At The iGEM Competition, College Students Engineer New Biological Systems
E. Coli Bacteria Is One Of the Most Common Building Blocks Of Synthetic Biology Wikimedia CommonsPack up that baking soda volcano - this science fair is hardcore College and high school students from the world over begin convening in Boston today for the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition to present biotech projects they've been working on all summer. Teams were provided with a kit of standard, interchangeable biological parts and challenged to make a new, creative biological system out of them. This ain't your little sister's science fair. This year's iGEM is hosting 130 teams from the U.S, Canada, Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa. Each team has a wiki to explain their synthetic biology project and its results. The competition can also serve as recruiting grounds, drawing the attention of commercial biotech firms, many of whom sponsor teams to help pay for the costs of competing in...