result at both the
Liberal Democrat headquarters in Westminster
and Downing Street as they did at Millbank
Tower.
The N.U.S. have not collaborated with plans
for next week’s events. N.U.S. President Aaron
Porter said: “we won’t condemn non-violent
direct action where students support it, but I
also won’t organise activities that will have no
impact, that rob us of infl uence and public support,
or that claim criminal damage is somehow
‘legitimate violence’.” The N.U.S. has instead
launched a new scheme, calling on students to
vote against their MPs should they renege on
their pre-election pledge to oppose any raise in
fees. Aaron Porter has admitted that the new
scheme is particularly targeted against Liberal
Democrats. Speaking to Sky News, Mr Porter
outlined that “[the politicians] need to be held
to account and we believe this is the best way
to do it.”
The Education Activist Network (EAN)
helping organise the protests and run by a
member of the N.U.S. national executive committee
Mark Bergfeld, has been in discussions
over plans to not only target key locations in
London on what they are calling ‘Day X’ but
also to attempt a raid on Clegg’s home in his
constituency of Sheffi eld Hallam. They are
also encouraging schoolchildren to become involved
alongside students and walk out of lessons
on the day.
The EAN has based its attack on the Liberal
Democrats on ‘revelations from the Guardian’
suggesting that MPs planned to go back
on their tuition fee promises before they were
even made.
Another group of activists, the National
Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, also strongly
support the planned walkouts on Wednesday. A
press statement released by NCAFC states that
they ‘expect over 1000 people’ followed by
‘direct action’, though a disclaimer warns that
Photo by Miles Robertson
Student groups are seeking to recreate the scenes seen at Conservative HQ
‘all actions planned are of legal, non-violent
nature’.
Elsewhere across the country, other protests
are ongoing, with 200 students occupying a
lecture theatre at the University of Sussex on
Monday evening. Those involved have fashioned
a series of timetabled events alongside a
‘quiet study space’ (presumably for those who
want to put their prime location to use) in the
room, with debates and discussions hosted by
political societies and open mic events taking
place. The protest has seen support from local
MP Caroline Lucas, who became the fi rst ever
Green Party candidate to be elected at the last
general election in May.
The repercussions from the demonstration on
November 10th are clearly still ongoing across
the country. Whether the next set of protests
will achieve the same level of media coverage
and public awareness, whether for the right or
wrong reasons, will likely determine how the
next stages of the debate will proceed.