Writes Agastya D. (L6th)
The first round of Homerton College’s Cambridge Biology Challenge has now been completed, and there have been stellar results, including commended and highly commended awards for all of the teams from Taylors’ that participated across the Lower Sixth and Divisions year groups.
In answering the question, ‘Can new life be created?’, teams responded in a variety of ways, including presentations, podcasts, and even a short Frankenstein-inspired film. My team, Team Germ Theory, approached the question by creating a video presentation discussing topics such as abiogenesis, synthetic biology, and the ethics surrounding whether we should be creating new life at all. We were awarded bonus points thanks to the hard work of Zac W. (L6th) and Zhennuo W. (L6th), who provided detailed research on synthetic biology, focusing specifically on Syn-57.
Although the four weeks were filled with intense research and determination, we had a great deal of fun presenting our findings, particularly while recording Amay M. (L6th) and Blake B.’s (L6th) ethics discussion in a ‘Map Men’-style format.
There are three more rounds to come and, at the time of writing, we are awaiting our results from the second round, titled ‘Why is maths a “gift” for biologists?’ The teams would like to thank Mrs Stuteley, Mrs Pratt and the wider Biology Department for their support, patience and for cultivating such enthusiasm for these topics through their lessons.
