Team:BEAS China/Human Practices

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Summary & Conclusion

Integrated human practices has promoted our projects from the beginning to the end.

We did a lot of human practices which are closely connected with our project closely. At the beginning, we have visited a water-testing and a water-purification station to investigate the current measures to water pollution, and released a questionnaire to investigate the public’s concern to this issue, and we found that the detection and purification of wastewater are still big issues that require better solutions, which inspired us to design our project.

Also, we have made an investigation in Southern Africa to see their view on our project, and from their feedback, we realized that our final product could not only be targeted to water-purifying agencies but to individual communities as well, which contributed to the design of our hardware.

Then we made an interview with professor Chen Xiaoyu from Oxford University and introduced our project, and based on his suggestion, we further optimized the design of our project to design an advanced Sensor & Biocontainment system.

What'r more, hundreds of questionaire feedbacks provided us with valuable comments and suggestions which could guide our future plans.

Visit to Water-testing Station

What are the weaknesses in the current water-testing industry? How can we improve them using our biological approach? In the start of August, we visited a private water-quality testing company called CityCamel Beijing Ltd, hoping for some information about these questions from the professionals from this field.

Through conversations with Ms. Song, the manager of the company, and some scientists there, we have acquired the information that the machines used very commonly for water testing include graphic furnace, spectrophotometer and electrothermal atomizer. Molecules are first atomized using current or heat, and analyzed by spectrophotometry to get the absorption spectrum. Although such a method can reach the resolution of 1ng/ml, high cost can become a problem which limit their applications in poorer communities. Any of these machines would cost at least 100 thousand RMB (equivalent to 14 thousand USD). She also said that in China, this is the only methods that has been approved by the government used in water-testing companies.

This is the place where we can clearly understand the strengths and weaknesses of the chemical and biological approaches for substance-detection. The chemical approach provides a relatively accurate results yet with a higher price, and the biological one is cheaper, but its accuracy would be undermined depending on different situations. From the meeting with Ms. Song, we concluded that it would be more beneficial if our project targets the communities where there is no enough capital or human resource to operate such a high-resolution system, as it would create more value to the locals.

Interview with Chen Xiaoyu, an expert majoring on biosensors

Date: August 9, 2019
Form: Online Interview (Beijing-London)
Interviewee: Dr. Chen Xiaoyu, an expert who is currently researching on gene circuit design of amplifier and detection of petroleum pollution.
Interviewer: Members and instructors from BEAS-China and QHFZ-China

Dr. Chen's comments and advices about our project

He has suggested us to consider tevS-AAV Tag sensor design and Biocontainment control. He also suggested use 3D printing, as well as resin balls to hold our bacteria, because

  1. Shown by many studies, 3D printing materials have also shown to be adhesive to bacteria.

  2. Resin gets an innate ability to absorb pollutants (heavy metals), which enhances the absorption efficiency of heavy metal ions.

  3. The output of our design is fluorescence, which can be read easily through resin.

  4. 3D printing is uncommon in iGEM, especially in the environmental track. Therefore, using 3D printing will be more innovative and attractive.

  5. Shapes of containers can be designed and tested easily.

He has also suggested us that we should seek the types of bacteria that can survive in water, which is our real application scenario.

Visit to Water-purification Station

In order to obtain information about current water-purification methods, we went to a sewage plant belonged to OriginWater on August 8, 2019. We investigated the main pollutants in water, and the current physical, chemical and biological methods to purify water. Meanwhile, we have learned the existing drawbacks of current sewage plants which need to be confronted with.

Date: August 8, 2019

Form: Field Visit

Interviewee: a staff from the water-purification station

Interviewer: members from BEAS_China

What We have Learned:

Source of Polluted Water:

Daily Life

Industry

Primary Pollutant:

Primary Pollutant from Daily Life: organic substance, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and so on

Primary Pollutant from Industry: heavy metal ions and so on

Primary Sewage Treatment for Polluted Water Produced from Daily Life:

Method 1:

  1. Filtering the impurities and big particles by physical methods.

  2. Inducing microbes to get rid of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

  3. Use osmotic membranes and other methods to trap bacteria in the water for reuse. Because the bacteria strains need adding oxygen artificially, there is no biosafety concern in the method.

Method 2:

  1. Filtering water directly by anti-osmotic membranes. However, the method will reduce the concentration of the trace elements in the water. Long-time drinking such water will cause health defects.

Primary Sewage Treatment for Polluted Water Produced from Industry:

Method 1:

  1. Adding chemical reagents to precipitate metal ions.

  2. Using physical methods to collect small particles. However, the feasibility and efficiency for recollecting metal ion are not high by this method.

Findings and Conclusions

Existing Problems :

  1. Policy, economy, and technology limit each other.

  2. Technology stopped improving for 100 years, but the quality of water is continuously decreasing over time.

  3. Millions of tons of water is putrefied every day. However, water pollution is still not resolved.

  4. Lots of concerns about synthetic biology exist.

Therefore, a new biological method should be developed in order to overcome these drawbacks.

Investigation in Southern Africa (Zimbabwe and Botswana)

It started with a school service trip to Africa that took place in July of 2019. We suddenly realized: why can’t we use this opportunity to investigate how citizens in Africa view our project? Apart from suggestions given by the Chinese citizens, acquiring comments around the world would bring the utility of our project to a global level. Therefore, we decided to try it in a region where water purification is most urgently needed.

Methods of data collection:

  1. Interviews with three teachers and five students in Bunina Elementary School, Zimbabwe. It is a rough local school with only a few classrooms and an open field. Yet for the children in nearby villages and towns, it is the only place for education.

  2. A questionnaire with a class of 30 students in 3rd grade

  3. Interviews with two chefs and two guest diners in a local restaurant

Findings and Conclusions:

  1. The local populations, especially in rural area, have limited knowledge on the existence and of heavy metal ions in tap water, as well as on their damage on the human body

  2. The local populations are likely to be reluctant on testing or improving the water quality – the only way to monitoring water quality is through governmental water-testing agencies, which can be unreachable to most citizens

    “Sometimes the tap water would smell like metal, but we would have no idea on what’s wrong” – A chef at one local restaurant

  3. In local primary schools, children are taught to identify whether a water source is safe (e.g. tap water) or unsafe (e.g. water from the pond). The knowledge of purifying water through filtration and boiling, including the harms of drinking unclean water, are taught as well. However, knowledge about heavy metal ions and other soluble pollutants in water are very often ignored, as they are difficult to remove, especially in rural communities.

  4. Water-safety issues, including pollution of public water supply, are frequent, and consequences can be severe especially in areas of high population. The population has a limited knowledge that it is the public water supply that causes the problem

  5. The surveyed adults generally have an approving attitude toward the use of biotechnology in their daily life, with examples being GMO food, crops, and farm animals. However, most of them do not understand how such technology works.

  6. Most surveyed individuals expect biotechnology to have a significant and beneficial impact upon their communities in the future. It is widely appreciated for the drop in costs and rises in profit it causes in the area of agriculture. Many mentioned that GMO food is much more affordable and that it allows farmers to earn more, due to a short growth period of farm animals and crops.

    “I think this thing is unreal, and … suspicious. But on the benefits it brings, the spread of this technology is acceptable and inevitable”. – Mr. Jonathan Chinyepe, the principal of Bunina Elementary School

    7. The investigation's impacts on our project:

    Due to the difficulties for rural communities to test for and eliminate heavy metal ions, our final product based on of biotechnology can used by not only to water-purifying agencies but to individual communities as well, because that bacteria products are convenient and not expensive.

    Thus, our design should be:

    Affordable, especially in less developed regions where water quality is unreliable

    User-friendly, even to ones with low education level

    Durable, with as little need of maintenance as possible

    Biologically safe, minimizing the risk of contamination that can be harmful to the local ecosystem

    Questionnaire Report

    To investigate the public's view and understanding of the current situation of water pollution, sewage treatment, microbial application synthetic biology and gene-modified technologies, we established this questionnaire. It includes 22 questions, including basic information about the subjects' sex, age, education, and occupation, as well as a series of questions about water pollution, sewage treatment, and biotechnology (reported in our Public engagement page). A total of 257 questionnaires were collected in this survey.

    Basic information survey

    Question 1: Gender survey

    Question 2: Age survey

    Question 3: Education background check

    Question 4: Occupational survey

    From the survey results, we can see that the subjects of this survey cover different ages, educational backgrounds, and occupations, and the sample size is relatively large. This makes the survey meaningful and reflects the public's general understanding of these issues.

    Public awareness of the current situation of water pollution

    Question 5: Is your domestic water polluted?

    Question 6: Do you think the water quality of your residence has changed in recent years?

    According to the obtained data, only 20% of the people in question 5 think that the domestic water is not polluted, while 32% of the people in question 6 think that the water quality of their residence has changed a lot in recent years. This shows that the water pollution phenomenon has been existing in recent years, still needs to be solved, and affects people's life. It also makes our project more practical.

    At the same time, in question 5 and question 6, quite a few people chose "don't know" or "don't feel," which indicates that the public's understanding of the current situation of water pollution is not adequate.

    Question 7: Do you know the composition of sewage?

    As we can see the survey results, only 12% of people chose "know." It shows that the public has no clear understanding of the essence and specific pollutants of water pollution. This will also become the direction of accessible science education.

    Public awareness of the current situation of sewage treatment

    Question 8: Do you know anything about sewage treatment?

    Question 9: Do you think sewage treatment is necessary?

    According to the survey results, 70 percent of people have known about sewage treatment, and 97 percent think it is necessary. This shows that the public is con-cerned about sewage treatment and is concerned about water quality safety.

    Question 10: Does your area attach importance to sewage treatment?

    From the survey results, we can see that a total of 77% of people believe that their area discovers some importance to sewage treatment. This shows that not only the public but also government departments in various regions and the whole society are concerned about the treatment of water pollution.

    Question 11: Have you known the sewage treatment method in your location?

    According to the survey data, although the public and the community acknowledge great importance to sewage treatment, there are still 74% of people who have not known about the local sewage treatment methods. This means that although the public is concerned about sewage treatment at this stage, they do not understand the way of sewage treatment and all kinds of relevant information. Therefore, accessible science education on water pollution control is essential, which will also help more people devote themselves to environmental protection.

    Question 12: The source of your domestic water

    The purpose of this question is used to understand the primary sources of domestic water for the public in order to analyze the possibility of centralized sewage treatment through specific installations. The survey results show that 85% of people's domestic water comes from tap water, which makes it possible for our project to treat sewage through particular hardware and promote it effectively.

    Conclusion

    1. The public is very concerned about sewage treatment and water quality safety, but the problem of water pollution still exists, affecting people's lives. This requires a more efficient approach to sewage treatment, and our project aims to address this problem.

    2. The survey found that most people get their water from tap water. Therefore, we hope to realize the centralized and effective treatment of sewage through the design of the hardware. In our follow-up human practice, we also went to the water purification plant to understand the current situation of clean water.

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