Synthetic Bio in the news media - how can we do better?

[Sveta McShane]

Hi All, 

I'm part of the team at singularityhub.com - we cover topics in tech (ai, computing, robotics, etc) and science (neuroscience, genetics, etc) as well as futurism.  This year, we want to write more about synthetic biology, which we haven't done super well in the past. 

I love what this community is all about and would love to be part of sharing the story in a positive way. I'm curious what everyone here thinks is missing in the way synthetic biology and/or diybio is portrayed in the media.  

1. What are interesting innovations/news happening in synthetic bio/ diy bio that are not being covered well or at all? 

2. Which topics do you feel are being misrepresented in the news, and how can these topics be better communicated to the public? (GMOs anyone?!) 

3. What type of content are you personally looking for online (breakthrough news, interviews, how-tos?) 

Thanks,

Sveta  

[Jérôme Lutz]

Hi Sveta, 

just discovered your post here, a pity that no one picked it up yet. 

A little intro on what we are doing, which sounds quite similar to your mission :)

Last year I quit my job to join SynBio full time and build a startup. Since my background is software, engineering and business I hardly had an idea of any molecular biology, involved technologies and so on. So back then, I started www.synbio.info to keep track of all the things I learn. Now, it became a wiki where we are now around 10 people sharing all the things we discover in SynBio. The most interesting things, we share with our 19k+ Facebook Fans - no idea how that quickly, but it shows that there is a huge interest in SynBio out there. 

Regarding your questions, here are my thoughts: 

1) You find short articles on all applications we covered here and uncovered topics here. Most applications we actually found through blog posts, news from renowned research institutes or just pages we liked on Facebook. However, what I lacked was a comprehensive overview of all applications and technologies including their development status in a structured way that one can look them up whenever you need it. 

2) From what I learned when talking to my non-bio friends, there is a massive lack of basic genetic knowledge, knowledge on what's possible today, in the future and at all (most are afraid of designer babies). This makes it pretty difficult to have a stereotype-free discussion. Also, I have the feeling people you talk to are either super enthusiastic or super afraid. This is also true for media, most agencies are either pro or contra and you can tell from the way articles are written. For me personally, I am often missing an objective view on things. Also, since it's about changing the blueprints of nature, it quickly becomes a moral discussion if we should be allowed to do this and then, there is no more discussion possible about the initial topic. 

3) When I started, I missed a holistic overview on SynBio that can be read by newbies. Often, articles use mostly scientific language, that is hard to understand (currently hopefully solving this with a browser extension that teaches you all the unknown bio words). Right now, I am reading a lot of "breakthrough" news, doing a MOOC on Synbio at MIT and learning the scientific language by writing the glossary terms for that browser extension. 

If you have further questions, feel free to contact me!

Best regards from Berlin, 

Jérôme