On the 6th and 7th of September 2019, team MSP-Maastricht organized a lecture combined with a workshop, both in English and Dutch during the Pleasure, Art & Science (PAS) festival. The PAS festival is organized every year in Maastricht, and it is open and free for everyone. During each evening one can explore different lectures about the latest research in different fields at the university and enjoy many concerts, theatre, street theatre, dance, art and demonstrations. During this festival our team was able to share with the general public the concepts of synthetic biology and iGEM. The explanations were as easy and as visual as possible, and the results of the survey were used to talk about GMO concepts that were misunderstood and to alleviate the fears about genetic engineering. Furthermore, awareness of possible risks was shown and explained how to minimize potential dangers. The presentation was followed by a round of discussions, which was an interplay between us asking the audience questions and the audience asking us question. The culmination of our workshop was a real, hands on experience as every participant of the lecture was able to do a simple extraction of tomato DNA. The audience enjoyed the experience of doing an experiment and it showed that research is affecting everyone. Our intent with the DNA extraction was to show that science is all around us in everyday life, in simple things such as a tomato, some ethanol, lemon juice and soap.
