Team:SEFLS Shanghai/Human Practices
Human Practices
Human Practices
Publicity
Our WeChat official account was created on July 27,2019.
Why did we use 71 Percent as our name?
The oceans cover 71 percent of the Earth's surface. Since our project is based on the protection of marine animals and thus is closely related to ocean, we think 71 percent can perfectly show the main spirit of our team.
LOGO DESIGN
This is a shark.
The blue part represents three things:
- The shark’s liver
- The shark’s mouth which shows that it’s sad
- The letter ’S’ (I know they are not too similar but please pretend this blue part is an S)
The letter "S" is important in the project, because we want to find a biological synthetic way to produce squalene, one critical resource relying on sharks.
What can you learn from 71 Percent?
- Popular science articles in Chinese and in English concerning marine life protection.
- Our human practices.
- Our achievements in lab.
Our progress
Survey and Results
We designed and published the questionnaire using a website named Wenjuanxing. From Aug 1, 2019 to Aug 20, 2019, we received 196 answer sheets. The questions, choices and statistics (in italic and parentheses) of this survey are as follows:
The question is rated from 0 - 100.
The way of calculating the percentage of each choice in a multiple-choice question:
a. The percentage of each choice = the number of times that option was selected ÷ the number of valid answers;
b. It means the proportion of the number of people who choose this option in the total number of people who fill in the survey.
Therefore, the percentage of each choice can add up to more than 100 percent.
(From: https://www.wjx.cn/help/help.aspx?helpid=306&h=1)
If the interviewee answered “No” to Q4 “Have you heard about squalene?”, he or she will then be asked to answer Q9 “If squalene comes from the liver of a shark: in order to get squalene, the livers of the sharks are removed, and the sharks without their livers are thrown back into the sea, do you think shark is a good source of squalene? [Rating]” and the questions after Q9.
Analysis of survey results
From August 1 to August 20, we have received 196 answer sheets. We have done some analysis on the results, some of which are quite interesting. Here we would like to share them with you:
1.Only 40.82% (less than half) of people claimed that they've heard of squalene, so we need to speed up the popularization of science. 💪
2.Of those who had heard of squalene, 66.67% of the male respondents said they had heard of its antioxidant use. This number is 89.23% among female respondents. Perhaps because “antioxidant” is a big selling point for squalene-derived cosmetic products.
3.A higher percentage of female respondents had heard of squalene than male respondents. It may also have something to do with the fact that the majority of people who use cosmetic products is women.
4.The percentage of people who think killing sharks is too bloody decreases with age, which may be a sign that young people are more concerned about animal protection and ethics.
5.The percentage of people who have heard of squalene: 0-18 years old>51-70 years old>19-30 years old>31-50 years old. Senior high school > master > university undergraduate > junior college > junior high school. It seems that high school students obtain a wide variety of knowledge in the classroom every day and on the Internet.
6️.Of those who have heard of squalene, 75% of people believe it comes from shark liver oil. Indeed, shark liver oil is the source of more than 90 percent of squalene.
7️.The percentage of people who thought the squalene from microorganisms was better decreased with age, while the percentage of people who thought the squalene from sharks was better increased with age. This may be interpreted as: elder people are more conservative, while the young children are more open to new technologies. But many elder people think that these two are both squalene and they have no difference, which is probably a more neutral and rational answer.
8️.The percentage of people who have heard of squalene is higher in those who follow our official account than in those who haven’t follow our official account. 🙂 You know what I mean.
9️.85.71% of respondents who chose "other" and gave detailed explanations were under 30 years old. This shows that young people are willing to think independently and give their own independent opinions! Their detailed and reasonable answers indicate that they were very careful in filling in the form and have some understanding of the topic.👏
Interview at WWF
On the afternoon of September 12, we five, together with Ms. Ji, visited Shanghai Office of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Hongkou District to interview Professor Ren Wenwei, Director of the Freshwater Project in WWF, about our squalene project.
Xinyi Wang introduced the results (replacing wild sharks with microbial as the source of squalene from wild sharks) and methods adopted (transgenic technology) of our project in detail to Professor Ren. We wanted to seek support from WWF. Regrettably, Professor Ren believed that GM technology didn’t not fully conform to the concept of wildlife conservation of WWF, which is the world's largest environmental NGO. WWF had always been cautious about GM technology which had the risk of gene escape. Nevertheless, Professor Ren provided us with many valuable suggestions.
Talking about the commercial prospects of squalene production using microorganisms, Professor Ren believed that the attractiveness of wild sharks themselves increased greatly the purchasing power of edible products such as shark’s liver oil. Microorganisms didn’t have the same effect. It’s difficult for people to change their consumption habit in a short time. The main demand for biology synthetic squalene lies in industrial raw materials such as cosmetics and medical supplies. For this reason, we should add more data analysis to prove the advantages of our synthetic squalene in terms of profits and environmental protection. Regarding how to prepare for our iGEM competition, Professor Ren agreed with our main purpose of protecting sharks and marine animals, but proposed that the logical link between our macro-objectives and micro-experimental design should be stronger. All the questions and answers are very helpful for our presentation in Boston.
In addition, Professor Ren also gave us a brief introduction of his own work and some of the work WWF had involved in, as well as his views on synthetic biology and transgenic technology on behalf of WWF. He warned us that GM is now very easy to achieve at the technical level, but before taking action, we need to go through a series of complex assessment processes, such as environmental risk, bioethics and market acceptance, in order to really put it into practice safely and reliably. Finally, he warmly introduced the conditions of his Water Club, invited us to attend it, and encouraged us to set up our own marine life clubs, so as to link ourselves with other students in our school, and gradually call upon all the secondary school students in Shanghai to contribute to ecological protection.
The exchange with Professor Ren has greatly benefited us. We are deeply impressed by the pleasant working atmosphere, the cozy office environment and the ubiquitous natural and environmental elements in the WWF office.
