March for science

Frankfurt May the 4th 2019

Without exaggeration, we as human society are currently on a slippery slope towards alt-facts society. In the dire time of climate change, where strong data-based leadership are needed, we see many country leaders show the opposite of what is needed. They bend, ignore, and, even worse, sabotage facts and effort to face inconvenient truths. These leaders unfortunately are currently established thanks to the backing by significant part of uninformed public. This feeds a perpetual cycle where government starts undermining their own scientific departments and as consequences public will distrust scientific research and progress. All of this happen simply because of the inconveniences meaningful and verified results create. We as fledging scientists at iGEM Marburg feel the need to express our opposition against this destructive behavior.

Origin of the march of science and Marburg’s involvement

The March for Science is a protest march started in 2017 in Washington D.C. against the suppression of science and research. More than one million people participated in the first march 2017 that took place in cities all over the world. We at iGEM Marburg have joined this coalition and in 2019 we continue this tradition by joining 200 other people in Frankfurt edition of the march on 4th of May 2019. The importance of this movement is further justified with opening speech from Angela Dorn, minister of art and science of Hessian state.

Why we do it and the impact of our action

We understand as an iGEM team that our present and future work will help shaping society. Thus, we always constantly consider whether our projects are responsible and good for the world. The science march presents not only a chance to solidify our stance against post-truthism, but also an opportunity to engage with general public about our research and iGEM. Our team members got into conversation about iGEM and potential application of genetic engineering with other fellow marchers; exchanging about concerns and considerations with them. This has helped us creating a project that is responsible and good for the world.