The Plant and Life Sciences Marquee was a roaring success at Cambridge Science Festival, scooping a prize at the Cambridge BID awards Awards 2016. OpenPlant’s synthetic biology stand was highly rated by the public mystery shoppers and got a special mention in their final report!

OpenPlant offered a glimpse into synthetic biology at the Cambridge Science Festival and also showcased open technologies for science by demonstrated open source hardware developed with support from the OpenPlant Fund and SynBio Fund.

MAKING SOME WEIRD AND WONDERFUL BIOLOGICAL CIRCUITS

A disassembled phone explained the idea that by knowing how each of the individual simple components work (a dialling pad to input your desired number, a vibrating receiver coil to change the electrical signal into a sound wave) you can build more elaborate systems and by applying this idea to biology the public made weird and wonderful new lifeforms like a cat whose nose turns purple when a disease is nearby or a sprouts that taste of strawberries when it snows.

Cambridge Science Festival conducted some ‘Mystery Shopping’ as part of its evaluation strategy in 2016 and our home, The Plant and Life Sciences Marquee, was one of several weekend, hands-on spaces that were visited by evaluators. Our stand and team scored exceptionally highly with a 94.3% public approval rating!

The marquee was honoured at the 2016 Cambridge BID (Business Improvement District) Awards and Elisabeth Burmeister of the Sainsbury Laboratory collected the award on behalf of all the volunteers and sponsors who made the event a success.

Congratulations to all of the OpenPlant and SynBio SRI student and Faculty members involved!

SETTING UP THE 3D PRINTER AND OPEN HARDWARE STAND AT CAMBRIDGE SCIENCE FESTIVAL